The Savage Day - Jack Higgins [48]
'By God, Major, but you look grand. Just like one of them fellas in the whiskey adverts in the magazines.'
I had the distinct impression that he might break into laughter at any moment, an unusual event indeed. 'And the toe of my boot to you, too, you young bastard.'
We were prevented from carrying the conversation any further for at that moment the door opened and the guards ordered us outside.
This time we were taken all the way down to the kitchen, where we were given a really excellent meal with another bottle of that Sancerre Barry had liked so much to share between us. It was all rather pleasant in spite of the guards in the background.
As we were finishing, Barry appeared, the formidable Dooley at his back. He had an old trenchcoat over one arm which he dropped across the back of a chair.
'That should keep out the weather and these should get you past any road blocks you run into, military or police.'
There were two Military Intelligence identity cards, each with its photo, which explained the camera work earlier. Binnie was a Sergeant O'Meara. I had become Captain Geoffrey Hamilton. There was also a very authentic-looking travel permit authorizing me to proceed from Strabane to interrogate an IRA suspect named Malloy being held at police headquarters there.
I passed Binnie his ID card. 'These are really very good indeed.'
'They should be. They're the real thing.' He turned to Binnie. The boys will take you down to the garage now so you can check the car. The Major and I will be along in a few minutes.'
Binnie glanced at me briefly. I nodded and he got up and went out, followed by two of the guards. Dooley stood by the door watching me woodenly, his Sterling at the ready. I pulled on the trenchcoat.
Barry took a couple of packets of cigarettes from his pocket and shoved them across the table. 'For the journey.'
He stood watching me, hands in pockets, as I stowed them away. 'Very nice of you,' I said. 'Now what do you want?'
'Binnie is inclined to be a little emotional where Norah is concerned, but not me.'
'I must say I had rather got that impression,' I said.
'As far as I'm concerned she's just a medium of exchange. You make that clear to Cork, just in case Binnie doesn't get the message across.' He turned and nodded to Dooley, who went out of the room immediately. The first sign of anything untoward at all, Dooley puts a bullet in her head.'
'In other words you mean business?'
'I hope I've made that clear enough.'
'And Norah?'
'She's okay,' he said callously. 'When last seen she was giving herself an injection from that bag of hers. Of course she'll have a fair old scar from now on, but then I always say that kind of thing gives a person character.'
He was baiting me, I think, but I played him at his own game. 'Just like a broken nose?'
'Exactly.' He laughed, yet frowned a little. 'By God, but you're a cold fish, Vaughan. What does it take to get you roused?'
That usually comes half way through the second bottle of Jameson,' I said. 'There's this click inside my head and ...'
He raised a hand. 'All right, you win. We'd better see how Binnie is getting on. You haven't got much time.'
The garage had obviously been the coach house in other days and stood on the far side of the courtyard. Binnie was checking the engine of a green Cortina GT when I went in, watched impassively by the guards. He dropped the bonnet and wiped his hands on a rag.
'Where did you knock this off?' he demanded.
Barry grinned. 'According to the papers in the glove compartment, it's on loan from a car hire firm in Belfast, which is exactly as it should be. When they're in plain clothes the Field Security boys don't like to use military vehicles.'
'You think of everything,' I said.
'I try to, old lad, it's the only way.' He glanced at his watch. 'It's just after four so you should be there by seven at the outside. Six o'clock tonight is your deadline. Nothing to come for after that, which I trust you'll make plain to Small Michael for me.'
Binnie slid behind the wheel without a word and I