Wilbur Smith's Smashing Thrillers (61 page)

‘
But the restaurant is still quite cute, Nicholas. Have lunch with me. I
must speak to you.
’

‘
I can't leave here.
’
He would not walk into the trap
again.

‘
It's important. I must see you.
’
He could hear that husky tone in her
voice, imagine clearly the sensuous droop of the eyelids over those bold
Persian eyes.
‘
For an hour, only an hour. You can spare that.
’
Despite himself, he felt the pull of temptation, the dull ache of it at
the base of his belly - and he was angry at her for the power she could
still exert over him.

‘
If it's important, then come here
,’
he said brusquely, and she sighed at
his intransigence.

‘
All right, Nicholas. How will I find you?
’

The Rolls was parked
opposite the dockyard gates and Nicholas crossed the road and stepped
through the door that the chauffeur held open for him.

Chantelle lifted her face to him. Her hair was cloudy dark and shot
with light like a bolt of silk, her lips the colour of ripe fruit, moist
and slightly parted. He ignored the invitation and touched her cheek
with his lips before settling into the corner opposite her.

She made a little moue, and slanted her eyes at him in amusement.

‘
How chaste we are, Nicky.
’
Nicholas touched the button on the control
console and the glass soundproof partition slid up noiselessly between
them and the chauffeur.

‘
Did you send in the auditors?
’
he asked.

‘
You look tired, darling, and harassed.
’

‘
Have you blown the whistle on
Duncan?
’
he avoided the distraction. The work on Golden Dawn is still
going ahead. The arc lights were burning over her all night and the
talk in the yards is that she is being launched at noon tomorrow, almost
a month ahead of schedule. What happened, Chantelle?
’

‘
There is a little bistro at Mindin, it's just across the bridge
-’

‘
D
a
mn
it, Chantelle. I haven't time to fool around.
’

But the Rolls was
already gliding swiftly through the narrow streets. of the port,
between the high warehouse buildings.

‘
It will take five minutes, and the Lobster Armoricaine is the local
speciality - not to be confused with Lobster A
me
ricaine. They do it in
a cream sauce, it's superb
,’
she chatted archly, and the Rolls turned out
on to the quay.
Across the narrow waters of the inner harbour humped the ugly
camouflaged mounds of the Nazi submarine pens, armoured concrete so
thick as to resist the bombs of the R.A.F. and the efforts of all
demolition experts over the
y
ears since then.

Peter asked me to give you his love. He has got his junior team
colours. I'm so proud.

Nicholas thrust his hands deep into his jacket
pockets and slumped down resignedly against the soft leather seat.

‘
I am delighted to hear it,
’
he said.

And they were silent then until the chauffeur checked the Rolls at the
toll barrier to pay before accelerating out on to the ramp of the St
Nazaire bridge. The great span of the bridge rose in a regal curve,
three hundred feet above the waters of the Loire River, The river was
almost three miles wide here, and from the highest point of the bridge
there was an aerial view over the dockyards of the town.

There were half a dozen vessels building along the banks of the broad
muddy river, a mighty forest of steel scaffolding, tall gantries and
half-assembled hulls, but all of it insignificant under the mountainous
bulk of Golden Dawn. Without her pod tanks, she had an incomplete
gutted appearance, as though the Eiffel Tower had toppled over and
somebody had built a modernistic apartment block at one end.
It seemed impossible that such a structure was capable of floating.
God, she was ugly, Nick thought.

‘
They are still working on her
,’
he said. One of the gantries was moving
ponderously along the length of the ship like an arthritic dinosaur, and
at fifty paces the brilliant blue electric fires of the welding torches
flickered; while upon the grotesquely riven hull crawled human figures
reduced to antlike insignificance by the sheer size of the vessel.

‘
They are still working,
’
he repeated it as an accusation.

‘
Nicholas, nothing in this life is simple
.’

‘
Did you spell it out for
Duncan?
’

‘-
except for people like you.
’

‘
You didn't confront Duncan, did
you?
’
he accused bitterly
.

‘
It's easy for you to be strong. It's one of
the things that first attracted me.
’
And Nicholas almost laughed aloud.
It was ludicrous to talk of strength, after his many displays of
weakness with this very woman.

‘
Did you call Duncan's cards?
’
he insisted, but she put him off with a
smile.

‘
Let's wait until we have a glass of wine
.’

‘
Now
,’
he snapped.
‘
Tell me right
now. Chantelle, I haven't time for games.
’

‘
Yes, I spoke to him,
’
she
nodded.
‘
I called him down to Cap Ferrat, and I accused him of what
y
ou suspected.
’

‘He denied it? I
f he denies it, I now have further proof
.’

‘
No, Nicholas. He didn't deny a thing. He told me that I knew only the
half of it.
’
Her voice rose sharply, and suddenly it all spilled out in
a torrent of tortured words. Her composure was eroded swiftly away as
she relived the enormity of her predicament.
‘
He's gambled with my fortune, Nicholas. He's risked the family share of
Christy Marine, the Trust shares, my shares, it's all at risk. And he
gloated as he told me, he truly gloried in his betrayal.
’

‘
We've got him
now.
’
Nicholas had straightened slowly in his seat as he listened.
His voice was grimly satisfied and he nodded.
‘
That's it. We will stop
the Golden Dawn, like that
–‘
he hammered his bunched fist into the palm
of the other hand with a sharp crack.
‘
We will get an urgent order
before the courts.
’

Nicholas stopped suddenly and stared at her.
Chantelle was shaking her head slowly from side to side. Her eyes
slowly filled, making them huge and glistening, a single tear spilled
over the lid and clung in the thick dark lashes like a drop of morning
dew.

The Rolls had stopped now outside the tiny bistro. It was on the river
front, with a view across the water to the dockyards. To the west the
river debauched into the open sea and in the east the beautiful arch of
the bridge across the pale blue spring sky.

The chauffeur held open the door and Chantelle was gone with her swift
birdlike grace, leaving Nicholas no choice but to follow her.

The proprietor came through from his kitchen and fussed over Chantelle,
seating her at the window and lingering to discuss the menu.

‘
Oh, let's drink the Muscadet, Nicholas.
’
She had always had the most
amazing powers of recovery, and now the tears were gone and she was
brittle and gay and beautiful, smiling at him over the rim of her glass.
The sunlight through the leaded window panes danced in the cool golden
wine and rippled on the smoky dark fall of her hair.

‘
Here's to us, Nicholas darling. We are the last of the great.
’
It was a toast from long ago, from the other life, and it irritated him
now but he drank it silently and then set down the glass.

‘
Chantelle, when and how are you going to stop Duncan?
’

‘
Don't spoil the
meal, darling.
’

‘
In about thirty seconds I'm going to start becoming very
angry.
’

She studied him for a moment, and saw that it was true.
‘
All right then
,’
she agreed reluctantly.

‘
When are you going to stop him?
’

‘
I'm not, darling.
’

He stared at her.
‘
What did you say?
’
he asked quietly.

‘
I'm going to do everything in my power to help him launch and sail the
Golden Dawn.
’

‘
You don't understand, Chantelle. You're talking about
risking a million tons of the most deadly poison
-‘

‘
Don't be silly, Nicky.
Keep that heroic talk for the newspapers. I don't care if Duncan dumps
a million tons of cadmium in the water supply of greater London just as
long as he pulls the Trust and me out of the fire.
’

‘
There is still time
to make the modifications to Golden Dawn.
’

‘
No, there isn't. You don't understand, darling. Duncan has put us so
deeply into it that a delay of a few days even would bring us down. He
has stripped the cupboard bare, Nicky. There no money for
modifications, no time for anything, except to get Golden Dawn under
way.
’

‘
There is always a way and a means.
’

‘
Yes, and the way is to fill
Golden Dawn's pod tanks with crude.
’

‘
He's frightened you by
-‘

‘
Yes
,’
she
agreed,
‘
I am frightened. I have never been so frightened in my life,
Nicky. I could lose everything - I am terrified. I could lose it all.
’
She shivered with the horror of it.
‘
I would kill myself if that
happened.
’

‘
I am still going to stop Duncan.
’

‘
No, Nicky. Please leave
it, for my sake - for Peter's sake, it's Peter's inheritance that we are
talking about. Let Golden Dawn make one voyage, just one voyage and I
will be safe
.’

‘
It's the risk to an ocean, to God alone knows how many
human lives, we are talking about.
’

‘
Don't shout, Nicky. People are looking.
’

‘
Let them look. I'm going to
stop that monster
.’

‘
No, Nicholas. Without me, you cannot do a thing.
’

‘
You
best believe it.
’

‘
Darling, I promise you, after her first voyage we will
sell Golden Dawn. We'll be safe then, and I can rid myself of Duncan.
It will be you and I again, Nicky. A few short weeks, that's all.
’