Cross of Fire (81 page)

'Lasalle says she is fiercely anti-de Forge and has all her marbles.'

'What about my people?' Tweed asked quietly.

Navarre ran a hand through his dark hair. His lean face radiated dynamic energy and determination.

'My apologies. I should have told you first. Newman,
Paula Grey, and the rest of your team are safe. They are returning to Arcachon. They seem to think something crucial is going to happen there.'

'It is.' Tweed agreed. 'And the air patrols over the Bay of
Biscay?'

'Are flying non-stop.' Navarre turned to Kuhlmann. 'I
should have told you that your agent, Stahl, also is safe. He
has joined Newman's team.'

'Not such a brief signal.' Tweed observed.

'Ah! Lasalle has a shorthand method of communication. He can convey much with few words. Have you news yet of
Siegfried,
Kuhlmann?'

The German smiled cynically at Tweed. 'My informant has reported he will soon have the locations. Soon.'

'And the saboteurs de Forge has infiltrated inside Paris?' Tweed queried. 'Were you able to obtain Balaclavas?'

'Yes.' Navarre replied. 'We now have mobile CRS in
small groups stationed near likely targets. That was a clever
idea of yours, Tweed. The Balaclavas.'

'I simply pinched the brilliant idea Lasalle had of using blue pinheads to distinguish between real and fake DST.'

'The whole key to victory against de Forge.' Navarre went on, staring at Kuhlmann, 'is the
timing of two strikes. Ours against the Paris saboteurs and yours against this
Siegfried
underground organization in Germany.'

'The strike against
Siegfried
should take place first.' Tweed warned. 'Preferably by only a few hours. So the
timing will be hair-raising.'

'I'm ready. And I agree.' said Kuhlmann.

'So now we can only wait for news of Lasalle's attack on the
Cercle Noir,'
Navarre stated. 'The precision timing - in the correct sequence - is, as you say, Tweed, hair-raising.'

They were speaking in the common language they all
understood: English. Tweed rose from the table, glanced at
the clock on the wall.

'I am not waiting for anything. I gather a chopper is
standing by to fly me to Arcachon. I propose to leave
immediately. Events at that port will decide whether we
win or lose ...'

General de Forge was pacing up and down behind his
desk. Lamy watched him. It was unusual for the General to
be so edgy. Normally he was cool as ice. He guessed that
the communications from
Manteau
were getting on his
nerves.

'I have been waiting for you, Lamy.' de Forge said
grimly. 'I was actually standing at the entrance to this
building, wondering where the hell you were when I saw
you arrive at the main gate on a motorcycle.'

'I had another urgent message from Kalmar's woman. I
had to ride like blazes to a call box in a remote village in the
hills. The phone started ringing just as I arrived.'

'What did he want?'

'Money. Of course. He is going ahead with the assign
ment to eliminate Paula Grey as soon as he locates her. But
he was very aggressive in his demand for payment.'

'I expect large funds to reach me tomorrow.'

De Forge left it at that. He was not ready yet to tell
anyone else the
Steel Vulture
was berthing at Arcachon at eight in the morning the following day.

'Kalmar also said
Siegfried
is now in place all over
Germany...'

'So I hope you stressed we will be ordering him to send
the signal for action within hours?'

'As you instructed me to do when he next contacted me. He will be available for me to contact him through the cut
out number of the woman.'

'So,' de Forge mused, 'we shall then have the spectacle of
Germany reeling under car bomb explosions. Then when
the world's attention is fixed on Germany we act. It will be
a model campaign, Lamy.'

'And all planned by yourself months ago. Even down to the Ku-Klux-Klan-style
demonstrations, the Cross of Fire riots in major southern cities. Not only a model campaign, a
unique campaign.'

'You would be flattering me for some reason...?'

General de Forge stopped speaking as he heard thudding
feet approaching outside. Someone hammered in a frenzy on the door. De Forge nodded and Lamy went to the door and opened it. The sergeant of the guard stood there, fearful and gasping for breath.

The incident had occurred minutes earlier. On the orders of
de Forge himself the guard at the main entrance gate had
been doubled. Six soldiers on foot patrolled outside the
gates, each armed with an automatic weapon carried ready for action in his hands.

On the grass verge a tank had been stationed, the barrel
of its long gun aimed up the road to Bordeaux. As zero-
hour came close the General had felt it wise to protect GHQ more strongly.

It was an unusually bright afternoon for the time of the year. Across the road from the gates the ground had been
cleared of all undergrowth. Trees had been chopped down
and taken away with the remnants of their trunks. The flat
countryside now spread away for a long distance and made it impossible for anyone to approach without being seen.

Here and there low hills studded with boulders rose up
and broke the flatness of the plain running towards the
horizon. Behind the hills the landscape was criss-crossed
with a series of gullies, often with shallow streams running along their beds. It was a scene of serenity and peace.

The first
cr-a-a-ck
of a rifle shot shattered the silence. A soldier dropped his weapon, stared at his hand streaked with blood. Followed by another
cr-a-a-ck.
A second soldier lost his weapon, gazed down at his own blood-smeared knuckles.
Cr-a-a-ck!
A third weapon hit the road. The soldier fainted with shock.

*

After listening to the NCO's report of the incident de Forge
walked out, made straight for the main gates despite the sergeant's warning. 'You could be a target, General...'

De Forge never lacked courage. Ignoring the protests, he
marched up to the gates, waved a hand for them to be
opened, walked out into the road.

He examined the hands of the three men who had been
hit, including the soldier who had fainted and had, fortu
nately, regained consciousness and stood up before the General's arrival. De Forge turned to Lamy who had fol
lowed him.

'More marksmanship shooting. Like the bullet which
missed me in the car by five centimetres.'

'I don't understand...'

De Forge led him aside so they could not be overheard.
'You are stupid. In all three cases these men's knuckles have
been grazed - sufficient to make them drop their weapons. Quite remarkable. I wish we had men who could shoot like
that...'

He stopped speaking, stared at the distant landscape, at
the boulder-studded hills. De Forge was reputed to have sharper eyes than any man under his command. In the
windless sky a rope of smoke rose from one of the boulder-strewn hilltops. De Forge pointed.

'That's where he fired from. Lamy, go and investigate.'

'Yes, General. I think I'll get an armoured carrier and
take an escort.'

'That's right, Lamy.' De Forge grinned. 'Play it safe...'

An hour later de Forge was poring over a battle plan for
his advance on Paris. He folded it quickly, put it in a safe
when Lamy entered.

'So, you survived,' de Forge remarked, sitting in his chair.

'The fire was caused by someone who had collected bracken and wood. We also explored the area. We found tracks of a motorcycle in one of the gullies. And I've found this.'

Lamy produced something from behind his back, laid it
on the desk and sat down. It was a large rumpled piece of
cloth. De Forge opened it, spread it across his desk. It was a
grey cloak. He felt a tingle of apprehension as he gazed at it.

When the phone rang de Forge knew who it was before he picked it up. His expression was blank as he asked who was on the line.

'Manteau
speaking, General. Recently I shot three of your
guards. I aimed to scrape their hands, make them drop their weapons. I think I succeeded.'

'You did.'

'So, General,' the voice continued respectfully' 'it was a last reminder that I'm short of one million Swiss francs for the killing of Jean Burgoyne. I called Major Lamy to give
him instructions and he slammed the phone down on me. I
dislike bad manners. I dislike people who don't pay up. You
have three hours to remedy the situation. I will call Lamy
one more time. After that, you are the target.'

The connection was broken. De Forge replaced the
received, relayed the gist of the conversation to Lamy.

'That was more than a crime, it was a blunder, as
Talleyrand once said - slamming down the phone on him.'

'Kalmar is the man we deal with,' Lamy insisted obsti
nately. 'He is the man we paid three million francs to for organizing
Siegfried.'

'Which, in retrospect, may have been a mistake. Handing
that task to a man whose identity I have no idea of. I suggest
that when
Manteau
calls again you pay him.'

'We haven't the money.' Lamy protested. 'Only enough to pay the troops. And payday is today. At this moment
we can't afford not to pay them. So what do we do?'

'What do
you
do?' de Forge corrected him with a dreamy look as he stared over his subordinate's shoulder.

'Kalmar has always delivered.' Lamy said with renewed
obstinacy.

'Whoever Kalmar may be.' De Forge gave Lamy a pier
cing stare. 'Have you heard yet from Captain Rey? The
traitor, Berthier, should be dead by now. The graveyard
cleaned out.'

'No news so far, General. But Rey may be careful about
sending even coded signals concerning such a matter. He
could be waiting until he returns here to report personally.'

'If you say so.' De Forge rose and his action indicated dismissal. 'And find the money for
Manteau.'

'There is nowhere I can ...'

Lamy stopped in mid-sentence. De Forge was leaving the
room to inspect the troops.

Brand came out of the phone box on the windswept front at
Arcachon. The weather had changed suddenly and the
bassin
was a heaving mass of turbulence as waves crashed on to the promenade. Brand threw away his cigarette.