Jack Higgins (16 page)

I needn't have worried for when I went down the ramp to the lower jetty, I found
Firebird
's speedboat tied up there, the two specimens who had picked me up that first night lounging against the padded seats.

They didn't say a word when they saw me, but simply
went to work. One of them slid behind the wheel and started the engine and the other prepared to cast off.
So, they had been waiting for me, or rather, Aleko had
. I got into the rear seat without a word and was taken away.

I was conducted to the main saloon by Captain Melos and left at the bar with a drink in my hand. Aleko, it seemed, was on the radio telephone to Athens and would be with me shortly. In fact, it was Sara who arrived first. She entered casually, a magazine in her hand, and came to an abrupt halt at the sight of me.

“This is nice. Why didn't someone tell me?”

She wore a white shirt cut like a man's and knotted at the waist and the tightest pair of pants I've ever seen in a kind of black velvet material. She sat on the stool beside me and reached for my hand. I kissed her fingers.

“I'm here to see Midas, King of all the world.”

She went very still, eyes quite blank, face expressionless. “What's happened? Tell me.”

“Soon told. Last night's little affair was rigged. A setup. I was supposed to lose my boat. Without the boat, I have nothing. That way I'd come crawling to Aleko, willing and eager to take on his dirty work. When the plan misfired they had to think up a subtle variation fast. I must say they came up with a beauty. I'm a very reprehensible citizen and a danger to the community. At least that's the police version of things which means that my boat is impounded until I can find a fine, upstanding and upright Greek citizen willing to go surety for my good conduct. I don't know whether you can think of anyone like that offhand.”

“Nothing?” she queried gravely. “Without the boat you have nothing?”

Strange how that was the one thing she had seized on and I saw at once that I had hurt her without meaning to. I reached across quickly, my fingers fastening in her hair.

“You know what I mean—must know. With the boat behind me I can keep my head above water, stay off the beach. Only just, but that's a big thing because it still leaves me, Jack Savage, personally in charge. No orders, no arms twisted. Without the boat I'm nothing. I either sink to what Morgan is or become someone else's man. Aleko's man.”

“And will you do that?”

“Tell me something,” I said. “How did he react this morning when he discovered where you had been last night?”

“You're avoiding my question,” she said. “But all right. As a matter of interest, he hasn't mentioned it and I certainly haven't discussed it with him. When Morgan rowed me across this morning I went straight to bed. I slept for five hours, showered and had some breakfast. I've seen Dimitri once and he was busy. He gave me the ritual kiss on each cheek, asked me how I was today and went about his business.”

“Which means Yanni Kytros must have told him.” I looked beyond her to where Aleko had appeared in the doorway and raised my voice. “Did you get all that? Am I right?”

He moved towards us, grimly elegant in blue linen slacks and one of those cream doeskin jackets that only millionaires can afford. There was a certain anguish on his face and when he put a hand on her shoulder, it was shaking slightly.

“Before God, Sara, I didn't know you would be there.”

She glanced up at him and her own face actually softened. She put her hand on his hand and said quietly, “I know, Dimitri, the best laid schemes…”

I suppose it was that which really set me off. The sheer illogicality of her attitude. The anger boiled up inside and I got to my feet.

“And this is supposed to make it all right, is it? Damn you, Aleko, have you any idea what they had in mind for her?”

Something of the real man still buried deep inside broke through all that neurotic fear. His rage and disgust were at himself but he directed it straight at me. The unexpectedness of the attack caught me off guard.

He delivered a short and very expert right hook to my face. I tried to move, but was already too late. It landed on my right cheek and sent me back over the bar stool. Those beautiful carpets of his cushioned the shock, but the force of that punch seemed to rattle the brains inside my head.

I took a deep breath, came up fast and grabbed the bottle from the bar. Several things happened right about then. Sara cried out sharply, “No, Jack, no!” In the same moment Melos appeared in the doorway flanked by his two bully boys holding a sub-machine gun apiece.

It seemed an unnecessary amount of hardware to carry in the circumstances, but was as effective as the big battalions usually are. I looked from Melos and company to Sara who still stood between Aleko and me, arms wide in a strangely defensive attitude as if she would protect him from me.
And she had called me Jack for the first time
.

There was what can only be described as an air of expectancy to things. I had the stage, it was all mine, so
I took my time about it, walked round to the back of the bar, found the Jameson and poured myself a large one. I took a tiny sip, savoured it for a moment, then emptied the glass. I put it down carefully on the bar and looked straight at Aleko.

“One hundred thousand dollars paid into a Geneva bank of my choosing in advance, now, today, and the boat returned to me when everything has been satisfactorily concluded. That's what it's going to cost you, Aleko.”

And he still managed to surprise me
.

“Excellent,” he said. “I knew you would be sensible in the end. In exactly one hour you will be able to pick up the telephone, ring the bank of your choice, and confirm that the transfer had taken place. I guarantee it.”

He turned and went out taking Melos and his boys with him with a wave of the hand.

I poured myself another whiskey and said to Sara, “Some days you just can't win, have you ever noticed that?”

Her fists were clenched, she was angry and afraid at the same time. “You fool,” she said. “You bloody, pigheaded fool. Marry me and money would be the least of your problems or hadn't that occurred to you?”

“A good point.”

“Then why are you doing it?”

“As the Americans say, stick around and I just might tell you, but only if you behave yourself.”

She went out raging under full sail. I toasted the empty doorway and sighed.
Why was I doing it?
A good question. The trouble was, I didn't really know myself—or did I?

Aleko was as good as his word and better, for no more than forty minutes had elapsed when he sent for me again.

“My agents in Geneva are standing by to make an immediate transfer to the bankers of your choice. I could, of course, give you my word that the transaction will go through today as planned, but it occurs to me that this may not satisfy you.”

“A reasonable assumption.”

“So I had concluded. If you will pick up the telephone, you will find they are holding a direct line to Geneva. Ask for the firm of your own choice. I wish you to feel one hundred per cent satisfied.”

Which was fair enough. I asked for Steiner and Company, a firm of merchant bankers I had used in Geneva in happier days. The younger son, Hans, had visited Alexandria in connection with a salvage job in the Suez Canal that I had been involved in. I spoke to him briefly, then passed the phone to Aleko who told him exactly
what to do in about thirty seconds flat, prefacing the address with the magic of his own name, then put the receiver down.

“Ten minutes, Mr. Savage, no more. Better to sit down.”

I did, choosing a comfortable club chair in black leather, and spent the time watching him closely. He was a different man, this big business Aleko, working his way through a mountain of paper at a quite incredible speed.

The ten minutes came and went. He glanced at his watch and the phone rang as if on command. He nodded to me. I picked it up and found Hans Steiner on the other end. It was signed, sealed, delivered. For good or ill, dead or alive, I was a man of substance again.

“Satisfied?” Aleko demanded.

I replaced the receiver. “Perfectly—what happens now?”

“You do what I have paid you to do. You get Andreas Pavlo out of Sinos.” He appeared to hesitate. “Captain Savage.”
So it was Captain again?
“Captain Savage, words are empty things. I do not ask for promises. I think that in spite of the impression you attempt to give, you are if anything bedevilled by man's greatest curse. Moral integrity.”

“God save me from that.”

“I have been honest with you. I require, indeed believe, that you will be honest with me. One thing is sure. If anyone can get Pavlo out of that prison, you can.”

“I'll try and earn my keep,” I said. “Don't worry about that.”

“I have arranged accommodation for you on board, although naturally you may come and go exactly as you
please. Any equipment, any facility you need, just ask. The important thing to remember is that time is of the essence. Pavlo, though still on his back, has improved so much that there is a possibility they will move him to Athens this weekend.”

Which may give us four days
. “And all the information you promised me?” I asked.

“Is waiting in your cabin.”

The door opened and Melos entered. “One more thing,” I said. “This contact of yours on the island. Can they be used?”

“For information and guidance, yes, but not personally.”

I nodded. “All right. I'll have a look at the general situation and then I'll come back to you.”

I turned to the door and he said, “Your mate—Morgan Hughes. I don't think he's up to this sort of thing any more. I'm sure you agree. I have made arrangements for him to stay in a small
taverna
on the waterfront.”

Which took care of Morg nicely
. Funny, but it was somehow as if he'd been swept into the corner out of the way and I didn't care for that. Most of all, I didn't like the fact that I hadn't given him a thought. Aleko had taken him into consideration—I hadn't. I didn't feel too proud of myself as I followed Melos along the corridor.

 

The cabin was in the luxury class with the usual fitted carpets a couple of inches thick and its own bathroom. There was a large modern desk with a teak top and a swivel chair to go with it. Half a dozen foolscap files
and several rolled maps and charts waited for me. Aleko's background information.

I lit a cigarette, sat down and started to work through it. He had been incredibly thorough. There was a file on Andreas Pavlo for a start that detailed everything about him from the day he was born and included the exact position and appearance of his appendix scar as well as his grades in Philosophy and Mathematics at university.

It ended at four p.m. on the previous day which would seem to indicate that Aleko's contact was getting daily information to him. The medical report was impeccable in its detail. Left arm fractured, three ribs cracked, laceration of the right lung. He had also suffered badly from exposure and severe sunburn and had been in shock for several days. He was still in intensive care, whatever that meant, in a prison hospital.

There was a report on prison security, guard rotas, alarm systems and so forth which couldn't have been more thorough if it had come from the governor's office. Come to think of it, it probably had.

Most important was the island defensive system. The fortress itself had never held more than three or four hundred prisoners in the past, but under the present political regime, at least five thousand political detainees had been added who were housed in encampments outside the fort itself.

Because of this, the island's general defences had been considerably strengthened. A radar system kept track of vessels in the area which were required to keep on the move in the Middle Passage on the south side of the island which was the main shipping route through to Kyros and Crete. This explained why it had been nec
essary for Ciasim to obtain a special licence to work on his wartime wreck.

But there were other hazards. Not only was the coast constantly patrolled by two M.T.B.s, but most beach approaches were mined as were the beaches themselves.

The bloody war all over again
. And yet, far from feeling dismay, my interest stirred. This was going to be one hell of a problem and that was putting it mildly. Difficult, but interesting, just like the old days.

The thing fell into four main parts. Landing on the island without being detected. Getting inside the fortress and reaching Pavlo. Bringing him out and finally, getting him off the island.

I started sorting the information relevant to each part of the operation to start with and the door opened and Sara entered. She closed it behind her and leaned against it, watching me rather sullenly.

“Isn't there anything I can say to stop you going through with this?”

“Not that I can think of. It's too late, anyway. I've taken his money. It's already waiting for me in Geneva being carefully guarded by some thoroughly trustworthy Swiss merchant bankers.”

“I hate you,” she said bitterly. “I hate all men, but you in particular.”

After that she came and stood so close that I ended up breathing pure Intimacy instead of oxygen, leading to another wild couple of minutes which ended with both of us shaking in our shoes and showing it.

“I love you, too,” I said, “but work comes first. You can help me sort this stuff out if you like. I'll show you what I'm after.”

Which I did and she came straight back at me with
the first thing she picked up, a folded map of some description which I'd missed as it had fallen to the floor.

She opened it and frowned. “Well here's something that doesn't fit for a start.”

“Why not?” I said impatiently.

“I don't understand it. It's in German.”

I must have sensed how important her find would prove to be because my stomach went hollow with excitement as I reached for it. It was old, it was creased so badly that in places the paper had worn through, but it was still quite unmistakably the Germans' plans of their improvements to the old Turkish fort in 1942. I examined it carefully, then turned to the official plan of the prison produced the previous years and it hit me right between the eyes at once.

Phase 2 of the operation was taken care of which wasn't a bad start.

I smiled and Sara said, “Can I join in? It must be good.”

I didn't see why not, so I showed her. Strange, but she wasn't anything like as enthusiastic as I was.

 

Two hours, that's all it took, for the skeleton of an idea to form in my mind. A little more thought and it would all be there, but for the moment, I'd had enough. What I needed was fresh air.

We took the speedboat round to the quiet side of the island and ran her into a quiet little cove at the bottom of high cliffs. It was pretty well inaccessible from the land and just what I was looking for.

I ran the prow of the boat firmly into wet sand and we went for a swim. Afterwards, we lay in the shade of
a semi-circle of massive boulders and made love.

Which was marvellous, or almost marvellous. The trouble was that Sinos and Andreas Pavlo and the old German ground plan kept clicking through my mind at a rate of knots at the most inconvenient moments.

“Not bad,” Sara said afterwards, “but not good. I object to you having anything else on your mind at what should be one of life's great moments.”

“I warned you I was over the hill.”

“That will be the day.” She smiled. “A little more concentration, that's all you need.”

I saw the chart, the Middle Passage, the south side of the island again in my mind's eye. She said, “I wish you could see the look on your face. Come on, spit it out.”

“All right. Phase One is actually landing on the island. Phase Two is getting into the fort. I've already explained Phase Two and it means coming in from the Middle Passage on the south side of the island.”

“All right, what are the hazards?”

I went through them quickly. “M.T.B. patrols to be evaded, underwater minefield to negotiate, guards to avoid on land itself. Guards
and
dog patrols. And a constant radar check.”

“All of which could be avoided by an underwater approach, you stressed that when we discussed Phase Two in the cabin.”

“But you have to make your underwater approach from somewhere,” I explained patiently, “and any vessel stopping in the Middle Passage must always accept the chance of being checked by those M.T.B.s.”

“But Ciasim was working there the day before yesterday and nobody bothered him.”

“He has a licence to work on that wreck from the
Ministry in Athens,” I said and stopped short.

A gull wheeling over the cliffs darted down through the shadows, a flash of white against the grey. She had that sombre look on her face again.

“The thing is,” I said slowly, “do I have the right to involve him?”

“I'd let him make his own mind up on that one.”

“No.” I shook my head. “It wouldn't be fair. He owes me too much. He's bound to feel beholden. I'd be putting him in a hell of a position.”

“You saved his life, didn't you?” There was a hard edge to her voice. “Why shouldn't he save yours? He's the only man I've seen around here who looks as if he might be of some real use to you.”

And then I saw. She wanted me to have the best chance there was. The best chance of coming through alive and if that meant involving Ciasim, well and good. There was the female of the species for you, cold-blooded as hell and utterly ruthless where their own was concerned.

I sighed and reached out for her hand. “All right, I'll go and see him.”

“I think you're being wise.”

Was I?
Perhaps, but I already felt as guilty as hell about it.

We left the speedboat at the ramp by the old jetty and I went looking for him. He wasn't at the
Seytan
. I found Abu and Yassi working away at the hull stripped to the waist, bodies shining with sweat, but no Ciasim. He had gone for a drink and they mentioned three strong possibilities, smiling shyly, but with complete admiration, at Sara.

We found him at the second place we tried, playing
dominoes with two very old white-haired men, both famous divers in their day. He didn't notice at first and we sat in a corner under the vines and left him to finish the game.

His laughter was like a volcano's rumble or thunder far off beyond the mountains. One of the old men won, I suspect as much by Ciasim's design as anything else.

“Too good for me,” he roared and got up, slapping a handful of loose change on the table. “Drinks on me and good health with it.”

Turning to leave, he saw us and his face lit up with genuine pleasure. “Heh, Jack, baby! I'm glad to see you in decent company.” He called to the waiter inside, crossed to our table and reached for Sara's hands. “I kiss your fingers,” he said, and did just that. “The most beautiful woman in the world.”

“I believe you,” she said. “No reservations.”

The wine came, a bottle of
Marco
served ice-cold. He filled the glasses himself and raised his own to toast us. “I wish you good loving, dear friends, and long life.”