Rhinoceros (55 page)

'That's encouraging.'

'I'll explain later.' Tweed was checking his map. 'Bob,
we turn left just ahead. Another narrow lane, I expect.'

Soon a number of woods appeared by the side of the lane, blotting out the view of the vast tableland which
Tweed mentioned was the westernmost province of Den
mark, Jutland. They came to a frontier post where a
red-and-white-striped pole stuck up at an angle. There
were no guards.

'We're in Denmark now,' Tweed remarked.

'I feel much safer,' said Paula.

'We're fairly close to our destination. We shall have to
find a hotel to stay the night. I prefer Hostrups Hotel - it
overlooks a large stream. But it may be full up. If it is we'll
stay at the Tonderhus.'

'I wonder who Number Five is?' Lisa asked.

'Number Five?' queried Tweed, his mind elsewhere.

'Yes. When those Americans were about to leave the
windmill a soldier came running out of the wood - no,
it was a civilian - and he called out to the FBI man that
the fifth man wasn't coming. So the FBI man told him to
forget Number Five.'

'You're right,' agreed Tweed, 'he did. So far there are four of them. Gavin Thunder, the American Secretary of
State, the German Deputy Chancellor and the French Prime Minister at the secret meeting on Sylt. So who
could be Number Five?'

'Rhinoceros,' whispered Paula.

Hostrups Hotel was a large three-storey white building of character facing a wide stream with banks of reeds. It was
on the edge of Tender. Tweed got out with Paula to see
if they had rooms.

'If they haven't there is always the Tonderhus,' he
reminded her.

'I do like the look of this place . . .'

The receptionist, who spoke perfect English, said yes,
they did have enough rooms for Tweed's party.

'We would not have normally,' she explained, 'but so
many people fly abroad to crazy places like Thailand and St Lucia, wherever that might be. You would like a meal
after going up to your rooms?'

'Yes, please,' Paula replied. 'I'm ravenous.'

When the others were brought in, Lisa asked if she could
eat later.

'I want to have the longest bath I've ever had.'

Paula understood. After her experience with Delgado
Lisa would want to wash every part of herself and change
all her clothes. Everybody else voted for dinner.

After being shown to their rooms and having a good
wash they trooped down into a large and pleasant dining room. It had an atmosphere of hygienic cleanliness. The meal was first-rate and they ate almost in silence. Paula
noticed that Tweed hardly took his eyes off his plate
and had a very serious look. He first spoke as they were
drinking coffee.

'Do you think you could all stand coming to my room while I talk to you? Good.'

Going upstairs they met Lisa coming down. She wore
different clothes and carried a laundry bag.

'The food's marvellous,' Paula said.

'Great. I could eat a wild boar. Bet that's not on the
menu. Bob, I've put everything I was wearing in this bag
and I want to dump it.'

'Give it to me. I'll find somewhere to get rid of it. . .'

In Tweed's room some sat on chairs while others
perched on the edge of the double bed. He closed the window, turned, began talking.

'There are three major factors we must never forget.
One is the Elite Club now meeting on Sylt.
Plotting
on
Sylt would be a better way of putting it. To establish
dictatorships in each of their countries. The second factor
is the money - a huge sum - missing from the Zurcher
Kredit Bank in Hamburg. I have little doubt they plan to
use that to finance the enormous number of riot groups they are linking up with. The third factor is the Internet.'

'What about the Internet?' asked Newman.

'Someone has found out how to manipulate it, how to
use it to communicate by weird codes with the riot groups.
Maybe to inform them when and where to act.'

'Can't do much about that, I'd have thought,' said
Nield.

'We'll see. There is a fourth element. Rhinoceros. Who
is he? Where does he fit into the picture. Could he be
Number Five? There are other factors but I've simplified
the horrific danger down to the main ones.'

'Don't see how it all fits in,' said Nield.

'It will. Now I'm going to read extracts from the sheet
Gavin Thunder lost from his executive case. It's clear, it's
methodical. Gavin has a first-rate brain, unfortunately.'
Tweed took the typed sheet from his pocket, unfolded
it. 'One, to create iron governments in our countries there must be chaos on such a scale the people will
accept any system which brings back peace. That has been
arranged - the imminent arrival of chaos everywhere. Two,
each country must be divided into large military areas,
each area controlled by a strong Governor. Three, any
opposition must be ruthlessly and immediately crushed. Special prisons will be established on remote islands off the mainland. In the case of Britain an Enabling Act will be rushed through Parliament overnight, giving the new
Government supreme powers. The Governors of the six
military areas in Britain will be commanded by a Supreme
Governor, Brigadier Bernard, Lord Barford. That's it,' he concluded.

'My God!' gasped Newman. 'It's a dictatorship backed
up by martial law. And Barford's in the conspiracy.'

'Now you see how serious the situation is,' Tweed
replied. 'I hope you noticed the use of the word "imminent" - so we have very little time left.'

'I'm stunned,' said Paula. 'What next?'

'I am convinced there is another powerful force deter
mined to counter this conspiracy. I expect to be contacted
here by a representative from that force at any moment.'

'How will this other force know we are here on Tender, away from anywhere?' she wondered.

'Because they have known where we were most of the time. I did hear another light aircraft flying a long way
behind us when we left the windmill. But we mustn't
underestimate Gavin Thunder and his friends. Now, I
want this village trawled for sight of the enemy while it's dark. Armed, we split up into three sections of two people. I will take Paula, Newman will accompany Marler, Butler
will accompany Nield. We all go in different directions.
We do not enter any hotel, bar or restaurant. Too risky.
Lisa I will persuade to go to bed. She needs sleep. Any
questions?'

There were no questions. Paula was staring at Tweed,
impressed and a little taken aback by the forceful way he
had spoken. It had created in her a feeling that they were on the eve of war.

* * *

The three pairs had left the hotel, strolling off in different
directions. Tweed chose to walk up Sondergade, which he
knew would lead them to the centre of the small town.
Then he wandered into narrower side streets. At distant
intervals they were illuminated by small lamps but between
them were long areas of deep shadow. The side streets were
cobbled. It was very silent and not another soul was to
be seen.

'Tonder is so beautiful, the houses so quaint,' Paula
observed.

Little more than cottages, the buildings were hunched
together in terraces. Some had brick walls, some were
covered with plaster, painted in different colours — ochre,
pink, blue or yellow. Some houses had bay windows on
the ground floor and above a window in a steep gable.
The silence was total, with only the tread of their feet on
the cobbles punctuating it.

'This is Dreamland,' Paula remarked. 'I really can't
imagine any danger in a place like this.'

'You know me -I take every precaution. What happened on the autobahn on our way to Flensburg showed how determined the enemy is to wipe us out.'

'We're too far away from them. This is Denmark.'

They followed a complex route. Tweed had obtained
a street map from the receptionist and carried it now in
his head.

They were walking on through the maze and Paula felt
relaxed. Not so Tweed, she noticed. The temperature
had dropped and he had his right hand inside his coat pocket, gripping his Walther. Paula secretly thought he
was overdoing it. They were approaching the edge of the
town when Paula pointed ahead.

'Look. That big red building. It's the Tonderhus, the other hotel you mentioned.'

As they drew closer a tall, well-padded man, smoking a cigar and looking the other way, came out and paused
under a lamp, rauia graooea noia or iweea at tne same
moment he slipped an arm round her waist. They dragged
each other into a side street.

'I don't believe it,' gasped Paula. 'That was Oskar Vemon.'

'It most certainly was. What were you saying earlier
about feeling safe in Denmark?'

'How on earth can he have turned up here?'

As she spoke they were hurrying down the side street,
then along into another which led away from the hotel.
Paula was breathing heavily, almost in a state of shock.

'It must be a coincidence,' she said eventually.

'You know I don't believe in coincidences.'

'There must come a time,' she argued, 'when we do
actually run into a coincidence.'

'And where Oskar is,' Tweed persisted, 'Barton and
Panko may not be far away.'

'I wanted to shoot him,' she said wildly.

'No shooting here - if it can possibly be avoided. I think
we'd better wend our way back to our hotel.'

'It's such a jewel of a little town,' she protested. 'Not
for filthy villains like Oskar.'

'Keep moving - and keep alert. We're not too far from
our hotel.'

They crossed the wide stream and the moon appeared. It was reflected in the water and Paula thought it was
paradise - paradise lost because of the appearance of that fat pig of a killer. It would have looked so romantic, she thought wistfully. Yes, she could have shot the pig. They re-crossed the stream and were outside their hotel. Tweed
hustled her inside. He ordered a brandy for Paula and a
glass of wine for himself. They went up to his room where
she flopped on a couch. Then she pressed her lips together,
sat up straight, took a sip of her brandy.

'Sorry I lost my cool,' she said.

'You didn't. You reacted, grabbing me to get me under
cover. Look at it this way - we saw him but he didn't
see us.'