Underberg laughed. “That wasn’t very clever,” he said.
“I’m not trying to be clever,” said Deaken. “I’m trying to do what you’ve asked… to protect Karen.”
“You know how to do that.”
“Let us speak to them,” repeated Deaken.
“No.”
“Make some concession!” pleaded Deaken.
“We’re not in the business of making concessions,” said Underberg. “We’re combatting terrorism, which Azziz feeds upon.”
“Bastard!” said Deaken.
“Don’t forget it,” said Underberg. “Not for a moment. Will Azziz sort everything out by tomorrow?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re supposed to know.” The man paused. Then he said, “I’ll give you forty-eight hours.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I won’t call you tomorrow. The day after, the same box, the same time.”
“No, wait…” started Deaken, realizing the man meant to break the contact. The line went dead.
From behind the closed windows of his room, Underberg saw Deaken emerge disconsolately from the telephone kiosk, the recorder clutched tightly beneath his arm. It was fortunate that Deaken had protested about the difficulty of daily calls; if he hadn’t, reflected Underberg, then the idea of lengthening their contact time would have had to come from him and he hadn’t wanted that. Only another thirty minutes before the call from Mulhouse. Levy wouldn’t be as argumentative as the lawyer: Levy imagined they were working for the same thing.
Underberg sighed contentedly. There would still be time before the plane left for him to have a leisurely lunch on the terrace. He enjoyed living well.
On the quay below, Deaken boarded the tender. It was clearly marked as that from the Scheherazade and as it moved away from the moorings Deaken looked up at the watching faces. They all envied him, he realized. Stupid sods.
Karen stood stiffly as Levy entered the room. He stopped inside the door and held out the packages to her.
“Everything you asked for,” he said. “You didn’t say anything about underwear, but I bought some anyway.” He hesitated. “Pants at least,” he added. “White.”
“Thank you.” she said. The parcels carried advertisements for shops in the rue de la Bourse, in Mulhouse. She didn’t remember that as the name of the last place through which they’d driven before turning off to the farmhouse.
“I’ve got a message through to your husband, that you’re all right,” he said.
Karen said nothing.
“You are, aren’t you?” said Levy. “You weren’t really hurt?”
There was only a small mirror, high on the washstand, so she hadn’t been able to see. “Probably just bruised,” she said. There was an ache at the bottom of her back.
“He shouldn’t have been stupid.”
“You said that already.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“You did though,” she said.
“His father’s doing what we want. Everything is going to be all right.”
“You will let us free, if he does everything, won’t you?” demanded Karen in sudden fear. “You’ll let us go?”
Levy smiled, the first time she had seen him do so. His teeth were very white and even. “Of course,” he said. “How many more times have I got to tell you I mean you no harm?”
After what he’d done to her and to the boy, she should loathe this man, Karen knew; hate him. She wondered why she didn’t.
9
La Grande Place in Brussels, and the cafu in the corner, is an essential stop for tourists, a place for posing, singly and in groups, for holiday pictures. The cafe is made entirely of wood, with wooden stalls and wooden benches and an uncovered, wooden floor. It rises through several balconied sections around the central, flaring barbecue pit and is dominated by the complete figure of a stuffed horse. Alive it had been a large, proud animal; dead it gazes through opaque glass eyes onto the square with an expression of vague dismay at having become a sideshow. Almost an entire side of La Grande Place is occupied by the town hall; the exterior is intricately decorated, with criss-crossed beams and fancy brickwork, like the original model for Hansel and Gretel’s gingerbread house. It was not the location that Harvey Evans would have chosen for a meeting, but the demand from Paris had been for somewhere easy to find and he was sure that every taxi driver in Belgium knew of the cafe with the horse.
The American sat in the prearranged stall, both hands around the beer glass from which he only occasionally drank. Twice he had to shake his head against his table being shared, with the explanation that he was awaiting a companion. It was always a polite refusal, because Harvey Evans was invariably polite. He was a still, quiet man, with a trained soldier’s neatness. The fair, almost white, hair was close-cropped at the sides far above his ears, and his hard, high-cheek-boned face was closely shaven, so carefully it seemed to be polished. The trousers were freshly pressed and the shoes glistened, reflecting the light from the flickering cooking area. Because he was leaning forward, the windbreaker was pulled back, so that the Rolex watch that had been the Green Beret amulet in Vietnam protruded; on the little finger of the left hand there was a heavy fraternity ring, with a red stone in the centre. Evans revolved it idly. thinking back to the telephone call from Paris. Abrupt and curt and businesslike, the voice confident. American too. So it could be something, he thought. Something worthwhile. He hoped to Christ it was. Since Libya there hadn’t been anything sensible. And Libya had been an asshole. Evans sighed. Like everything else had been an asshole, since ‘Nam. They hadn’t deserved the treatment, when they got back; none of them had. He hadn’t wanted to be regarded as a hero, although he probably qualified with the Purple Hearts and the Silver Stars and all the other junk he and the others had collected, too easily in the end, like trinkets for having saved up cardboard tops from breakfast-food packets. All he wanted was to be accepted as the soldier he had become, someone who had shown sufficient aptitude and ability for promotion to one of the youngest majors in the Berets. But he hadn’t got it; none of them had. They had gone halfway around the world and risked being maimed or crippled or killed and got back home to find themselves ostracized, treated with contempt even. As if they and not some asshole group of politicians sitting in the warmth and comfort of Washington had started the whole bloody thing and made America look as stupid and as ineffectual as it had appeared in the end. It hadn’t occurred to him before, but there was a direct analogy with the military legend: the commanders fuck it up and the poor grunts in the boondocks cop the shit.
Evans had been studying every entrant-he had chosen the seat specifically for the purpose-and looked at Grearson more intently than he had at most others. The man was alone. Had an attitude of authority, which Evans recognized from the army. And the clothes were American, like the voice had been on the telephone. The man looked around, orienting himself, and walked directly up to the stall.
“You’re Harvey Evans,” he said. It was not a question.
Evans stood, aware of the immediate examination. “Yes,” he said. Grearson liked what he saw. The man was in good shape, unneglected. And no beer belly, he thought, remembering Azziz’s injunction.
“Sorry I’m late,” apologized the lawyer. “Delay at the airport.”
The soldier’s handshake was firm, without any ridiculous pretence at making it so.
“I didn’t mind waiting,” said Evans. “You spoke of a job.”
“Maybe,” said Grearson cautiously. He ordered whisky.
“How did you get my name?”
“Paris.”
“That’s a city,” said Evans. “Who in Paris?”
“People who recommended you as being very good.”
“What sort of people?”
“The sort who deal in weaponry.”
They had seemed the most obvious contacts when Evans moved into Europe from the Middle East. He supposed he must have contacted about six different arms-dealing organizations.