"Josepsson," Roberta said. "He mentioned the name."
"Do you think he could have gone out there?"
"Possibly."
"But why? Or do you think he might have known where Ziegler was staying?"
"He might have," Roberta said. "He didn't tell me everything."
"Get cleaned up and changed," Paul said. "We'll drive out there and take a look."
The study door burst open and General Marc Ziegler strode in imperiously, his nostrils flared, a slight sheen of perspiration on his forehead as if he had been running.
"So, Herr Carter, we meet again. This time you will not wander off so easily," he said. He pulled out Carter's old Luger. "I understand you somehow came up with another of these. Clever."
Josepsson, who had been seated on the couch drinking coffee, jumped up. "I demand some explanations," he said. "Now. This morning."
Ziegler looked at him with some amusement. "And you shall have them, my dear Thorstein. But whatever this man has been filling your head with is nonsense, I can assure you."
"I certainly hope so," Josepsson said. Carter could hear a note of relief in his voice.
Ziegler looked over his shoulder at Josepsson's two men. "Go have some breakfast. We'll call you if we need you."
They hesitated, but after a moment Josepsson motioned for them to go ahead, and they left the study, softly closing the door behind them.
"Now, if you will be so good as to pour me some of that coffee, we can begin," Ziegler said. He came across and took a seat directly across from Carter.
"I understand you had a little trouble last night out at the reactor site," Carter said, smiling.
Ziegler's jaws tightened momentarily, but then he returned the smile. "Only a minor setback, I assure you. Nothing serious was damaged."
"Thank God for that," Josepsson said, pouring the coffee. "We can't afford a delay at this point."
"But tell me," Carter said. "Now that we're at this point, why was Lydia Coatsworth murdered?"
"She wasn't…" Josepsson started, but Ziegler interrupted him.
"Because she discovered our pumping plant. She had to be eliminated."
"Her body was moved?"
"Yes. We put her in a plastic bag and packed ice around her."
"But I thought it was an accident," Josepsson said, his voice wavering.
"Shut up, you old woman," Ziegler snapped, the Luger vacillating between him and Carter.
"What pumping plant?" Carter asked. It was all he could do to keep himself in control.
"Alpha," Ziegler said smugly. "It's the cornerstone of the entire project. We're tapping off geothermal energy from the Reykjavik field. The university geologists all figured it was the end of Iceland's unlimited free energy. Or at least they were coming to that consensus until that bitch Coatsworth stuck her nose into our business. She died for it. Just like you will, Carter." Ziegler laughed. "But your girlfriend, Roberta, she's a different story."
Carter could feel his muscles tensing. Roberta had evidently been captured out at the compound. She had made a try on Ziegler and it had failed. Just as he had failed with the plastique.
"Who is this, now?" Josepsson chirped. "Another woman? Who is she?"
"She used to be my secretary in Buenos Aires. But she is another spy."
"The killing has to stop. I can no longer be a party to this kind of…"
"Then go. Take your pretty boys with you and get out of here. I'll give you a few minutes to get away so that you can have your alibi," Ziegler snapped.
"You mean to kill this man?"
"That's right."
Josepsson looked at Carter, put the coffee cup down, then hurried across the room and left.
"He is a weak man," Ziegler said. "Although necessary. While you, on the other hand, are apparently a very strong man and totally unnecessary."
"What have you done with Roberta?" Carter asked evenly.
"The same thing I did to her mother."
"You're pretty good when it comes to women. How about men?"
Ziegler chuckled. "Physically I'm no match for you, young man. I have no illusions about my strength. But as far as intelligence goes…"
"I would have thought your arm was stronger than your brain by the way you've botched things up here."
Ziegler was still smiling, although it looked as if his humor was wearing thin. "Everything's on schedule. Even your little display of pyrotechnics last night did nothing but slow us down by a few days."
"I'm not talking about that, Herr General. I'm talking about Lydia Coatsworth, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency," he lied, "and about Roberta Redgrave, who works for the West German BND. And there are several others on their way up here."
Ziegler did not seem quite so sure of himself now. "And you?"
"You'll never know…" Carter said, and his eyes suddenly went wide as he looked beyond Ziegler. "Holy…!"
Ziegler started to turn, and Carter spun left off the chair while grabbing for his stiletto in its chamois case on his left forearm.
Ziegler fired once, the bullet lodging in the floor where Carter's legs had been a moment before, and then he stepped back.
Carter leaped on Ziegler before he could get off another shot, driving the stiletto upward into his chest between his ribs, piercing his heart.
The German cried out, then fell backward out of Carter's arms. He was dead.
Carter snatched the Luger and went to the door. He eased it open a crack, half expecting Josepsson's two giants to be there. But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. The house was deathly still. Josepsson and his two goons had apparently left.
He retrieved his stiletto from Ziegler's body, wiped the blade clean, then took the man's car keys from his pocket and headed out.
Evidently, Roberta was still back at the compound. He was going to have to free her and then finish what he had come here to do in the first place.
Fourteen
"Five will get you ten that Josepsson is on his way to meet Ziegler," Paul said.
"But this is the opposite direction of the reactor site," Ari said.
They had just reached Josepsson's place when the man stormed out of his house accompanied by two huge, blond men, climbed into his car, and drove off to the south.
Paul kept well back so that they would not be noticed, but the farther south they drove, the less traffic there was and the more likely it became that they'd be spotted.
Roberta was beside herself with fear for Carter's safety. She was convinced he had gone back out to the compound to rescue her. Balancing that concern, however, was the possibility that Josepsson would lead them to Ziegler, and she would have another chance at the general. She could envision the man in the sights of the Uzi. She'd empty an entire clip into the son of a bitch's body.
"Are you all right?" Ari asked.
She looked up, realizing she had been shaking. "I will be as soon as we take care of Ziegler and find Nick."
The countryside south of the city was very flat at first, not beginning to rise up into the volcanic slag heaps and hills for at least another twenty miles.
Josepsson's car continued out ahead of them, and after a while Roberta wondered if the man was intending on driving all the way across the country.
"It's just possible that he's making his escape," Ari said after a long time of silence.
"Because of the trouble out at the site last night?" Paul asked.
"Could be he's frightened. Realized that he's in far over his head. He might even have found out, somehow, just what Ziegler and his gang are really up to, and it's much more than he bargained for."
"Do you think so?" Roberta asked from the back seat.
Ari shrugged. "It's possible…" he started to say, but then he sat up. "Here we go."