It was now obvious that he had been on to them from that very first meeting. When they had failed to appear on the bathing beach on the Saturday morning, he would have enquired about them at the office and learned soon afterwards that they had flown to Crete. As there was only the once-weekly air service from Rhodes, he would have had to take the Sunday plane to Athens to follow them, then the Monday flight down to Heraklion. He must have arrived the previous evening. No doubt, he would have been to the Astir and learned that Monsieur and Madame Thevanaz had spent Saturday night there, then left. An enquiry at the Olympic Airways office would have satisfied him that no couple answering their description had since left Crete by air. He would have concluded that they had gone to earth somewhere on the island and that, by then, they would probably have found out the location at which the Czech group was working. To have hunted for them would have been looking for a needle in a haystack; but it was a good bet that they would come to Ayia Triada and try to find out what was going on there, just as they had done at Monolithos. That must be why he had come out there that morning. He had probably been prepared to lie in wait for them there for several days. As things had turned out he had been lucky, and had not had to wait long.
In a few tense moments, those thoughts ran through Robbie's agitated mind. With them alternated others. Should he attempt to run for it? If he did, he would be shot in the back before he had covered a couple of yards. Should he squirm round, wriggle to his knees and pray that, by launching himself forward, in one swift move, he would be able to grab the gun? No. That would be equally suicidal. He could not possibly reach it before his enemy pressed the trigger and a bullet smashed into his heart or skull. If he surrendered, what would become of him?
In this lonely spot, it was quite possible that 'Mahogany Brown' might decide to put an end to him there and then, and hide his body in one of the many deep ditches that scored the scrub. The only person near enough to be certain to hear the shot was the peasant with the donkey down at the ford. But they were hidden from him by the rise of the hill; so he would probably think that one of the Czechs on the opposite side were out after small game.
On the other hand, there seemed a chance that his captor would march him down to the farmhouse and keep him a prisoner there during the day, with the intention of putting an end to him, as Barak had meant to, by taking him out to sea and drowning him that night. In the latter case, Stephanie would become anxious when he failed to rejoin her and, with ten or twelve hours to work in, might, perhaps, bring help to save him before he was taken down to the beach.
But she would have no idea where he had got to. Even if, when searching the hills, she came upon the Czech site and guessed he was being held a prisoner there, she would still be many miles from any police station. It was certain, too, that there would be delays before anyone high-up enough could be induced to give an order for a raid. So, even if she did find out some time during the afternoon what had happened to him, only if given great good luck would she be able to bring help to him.
At length, those silent moments that had seemed years to Robbie ended by his gasping out: 'What . . . what do you mean to do with me?'
'Do? Why, nothing.' The fair eyebrows behind the levelled automatic were raised in surprise. 'All I want is to get you talking.'
'Talking!' Robbie repeated. Then it struck him that his enemy would naturally want to get out of him how much he knew and might already have passed on, before putting him out of the way for good.
But Mahogany Brown had lowered the point of his pistol and was going on: 'I caught you napping and sure put the wind up you, didn't I? You were such a sitting pigeon I thought I'd get a laugh out of announcing myself. Come on. Let's crawl back out of sight of those lousy Czechs, so that if one of them happens to look this way he won't spot us.'
As he spoke, he put his gun back in a shoulder holster, turned round and began to scramble away through the scrub.
Robbie was left speechless. He was overwhelmed with relief at the extraordinary turn affairs had taken but utterly at a loss to understand it. After a moment, he began to wriggle after the American until they were over the brow of the hill and again within a hundred yards of the ruins of Ayia Triada. Getting to their feet, they walked the rest of the way, then Mahogany Brown sat himself down on a low wall, took out his cigarette case, offered it to Robbie who shook his head, lit a cigarette and said:
'Now, stop acting like a clam and tell all you know.'
'I ... I don't understand,' Robbie muttered.
'Then it's quite time you did. You damned Limeys are too cagey by half. I'm C.I.A. and in Rhodes I indicated that to you clearly enough, but you wouldn't take a hint. You are British M.I., and Standing Orders are that, when the occasion arises, we should work together.'
Robbie shook his head. 'No, I'm not M.I. I assure you I'm not.'
'Oh, cut it out. You're the nephew of the British Ambassador, aren't you? It's no good telling me that he let you go into this thing without putting you in touch with your own Secret Service.'
'My uncle knows nothing about this. He hasn't the faintest idea what I have been doing these past few weeks.'
'Do you really mean to tell me that you're a "lone wolf" and have been risking your neck snooping on the Czechs for the fun of the thing?'
'Well, not exactly for the fun of it. More because I am convinced that they are up to something that will do neither your country nor mine any good.'
'At least, then, you'll see the sense of our working together.'
'Yes,' Robbie agreed heartily. 'I certainly do. But how did you get on to me?'
'About the end of March, someone in Athens suggested to my Chief at N.A.T.O. that we ought to look into the Greco-Czech tobacco-oil deal. It was hinted at the time that a Britisher had already left the city to investigate some of the sites, but, as there were so many of them, it would be a good thing if our people took an interest too. My Chief put two of us on the job. I've been in Lesbos, Chios, Kos and Samos. The day I got to Rhodes, I saw a piece in the Press about a car smash up in the mountains. Your name was mentioned and that of a Mrs. Barak. We had known for some time that Barak was in charge of this so-called oil prospecting, so it looked to me that you might be the British agent we'd heard talk of. I got through to Athens on the blower from our H.Q. in Rhodes. They had had it directly from the police that you had bumped off a Czech strong-arm man named Cepicka; so odds-on I was right.'
The American paused to stub out his cigarette, then he went on: 'Of course, I was only out for information. I didn't expect to run into you, but it was just on the cards that I might; and so happen I did. I went out to Monolithos to see if the site there was any different from those I'd seen in the other islands further north; and there you were. Hoping you'd had better luck than I had, I hooked on to you, but that was as far as I got. Every time I tried to get you to open, you stone-walled me.'
Robbie frowned. 'You certainly asked us any number of direct questions, but you said nothing to let me know that you were a Central Intelligence Agency man. Why didn't you tell me straight out?'
'Because I believed you to be British M.I. If you had been, you'd have got the cue quickly enough. As you didn't respond, I couldn't be certain that my guess about you had been right. Your having left Athens with Mrs. Barak and still having her in tow seemed a mighty queer set-up. I couldn't figure it out at all. But it was just on the cards that you might be playing along with the