"Yes, Sahib, they arrived in the Shogun. I saw Morgan and the lady get out and go inside to the plane. The man, Marco, was there too. He drove the Shogun into the hangar. The plane came out and took off very quickly."
"You mean they got on inside the hangar?" Dillon said.
"Yes, Sahib."
Dillon frowned, pausing as he handed the rest of the gear down and Ferguson said, "You're worried."
"For some reason, yes."
"I can't see why. He himself told us he was going. We expected him to try and work a flanker on us and Asta told us exactly what he planned. And Kim did see them leave."
"He saw the plane leave," Dillon said. "But what the hell, let's get moving."
Kim jumped down into the whaler and Dillon passed everything down. Ferguson put the two Sterlings on the stern seat. "One thing is certain, dear boy, anyone who tried to take us on when we've got those things to repel boarders would have to be crazy."
"Let's hope so." Dillon handed Hannah up. "Now you take care."
She took a Walther from her pocket. "Don't worry, I've got this."
"Well I do worry, that's how I've lasted as long as I have."
He dropped into the boat, went to the stern, and started the outboard motor. Hannah unfastened the line and tossed it into the boat. "Good luck," she called as they eased away.
"Like I said, take care, the foolish one you can be on occasions, though lovable with it," Dillon called and took the whaler round in a broad curve.
Hannah watched them go, then turned and walked back up to the lodge. She went in the front door, took off the raincoat and the old trilby hat. She was cold and her feet were damp. She shivered, and decided to make a cup of coffee and went into the kitchen. She started to fill the kettle at the sink. There was a slight eerie creaking behind her. The larder door swung open and Hector Munro stepped out, a sawed-off shotgun in his hands.
And her Walther was in the raincoat. Ah God, Dillon, she thought, you're right, I am a fool. She turned and darted to the open kitchen door, straight into Rory Munro. Like his father he carried a sawed-off and he held her easily in one arm.
His face looked terrible, raw and bruised, but he smiled for all that. "And where would you be going, darling?"
He pushed her gently back into the room where Hector sat on the edge of the table filling his pipe. "Now be a good lassie and you'll come to no harm. There's a nice dry cellar for you, we've already checked."
"No windows to break out of, mind you," Rory said, "and an oak door with double bolts that you'd need a fire axe to break through."
"Aye," Munro told her. "You'll do well enough, not even a need to tie your wrists."
"See how lucky you are?" Rory said.
She stepped away from him and went to the other side of the kitchen to face them. "You're working for Morgan, aren't you? But why?" She gestured to Rory. "Remember what happened in the boxing ring. Look at what that animal Marco did to your son's face."
"But Mr. Morgan wasn't responsible for that, a bit of sport surely. My lad can take his knocks." The old man put a match to his pipe. "And then there is the question of the ten thousand pounds we're getting for helping him."
"What does he intend to do?"
"Ah well, you'll have to wait and see, won't you?" Hector Munro told her.
She took a deep breath. "I'm a police officer, did you know that?"
Rory laughed out loud and Munro said, "What bloody nonsense are you trying now, girl? Everybody knows you're secretary to the Brigadier."
"I can show you my ID, let me get it. I'm a Detective Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard."
"Detective Chief Inspector?" Munro shook his head sadly. "Events have turned her wits, Rory." He got up, walked to the cellar door and opened it. "Down with her."
Rory shoved her through, the door closed, the bolts rammed home. She lost her balance and slipped several steps, banging a knee painfully. And then she remembered the one thing she should have said, the one thing that might have had an effect.
Fergus.
She went up the steps, found the switch and turned it on, and light came on down in the cellar. She hammered on the door with clenched fists.
"Let me out," she called. "I've got something to tell you. He killed your son, he killed Fergus."
But by that time there was no one there to answer her.
Hector Munro and his son walked down toward the jetty in the rain. They could hear the whaler's outboard but couldn't see the boat itself because of the mist. They went along the jetty and paused beside the rowing boat.
"Dammit, there's nine inches of water in the bottom," Rory said.
"And a bucket under the seat for you to bale her out with, so get on with it." Hector took out an old silver watch on a chain and consulted it. "Not that we're in a hurry. We've got thirty minutes to wait, by my reckoning."
Rory had laid down the shotgun and got into the rowing boat, cursing as water slopped over his boots. He looked up into the rain. "By God, it's to be hoped Fergus has a roof of some sort over his head wherever he is."
"Never mind, he won't need to keep out of the way much longer, they'll all be away out of it," Hector Munro told him. "Now get on with it, boy."
Rory picked up the bucket and started to bale.
Ferguson took over the tiller while Dillon consulted the map. After a while the Irishman said, "It's got to be about here." He turned and could just see the chimneys of the lodge above the mist, the wood behind. "Yes, that's the line according to Sir Keith's notation on this map. Kill the engine." They almost stopped, drifting slowly, and he turned to Kim to find the Ghurka already putting the anchor over.
Dillon had cut the great coil of nylon rope into two lengths of one hundred feet with snap links on the ends. He tied a weight belt to each of them and turned to Kim, who was securing them round the center seat.
"Over we go," Dillon said and the Ghurka slipped them over.
Dillon pulled up the cowl of his diving suit, strapped the knife in its orange sheath to his leg. Then he assembled his equipment, clamping a tank to his inflatable. The Orca computer went out on the line of his air pressure gauge, then Kim helped him into the jacket, taking the weight of the tank until Dillon had strapped the Velcro wrappers across his chest. He fastened the weight belt around his waist, then pulled on his gloves. He sat down to get his fins on. It was all very awkward because of the size and shape of the boat, but that couldn't be helped. He got one of the lamps and looped it around his left wrist. He spat in his mask, leaned over and swilled it in the water, and pulled it on. Then he sat on the thwart, checked that the air was flowing freely through his mouth piece, waved at Ferguson, and went over backwards.
He swam under the keel of the boat until he found the anchor line, which, adopting the usual procedure, he followed down, pausing a couple of times to equalize the pressure in his ears by swallowing hard. To his surprise, the water was quite clear, dark, but rather like black glass.
He went feet first, hauling himself down the anchor line, aware of the other two lines they had put down close at hand. He checked his Orca computer. Forty, then suddenly sixty, seventy, seventy-five. It was darker there and he switched on the powerful lamp and there was the bottom.
It wasn't as he had expected, nothing like the silt he had looked for. Instead, large patches of sand in between a kind of seagrass, great fronds waving to and fro in the current at least six feet in length.
He hovered, checking the computer to see how long he had, then moved away from the anchor line, the beam of the halogen light splayed out in front of him, and there it was, a dark shadow at first, tilted up on its nose, tail high.
The Bristol Perseus engine was quite visible due to fuselage corrosion and the triple propeller was still there. The canopy had been pushed back, obviously when Sir Keith had got out fast after hitting the surface of the loch. There was a corrugated metal ladder leading up to the passenger section and beside it, the outline of RAF roundels.