Milo Slavic, heavier built than Tweed, seemed taller standing up. He wore a smart pale linen jacket and trousers, buttoned up at a high collar which circled his neck. It reminded Paula of pictures she had seen of commissars.
Leaving the study by another door, which clicked locked when he closed it, he guided them along a wide corridor with large rooms on either side and windows which allowed you to see inside. He paused before one window and, looking beyond it, Paula saw a huge room. Inside, girls in white smocks sat in front of computers.
'My decoding room,' Milo explained. 'They constantly surfhorrible word – the foul Internet, searching for coded messages, which they decode and bring to me. We are on the edge of a catastrophic disaster across the West unless we act quickly. I gathered from our earlier conversation that you don't agree with powerful dictatorships – of the kind that Iron Fist Thunder plans for the key countries in the West.'
'No, I don't.'
'A lot of sensible people feel we need more discipline -in schools, in the medical systems, on the streets. I agree. Thunder is exploiting this feeling to seize total power. It is all about power. It has to be stopped and I have worked night and day to establish a weapon which will destroy the insidious Internet. Come with me, both of you.'
He walked further down the corridor, stopped at a closed door on the other side. It was made of steel and had a combination box like the one at the bottom of the elevator, but much larger. He looked at Tweed, at Paula.
'Watch me carefully. Memorize the code.'
Paula repeated it to herself inside her head as Milo slowly pressed numbers. 8925751. Taking out a notepad she wrote it down. Milo raised his thick bushy eyebrows. She showed him the pad. She had recorded the code backwards.
'Very clever,' he said with a smile.
The door opened automatically. He immediately pressed a red button set into the door jamb, only visible with the door open.
'When we really operate the system loud buzzers go off in the coding room. The staff immediately evacuate so they do not suffer from what happens to the screens. But by pressing that red button I have turned off the buzzers. Let me show you…'
It was a small room, occupied only by a strange circular machine with three levers projecting from it. The door had closed behind them. They walked over to the machine.
'Watch again carefully. But before I forget, here is a duplicate key to gain access in here.'
He handed it to Tweed, who held it in his hand. He asked a question.
'Why do I need this?'
'In case something happens to me.'
Milo had spoken the words calmly, as though it was something which didn't really concern him. But the words chilled Paula. She studied his large, granite-like lined face. It reminded her of something. Then she remembered. It reminded her of pictures she had seen of Old Testament prophets.
'But where do you use this key?' Tweed asked.
'I am about to demonstrate.' He gazed at Tweed. 'Come closer, both of you.' He walked the few paces to the circular machine. 'Again, watch carefully. The sequence is important.'
Instead of pulling down the first lever on the left, as Paula expected, he pulled down the lever on the extreme right, then the lever on the extreme left. The lever in the centre was the only one with a red handle. He told them to look up as he carefully pulled the centre lever only halfway down.
Paula looked up. She saw for the first time a huge glass dome above the ceiling. Looking through it, she could see the chimney-like structure she'd noticed as they'd approached the island on the steamer. A thick steel pole emerged from the chimney's top, extended itself higher, stopped. At the top of the pole was an incredible array of dishes, facing in different directions. Each dish had a complex of wires protruding from it.
'Now look here, please,' Milo said.
He pointed to the central lever, which remained at right angles to the floor.
'When I pull that lever right down, the system operates and every Internet system in the West is destroyed. Also many further east. Have you understood?'
'Yes. It is quite clear how it is set in motion,' Tweed assured him.
Milo was returning the levers to their original positions. Paula, looking up again, saw the pole and its dishes slide down out of sight inside the chimney. She looked at Milo, who had closed the machine's door, had locked it, pocketed the key. Tweed, still holding the duplicate key in the palm of his hand, looked at it.
'You really want me to keep this?'
'I insist.' He took hold of Tweed's arm, squeezed it warmly. 'You are one of the very few people I can trust. I have had you thoroughly investigated for several years. Now, let us go into the garden and enjoy a little chat, the three of us.'
He had just closed the outer steel door, after pressing the concealed red button again, when Lisa appeared. Milo took her by the arm.
'You will join us. We go for a short walk. How are they getting on in my study?'
'Enjoying themselves. Rondel keeps telling jokes and has us all in stitches.' She paused. 'Oh, Harry Butler said he needed some fresh air. He went outside.'
Ah, Tweed thought, there is something in the atmosphere Harry doesn't like. He's positioning himself so he can intervene if necessary. I wonder why?
CHAPTER 41
At the end of the corridor Milo opened a door and they stepped out into the open. Paula gasped. The curving pathway ahead led through a jungle of exotic plants, each with a perspex cone close to it. The pathway Milo led them along crossed the spine of the summit. On each side, beyond a railing, the land dropped away down to the sea. She looked first to her right. What she saw gave her a shock. She couldn't believe it.
She could see the quay, tiny it was so far down, the quay where the steamer had berthed. There was no steamer. It had gone. Milo was ahead with Tweed by his side. Lisa was behind them, in front of Paula. She decided she had to warn Tweed.
'Milo,' she called out. 'The steamer has gone. We were returning to the mainland aboard it. What is happening?'
Milo stopped, turned round. He had a strange smile on his face. He looked at Tweed who had turned round to look at Paula.
'Paula is disconcerted. She thinks I'm keeping you on the island as prisoners. I can see it in her expression. But she hasn't looked the other way.'
Paula quickly looked down over the other railing. Again a slope sheered down. But instead of the shore plunging into the sea, which frothed gently against the island, she saw a long wide platform extending a long way to the east, a platform of concrete. At the end was a large private jet, a Gulfstream.
'That is how you will leave Berg Island,' Milo called out to her. 'If Tweed wishes to return direct to Hamburg the Gulfstream will take you all there. Blondel uses it a lot. You feel better now, Paula? You again have confidence in me?'
'Of course. It was just that…' She felt confused. '… As we came in the steamer…'
'I understand your surprise. I assume the tourists found it too hot down there and were happy to return early…'
Tweed was still looking back when Lisa gave a little dance of joy. She waved her arms, lifted them up towards the clear blue sky. Tweed continued staring at her and she stopped dancing and waving her arms. They walked a short distance further and entered a large grove surrounded by palm trees. A semi-circular banquette ran halfway round the grove. On a table were glasses covered with tissue paper, bottles, sandwiches in cartons. They sat down.
'Milo,' Tweed began, 'when you said the Internet will be destroyed by your highly advanced system surely it could be repaired – the Internet, I mean?'
'Not for years. The Internet is linked to the telephone system. The telephone system will also be wiped out – and that will take years to build again. You know that certain satellites orbiting the earth are also linked to the phone system. Those satellites also will be rendered useless. We will go back to how we were in the pre-1900 era. That will be a good thing.'