'I require that you arrange the following. The Regalia will be left, in the same hold-alls which my associates carried into the Castle, in the middle of the car park at the Gyle Shopping Centre, at 11:00 pm tomorrow night. Once the delivery has been made, the car park should be completely cleared. An aeroplane, with a range of at least three thousand miles, will be waiting, fully fuelled, on the runway at Edinburgh Airport. No attempt should be made to follow us at any stage. No personnel, police or military, should come anywhere near. No attempt should be made to hide tracking devices in the hold-alls. We have the equipment to detect them. No attempt should be made to track our flight-path.
We also carry equipment that can detect radar.
'If any one of these conditions is breached in any way, Miss Skinner will be shot immediately. However, if all are met to the letter, she will be released safely, as soon as we reach our first stopping-off point.
Mr Black'
Skinner placed the letter slowly on his desk. He looked up at Andy Martin with absolute desolation on his face.
'Give that paper to me, Bob,' said Proud Jimmy gently, but with determination in his voice. 'I'm off to see the Prime Minister.'
80
'I don't care whose daughter she is!'
'Secretary of State,' said Sir James Proud, hissing the words in a tone he had rarely used before in his life. 'If Bob Skinner had heard you say that, I would not guarantee your safety.' He took a menacing step towards Ballantyne.
'Sir James, please.' The Prime Minister restrained him with a light touch on the sleeve of his uniform. He turned to face Ballantyne, questioningly, across the drawing room of Number 6 Charlotte Square.
'I only meant that we can't give in to blackmail, PM,' said theSecretary of State, now flushed and flustered.
The Prime Minister walked slowly down the long room towards him, his eyes cold behind his spectacles.
'Alan, if you showed such bravery and courage with your own person as you do in putting other people's lives at risk – mine included – then you would probably make a great Minister. As it is, you're undoubtedly the biggest mistake I have ever made. Last night I said I wanted you to demit office, on health grounds, after a decent interval. You don't deserve decency, man. Give me your resignation now, please.'
He turned back to Proud. 'Now, Sir James, how are we going to help Mr Skinner?'
'With respect. Prime Minister, that isn't really a matter for you,' a voice interrupted.
There was a fourth man in the long room. Sir Hamish Tebbit, Private Secretary to the Queen, had flown to Edinburgh that morning for a personal briefing on the situation from the Prime Minister. The tall grey-suited courtier stepped forward from the window. He had been doing his best to make himself inconspicuous while the politicians and the policeman had their confrontation.
'I would remind you that the Honours of Scotland are the property of the Crown. Therefore their disposal is a matter for the
Crown alone. If you will permit me, I will withdraw to another room, one with a telephone, and seek guidance from that highest authority.'
81
'Andy, son, they'll kill her, whatever. You know that. This Mr Black won't leave her alive to identify him. He'll realise that if he does, it'll be too easy for me to find him. And when I do find him, I'll find his paymaster – his bloody client. Oh, believe me, Andy, I'll find him anyway, but unless we do it by tomorrow night, we'll be too late to help Alex.'
Sarah had joined them in Skinner's office. She sat beside Bob.on one of the low, cushioned seats, shocked and red-eyed, sipping! coffee.
Martin looked back at Skinner. He had no answer, for he knew the inescapable truth of what Skinner had said.
Bob pushed himself up from the seat, pounding fist into palm in a gesture of pure frustration. 'We don't know where she is, boys, and we haven't a clue how to find her. Oh, my lass. My poor, poor lass. Where in God's name are you?' As he cried out, he linked his fingers together, and covered his eyes with his hands, Martin and Arrow gazed, helpless and silent, at his back androunded shoulders. But Sarah rose quietly from her chair and crossed to him, taking him in her arms, cradling his bowed headagainst hers. They stood like that for a time, motionless. Then, slowly, steadily, Skinner's shoulders straightened, and his hands left his face. He now stood erect again, and it was almost as if Martin and Arrow were looking at a stranger. The man they saw – Skinner but not Skinner – touched them both, tough as they were, with sudden alarm. Distress and despair had been put aside and replaced by hope, the light of which gleamed cold and savage in his eyes.
'There's someone who does know, boys, or who'd better know.
And he's lying in the Simpson!' The voice was little more than a whisper.
He eased himself out of Sarah's arms and started for the door, but Adam Arrow stopped him, and, using all his strength, heldhim back.
'Bob. Bob. Listen to me. Bob.'
Skinner looked down at him, still with that awful cold look. •Man,' said Arrow quietly, making an effort at a reassuring smile, 'if you went near that man just now, the first time he said "No''' to you, you'd rip 'is fookin' head off and piss down his fookin' neck. He's got to be handled gentle if he's to tell us anything that'U help Alex. So you stay here with Sarah. Leave him to me I'll talk to him, reasonable like. You know what I mean. If he does know anything, I'll get it out of him better than you could.'
His smile would have calmed the wildest beast – which, for a moment, Skinner had seemed to be.
82
Sir Hamish wasn't out of the room for long. But he was gone long enough for Alan Ballantyne to scrawl out the briefest of letters of resignation, 'for reasons of health, and in the interests of my family', on Scottish Office crested notepaper. He handed it to the Prime Minister and, without even the briefest glance at Sir James Proud, stalked out of the room.
Scarcely more than five minutes had elapsed, by the carriage clock on the Adam mantelpiece, before the Queen's Private Secretary returned from his telephone consultation. To his huge relief, the Chief Constable noticed that he was smiling in satisfaction.
'Prime Minister,' the tall grey man said formally. 'Her Majesty has given me some very strict instructions, which should make your course of action quite clear. The demands contained in the letter to Mr Skinner are to be complied with in every detail. Her Majesty has said that, when seen in this context, no treasure is of greater value than a human life.'
He looked at Sir James. 'She has said also. Chief Constable, that knowing Mr Skinner from her many visits to Edinburgh, he and his daughter have her heartfelt sympathy in their predicament. She will pray for Alex's safe return. Her Majesty said also that she expects Mr Skinner to ensure that, once he has been reunited with his daughter, her kidnappers will not remain for long in possession of the Honours, or indeed of their own liberty.'
Warmly and spontaneously, the Prime Minister shook Sir Hamish by the hand. He turned to Proud, who was standing just behind him.
'There you have it, Chief Constable. Now go and get the girl back – and bag these people while you're at it.'
83
Babies made Adam Arrow feel uncomfortable. He would never actually admit that he disliked them. It was only that, having been involved all too often, through his chosen profession, with the other end of the life cycle, they pricked his conscience with the thought that every one of the villains he had been forced to deal with had been some mother's son – or occasionally, some mother's daughter. A conscience was something which Arrow could not afford, and so it was to maintain his own efficiency what others might call his ruthlessness – that Adam tended to steer clear of any close contact with babies. Thus it was that to him, the everyday sounds in the private wing of the Simpson Memorial Pavilion, in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, were a little disturbing.