Выбрать главу

"I gave Australian Intelligence your name and put down everything you told me," I said.

"I guess I can expect them pestering me every day now," she said crossly. She looked up at me and her eyes roamed up and down quickly. "Well, if they all look like you, Yank, I guess I can stand it," she said. She was true to form at least. I smiled inwardly. She still didn't wear a bra either.

It had been my last stop. Nick Carter was on his way back to America.

* * *

That night, The Ruddy Jug had a new customer. He was red-haired, with a freckled face wide, red-brown moustache turned down at the edges. He had a ruddy complexion underneath his freckles and a loud, grating voice. Wearing a workman's shirt, pants and heavy shoes, he sat down and waved a hand at Judy. He watched her come over and her smile was forced — an imposition on her strained, grim face — a mockery of her troubled eyes.

"Lunatic soup, girlie," he yelled at her. "Shout me a seven, willya?" Judy turned to the bar and called out for a seven-ounce glass of beer. She fetched it and put it on the man's table. "Welcome to The Ruddy Jug." She smiled again.

"I'm a bit done up, lass," he said, his Aussie speech pattern as natural as his drinking the beer. "Workin' on that dam under those blasted Yank engineers would do up a saint, I tell you."

"You can always relax at The Ruddy Jug," Judy said as she started to move on.

"Good on you," the man called. "Shout me another when you go by the bar. It's a hot, dinkum night, it is."

The girl went on without a backward glance and I smiled inwardly. I'd passed inspection. I'd worked on the disguise all afternoon, remembering the various little tricks of using make-up that Stewart in Special Effects had taught me. The moustache from the novelty store was a good one and between it, my dyed hair combed back differently and the freckles, I was a new man — Tim Anderson, worker at the big dam south of Ayr. I managed to get into a loud conversation with two men at a nearby table and the more I drank the more I told them about how rotten it was working for the damned Yank engineers. I complained about their pay, the way they treated me, the kind of work they demanded, everything and anything I could think of.

I left that first night fairly early. The next night I stayed later, and the night after still later. Each night was a repetition of the others, and I made certain that Judy heard me loud and clear. It was on the fourth night that the sallow faced Bonard came in and I had to conceal a smile. He mightn't be top dog, but he was top level, and here he was out recruiting. It was a backhanded testimonial to the dent I'd already put in their operation.

I watched, out of the corner of my eye, as he paused to talk to Judy. She didn't smile at him. In fact, she was downright sullen. But she did nod, finally, in my direction. Bonard stood at the bar, waiting for a moment when I wasn't involved talking to somebody else. I let him wait while I made loud noises about the blasted Yanks and their "bloody uppity manners." Finally, I sat back and knocked off a whiskey and a beer.

"Mind if I sit down?" I heard Bonard's voice and looked up, my eyes heavy lidded. I gestured to the empty chair at the table. His approach was smooth and unhurried. I played him along like a fisherman plays a trout, only he thought he was the fisherman. I let him know that I was in debt up to my ears and one particular debt was really sitting on my back. He showed up the next night, and the night after, and we got to be great drinking pals.

"I could help you out of that jam you're in, Tim," he said to me finally. "You said a few hundred quid would do it. Here, take it. It's a loan."

I acted properly grateful and impressed. "You can do something for me in return." Bonard said. "We'll talk about it tomorrow night."

I pocketed the cash and left. But I was there early the next night and so was he.

"How'd you like to make some really big money, Tim?" he asked me. "And do yourself and your country a favor at the same time?"

"I'd love that, I would," I answered.

"I'm connected with some men who don't want that dam you're building to stay up," he said in low, confidential tones. "They feel just like you do about the bloody Yanks coming over here and lording it all over us. They want to see that it doesn't happen again and there's only one way to do that."

"What way's that?" I asked, a little thickly.

"Let the thing break after they've got it up," he said. "Some people might get hurt, and some property damaged, but there'll be no more calling in Yanks to work over here. It'd be sweet revenge for you, Tim, for all the things you've told me about."

"It would at that, wouldn't it?" I smiled, leaning back. "I'd bloody well love to see their dam collapse on them."

"My people are prepared to give you twenty-five thousand dollars if you do what they want," he said quietly. I let my eyes grow wide and my jaw drop.

"Lord luv a duck, that's more money than I'd ever hoped to see in one place," I stammered.

"It'll be all in your pocket, Tim," Bonard said. "How about it?"

It was time for me to get cagey. I started to backwater.

"Now, not so fast," I said. "The money's good and all that, but people don't give it away for nothin'. What am I supposed to do for this? If it gets me in jail, I won't be around to collect or to spend the twenty-five thousand."

"There's no risk to you," he said. "You'll get the details later. It's just that we need someone inside the working area who can do what we want done."

I shifted into second gear. "Suppose I was to agree to help you. How do I know you'll keep your end of the bargain?"

"We'll put the money in a bank account in your name," he said. "It will be marked for release on a certain date to you. That date will be two days after you've finished your end of the deal. All you'll have to do is go in and claim it."

I smiled to myself. So that was their system for paying off. The whole thing had been couched in just the right terms to appeal to me — the dissatisfied, angry man. Now it was time to shift into high.

"I'll do it," I said. "But not until I conclude the deal with the top man. This is a big thing and I want to be sure of where I stand."

"I'm the top man," Bonard smiled reassuringly. I gave him a hard, beady look back.

"I wasn't born yesterday, digger," I said. The top man wouldn't be out making contacts. Not with an outfit like you've got behind you. Who are they, some big Australian construction company?"

"Maybe." He smiled again, allowing me to run with that thought if it made me happy. Then he tried once more.

"But I am top man," he said. "You can deal safely with me."

I shook my head stubbornly. "No top man, no Tim Anderson," I said. Bonard got up and excused himself. I watched him go to the phone and make a call. He came back a few minutes later and gave me an expansive grin, his sallow face crinkling up.

"You drive a hard bargain, Tim," he said. "The top man will see you. Tomorrow night. I'll meet you here."

"You should've told me you were going to make that call," I said. "There's something else I want. I want a good woman, something different, no ordinary street wench. I want somebody I can take out and not be afraid to be seen with. And I want her tomorrow night. 1 want to celebrate concluding our deal with a good, hot woman.

Bonard was having trouble keeping his smile going but he managed it. "I understand," he said. "I'll meet you here tomorrow night."

We left together, he getting into the jeep and I walking off down the street. The top man would show, I was certain. They wanted this to go through. I wasn't so certain if the part about the woman would work out. Naturally I was hoping they'd call on whoever they'd been using right along — Mona, Lynn Delba or Judy.

I went back, not to the cottage, but to a little one-room flat I'd rented in the low rent district. In my room, I pulled out the map of the area around the dam and studied it again. Some four villages were close under the dam, another eight a litde distance away. If the dam were to give way after it was up a while, the torrent of waters would wipe out all the nearest villages and most of the others. The farms and property would be totally destroyed, of course. The loss of life could only be guessed at, but it would be plenty. It would, as the Major had said, certainly put the icing on the cake, starting a two-way bitterness that would rend the working alliance for good. And I knew they wouldn't stop there. They'd find more dissatisfied souls to wreak more damage until the alliance was blasted apart once and for all and Australia isolated in sullen hostility. The effect this would have on the perimeter power was even more frightening as they saw a cooperative western effort fall apart before their very own eyes. I put the map away and turned off the light. I was looking forward to a very instructive night coming up.