Coining closer and closer, the barge seemed even more enormous than she had expected. Its bow wave swept out like a minor tidal wave, causing their launches to rock madly when it reached them. Tweed remained standing up, still gripping the gunwale, staring fixedly at the monster.
As far as Paula could tell, he seemed focused on the shadowy silhouette of the burly helmsman inside his cabin. He was standing stock-still, his hands moving the wheel slightly for a moment. He never glanced to port or starboard. His whole concentration was ahead, on the bridge where he would soon pass through one of the large arches.
Beck, inside his own bridge, was equally motionless. He did not give the barge a glance as its immense hull started to sweep past. The Minotaur was so long it seemed to take ages to pass them, even though travelling at speed with the current. There were a number of dinghies, powered by outboard motors, on the main deck. A poor substitute for lifeboats, Paula was thinking.
Eventually the stern of the Minotaur loomed above them and the vessel approached the arch under the bridge. Paula saw Tweed had put his loudhailer down at his feet, and was now using a pair of binoculars to scan the barge. As far as she could tell, he was focused on the cabin and the helmsman inside.
The barge passed under the bridge, was now opposite the Three Kings. It struck her that anyone sitting by the windows at the rear of the lobby would have a ringside view. Beck was still erect and still as a statue, his eyes glued to the receding barge. Once he glanced at his watch. Paula guessed he had estimated the barge's speed, was waiting for it to reach a certain point on the river.
Looking back onshore, she noticed the cars which had brought them had disappeared. She wondered where they would eventually land. Then she remembered Beck had said something about ordering the barge to heave to further downriver, near the harbour. Maybe the cars had been driven there, waiting to pick them up as passengers again.
The stern of the barge had vanished from sight. Surely Beck was cutting the timing a bit fine? As though he had read her mind, he raised his right hand, held it aloft, staring at his wristwatch. The engines of the launches burst into action, but remained at the landing stage. Then Beck dropped his hand.
The launch he was aboard moved off when one of his men freed the rope holding it to a bollard. Marler unleashed them in the same way and they sped out on to the Rhine. Paula noticed that the strong current was giving them extra speed. Tweed, the binoculars dropped from a loop round his neck, the loudhailer gripped in his hand, turned to shout at Newman, who was gripping the wheel.
'Bob! Get ahead of Beck. Get this damned launch moving!'
'Doesn't expect much, does he?' Newman said to Marler.
He opened full throttle and the launch soared forward while Tweed gripped the gunwale with both hands. They were skimming over the waves as Beck passed under the bridge. Newman was still behind him as their launch sped through the arch under the bridge. In the distance Paula could see the Minotaur again. The barge was about to pass under another bridge. Tweed again turned round to shout a fresh order at Newman.
'Keep us as close to the shore as you safely can. Do get a move on!'
'What does he think I'm doing!' Newman snapped to Marler. 'Paddling across the Serpentine?'
He changed course to obey Tweed's command. Paula couldn't understand what Tweed was up to. Beck's craft was in the middle of the Rhine – or as close as he could be without leaving the official channel for vessels moving downstream. Paula was so intent on watching what was happening ahead she forgot to glance at the Three Kings as they passed it.
Newman was coaxing an extra burst of speed out of his engine after changing course, which had lost him a few seconds. Seated, as everyone else was, except Tweed and Newman, Paula looked back quickly. The other police launches were racing close behind them. It was then that she remembered Newman had once taken part in a powerboat race off Cannes. Up against some well-known names, he had won the race.
Beck's launch passed under the second bridge. Newman, with a determined look on his face, roared through the arch, was now almost alongside Beck with a safe distance between the two craft. Beck was waving him back but Newman thundered on, inched his way ahead. Paula, who had been gazing back at Newman, turned to face the way they were going and was taken aback when she saw how close they were to the Minotaur, passing a well-known pharmaceutical firm's headquarters on the opposite bank.
Now they were a short distance ahead of Beck. In the bow Tweed was hanging on to the gunwale with one hand. With the other he had the binoculars pressed against his eyes. He saw the helmsman leave his cabin, throw overboard a dinghy attached to the barge with a tow rope. ' He followed this by throwing over the side a rope ladder, was starting to descend it when Tweed dropped his binoculars, snatched up the loudhailer.
'Everyone get away from that barge. Move away at top speed as far as you can. MOVE!'
'Flee for your lives…'
To Paula, his thunderous commands reminded her of recordings she had heard of Churchill speaking. The moment he began his warning she saw Beck using his mobile. The helmsman from the barge had landed in his dinghy, cut the rope linking him to the barge, started his outboard, moving towards the shore.
'Hang on like grim death!' shouted Newman.
Paula, one hand already holding the gunwale, used the other to grip the underside of the plank she was sitting on. She leaned back. Newman swung his wheel hard over. The launch swung in a violent U-turn, so fast, so suddenly, Paula knew they were going to capsize. For the first time Tweed had sat down, had both hands gripping the gunwale.
The launch swung over at an angle of almost forty-five degrees. Vaguely, as in a film speeded up, Paula saw Beck's craft heading back upstream. The other police launches were also swinging round, speeding away. She shook her head to clear her vision, looked back, froze, still looking back.
The Minotaur exploded like a giant bomb. The boom! echoed down the Rhine. A huge piece of the hull rocketed across the water, struck a large craft anchored to a buoy near the opposite shore. The craft, fortunately empty, disappeared altogether. Another section of the hull broke off, elevated high above the river, then plunged downwards, landing in the river at the very point where Newman's launch had been. It plunged below the surface. Half the stern broke away, skidded across the water, dived out of sight where Beck's launch had been a few seconds earlier.
Newman, had just successfully completed his manoeuvre, was racing upriver in the wrong channel, when the shock wave from the explosion hit them. Like a blast of hot air from a furnace it hit their launch when it had just stabilized. They were rocked from side to side but Newman continued speeding them away from the inferno. The other police launches had escaped certain destruction.
Paula's teeth were chattering – whether from fright or the cold she wasn't sure. Then Beck's calm voice was carried over the water through his loudhailer.
'Everyone follow me. I'm taking you in to a landing stage.'
'I could do with a bit of terra firma under my feet,' called out Tweed, his voice as calm as Beck's.
When they climbed, stiff-legged, out of the. launch, Beck's craft was already moored to the other side. As he walked across to speak to Tweed Paula looked back down the Rhine. From what remained of the wrecked barge flames were blazing upwards, a glare in the near- dark. Fire-boats, which had appeared from nowhere, were directing great jets of water from hoses onto the fire.
'What about the passengers?' she asked.
'There weren't any,' Tweed told her. 'Otherwise we'd have seen at least a few of them on deck. Only the helmsman was aboard. I think he fixed the wheel to keep the barge on course before he escaped in his outboard. I caught a glimpse of him diving into a waiting car after he'd reached the shore. The bomb, I feel sure, was detonated from a distance by radio – once the helmsman got clear.'