This United state

'I just hope you're right.'

'You know your problem, Moonhead?'

'I guess you're gonna tell me.'

'You ain't got no sense of humour. Better roll up your sleeves, feller. Lot of work to do.'

'What kinda work?'

'Loading cartons – heavy ones – on to three trucks. I guess Bernhard Yorcke will have loaded one truck ready for the go. Makes four truckloads. What's in 'em will destroy Britain.'

'Who is this Bernhard Yorcke?'

'Came from Luxembourg years ago. He's a printer. Moved on to Switzerland as a youngster. Stayed there ever since. Just where he shoulda gone, being a printer. Swiss, I'll give 'em that, are best printers in the world.' He peered up through the windscreen. 'Nearly there. Trouble with Bernhard Yorcke is he can be a very nasty piece of work.'

Coming from Ronstadt, Madison wondered what on earth this Yorcke could be like.

'What's he print?' he asked.

'See when we gets there, won't you?'

'There is a base,' Paula said, 'and that has to be it.' 'I agree,' said Tweed.

They had driven down and down from the point where Paula had surveyed Schluchsee through her binoculars. Newman's car had progressed first, with Marler's following close behind. The red light on Newman's screen had glowed so strongly he had driven at a slow pace. Gradually the red glow had dimmed. Newman had had his lights dimmed when he'd stopped suddenly for two reasons. They were now on the level and he'd caught sight of an open stretch of road running next to the lake. They parked the cars on the left-hand verge, under cover of a copse of trees. Then they had cautiously walked into the open.

To their right was a shoulder-high wall between the road and the lake. All seven of them had kept out of sight behind the wall, peering over it. Paula had perched her elbows on top of the wall and stared through her binoculars. Immediately opposite them on the far side of the lake was the base.

A very large and old two-storey building stood on top of a bluff at the lake's edge. It had huge and very steep gables, was built of wood as far as she could see. It appeared to be a cross between a farmhouse and a private residence. It had been masked from her previous survey, much higher up, by the fir forest which extended forward almost to the brink of the bluff. Tweed had borrowed Marler's binoculars and now Newman spoke urgently.

'Tweed, loan me those glasses for a minute.'

'Take mine,' said Paula and handed them to him.

Newman swiftly focused them. His target was not the house. He was aiming them at the string of red lights from the three black Audis retreating round the tip of the lake. As he spoke he followed them through the lenses.

'They're driving along a wide track which leads round the end of the lake. That's where we'll follow them when they've reached their base. I can drive along that track without lights.'

'And with luck,' Tweed commented, 'driving in white Audis they won't see us coming. We'll merge with the snow.'

'Is that why you asked me to get white cars?' Marler enquired.

'Yes. I'd heard about the first snowfall. It struck me white cars would be less visible, which might come in useful.'

'It will,' agreed Newman,, still staring through the binoculars. 'We'll just hope the moon stays the way it is now. Not too strong but with a bit of light. They've reached the end of the track, turning away from the lake. Now they're half-hidden so the track must lead up through a gulley.'

'Which will help us too,' Marler remarked.

Paula was standing with her arms folded, trying to keep in a bit of warmth. The well below zero temperature was gradually penetrating the extra clothing she was wearing. Her head was perched on the wall top as she crouched to keep hidden.

'It reminds me of that house in Psycho,' she said. 'It has a flight of railed steps leading up to the front door. The main difference is that large ramp to the right. Frightening.'

'It's just a house,' said Newman.

'That ramp is interesting,' Tweed observed, his binoculars still trained on the house, 'because it would be possible for two cars to drive down it at the same moment – or a very large truck.'

'Why would they want trucks?' Kent asked.

`To transport what I think they've produced inside that building. If I'm right, it's far more deadly than bombs. That edifice beyond the top of the ramp looks like a huge garage. I'd swear the door is modern – unlike everything else about the place.'

Paula was staring round the shores of the lake in the ghostly light. The moon came out from behind a cloud briefly and she saw she was right.

'There are sandy beaches here and there along the edges of the lake. But I can't see any sign of holiday chalets.'

'They all go to Titisee in the season.' Tweed told her. 'The convoy has almost arrived.'

'The track forks three ways when it gets close to the house,' Newman reported. 'One route up to the bottom of the flight of steps, another proceeds on to the foot of that ramp. The third leads to somewhere behind the house – and that's the route they are taking. Time to go?'

'Let's wait a little longer,' Tweed suggested. 'Give them time to settle in.'

'No lights at all in the place,' Paula pointed out.

'There are several,' Tweed corrected her. 'Difficult to see because they're low down – must be a basement. I think there are curtains drawn across them.'

'You mean there's someone there already?' Paula asked.

'I'm sure there is. In the basement. Now, I wonder? Yes, it might well be in the basement – if it's big enough.' 'What might?'

'What we've come to destroy.'

'Which is?'

'A fortune,' replied Tweed, and he smiled. 'Time to find out.'

The moon obliged. It cast no more than a half-glow as Newman, in the lead, turned off the road and down onto the track. Behind him Marler's Audi followed. They drove without lights and Newman, having studied the track, found he could see where he was going without difficulty.

'What were you and Tweed discussing with Marler before we left?' Paula, seated beside Newman again, asked him.

'We were planning tactics for the assault,' Tweed answered her from the rear of the car. 'We had several options.'

'Which did you choose?' she asked.

'I was just going to tell you when you spoke. It's important you know as much as the rest of us. Bob, do you want to start putting Paula in the picture?'

'There are seven of us,' Newman began. 'We thought there'd be eleven of the enemy but that light in the basement Tweed spotted means there will be at least twelve of them. At least,' he repeated. 'The obvious point of attack is to follow their cars round the back. Maybe a bit too obvious, wouldn't you agree?'

'Yes, I would,' replied Paula. 'I'd have thought we have to split up a bit – so we have the place surrounded.'

'Which is exactly what we decided,' said Newman. 'Keith, I'd like you to get out when we reach the house, so you can creep up that staircase to the main front door. I don't think this will happen, but they may all come out there. Marler gave you an extra Walther – you may not have time to reload. Shoot them down as they emerge.'

'I think I can manage that,' Kent said easily. 'Tweed must have told you I'm what they call a shooter back home. Belong to a club.'

'What about the rest of us?' Paula pressed.

'Marler and Butler take up the best positions they can find at the back of the house. Tweed and Nield follow Keith when we drop him off, then they go further along to take up positions on the ramp side of the house.'

'What about you?'

'I've got a roving commission. I'll be circling the house – as reinforcement wherever I'm needed.'

'You've left someone out,' Paula said coolly. 'Me.'

'No, I haven't. You'll come with me.'

'As protection?' she asked not so coolly.

'Of course not. As backup – for me.'