'Who is speaking?'

'Never mind who's speaking. The Colonel.'

'He's at home.'

'He is not. He's there. Ten seconds or you're an ex-policeman tomorrow.' In just ten seconds the Colonel was on the phone. 'You were a bit harsh on that poor lad.' His voice held a complaining note. 'He's either a fool, an incompetent or was improperly instructed. He was told to keep open an anonymous line.' Van Effen spoke in Polish, which the Colonel understood as well as he did. Dutch police changed their wave-lengths at infrequent intervals and had done so again only that day. As in every major city in the world, villains occasionally picked up police wavelengths. But the probabilities against a villain who understood Polish picking up a changed wave-length were astronomical. 'Please switch on your recorder. I don't know how much time I have and I don't want to repeat myself.'

'Proceed.'

'I shall spell names backwards. We are south of - this is a name - Utrecht - and between - two other names - Leerdam and Gorinchen. You have that?'

'I have that.'

'Do not attempt to locate and do not attempt to attack. "The Princ.i.p.als are elsewhere"' - it was an outright lie but the Colonel was not to know that -'and it would achieve only the deaths of five people who don't deserve to die. You know the people I mean?'

'I know.'

'We have here the army truck. You know which one. It has changed the identification plates. I will give you the new numbers. Backwards. 'van Effen did so. 'It will be carrying the nuclear devices you know about.' 'What!'

'I have attached a magnetic transmitter bug to this vehicle. Have an unmarked police car in the vicinity as from, say, 7 a.m. It is to track this truck at a safe distance. This police car will also be in radio contact with two or three Army Commando trucks lying to the west. I am becoming increasingly convinced that this truck will be heading towards the Scheldt area. There will be three people in that truck, all dressed in Dutch army uniforms, including a bogus lieutenant-colonel called Ylvisaker, who may even call himself by that name. I want that truck seized along with its occupants and the seizure to be kept in complete secrecy. If you release that news then the responsibility for the flooding of the country will lie in your hands.'

De Graaf's voice took on an even more complaining note. 'You don't have to threaten me, my boy.'

'I apologize. I am under intense pressure and have to make my points in as impressive a way as I can - One other thing. Have TV and radio announce - or just say, if you like - that they are to be of good heart and that you are closing in on the Rotterdam and Scheldt areas. The reason to be given is that you want every citizen thereabouts to be on continuous alert and report anything abnormal to the police. This is purely psychological and I don't believe our friends are very good at psychology. But please, please, apart from taking this truck in complete secrecy, no other attempts at interference.'

'Understood. I have someone with me who would like a word with you and who speaks Polish even better than you and I do.'

'Spell his name backwards.'

De Graaf did so and Wieringa's voice came on the phone. 'Congratulations, my boy.'

'Those may be a bit premature, Minister. I can't for instance, stop the breaching of the Flevoland d.y.k.es or the detonation of the Markewaard device. A further thought has occurred to me. You might have the media include in their broadcasts about the Rotterdam area that Whitehall and Stormont have arrived at an agreement to begin active and immediate negotiations.'

'The two parliaments might not like it.'

'I'm a Dutchman. Instruct them to like it.'

'Some obscure psychological motive again, I suppose. Very well, I agree. Frankly, my boy, how do you rate our chances?'

'Better than evens, Minister. They trust us. They have to trust us.' He explained briefly about the De Dooms ammunition dump and the RAF's inability to handle radio-controlled devices. 'Apart from that, I'm not only sure but know that they don't distrust or suspect us. They are basically naive, complacent, over confident and sure of themselves. They lack the devious minds of honest detectives. I have to move, sir. I'll call again as soon as whenever possible.'

In the Marnixstraat, the Minister of Defence said: 'You agree with van Effen's a.s.sessment, Colonel?'

'If that's what he thinks then that's what I think.' 'Why isn't that young man - well, young compared to us -not Chief of Police somewhere?'

'He'll be the chief here in the not too distant future. In the meantime, I need him.?

'Don't we all,' Wieringa sighed. 'Don't we all.'

Van Effen climbed up to the loft, patted the sentry lightly on the cheek, got no reaction and left. Three minutes later he was inside the bedroom. Vasco looked pointedly at his watch.

'Ten thirty-three,' Vasco said accusingly.

'Sorry. I was detained. Anyway, that's a fine way to welcome back a man who may just have escaped the jaws of death.'

'There was trouble?'

'No. Clockwork.'

'You didn't unpick the garage lock,' George said, also accusingly. 'Another warm welcome. Where are the congratulations for a mission successfully accomplished? Would you have picked that lock if, at the window next to our bathroom, you had seen the Reverend Riordan, who seems to meditate on his feet and pray with his eyes open, gazing out pensively over the courtyard? Instead, I unbolted the garage doors from the inside.'

'I hope you remembered to rebolt them.'

'George!'

'Sorry. What detained you?'

'Wieringa, the Defence Minister. He was in the Marnixstraat with Colonel de Graaf. If you refrain from asking questions, I'll tell you word for word how our conversations went.'

He did so and at the end George said: 'Satisfactory. You fixed the bug, of course. So why did you go to all this devious trouble of getting hold of the operating instructions for the devices?'

'Have you ever known of a cop - or soldier - for that matter -who never made a mistake?'

George pondered briefly then said: 'Present company excepted, no. True, we may yet need that information - Ylvisaker and his friends might just miss the road-blocks. But you didn't tell them that we were going by helicopter?'

J did not. For the same reason that I didn't take up Samuelson's unspoken offer to tell us where we are going. If I had done, his immediate reaction - our Defence Minister's that is - would be to have called his counterpart in Whitehall to send over a Nimrod, the British bomber that is a virtual airborne radar station and which could have tracked us from here to wherever we're going without our knowing a thing about it.' He smiled. 'You wear, what shall we say, George, a rather peculiar express- ion. The same thought had occurred to yourself?'

'It had.' George looked thoroughly chagrined. 'I thought it rather a good idea, myself'

'I don't. I have no doubt that the Royal Air Force would have been delighted to comply and I have equally no doubt that within a very short time of our arriving at our destination we would have a visit from our paratroopers and commandos who don't tend to beat about the bush very much. I don't much care for that idea. Three reasons. I don't want a fire-fight, a blood bath. Killing or capturing - killing, more likely - Samuelson and his friends would not be the final solution. There may be -in fact I feel certain there will be, don't ask my why, I don't, know - -enough of his men left to carry out the ultimate threat.

Thirdly, I don't much care for the idea of the young ladies being hurt or worse. I wouldn't much like to gun down - wound, I mean, not kill - a countryman who was threatening the fife of one of the girls.' Vasco said: 'Julie and Annemarie?'

'All four.'

George said mildly. 'The other two are criminals.'

'They a.s.sociate with criminals. Different matter entirely. Anyway, if the government were to commit this cra.s.s folly, we would be in a position to expose them and dictate our own terms. Wieringa and the Colonel would back us up and they're the only two people who matter. However, this is all academic. It's not going to happen. Moment, gentlemen. These denims are rather damp.'

When he'd changed, he said: 'Our absent friend O'Brien is missing in more than one way - he's also the missing key. I'd give a great deal to know where he is at this moment. He won't have gone to their other hang-out for his expertise in debugging and de-fusing alarm systems wouldn't be called for there. One could speculate endlessly as to where he has gone to exercise his skills but that would be a waste of time.' 'I'm neglecting my duties,' Vasco said. 'If I may be excused. George, would you come and switch the light on again?'

He turned off the light, went into the bathroom and closed the door. No sooner had George turned the light on than Vasco tapped on the door. George switched the light off again and the bathroom door opened. 'This may interest you,' Vasco said.

The sentry's head was nodding, intermittent,, and at irregular intervals. After a few seconds of this he held it in an upright position then shook it from side to side. After a few more seconds of this - it was too dark to see what his expression was registering but it was, very probably, one of confusion and apprehension - brought up his right hand from under his rug, looked at the bottle still clutched in it, upended it and apparently established the fact that it was empty, placed it on the floor and pushed himself back in his seat.

'He's going to drop off again,' Vasco said.

'Not him,' van Effen said - 'He's making a major decision.' The sentry made his major decision. He lifted his rug to one side, pushed himself groggily to his feet and took a few staggering steps that brought him perilously close to the loft doorway.