Blood oath 1982, p.13
Blood Oath (1982), page 13
"You designed it?"
"You're perceptive. It's my hobby. I'm fortunate because it's also my business.
These devices put us into contact with our central bureau and its satellites.
But more important, they guard the grounds. The fence, of course, is monitored.
If anyone tries to cut it or climb over it, a signal is received here. And of course there are instruments surveying the woods as well. You may have noticed that the driver pressed a button on his dashboard as he left the main road coming toward the gate."
Pete nodded.
"That was to warn me he was coming. Otherwise the signals on these monitors would have alerted me. After sending an alarm, I would have braced myself for an attack."
Pete swallowed. "I could use a drink."
"Jack Daniel's, if I'm not mistaken. And the lady "
"Dry martini."
"Oh? That isn't on your record." Henri seemed puzzled. "In that cabinet. I can't risk the side effects, but I take pleasure if my guests indulge."
Pete made the drinks. He gestured toward the many bottles on the bar. "Every one is sealed."
"My guests are careful."
"How is that?"
"They won't drink from an open bottle."
Houston gagged. The bourbon soured in his stomach. "It's not hard to drop the poison in and then put on a seal."
"There comes a time when they must trust."
As we are trusting, Houston thought.
"I have to talk to you," Simone said.
He had known that this was coming, though he'd hoped he could avoid it. All along, her eyes had followed him.
"Your room's through there," Henri said, pointing. "There's a bathroom with a shower. I'll serve dinner in an hour."
She went in before he'd finished talking. Houston grabbed their bags. The room was spacious, beamed, and paneled, with slick hardwood floors, a king-sized bed.
She shut the door as soon as he came in. "The bathroom," she said.
"What?"
"You heard me." She walked swiftly toward another door and yanked it open. He saw the bright white tile. She stalked in. He set the bags down.
Frowning, he went after her. "What is it?"
But she didn't answer. She turned on the sink taps, then the shower faucets. In the noise, she faced him. "You're holding something back again."
"You think there's a microphone?"
"Of course I think so. I'd be stupid not to know this room was bugged. The truth! Quit hiding things from me."
The taps kept pouring water. "Tell me," she said.
He spoke reluctantly. "Bellay brought in the Verlaine folder. We were reading through the documents."
She nodded.
"I had the list of Verlaine's holdings, all the companies it owned. Simone, I didn't want to hurt you. That's the only reason I held back. I had to think about the implications. Halfway down the second sheet I saw the name of your father's hotel. Verlaine owns it."
She looked as if she'd been slapped. "My father works for Verlaine Enterprises?"
"Beneath the hotel's name I saw the right address. And then I saw your father's name."
"There's some mistake!"
"That's why I tried to hide it from you. Till I had a chance to learn the truth."
"Bellay must know."
"Of course."
"Then he's been testing us."
"That's why we're here. He's not protecting us. He's watching us."
"But if that's true" her eyes were frantic "if there isn't some mistake, that means my father "
"Tried to stop me. That's how Jan got killed. That's how the man got in our room. And your room. He was trying to get even with your father."
"No. He didn't mention Father's name."
"It doesn't matter. All I know is that your father's name is on that list and "
She charged from the bathroom.
"Hey!"
She whirled to face him. "No, I'll prove it to you. I refuse to let you think this. He's my father. Now you're telling me that I don't really know him, that he lied to us when he explained about Pierre de St. Laurent. The implication is that St. Laurent is still alive and that my father knows him, that they're partners, that ... If I believed what you're suggesting, I'd go crazy. That my father tried to kill me!"
"I'm on your side. Keep your voice down, or that man out there will "
"I don't care! I'm going to prove you're wrong! I'll prove it to Bellay! To everyone!"
"But how?"
"I'll phone him! Now! I'll tell him what we've learned! He wouldn't lie to me!
I'll ask him!"
Chapter 32
She grabbed at the door. Pete hurried toward her. Apparently she feared that he wanted to stop her, for her movements now intensified. She yanked the door so hard that as she shoved it to one side it cracked against the wall. Pete rushed out behind her.
Past her shoulder, he saw Henri wheel around to face them, fumbling to remove the headphones he was listening to. His face was flustered, red above the short dark beard. "I only " he began.
"I know what you were doing," Simone said. "You were listening! It doesn't matter! You know what I want! The phone! Where is it! Let me use it!"
"It's only for emergencies."
"And what the hell is this? You heard what we were saying! It's important!"
"Let me radio the agency to get permission."
She saw the phone between two monitors along the wall.
Henri stood to grab her.
Houston squeezed between them. Simone reached the phone and dialed.
"It's not allowed," Henri said.
"Relax," Pete answered. "If this works, you'll be commended. If it doesn't, you can say it was our fault."
Henri reached for his gun. But then his arm stopped, in suspension.
For Simone was speaking on the telephone. Her French was urgent. Houston only understood a few quick phrases.
Henri understood exactly, though. His eyes were narrow. He stood stiffly, lips taut, pinched together with such force they were pale and bloodless.
Without breathing, Houston turned to watch Simone. Her voice was louder now, her words more demanding.
Suddenly her tone changed from urgency to puzzlement, from certainty to confusion.
Houston looked at Henri, who now seemed sterner, nodding with grim resolve.
"What's she saying?" Houston's throat felt raw. His voice broke.
Henri raised his hand for silence, staring at Simone.
The phone slipped through her fingers, falling on its cradle. She studied it as if it were obscene.
She'd pulled her hair to one side. Houston saw the hackles on her neck. A ripple shuddered through him. She trembled, slowly turning, blinking through swollen eyes.
"What is it?" Houston said.
"My father," she said.
Houston walked to her and touched her shoulders. "What about your father? Tell me."
"He's gone." She started weeping.
Houston held her close, feeling her tears against his shirt. "He's on an errand."
"No." Her voice was blurred with tears. "He's gone. He left this morning. He took a suitcase."
"Where? I ... This is crazy. Tell me what you heard."
"The desk clerk." She pushed back to face him, tear streaks on her cheeks. "This morning. No one knows what happened, but my father was nervous, talking to himself. He couldn't do his work. He told the staff to do their jobs without him he'd be back in a few days, perhaps a week. He made some phone calls from his office. Then he packed his suitcase and he left."
The monitors kept humming. For the first time Pete was conscious of their sound.
But then Simone began to weep, and he heard only her agony. He forced her to him, held her tightly, stroking at her hair. "It could mean nothing. Business problems."
"Don't you see the pattern? Don't you know what made him act that way?" He shook his head.
She pulled away from him. "My note. I told him I was leaving with you. I was helping you, I said. And helping me. I didn't have a choice, I said. I hoped he'd understand."
"My God. Last night."
"He wanted me to stay away from you. We thought he was only being fatherly, protective."
"But he wasn't. He knew what we faced. He's always known. Since he first heard I was looking for Pierre de St. Laurent."
"He didn't think they'd try to kill me too. He's gone to beg Verlaine. To plead with them to spare my life. Our fathers. Not just yours but mine. They're both involved in this."
"But he made phone calls," Henri said.
They turned, bewildered, as if he spoke neither French nor English but an arcane language.
"What?" Pete said.
"He made phone calls. From his office," Henri said.
"That's right," Simone replied.
"He packed a bag. He said he'd be gone for several days."
"What of it?" Houston said. "I don't see how that helps us."
"Think. He didn't stay in town. He traveled somewhere."
"I still don't "
"The phone calls must have been long distance. They'll be billed. We'll get the numbers from the telephone computers," Henri said.
Houston gaped. The monitors began to wail.
Chapter 33
Houston flinched as if a knife had struck him in the chest. He jerked abruptly toward the sound, a high-pitched strident shriek that rose and fell. "What is it?"
"The security alarm." Henri's eyes narrowed. He drew his handgun.
The monitors kept wailing. Houston clutched at futile hope. "The system's malfunctioning."
"Impossible. I built it." Henri took three steps and reached the monitors.
Simone grabbed Houston's arm. He felt the pressure of her fingers.
"Someone's coming through the forest." Henri pointed toward one monitor. "The south." He gestured toward the farthest wall.
A band of light swept in a circle on the wide blue screen. A yellow dot crept upward from the bottom.
Henri aimed a finger toward a red spot in the middle of the screen. "That's us.
The hilltop. Read the screen the way you would a map. The top is north, the bottom's south. The right and left are east and west."
The dot kept moving upward from the south. "An animal," Pete said.
"Impossible," Henri said. "All the sensors are adjusted to respond to size and weight and body heat. Especially to body heat. The only thing capable of triggering the sensors is a person."
"But whoever's in the forest doesn't have to be a threat," Simone insisted. "A camper or a hiker maybe."
"We'll soon know. The dot's at the fence."
"And if it's touched?"
"The metal is electrified."
"To stun?"
"To kill."
Simone's widened eyes revealed what Houston had been feeling. "But whoever's down there could be innocent," she said.
"We can't risk being wrong."
A second siren shrieked, louder than the first. Simone whirled in a panic.
"There's your answer," Henri told them. "At the fence. Whoever's down there wasn't stopped."
The dot was moving higher from the bottom.
"But you said the fence was charged."
"He came prepared. He knows precisely what he's doing."
Houston watched how Henri clutched the gun, his hand so tight his knuckles whitened. "Stop him," Houston said.
"Machine guns will shoot him the moment he gets halfway through the clearing toward the lodge. They're spaced so their line of fire intersects. The hill itself is mined, except for the driveway. He'll be stopped. Don't worry. There's no cover on that slope."
But Houston wondered why, if they shouldn't worry, Henri's breath was hoarse and rapid. When another siren started wailing, Houston had his answer. While they were protected in here, they were also trapped. The western sector of the screen now showed a second dot, also moving toward the center.
"Two of them!"
Houston grabbed the counter to control his trembling. There weren't two dots there were three! The north now, moving inward!
And the east!
"Those sirens! I can't stand them any more!" Simone put her hands to her ears.
"The switch," Pete said.
Henri flicked it. The sirens stopped. But the silence was worse than the noise.
The air was like a vacuum. Numbness swept through Houston. And the four dots, having reached an equal distance from the lodge, now stopped.
The band of light kept circling on the screen. The dots stayed motionless, in perfect symmetry.
"What's happening?" Simone asked.
"If we had some windows, we could find out."
"Just be glad we don't have windows," Henri blurted. "Then we'd all be targets.
Thank God for the metal walls."
"But aren't there television cameras?"
"Yes. But that screen. The static. Something's interfering with the image."
"I don't hear the machine guns," Pete said.
"Those men knew exactly where to stop. They haven't tripped the force field yet."
"They won't," Pete said.
"What makes you sure?"
"Because they've managed to outguess you this far. They're prepared. They knew what they'd be facing."
"That's impossible."
"You keep repeating that. It's not impossible. It's happened."
"Look!" Simone pointed toward the monitor.
The southern dot inched forward.
"What about the mines?"
"He must be on the driveway."
"Oh, that's swell. That's fucking great."
"But any second now."
"And what if they shut off the power?"
"Can't. The generator's underneath us."
"What the hell is that guy doing?"
Houston quickly learned. The southern dot stopped abruptly. The silence lengthened, and the door through which they'd entered blew apart.
Chapter 34
It ruptured, tearing from its hinges toward the throw rugs on the floor. The stench of cordite, burning wood, and superheated metal soared up Houston's nostrils. He coughed and found he'd fallen to his knees. For one disorienting instant, he thought he was back in Roncevaux, in the explosion at the office building.
But this wasn't any bomb. "A rocket!" Henri shouted. Houston couldn't see him in the smoke. "They didn't care about the guns! They never planned to come that far!" Henri's voice was a shout. "They'll just stand far back and blow this lodge apart! They'll "
The second blast obscured all other sound. The western wall, where Houston earlier had poured the drinks, disintegrated, huge chunks of wood flying inward.
Simone began to scream. The eastern wall, where most of Henri's instruments were situated, blew apart. Houston fell back, hitting his skull hard on the floor, thrown down by flying rubble. It entangled him. He groped to climb above it, searching for Simone. Again the southern wall exploded.
"We can't stay here!" Henri shouted.
"We can't leave. They'll shoot us."
"There's a way." Henri's voice was so subdued, so controlled, that Houston stared at him, afraid that he'd gone crazy. "Help me!" Henri ordered, fumbling at the rubble.
Houston wiped his smoke-burned eyes. Confused, he watched Henri's frantic motions. In the smoke, Henri was like a demon, black clothes shrouded, black beard like a Satan's mask. Then Houston heard the stunning blast that walloped the bedroom. He heard something else, a whoosh of air. He felt heat. He turned and saw flames. The far side of the room was totally ablaze. The air was roaring like a hurricane, a fire storm.
