This United State Part 45

They were still high up and she was looking down on a small section of the long lake way below. She felt she might have been in a remote region of Canada. The moon kept fading as transparent drifts of cloud crossed beneath it. The lake was still as death and black as pitch. Its surface was so unruffled it gave her the impression it was covered with ice. The opposite sh.o.r.e was banked by steep hills choked with fir forest.

'See anything?' Tweed asked.

'Nothing. No sign of life, of human habitation. Just nothing.'

'Very promising.'

'Marler has caught us up,' Newman called out, unable to conceal his relief.

'I'm getting out of the car for a closer look,' said Paula.

She had got out, closed the door quietly, when she found Marler standing beside her. A few yards behind Newman's Audi, Marler's was parked, lights dimmed, as were Newman's.

'Well, I gather Ronstadt's base wasn't in the Hollental,' Marler remarked.

'No, it wasn't,' Paula replied. 'Tweed has an idea it has to be somewhere near here. That weird lake down there is called Schluchsee.'

'Tweed is sure the base is in this area,' Tweed called out through a window he had lowered. 'Kurt Schwarz has a reference to this place in his little book. I missed the significance of the name - a blank page followed his note on the Hollental.'

'Let's get closer,' Paula suggested to Marler. 'I think there's a track beyond the verge.'

Newman had switched off his engine. They had been so close to Ronstadt he'd felt it was a wise precaution. The enemy could have had the same idea and switched off their engines to listen. Walking a few paces along the track, Paula was struck by the incredible silence which added to the sinister atmosphere of this place out in the wilds. She sensed they were waiting for something terrible to happen.

For a short time she welcomed the bitter night air, well below zero. It was a pleasant contrast to the fetid air which had built up inside the car. She'd left her gloves in the car so she could manipulate the binoculars more easily and already her face and hands were beginning to feel frozen.

'Marler, I should have asked first what happened when you vanished off the highway. Are Nield and Kent OK?'

'In the pink. We had a bit of a dust-up. Four down, eleven in front to go. Tell you about it later.'

Moving a short distance down the track gave her a far more panoramic view, no longer obscured by a copse of firs at the roadside. The lake was wide but seemed immensely long - far longer than Lake t.i.tisee which she had caught sight of earlier. She scanned it through her binoculars. Still no sign of a single building, or even a landing stage. The silence, lack of movement, the absence of even a small wooden house with lights in it was getting to her.

'Lake surface looks as solid as slate,' Marler commented. 'A perfect setting for a horror film. Subhuman giants with huge axes creeping out of the woods.'

'Stop it,' Paula protested. 'I have a vivid imagination. I'll be seeing them now.'

'Any data?' asked Tweed behind her after getting quietly out of the car.

'Not a d.a.m.ned thing. Look for yourself.'

'No thanks. I can see with my own eyes. As desolate a spot as I've seen for a long time. We'd better get back in the car. The red light has stopped flas.h.i.+ng. Ronstadt's on the move.'

40.

'We're nearly there, Moonhead,' Ronstadt said to the man beside him.

Ronstadt was behind the wheel of the third Audi, following the two cars ahead of him as they b.u.mped over the wide track round the tip of the lake. The moon had temporarily been blotted out by a dark cloud and the cars had their headlights full on. He suddenly let out a belly laugh of pure pleasure.

'What is it?' asked Leo Madison.

'Moonhead, it's turnin' out great. No sign of Tweed and his miserable crew. Brad and his boys must have made hash browns of them back in Hollental. With ketchup for the blood.' He laughed again, a raucous sound. 'Think of the avalanche hittin' those two white Audis. Think of what the people inside look like now. Hope that Paula Grey was with 'em. It's great.'

'Funny Brad and his boys haven't caught up with us,' Madison commented.

'Takes time to cook a dish like that.' He laughed again. 'I like it. Cookin' a dish like that. The dish is Paula Grey.'

'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 gla.s.ses 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 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 sh.o.r.es 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 t.i.tisee 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 bas.e.m.e.nt. I think there are curtains drawn across them.'

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

'I'm sure there is. In the bas.e.m.e.nt. Now, I wonder? Yes, it might well be in the bas.e.m.e.nt - 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 a.s.sault,' 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 bas.e.m.e.nt 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.'

'The essence of our strategy,' Tweed intervened, 'is to entice them out of the house. By now they'll be getting to know its layout. We haven't the faintest idea of that. So we bring them out to us.'

'And how exactly do we do that?' Paula wanted to know.

'You've noticed lights are starting to come on inside the house. So we-'

'Shows overconfidence,' Newman interrupted. 'That's helpful.'

'I was going to tell Paula that Bob will throw grenades inside the house through the windows. That will shake them up, bring some of them outside where we'll be waiting for them.'

'That's clever,' Paula replied.

'We'll soon be there,' Newman warned.

The track had now entered the gulley, which was steep and wide. Newman felt relieved. There was no sign so far that the thugs inside had noticed their approach. He reached the top of the gulley and then the point where the track forked in three directions.

'They may not hear our cars coming,' said Paula. 'As you know, I have acute hearing, and I can hear machines whirring inside the place.'