Authors: John Gordon Davis
Yes,
right.
He had to keep reminding himself of that, when the risks loomed huge and terrible. Yes, he was taking these risks for Anna, because he loved her and because there was no stopping her and if he didn’t take the risks she would take them alone – but
yes,
he Was also doing all this because he believed he was doing the right thing, the
responsible
thing, as one of Her Majesty’s former officers:
He simply could not allow Anna
Hapsburg to blunder headstrong into the world of Intelligence and destroy a body of information which was of vital importance to the Western world.
Information so important that the British and Americans and the Russians were all desperately after it, the French government blackmailed by it. He simply did not trust Anna’s judgement. Anna Hapsburg was a very intelligent woman, of very high principle, politically wise beyond her years – but Anna Hapsburg also had her beautiful head in the idealist’s clouds, and she was desperately emotionally involved with this one and it somehow involved her beloved Holy Roman Church. ‘I’ll burn in hell first!’ And she believed in hell. No – Jack Morgan, RN Compulsorily Retired, may not be an officer and a gentleman any more, he may hate the Navy’s guts and the underhand contraventions of the Dirty Tricks Act by Her Majesty’s government, and he certainly didn’t trust the bastards not to pull the plug on Anna if they had to, but underneath all his outrage he was still a Royal Navy man who had spent the best years of his life shadowing bastard Russian submarines – and No Way could he let Anna destroy vital evidence until he had brought his own judgement to bear. Maybe he would agree with her – but it was much more likely to be something that the British government
needed
to thwart those slave-driving bastards in the Kremlin. He did not really know when this decision had crept up on him in the terrible hurly-burly of this last week, because he had been prepared to let her destroy it in New York: but now he knew loud and clear what he was doing was right. And that sustained his uptight nerves at twelve o’clock on a Sunday morning in an empty whore-house in Amsterdam without enough sleep, about to parachute into Switzerland and risk the wrath of the law and the trust of the love of his life … He did not know how he was going to win back that all-important trust, and if he let himself worry about that now his nerves would crack …
He took another gulp of beer.
Cross the bridges as they come.
Just think about your beautiful wife whom you’re doing all this for. Oh, yes,
wife.
Isn’t that a pretty word? My wife in the beautiful house I’m going to buy her one day, the roses climbing over the door. And she’ll come to sea with me, we’ll sail the seven oceans and we’ll trade in the islands and we’ll drink wine under the stars and every day will be a honeymoon, I’m the
happiest man in the whole wide world – just thank God for my beautiful wife lying asleep down there in that ridiculous dungeon … There was a pad of feet behind him, his wife slid her arms around his neck.
‘Hullo.’
He turned and held her tight. She was still warm from the bed, clad in the Bimini sunfrock with nothing on underneath. And, oh, the beautiful feel of her.
‘What have you been doing?’ she said.
‘Planning our wonderful, life. And practising forgery.’
She looked at the notebook. She picked it up and examined the columns of signatures closely.
They’re very good,’ she said. ‘Very, very good.’
‘A dazzling career in crime wasted.’
‘I couldn’t tell these from the real thing.’ Then she turned to him. ‘Are you truly sure you’re prepared to do this?’
He felt his nerves stretched.
‘Who else can do it? It’s too late to change horses now.’
She sat down on a bar stool. Morgan sighed. This was it – he was about to start tricking her. He picked up the notebook and said:
‘But which name am I going to use? What exactly did the note say in Max’s book?’
She said: ‘Just the initials of the bank, plus the number of the box.’ She went on: ‘I’ve been thinking about how we may find out which name. With a phone call to the bank –’
‘Yes, I’ve thought of that too. But first tell me exactly what Max’s note said.’
‘I told you.’
Oh Jesus. It was a clumsy attempt and she had probably seen through it. ‘Anna, I now need to know the bank and the box number. You’ve been right to keep it from me in case something happened to me, but now I
need
to know.’
‘Why can’t it wait until tomorrow?’
‘Because I need to know all my facts now, to generate self-confidence!’
She put her hand on his arm. ‘I’m sorry.’ She stood up, and paced across the floor. She sighed. ‘It’s not that I don’t trust you, please.’
‘For Christ’s sake, Anna!’
She stopped. And held up her hand. ‘All right. You need to know now.’ She turned. ‘The note read: UBS 7224 Bahnhofstrasse, Z. The Z stands for Zurich.’
He gave an inward sigh of relief. He repeated carefully: ‘Seven two two four. And UBS stands for?’
‘Union Bank of Switzerland. It’s a world-famous bank. Bahnhof strasse is its headquarters.’
Morgan sat back.
‘All right. Now, tell me about your clever phone call to the bank.’
She turned again, and paced. She said:
‘It’s more likely that Max used the name Constantine for the box. So you telephone the bank and say your name is Max
Hapsburg.
You want to know when your rental of your box expires. And they look up their records, and say: “Mr Hapsburg, your rental is paid up until, say, January.” You then know the box is in the name of Hapsburg.
Or
they say, “Mr Hapsburg, we have no record of you having a box here.” In which case you say, “Oh? – this
is
the Swiss
Credit
Bank, isn’t it?” They say, “No sir, it’s the
Union
Bank.” You say, “Sorry, silly me, phoned the wrong outfit.” And you then know the box is in the name of Constantine.’
Morgan got up and began to pace too.
‘Yes, I’ve got to try something like that.’ He shook his head. ‘But there are serious risks involved …’ He paced. ‘Firstly, the man on the phone may say, “What’s your box number, Mr Hapsburg?” If I say “Seven two two four” he may come back to the telephone and say, “I’m sorry, Mr Hapsburg, that box belongs to somebody else.” I then know the box is in the name of Constantine. But when I go into the bank later and say “My name is Maxwell
Constantine,
please give me box seven two two four,” the man will think, “That’s a coincidence, only this morning a Mr Hapsburg asked about this same box … ” And his suspicions are immediately aroused. Wouldn’t yours be? And so he looks at my signature very very carefully. And at my phoney Constantine passport – with my unembossed photograph …’ He turned to her. ‘He’d blow the whistle for the police.’
‘Oh God …’ She sat on a bar stool. She thought. ‘But you could say on the telephone, “Sorry, I can’t remember my
number, I haven’t got my key on me – it’s in my wife’s handbag.”’
He shook his head. ‘I doubt whether a smart bank would discuss a client’s safety-deposit box with somebody who doesn’t even know the number – unless they knew that client’s voice. Which is another problem. I may find myself speaking to somebody who
knew
Max Hapsburg. Remembers him. In which case I’ll be in big difficulties.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘If the box
is
in the name of Hapsburg and I find myself speaking on the phone to somebody who knows Max – that’s it.’
She said: ‘Of course – I wouldn’t dream of letting you go into the bank. Mission Impossible. Back to square one.’
Morgan went behind the bar. And oh God he hoped that was what happened tomorrow – Mission Impossible. Then it would have to be Option One, the lawyer. He uncapped two bottles of beer. He poured them, and handed her a glass. She said:
‘You’re going to tell me something else. What is it?’
He sighed tensely. This was the biggest part of the trick he was playing on her. He walked back and sat down beside her. He took her hand. He said:
‘Last night, Makepeace, Danziger and I made a change of plan. Now, I don’t want you to argue about it. We’re both tired, and it cannot be changed now. And it is this: Tonight Makepeace and I and the others are flying down to Zurich, to case the joint and work out an escape route. We’re flying by seaplane.’ He paused. ‘You are not coming with us tonight. Assuming everything seems safe, the seaplane will come back and fetch you tomorrow night. And we go to the bank together the next day.’
She was astonished.
‘Why are you leaving me here in the first instance?’
‘Because it’s safest. We’ve got to see the lie of the goddam land. You’ll be in the way. And you can’t look after yourself in a fight.’
‘And if there is a fight tomorrow while you’re reconnoitring?’ she demanded.
‘Then we run for it. Run away and think again.’
She looked at him angrily. Then she slid off the stool.
‘No
way
!’ she said. ‘And if they kill you?’ She held up a hand
to silence him. ‘This is my responsibility, Jack! And I’m going to be there to take my share of the risk!’
His nerves were going. ‘Bullshit, Anna! This is no time for standing on quixotic principle. There is no risk tomorrow because they’re
un
likely to tackle us until we come
out
of the bank with the goods in our possession. Tomorrow we will
not
be going into the bank at all. Only reconnoitring the area around it.’
‘If there’s no risk, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t come!’
He held out an angry finger. ‘Anna, you have entrusted the planning of this whole operation to me –’
‘I’ve been in on every stage! Consulted! I’m coming.’
He calmed himself. He played his trump card: ‘Do you know how to parachute?’
She stared at him. ‘No. What are you talking about?’
He demanded, ‘Would you like to start learning tonight?’
She stared angrily. ‘No.’
Morgan nodded grimly. ‘But that’s how the boys and I are entering Switzerland, Anna. To avoid being seen on radar. And
you
can’t parachute.’ He added, ‘And even if you could, I don’t want the woman I love leaping out into thin air over mountains in the dark.’
‘Nor do I want the man I love doing that!’
‘I’m a trained parachutist, Anna. And parachuting in is the only sure way of entering Switzerland undetected.’ He ended grimly: ‘And that’s the way it’s going to be.’
‘And so how the hell do
I
get into Switzerland?’
He sighed theatrically. ‘The pilot will land on the Zurich See with you, with a perfectly legitimate flight plan. Officially you’ll be co-pilot, with false papers to prove it. But the immigration people don’t check crew. You’ll come ashore without problem. We pick you up, go to the bank and do the job.’
‘So, why don’t we all go in together that way
tomorrow
?’
‘Because we can smuggle
one
person in that way, as crew, but not
five
of us, Anna.’
She thrust both elbows on the bar and held her head.
‘
Oh
…’ she breathed angrily. Then she cried, ‘Why wasn’t I consulted? Why am I presented with a
fait accompli
? Everything’s slipped out of my control!’
‘Makepeace and Danziger presented
me
with that
fait accompli
last night. But it’s the best plan. And that’s what you’re paying these professionals for. And it’s too late to change.’
She took a furious breath, then straightened up.
‘Okay. So bloody be it! Yes, it is the best plan, I can see that!’ She breathed. ‘
But
…’ she looked at him squarely down the length of the bar: ‘Do you swear to me, on all that’s holy, that you’re not going into that bank tomorrow to open that box without me? You know the bank and the box number now!’
He made himself look astonished. And oh God he did not care any more that he was lying, all he wanted was for all this to be over and live with her happily ever after.
‘Anna? Are you saying that you don’t trust me?’
She cried, ‘This is
my
problem,
my
responsibility,
my
decision! It’s
intensely
important to me and
highly
secret! And now everything has slipped out of my control! –’
‘You had to get people to handle it for you. Could you have handled it by yourself?’
‘That’s why I trusted you!’
‘Am I a man of honour or am I not?’
She cried, ‘You persuaded me to tell you the name of the bank and the box number knowing full well that I wasn’t coming with you tonight!’
‘Because I knew you would kick up a fuss just like you’re doing now. And I need to know those details, woman, because
tomorrow
I’m going to telephone the bank,
just
like you suggested, to try to find out what bloody name the box is in. I don’t want to leave these uncertainties to the last minute! I need self-confidence, Anna – I’m not an experienced forger!’ He glared at her, and she glared back. ‘Now. Do you trust me or not?’
She said slowly: ‘Do you swear to God that you’re not going into the Union Bank of Switzerland tomorrow to open box seven double-two four?’
‘
Answer
me, Anna.’
‘You answer
me,
Jack!’
And, oh God, he did not care any more about what oaths he broke. He said:
‘I swear it.’
‘To God?’ she demanded angrily.
‘Yes, to God!’
She glared at him. He got up and walked down the bar, and put his arms around her.
The dungeon was pitch black. He awoke, with a start, at his lowest ebb; and all he wanted to do was get her up and hurry her out of this place and run, run away with her to somewhere safe and forget all this ever happened. There was another knock on the door and he realized what had woken him. ‘Yes?’
‘Your car will be here in fifteen minutes.’
He scrambled out of bed. He grabbed his trousers containing the box keys and hurried into the bathroom. He slammed on the shower.
When he came out, she was sitting on the bed, fully clothed. She said quietly: ‘I’m coming.’ She stood up.