Rhinoceros (49 page)

He checked the rear-view mirror once more and stiff
ened. Out of nowhere a four-wheel drive had appeared.
He thought it was a Discovery Land Rover. It was coming
like a rocket. Then he saw another vehicle of the same
type racing up behind the lead vehicle. Then a third. Then a fourth.

He maintained the same speed. The first vehicle was
about to overtake him. He glanced up as it
raced past
him, saw the man at the wheel, wearing a black beret and
a camouflage jacket. Delgado.

The second vehicle passed him. The third. The fourth.
All the Land Rovers were crammed with villainous-looking
men. Some were holding automatic rifles. He picked up his
mobile, called Marler.

'Harry here. Four Land Rovers coming up behind you
- packed with armed thugs. They're really moving. Saw
Delgado driving the first one . . .'

'Thank you. Harry,' Marler's calm voice responded.
'How far back?'

'Could reach you in five minutes. Even less . . .'

Marler reported Harry's warning to everyone in the car.
As he did so, Tweed was studying the topography. To his
right the surge of maize. To his left they were close to a rare copse of trees.

'Drive into that copse,' he ordered Newman. 'Leave the car so it can be seen. When we stop everyone dives into
that maize field, go deep inside. Three separate sections
as we planned . . .'

Paula checked her hands, found they were dry. Inside
she was ice-cold. Newman reached the copse, a small
wood, backed the limo into it, leaving its bonnet exposed
to view from the autobahn. Doors were flung open. The
moment they left the car was like entering an inferno, the
sun roasting them as though through a burning glass. At different points they plunged into the maize.

Newman and Marler were on the right flank, facing the
autobahn. Tweed and Paula were in the centre. Nield and
Lisa, a distance away, were on the left flank, again facing
the autobahn. A second before she dived in Paula heard,
then saw the helicopter, flying in from the direction of
Hamburg.

'There's a chopper,' she shouted.

'It's seen us. It will inform Delgado,' Tweed shouted
back so everyone heard him.

They shoved their way in among the maize, the crop almost as tall as they were. The heat was intense. They heard the chopper hovering, trying to detect where they
were, Paula guessed. Then she heard the racing engines
of the Land Rovers, their sudden braking.

They couldn't see, but Delgado drove his vehicle a fair
distance up the autobahn beyond where the other three had
parked by the cream Merc. Men piled out of the vehicles,
rushed into the maize as they saw movement. Tweed
had shaken plants to attract their attention. Twenty men pushed their way into the maize, seeking their targets.

Paula heard the chopper move away to the south. It
had done its job, had pinpointed the location of Tweed's
small team. But it had left too early. Tweed and his team
had pushed well back from the autobahn into the maize
until they dropped into a small gulley - probably an
irrigation ditch to carry water during the rainy season.
It gave them cover.

'Here we stand,' Tweed said.

He had just spoken when two of the attackers appeared
almost above them. One was wielding a machete, which he swung in a vicious circle. He almost beheaded his
companion when he was shot in the chest by Tweed.
Paula fired twice at the other man. Both fell sideways, crashing into maize plants, then lay still. In the distance they heard Delgado's voice screaming.

'Kill. Kill. Kill.'

'All right, if that's the way he wants it,' Tweed said.

To their left, well over, Lisa was wiping her damp hands
on her jeans when another attacker with a
machete saw her,
grinned gleefully, hoisted his wepon. Nield shot him in the
throat. He went down.

Delgado's men had moved through the maize more
quickly than either Marler or Tweed had expected. Marler realized it would soon be close combat, so something had
to be done about it. He stood up after taking the pin out
of a grenade from his satchel. Four grim-looking men
were advancing shoulder to shoulder, rushing forward
to overwhelm their opponents. Marler hurled the first
grenade, took the pin out of another, hurled it. Three
of the men fell down. The fourth had moved sideways,
understanding their mistake. The second grenade landed at his feet. He threw his rifle into the air, dropped.

Marler grabbed two tear-gas canisters, threw both where
he saw movement in the maize, then hoisted his Armalite. Two men jumped up as though electrocuted, hands clasping their eyes. Marler took swift aim, shot them both. By
the side of Lisa, Nield had dropped his Walther, had grabbed hold of his Uzi. Not a moment too soon. Five
men were charging
en masse
through the maize in a frontal
assault. Nield pressed the trigger. A deadly sweep of bullets
cut across them, then back again. All five went down, dead
as dodos. An eerie silence fell over the battlefield. No sign
of movement, no sound. Paula began to stand up and
Tweed grabbed her shoulder, hauled her down again. He was sure it wasn't over.

After the four Land Rovers had got well ahead of him,
Harry had pressed his foot down. The Mercedes roared
up the autobahn. A few minutes later he saw three Land
Rovers parked in front of a small wood, heard the sporadic
sound of shooting.

He braked, switched off the engine, grasped the Uzi, left
the car. Then he went back, climbed on top of the Merc.
Well over to the right he saw five men with automatic
rifles crouching down as they moved steadily forward. He realized they were outflanking Tweed and his team, were
going to come up behind them.

Harry lowered his head, charged through the maize like
a mad bull. When he felt he must be close to the five men he
nearly fell into a ditch, stood up briefly, saw the back of the
five killers as they began to circle. He crept forward swiftly, making as little noise as possible. When he stood up he was
within yards of them. One turned round, saw him, raised
his rifle. Harry fired non-stop, swinging his weapon in an
arc. All five dropped to the earth, all with several bullets in them. Harry walked forward carefully, stared down at
the blood-soaked bodies. He had foiled them.

Then he heard sounds from the autobahn, the sounds
of running feet. He began rushing back.

Delgado had been careful to stay at the rear, to have his
escape vehicle ready, parked further along the autobahn.
He reached the road, ran along it, jumped into the Land Rover. He had reached for the ignition when he heard
something. Turning round, he saw Barton and Panko
about to jump aboard. He waved them away. Then he
saw Barton's automatic, aimed at him point-blank. He
swore foully but let them join him. Turning the ignition,
he pressed his foot down and the vehicle shot forward like
a shell from a gun.

Harry reached the road just in time to see them speed
ing off. Much too fast for him to bother taking a shot
at them.

CHAPTER 29

The blue Mercedes was travelling towards Flensburg, a
long way north of where the battle in the maize had taken place. The autobahn ahead and behind them was deserted. Butler was in the rear,
seated between Nield and Lisa. He
held up another sandwich he was about to eat.

'This was a great idea of yours, Lisa. I like to eat regularly
when I can.'

'It was a brilliant idea,' Paula called back over her
shoulder to Lisa. 'Arranging with the hotel kitchen last night to make up cartons of sandwiches, some fruit and
litre bottles of still water.'

'Litres and litres of it,' said Marler, sitting in the front
next to Newman who was driving. 'Absolute life-saver in
this heat.'

'The chopper's back,' Paula said suddenly. 'It's a fair
way off across the fields, doesn't seem interested in us.
Looks to be flying on to Flensburg.'

'That's because we're in a blue Merc,' Tweed said.
'Back in Hamburg they got used to us travelling in two
cream cars.'

'So you foresaw this might happen,' Paula commented.
'Hence getting one car switched to this blue job.'

'I like to change the image from time to time.'

'Well, at least we can look forward to peace and quiet
when we reach Flensburg,' Paula remarked.

'Don't you believe it,' Marler warned. 'You heard Harry
describing the three men who escaped in a Land Rover
and headed north. You heard Lisa describing Barton and Panko and Harry agreed he'd seen them jump aboard the vehicle. And he also saw Delgado behind the wheel. My
guess is those three make a lethal combination.'

'Except,' Newman objected, 'they wouldn't expect us to
go on to Flensburg after the job we did. They'd probably
think we skedaddled back to Hamburg.'

'Maybe,' said Tweed. 'Maybe.'

Flensburg. An old town and port where Germany runs out,
close to the Danish border. They had hidden the Mercedes in a car park crammed with vehicles. They wandered into
the centre of the town. Paula was surprised at the difference
in atmosphere from Hamburg. Instead of massive block-
like buildings there was a country-town feeling. They
entered the Grosse Strasse, a pedestrian-only street. The
buildings were only three or four storeys high, the ground
floors occupied by small shops. Many had picturesque
arched windows and trees, in full leaf, were growing on
either side, their trunks protected with wire cages.

Tweed had earlier ordered they should not bunch, that
they should walk as couples not too close to each other. Paula, alongside Tweed, breathed in fresh air coming off
the nearby fiord which led to the Baltic, or Ostsee - the East Sea as the Germans called it.

'It is peace and quiet,' Paula said. 'There's hardly
anyone about. Not even tourists.'

'That's why,' Tweed told her.

He pointed to a poster with a picture of a fair and the name of a place he'd never heard of.

'They've all gone there,' he said. 'All the fun of the
fair.'

'They can keep it. Crowds and noise. I like it here. It must look lovely at night. Quite dreamy.'

At intervals they passed a lamp standard with a large glass globe perched on top of it. There were little market stalls but hardly any customers for the wares displayed.
Paula looked up as a helicopter droned low overhead.
She stared at it. Inside the control cabin the man next
to the pilot was peering
down through binoculars. Then
the machine vanished.