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.''Unless someone is stashing away a nest egg for himself.' de Forge remarked coldly.'Is that an accusation, General?''Rather call it a suggestion.There's one way to discover the truth.As I told you, he has left the cloth bag behind the phone box.Go and bring it back to me immediately.''Now? At this hour of night?''Have you gone deaf? I said immediately.And take with you an escort.Lieutenant Berthier will be waiting outside.Take him with you - and one other officer.''What about Kalmar, General? He has just phoned me and asked for his fee.For eliminating Jean Burgoyne.'He stopped speaking as the phone rang.De Forge looked Lamy up and down with a chilling expression he was famous for.He lifted the receiver.'De Forge.I'm busy.Who the hell is it now?''Manteau reporting, General.During my previous call I omitted to tell you I have extinguished Jean Burgoyne.That will cost you one million Swiss francs.Tell Lamy he'll receive instructions how to make payment.This time in real money, if you please.''Listen to me.' Again the line went dead.De Forge replaced the phone carefully as though it might explode in his face.He looked at Lamy again for almost a minute before he told him about this latest call.Lamy listened, his mind racing over how to respond.'I don't know how he could possibly have known where she was.Jean Burgoyne chose a very remote rendezvous.And without Yvette following her no one would have known.''But someone did know.' de Forge said softly.'You knew - or that girl who took the call here from Yvette knew.'She passed the information to you over the radio and you said you'd phoned Kalmar at an agreed number.''What do you suggest?' Lamy asked stiffly.'That you carry out my order - collect that bag with the money from behind the phone box.'Lamy turned to go.Then he decided to risk more protest.De Forge didn't seem to realize what he was asking.'If Manteau is in the area, watching that isolated phone box, he'll think it's a trap - when he sees my escort in the car with me.''It's a risk you'll have to take,' de Forge told him brutally.'Send in Lieutenant Berthier and wait outside for him.'Berthier stood rigidly to attention as de Forge studied him.The General was watching for any signs of nervousness, of sweat appearing on his forehead - as he had with Lamy.'Paula Grey,' de Forge snapped.'Any news by now?''Yes, General.She is staying at the Hotel Atlantique in Arcachon.The night clerk showed me her signature in the register.The problem is she's protected by two bodyguards.Professionals, by the way they behave.Never let her out of their sight.''Thank you, Berthier.You have done well.' De Forge had become amiable.He made it a point never to be at odds with more than one officer at a time.'I may send you back to Arcachon.At the moment Major Lamy has a job for you and is waiting outside.'Alone, de Forge sat at his desk, drawing Crosses of Lorraine on fire on a pad while he thought.Kalmar.Manteau.Could they be the same man? Or were both an invention of Major Lamy's?Lamy was an expert marksman.Lamy had always been the go-between separating de Forge from the unknown killer.It was an arrangement which suited de Forge: no one could ever link him with the assassin.Lamy had suggested the idea.Lamy always took the huge sums paid to the assassin when someone had to be eliminated.The President and the Prime Minister, for example.And before transferring to Intelligence Lamy had been an explosives technician with the Engineers.Was Lamy accumulating a fortune at the expense of the Army?De Forge was irritated and confused.He should be concentrating all his brainpower on Operations Austerlitz and Marengo.The mystery of the assassins - if there were two of them - was taking up valuable time.I should know the solution when they return with the money, he decided.And the problem of Paula Grey should also soon be solved.Chapter Forty-ThreeMajor Jules Lamy was a loner.He intensely disliked his escort and had sat both officers in the rear of the car.In the middle of the night his headlight beams, undimmed, swung over a bleak landscape of deserted fields with not a single habitation in sight.He was within two miles of the small village which had the phone box on its southern outskirts.The advantage was he could search round the box for the canvas bag containing the money without risk of being seen by any villager.That was, assuming the money was there.In the rear Berthier sat beside the other lieutenant and behind the empty front passenger seat.His Service revolver was resting in his lap, his hand holding the butt.He had removed it from his holster surreptitiously, certain that Lamy would object if he had known about the gun.Neither of the lieutenants had spoken a word during the long drive from GHQ.Both knew Lamy wished them in hell and were careful not to break the silence.Berthier was on edge.He mistrusted this drive through the darkness without a motorcycle outrider escort.They were a sitting target, in Berthier's opinion.The thought had just passed through his mind when Lamy slowed as he negotiated a sharp and dangerous bend.He was crawling when their silence was broken.A shattering crack stunned the three occupants.Berthier was the first to realize it was a bullet.The crack was followed instantly by a splattering of breaking glass.The officer next to Berthier was showered with glass splinters.Berthier saw a hole in the window on his side also.He took off his képi and the brim had disappeared.'Move!' he shouted at Lamy.'We're under fire.That was a bullet.'At the moment he spoke Lamy pressed his foot down on the accelerator.He saw a straight stretch of road and zigzagged along it at speed.He was careful not to keep up a predictable rhythm: his zigzagging was erratic and proved Lamy was a skilled driver.He also asserted his authority as he drove.'Anyone hurt back there?''Our colleague is cut about the face.' Berthier reported.'But I think he'll live.'Berthier had escaped any injury.The bullet had scattered shards of glass over his companion when it entered, but had blasted the glass outwards on Berthier's side.Siberian air sheered into the interior through the two holes.Descending into a deep gully beyond the straight stretch, Lamy slowed, stopped, gave the order.'When I'm searching round the phone box you take up position - away from the car and well separated.Can you manage that, Lieutenant Chabert?''I think so sir.''Think isn't good enough.''I can, sir.' Chabert replied hastily.Using a large handkerchief he was mopping blood off his face.As the car started up again he examined his face with his fingers but there were no shards of glass embedded in the skin.The two officers prepared to leave the car as Lamy pulled up a few yards from the phone box.Wasting no time, Lamy jumped out, crouched low, gun in hand, peered inside the box with his pencil flash.Empty.He found the cloth bag where Manteau had said it would be: behind the box.The same bag - Lamy recognized a dirty mark - but the cord tying it had been unfastened and retied with a different knot.Lamy dumped it on the front passenger seat, the lieutenants dived into the rear, Lamy turned the car round and drove back towards GHQ.What they would find inside the bag was his great concern.And fear of another bullet.After listening to Lamy's report de Forge walked out of his office into the icy night without bothering to don his greatcoat.He stood, hands on his hips, looking at the bullet-holes in the car.He gestured with his head to lieutenants Berthier and Chabert.'Get into the rear of the car and remember exactly how you were sitting when the bullet struck [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]