The Midnight Falcon

by Graham Saunders

  Chapter 4

  The decision made, Colby found himself renewed. Not different, just returned to the man he once was, or a version of it – older, harder more pragmatic. If Valentina had not quite released him from the burden of his past, at least she had given him license to function normally despite the ever present burden of guilt.

  "I've got this boat." Valentina said "I left it moored in Guernsey before I took the flight to London. We need to retrace my steps."

  "Why Guernsey?"

  "I discovered the Channel Islands some years ago when I was looking for a safe haven. A personal retreat – nothing to do with the job, not directly anyway. I've put down some tentative roots there if I ever need to disappear in a hurry. Guernsey just seemed to me to be an ideal place. Central for the UK and Europe but remote enough to walk freely out of sight of the dangerous people who want to rule the world and crush you under foot."

  "Maybe..." Colby said.

  "OK OK I admit it... " She laughed "I just fell in love with the place... You know any excuse to drop in when I'm passing."

  "That sounds closer to the truth but Valentina, is all this subterfuge really necessary? It seems a lot of trouble to go to just to come and talk to me."

  Valentina looked into the man's face, she saw a shadow across it that hadn't been there before her act of seduction. His eyes seemed to still follow her after he had looked away, what had she done? She could not deal with this now; Colby was just a player in her three act drama, disposable once the final curtain had fallen... At least that is what she struggled to tell herself.

  "Have you not heard a word I've been saying?" She asked as her defences against his masculine presence became fragile. "Those who stand against us will stop at nothing, they have learned nothing from the war. Our only chance is to be invisible." Colby seemed not to hear the anxiety betrayed by the hoarseness in her voice.

  "What sort of boat?" He said.

  "She's a ketch, handles like a baby." The enchanting thought of the boat brought a release to her tension warming like a ray of sun on an autumn day. Sailing was a joy for her, no politics or lies just the honest play of the elements to contend with – the elements were fickle maybe, but existed without deceit.

  "I didn't know you could sail Valentina, can you manage a ketch on your own?"

  "Well obviously." She said through a disarming smile without elaboration.

  "So when are you going to tell me our destination?"

  "Our destination is Natasha; I'll tell you where she is more precisely once we're at sea."

  "I thought we had an understanding Valentina, wasn't something mentioned about trust somewhere during those... negotiations?"

  "I trust you Colby but not necessarily those you talk to."

  "I talk to no one Valentina, haven't for years. You don't think I'd let anything slip do you?"

  "No I'm sure you won't... Especially since you still have nothing to tell."

  "OK... So where did this pretty ketch come from?"

  "Don't worry it's not traceable... Not easily anyway, its got a new paint and a new name with paperwork and a history to match. As a matter of fact it was liberated from a rather overly ambitious young blood who fancied himself as the genesis of a Sachovian Mafia."

  "Is there such a thing as Mafia in Sachovia?"

  "Not any more."

  "He won't squeal? This Mafia boy who's had his boat pinched."

  "Trust me Colby, he won't be squealing..."

  Colby thought of motorway underpasses and fell silent. He really didn't want details.

  ...

  The flight to Guernsey was as brief as it was uneventful. They flew directly from London City, travelling incognito on a regular scheduled flight, taking the same plane but with tickets booked separately. Sitting apart there was no indication that they might know each other during the flight. Going their own separate ways at the airport no one could have linked the two apparent strangers. It was not until they met up at the Victoria Marina in St Peter Port that they again acknowledged each other.

  The evening was already starting to fall as they met. They greeted each other with nothing more obvious than a nod of the head – just vague acquaintances, nothing to suggest they might have been lovers.

  "She's over there Colby. The white one with the two masts."

  The Ketch's hull was painted white with varnished teak decking. With her sails furled and the hull bobbing gently in the easy swell, she looked as pretty as a picture. To Colby who was a competent sailor himself, the ketch looked as if it might be a handful sailing solo in the sort of weather that could chop up in the Channel.

  "Who actually owns it? "Colby asked.

  "Officially or in reality?"

  "Both I suppose."

  "The State of Sachovia might claim ownership but the paper work tells a different tale. A fictitious German art dealer bought it in Cherbourg and then..."

  "OK I guess I don't need to know any more..."

  They stood for a moment embraced by the stillness of a Channel Island evening, the gulls lying on the wind, the setting sun melting into a horizon of purple cloud. As they came closer to the ketch, the painted name suddenly revealed itself out of the dusk.

  "The Midnight Falcon." Colby said. "It seems to suit her."

  "I came up with the name when we re-fitted her; midnight to maybe imply her covert activities and Falcon... Well it was to do with her being a huntress... Dangerous talons, that sot of thing. Actually she has a personality and its far softer than that, a willing mistress eager to please. Come aboard Colby and get settled; I intend setting sail as soon as it gets dark." Colby wondered about Valentina's dangerous talons; he didn't really know her anymore, just that he loved her again.

  Valentina showed Colby to his cabin, deliberately separate from her own and then took him to the galley where she set about preparing something to eat. She seemed transformed from the urbane sophisticate that had negotiated with Equis back into the woman he had known a decade earlier.

  "I'm hoping to slip away unnoticed." She said. "The wooden hull is pretty much invisible to radar and I'll be running without lights until we make some distance from the islands."

  Colby searched for something to say. "Do you know where the ketch was built?"

  "It's British, a classic long keel design. It's not as big a coincidence as it might seem but it was actually built by Palzeaird and Sons right here on Guernsey back in the late seventies. They tell me it's got three layers of 3/8 inch mahogany, glued and copper riveted and a three and a half ton keel to keep her upright. Unsinkable –at least that's what I tell myself when I'm battling a gale. She was fitted with new spruce masts by our unfortunate aspiring Mafia friend and we reconditioned its 80 horse diesel engine in France."

  "I'm impressed... By the boat and your knowledge of it."

  "I do nothing by halves Colby. I spent three days fitting her out and preparing the chart work before I sailed her home from Cherbourg."

  "Where is home?"

  "Home... I wish I knew Colby. The place we're going... I think I can tell you now... Its a secluded little Greek Island called Ikinos. There's just room for... Well I suppose its a bloody great mansion. You'll see when we get there. Don't ask who owns the Island, I'm sworn to secrecy, lets just say a rich sympathiser."

  "It's quite a distance to the Greek Islands."

  "It's a long way from Sachovia – in every way not just sea miles."

  "Which of your islands do you prefer?"

  "You can't compare them. Guernsey is a place you could settle down on and maybe build a life. I love the little Greek hideaway; the last few months have been idyllic but its just a staging post, my time there is almost over." Valentina took his arm... "It took me 31 days to sail to Guernsey, I'm hoping to break my record on the way back. At least it will give us time to get to know each other again." She said.

  "I thought we'd already done that."

  "Maybe... Come and eat..."

  Valentina had prepared
a Feta salad with a fresh baked baguette and a bottle of chianti that she had picked up on her way from the airport.

  "So what's the plan when we get to... Ikinos is it?"

  Valentina rolled the tiredness from her neck and took a sip of her wine. Colby noticed a soft sigh before she spoke.

  "You'll be given a few days to get to know Natasha then I'll sail you to the mainland. I don't know exactly where. The plans are deliberately not set yet but it will inevitably involve a long overland trek. You'll probably be doing it by motorcycle. We'll talk about the details later. I'll need to discover them myself first."

  The weather forecast was good, and for fifteen hours they cruised effortlessly at five knots tacking into the wind across the benign south easterly. Then the wind freshened and with it the work load but also their speed. Valentina had been right, the ketch did feel unsinkable as they ploughed down the French coast to Portugal and on towards Gibraltar and the Mediterranean.

  The days aboard the Midnight Falcon passed in regular routine but never monotony, the sea always providing an acute stimulation for the senses. During his days at sea, a passionate fondness for the Midnight Falcon and her captain took possession of Colby. He rejoiced in every new experience. Each day immersed in the expansive seascape seemed to wash his spirit clean. The seabirds, constant companions, hovered in the air like spirit guides. And when the daylight faded the darkness brought the insignificance of their existence into sharp focus. They were just a tiny speck lost in the middle of the dark sea that sat on an infinitesimal blue dot in an infinite universe. The thought of returning to land seemed far away and hardly wanted. For the first time in many years Colby was beginning to rediscover a little inner peace.

  It was dawn when after a month at sea Valentina pointed across the Falcon's bow to the shadow on the pink horizon that was Ikinos.

  The young woman watched the ketch slowly make headway as it tacked across the wind and cut through the gentle swell. The return of the Falcon meant a shift in her world to an uncertain future. As the ketch came closer she made her way down the path that wound down the south side of Ikinos. She felt excitement to see Valentina again but there was the shadow of the unknown draped across her slender frame.

  Barely more than a cliff reaching up out of the Adriatic it offered less than a square kilometre of land and most of that was inaccessible. It might have made a splendid retreat for a medieval monastery. The Island had almost taken on a magical significance to Colby over the weeks of the voyage and now it lay before his eyes and was beyond what he had imagined. Slowly they edged closer to the mooring point, a wooden jetty clinging to cliff face at the foot of a steep and winding path. There was a modest motor launch moored to the jetty bobbing a fraternal greeting to the Midnight Falcon. Above the path and high on the cliff stood the mansion resting on the pinnacle of Ikinos, white and majestic like a new Parthenon. Colby almost felt the pull of a home-coming as they dropped the sails and manoeuvred the last few metres under diesel power.

  As they scrambled onto the unsteady footing of terra firma the young woman who had watched their approach from the mansion was skipping down to meet them. She looked too old to be Natasha, maybe twenty. She was still dressed for summer unwilling to say goodbye to the balmy days which even in these sun-drenched islands was inevitable.

  "Valentina... Welcome home." She called. Valentina waved back as she hauled herself up the path. She introduced the young woman to Colby. "This is Katrina, Katrina Devra. She's been looking after Natasha with Andrej – Captain Andrej Kowalski of the Sachovian Security Bureau –."

  Colby nodded.

  "Yes of course." he said and thought: another damned secret agent to contend with.

  Valentina turned back to Katrina: "How is our little princess?" She asked.

  "Like a typical young teenager she hates everything; she might be pleased to see you back though, Andrej has been tough on her during your absence."

  "I hope he gives her the respect she deserves."

  "One day he might when she's grown."

  Katrina shifted her gaze to Colby. She saw an attractive mature man with the frame of an agile tall boxer. His eyes held an intensity, possibly capable of cruelty but with an unmistakable kindness lurking behind them. She instantly liked him and offered, through her natural shyness, a broad white smile before linking arms with Valentina and leading the way back up to the mansion.

  They pushed their way into the building. The doors opened onto a large room, white as marble in the sunlight but starkly black in the shadow, so austere in its furnishings that it more resembled a modern art gallery than someone's home. Through a wall of tinted windows lay a terrace draped in purple bougainvillea. Beyond that lay the Aegean so brightly azure that it was hard to look at it for long without falling dizzy. Natasha was standing on the terrace looking out across the sea. She stood with her weight carried on one leg looking so young, so vulnerable.

  Captain Kowalski, possibly Katrina's boyfriend, maybe thirty with cruel eyes but no sign of kindness lurking behind his, took an instant dislike to Colby. A dislike that he had nurtured for long before the two men had met. The captain saw the Englishman as an intruder; the man they had selected to do the job that he was more than capable of. A foreign usurper with no understanding of what was required. He took Colby to one side into an alcove with a scintillating view across the sea. He leaned in towards him as if about to share some conspiratorial gossip.

  "If I see you touch Katrina Devra, I will cut you; she is mine." He whispered into Colby's ear. Colby had faced threats before; some of them he took seriously. This one came as a surprise and almost made him involuntarily burst into laughter. Natasha came and joined them. She was carrying a book and studiously avoided looking at Colby.

  "Come and have some wine." Valentina called across the room.

  "And me..." Natasha said from behind her book. The accent was clearly French; none of the household spoke fluent French, which left her alone in her native tongue.

  "No chance little one." Katrina said. Natasha hated being called that, she was almost a woman now; almost a queen. She took her book, a tattered paperback copy of 'Bonjour Tristesse' and dashed out into the starkly bright afternoon sun again. She ran, her bare feet slapping against the long marble corridor to the bower that was buttressed out over the cliff. From here she could see an infinite distance, miles and miles across the sea; if she let her imagination roam she could see all the way to Sachovia, a darker place, a place hung with the colour of aged dust. The bower gave her the feeling of being on the prow of ship; nothing but sea and an imagined landfall waiting. Sachovia, they told her, was her homeland but it was a place she had never been to. It offered a language she could not speak and a responsibility that threatened to suffocate her.

  Colby took a glass and splashed a little from the bottle of questionable Chablis and then taking his own glass he followed Natasha to her retreat.

  "Here, Cup-Cake," He said "just a taste."

  "Cup-Cake? Where did that come from? I'm not a kid, you know."

  Colby laughed. It was a warm friendly laugh and Natasha thought that maybe being called Cup-cake was not so bad. She took the wine and sipped, puckering slightly at its dryness. "Mm... lovely. Thank you Colby Linden." She said looking over the rim of her glass with coquettish shyness. She pronounced his name Colbay Landan. He smiled.

  "Just call me Colbay. Do you mind if I join you for a while?" He asked taking the answer for granted as he squatted down beside her. Natasha shrugged.

  "Non, pas de tout." She said.

  "It's nice here." He said. A brilliant red bougainvillea cascaded over the balcony adding a breathtaking intensity to the deep blueness of the sea and the whiteness of the marble. He sat and lifted his face to the warm sun with closed eyes. Suddenly he was in Saudi again; the strafe of gunfire; the smell of death wrenching at his stomach...

  "They tell me you were brought up in France." he said to the scented air.

  "I've never even seen Sacho
via, my family found a safe exile in the south. We've been French for generations. I grew up in Nice."

  "How do you feel about going home?"

  "Sachovia is not my home, I no longer have a home. You might think a queen would be able to make her own decisions."

  "Would you rather stay here?"

  "If I have a place I call home then it's in Nice, since they killed my brother Gregori I have no one... Maybe Valentina now but she's about to desert me. The sooner they kill me too the better."

  "Natasha... I give you my word that I'll keep you safe; one day you will find your happiness."

  "I don't think so. In any case how can I trust you?... An Englishman... What can you know of my life and those who want me dead?"

  He thought he understood... The feeling of a future not worth living was not a total stranger to him.

  "If you were able to map your own future, what would it be?"

  "I just want to be an ordinary French girl. A simple life; eventually a husband, two point five children. Maybe on a pretty little farm somewhere."

  Colby's heart ached for her.

  ...

  At dinner Katrina sat next to Colby. She sat close, possibly too close. Kowalski watched with muted annoyance through narrowed eyes. He was blinded to the obvious fact that Colby was trying to avoid the young woman's attentions. As she tried to feed him grapes with the bubbling laughter of a schoolgirl Colby could see something behind her eyes that did not quite sit with the laughter... a look of sadness, almost a look of desperation. He could not define it any more accurately and slowly stood, excused himself and sought the cool air of the cliffs. He made his way down the path that led to the jetty and stopped by a small clearing etched into the cliff face. There was a flat topped rock which made an adequate seat, the rock was still warm from the sun that was now riding low in the sky as if determined to plunge into the sea like the diving gulls.

  "Don't mind those two..." Colby turned at the sound of Valentina's voice. They had hardly spent any time together since arriving on Ikinos and he felt the fragile bonds that linked them being stretched taught like a violin string on the point of rupture. "I think Katrina is trying to make Andrej jealous."

  "If that's true then she's succeeding. How old is she?"

  "She tells me twenty but I think younger, she has not yet learned to avoid playing with fire. One day her fingers will be scorched." Valentina moved closer until Colby could feel the warmth of her body next to him. "Andrej wanted to be the one to escort Natasha home." She said "He claims to have strong feelings for Sachovia; a patriotism that, by my estimation, makes him overconfident in his capabilities." Colby nodded as his eyes reached out across the sea. Somewhere in his future might be a place like this where he could settle at peace with the world. He turned to look at Valentina; there would be a place for her at his side but she turned her eyes away from him as if fearful of allowing him to read her thoughts.

  "We'll be going in two days. I've had contact with Sachovia and we have agreed on a starting point. Do you want to know the details?"

  "Just give me those two days Valentina; there will be time enough... You know that Natasha does not want any part of this frightful game don't you?"

  "I love her Colby, I don't need your words to make me cry over her... You have no idea."

  "Tell me then."

  "I can't. I just can't"

  They rested in silence watching the sun fall. Then she whispered as soft as the fall of a feather so that Colby had to strain to hear: "Come to my room tonight... If you want."

  He did want, he had wanted little else for weeks but for some reason Valentina had kept him at arm's length. He heard her footsteps retreat into the distance and followed every step remembering how gracefully she moved. He sat alone until the bright stars burned into the darkening sky. There was an edge of cloud balancing on the horizon still just visible in the half light. He was lost in thought when he heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being closed.

  "Englishman... I warned you not to touch Katrina. You think you can take my woman as well as my job?"

  "Put the gun down Andrej, I'm in no mood to have you walking around here threatening people. Just put it down. I'll be gone in two days; there need be no need for any hard feelings; I have no intention of touching your girl if that's who she is."

  "To hell with you Englishman."

  Colby could hear the crunch of boots on the rocky pathway as Andrej came closer. The moon had risen now and was behind him three quarters full. Colby stood his ground. "How do you think you are going to explain this to Valentina if you kill me. Have some sense man. Walk away before its too late." He could smell the heaviness of strong fortifying liquor on Andrej's breath as it curled down towards him. "You've been drinking Captain. Put the gun down or I'll take it off you."

  "Fuck you." Andrej said as he edged closer. The shotgun was now raised to Colby's chest. The polished metal flashing in the silvery moonlight. Colby could hear the drunken man's finger ratting against the trigger. Colby knew all about guns, mostly what he knew was that he did not like them, especially in the hands of a drunk with a chip on his shoulder.

  Andrej Kowalski, a captain in the feared SSB, would not admit to any of the events that transpired on the cliff edge that night. Indeed he had no precise memory of much that had happened, there was the flash of a fist. A boxer's left jab straight and fast like a cobra's strike. It was only half seen and then somehow the world was turning on its head around him, the moon was mocking his stupidity and Colby was standing over him emptying the cartridges from his gun. The last thing he remembered before retching up his dinner was the sight of the shotgun being hurled out far from the cliffs into the darkness. Then the distant splash of the sea as it swallowed its prize.

  ...

  Colby found Valentina in her room. The widow was open allowing a cool breeze to lift the fine white muslin curtain and fill the room with the scent of Japonica. She lifted her arms to him, drew him to her bed.

  "I think we are doomed to be star crossed lovers Colby; I've ached for your touch since that morning at The Camberwell but you must accept that there can be no future for us, you must understand that. We will have to go our separate ways." She kissed the hollow between his neck and shoulder and he leaned in towards her holding her head in his strong hands.

  "I will never accept that Valentina, when this is over I'll find you again. I love you Valentina nothing can ever change that." His voice soft but full of certainty. Valentina wished that it might be true. She felt a strong impulse to abandon herself to his care. To tell him the whole truth and let his gentle wisdom resolve all her troubles... Then she thought of her brother Sascha and a sadness fell over her..

  "When this is over we may both have become different people, you may no longer want me." She said as she drew his lips to hers and felt his passion overwhelm her once again.