She gave him his first cup while he was still lying flat in the bath and the aches deep in every muscle slowly faded to nothing. ‘Clothes, honey? Bedrooms probably upstairs. See what you can find.’
They were both moving with deceptive speed. To get out before the police arrived. But Grant was staking almost everything on Admiral Cooper having persuaded Berne to give him every last possible moment to clear up a mess which could be discussed only at top ministerial level. And even then he would have bet that the tapes recorded by Juin during his hypnosis session would be the evidence which might finally tip the balance in their favour.
He found that his bath had taken less than twenty minutes: and Maya returned with a wardrobe of slacks and sweaters as he reached for a towel. He chose a set of cavalry twill and a polo-necked jersey. ‘And now,’ he drawled, as he held her for a fleeting minute in his arms, ‘the last three laps. Stefanie is still lying in a room which must be full of gas. We’ve got to get her out and open the windows or else the police will get paralytic doses when they go inside.’
‘And then?’ Maya felt that she had begun to shake all over now that she had time to think about herself. She wanted only to be sick in a corner and Grant shook her by the arms as he saw her suddenly turn pale.
‘Keep going,’ he snapped. ‘We’re nearly home and dry. But while I’m loading Stefanie into the chopper put these two phone calls through.’ He handed over two Geneva numbers scribbled on a scrap of paper. ‘Tell the girls I’ll pick them up on the lawn beside the Petit-cercle at Hancke’s Clinique. They’ve to lie doggo in the shrubbery until I touch down and they’ve to be there within the next thirty minutes carrying their latest passports . . . provided they still have them.’
He held Maya close and ran his lips across her forehead. ‘Got that, honey? The names are there beside the numbers, Sultry Mbawa and Miss Winona. Now move. If I estimate the situation correctly Berne will be only too happy to let us get the hell out of Switzerland before any more scandal breaks provided, that is, they are convinced we are on the side of the gods. It should suit everyone this end to treat the whole affair as one great unsolved mystery. So if this line is really being tapped I will still bet that they let us clean everything up before the Federal Authorities allow anyone whatsoever to interfere.’
He was speaking rapidly and forcing something of his own confidence into a girl who had had enough. But he began to relax as her eyes slowly warmed and he felt her wriggle against his chest.
‘I’m sorry, David,’ she whispered. ‘But I’ll be fine now.’
He watched her lift the phone. Her fingers were steady as she dialled the first number and he could hear Sultry’s deep voice crackle into the room as he ran through the hall to the boardroom where Stefanie was still lying unconscious.
Her pulse was steady at eighty and her breathing was now regular. She was flat unconscious but Grant knew that given care she would waken none the worse after another twenty-four hours. And by that time! His jaw clenched as he lifted her and turned towards the gardens. By that time they ought all to be in France. With luck even in Paris.
The grounds were still quiet, and he heard Maya pad along by his side as he carried Stefanie across the lawns towards the oblong of light which was still biting into the darkness.
Grant had lately become a member of a flying club in order to get his airmanship up to date, and he had mastered choppers as being the most likely of all aircraft to be useful to him. Now he was thanking his foresight knowing that without it he would be stranded on the wrong side of the frontier and faced with a blaze of publicity which would have ruined everything. Probably not even ADSAD could have squared anything if lower echelon police had once made an arrest or moved into full action.
He eased Stefanie on to one of the chopper’s rear seats and fixed her safety belt. And then he grinned broadly as he saw that the tank was three-fourths full. ‘So now we get out of here.’
He glanced towards Maya, now relaxed on the seat beside him. She was smiling slightly and he guessed that she was only waiting for them to be airborne before lighting a cigarette.
The helicopter shivered as he switched on and gave the engine the gun, until, seconds later they were hovering above pine forests and pointing towards the frontier. He cut across the lake near Chillon and followed the southern edge past Messery to near where the lights of Geneva began to fade into darkness. But he guessed that their flight had been monitored, and two separate aircraft had almost buzzed him at two thousand feet above Thonan.
Tension suddenly mounted in the cockpit as he marked the black expanse of Hancke’s grounds and dropped for touch-down near the lakeside. Maya had pinpointed both aircraft and glimpsed their colours when a shaft of moonlight had broken against wingtips. She believed that they were Swiss and that at least one was still circling in and out of low cloud a few thousand feet above their heads. And for sure there were too many lights glowing in the main buildings of Hancke’s Clinique.
The chopper shuddered for a few seconds before idling into a steady quiver which seemed to roar like a hurricane in the silence of the place. Maya’s finger pointed excitedly, and Grant heard her voice scream above the noise of the aircraft. ‘The girls, David. Down there. To the left. Get the door open.’
But already he had opened the fuselage and jumped down. He was giving Sultry a lift into the machine when the headlights of what seemed like a dozen cars threw the scene into stark naked light. Winona was crouched beside a cluster of tall delphiniums when a shot spurted earth from near Grant’s feet and a voice cracked with authority in the distance, ‘Stand clear of that machine and advance with your hands up.’
Grant hesitated and then snapped a quiet order to Winona. The girl was still out of the line of vision of the figures he could see padding across the lawns carrying what looked like AR-15s. ‘Inside at the double.’
The girl smiled thinly and then leapt like a dark streak past Grant’s side. He saw her coil like a cat before springing upwards towards the open door, and in the same second threw himself flat on the ground as her legs dangled above him and a burst of automatic fire again ripped the earth within yards of his feet.
The rest was up to him!
He guessed that contact had been lost somewhere along the line between Berne and the deceptively lazy looking inspector who had grilled him that morning, but who was now less than a hundred yards away at the head of five armed men.
But he saw that the girls were now in full silhouette against the car lights. Every policeman in sight must have seen them and Grant took the chance of his life. It was a thousand to one against any official firing where there was a risk of killing anything up to four women, one of whom had probably been already identified as one of the world’s leading prima ballerinas.
Already they were firing short of the chopper and he would be at risk only for the split second it took him to get inside. Even for a crack marksman it would be a difficult enough target but for excited gendarmes firing from the hip it would be madness to try without endangering the women.
His hand closed around S.A.M. and he pressed the monogram. Juin’s Sonic Anti-Mobster drowned even the noise of the chopper as he flung it towards the inspector and then rolled towards the aircraft. There was one more burst of fire and he heard the phht of bullets whipping above his head. At least one of them struck the chopper’s undercarriage and then he moved with that controlled speed which was one of his greatest assets, curling himself into a tight ball in the shadow of the machine before launching himself upwards like a rocket towards the open cockpit. His fingers gripped the edge of the floor and he heaved himself inside in time to wriggle on to the seat before the gendarmes had recovered from their surprise and begun to advance at the double.
His fingers groped automatically for the stick and he lifted her clear of the ground while the men outside stared upwards, their hair and flesh blown backwards by the downdraught from blades which were now threshing the air in desperation to gain altitude.
And then he suddenly relaxed as he saw the inspector raise his hand in farewell.
Had it, after all, been an act? Had Berne laid this on to cover themselves, but knowing that he would use every chance to secure their get-away? He would never know. Or probably never. Not unless Admiral Cooper chose to open up. And that was doubtful. Too many top people would be involved in the conspiracy: if there had been a conspiracy. It would never be in the ‘public interest’ for any of them to talk.
It was enough that he knew, for sure, that the house at Gstaad had been tapped and that every telephone message for many hours would now be on record. And it was for sure that ADSAD’s top men would have used every influence with Berne to give him a break. The Swiss Federal authorities would have final proof of the reality and power of SATAN after monitoring a few conversations and after being briefed by the Admiral. Perhaps they had played ball.
They had now climbed to a thousand feet and Grant saw that both Sultry and Winona were grinning with satisfaction. ‘Ah said yo’ were competent,’ grinned Winona as the lights of Geneva began to fade into the distance.
‘Next stop France,’ said Grant, and felt a deep glow of contentment as Maya leaned sideways and kissed the bruises on his cheeks. Her voice was very soft and her lips moistly warm. He guessed that engine noise would prevent the others from hearing what she said. And at least he hoped so.
‘These marks,’ she whispered, ‘were kisses from SATAN.’
He turned abruptly. ‘Who gave you that name?’
She snuggled against his shoulder. ‘The men who kidnapped me used it several times. It was SATAN wants this or SATAN has ordered that. So now I know who you were fighting.’ She kissed him again. ‘And it makes me feel that I belong with you. That we’ve shared something important and that we don’t have so many secrets.’
Grant became serious. ‘You saved my life at the well.’
She caressed the strong wrists which were holding the stick and watched the lake flow past. Soon they would be in France again. ‘And sometimes you have saved mine.’ She smiled thoughtfully. ‘Kisses from SATAN! What a horrible idea! But tonight you will get kisses from Maya.’ And her arms wrapped around his neck as they crossed the border. Her lips were burning against his cheeks, and he felt the firmness of her breasts against his arm.
He pointed down towards Evian. ‘Bed, honey chile. The Admiral will have fixed everything. And in a week we’ll be back in Spain.’
She lit a cigarette and stretched her long rippling limbs. ‘Bed with you,’ she whispered. ‘Just bed. Anywhere. That’ll be enough for me.’
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[1] Glavnoye Razvedovatelnoye Upravleniye. One of the three major Soviet Intelligence Agencies.
Kisses From Satan Page 19
