by Peter Tonkin
‘Innocent boy,’ she said with a dry laugh. ‘Why do you think I brought my overnight bag up from my flat in Repulse Bay? When I’m finished I’ll have a make-up job that’ll still look good on camera after I’ve been dead for six months.’
‘Well, if you don’t want to sleep, why don’t you eat something? No matter how good you look, it’ll be fatal if you pass out on us.’
‘Sure as hell didn’t do President Bush any good. Pity; I liked him.’
‘That’s right’ He forced himself to be brutal. ‘And look what happened when your father had his seizure on television.’
But she was not to be drawn. Surprisingly, she gave a wicked little chuckle. ‘Maggie DaSilva gave him the kiss of life and knocked twenty years off his age.’
‘She must be quite something.’
‘Brother, you have no idea.’
It was a completely different Robin who sat beside Andrew two hours later. Her make-up was a little heavy for his taste but it transformed her from the wan figure in his office to the powerful chief executive who had almost got in to see Richard on her first night here. She was back in the sloppy top and jeans, however, for they were coming away from the news conference and heading up towards Kwai Chung.
‘I think that went quite well, don’t you, Andrew?’
‘Very well. You managed to cast doubt on the prosecution, their case, their leanings and their preferences. You threw into very grave doubt the Crown Colony, its police force and its naval complement. I think some of what you actually said may be libellous, but it was certainly effective.’
‘Helen DuFour will report in later this evening about how it went down in the City on the lunchtime news. It’s such a relief to have her back in Heritage House. And I have friends in New York who will check in when it comes out there,’ said Robin.
Helen had been back in London for two days now and was overseeing the extra work arising from the tragic events and liaising with the authorities who were supporting the families of the dead and missing, including Brian Jordan’s young wife and two daughters, Charles Macallan’s aged mother and an extremely worried Phylidda Gough in Budleigh Salterton. Robin had asked her about the disk and the China Queens network word processing function — but the senior executive had been unable to help. The inquiry which Helen had instituted on Robin’s insistence had established only that the information needed was probably somewhere in the China Queens office in Singapore. Sir William had come back down to London and the twins, in seventh heaven, were with Richard’s parents in their house called Summersend on the edge of the Lincolnshire fens, overlooking the sea. It was a good arrangement, for Richard’s mother, tied to her wheelchair, needed his father’s assistance at all times and so neither of them could come out to the colony; and there was nothing for them to do but sit at home helplessly and worry. The grandchildren were a distraction which was more than welcome.
Andrew already knew about Robin’s friends and family. Messages of sympathy and support, offers of advice and help had come in from all over the world during the last ten days. Every day had been like Christmas as far as the post had been concerned, and there would be another pile waiting for them when they got back from the container terminal. Each call, message, fax, E-mail message, card and letter had been filed for immediate or eventual response. Robin had done it all herself, on top of everything else, including getting herself moved down to the leave flat he had found for her at the bottom of his hill in Repulse Bay and getting settled in there. He had never seen anything like it.
‘And Maggie will be here for the next one.’ There was a great deal of contentment in her voice as she made this observation.
‘Is that so important? You handled them like a seasoned pro. Some of them had tears in their eyes towards the end.’
‘Crocodile tears!’
‘No. You were open, honest, impressive; noble, almost.’ He hesitated, embarrassed at having gone too far. But she knew that the best way to take a compliment is in companionable silence. ‘I just don’t see,’ he said emphatically, ‘how she could do it any better.’
‘Once she’s here I can focus properly, Andrew. I won’t have to be looking over my shoulder all the time and measuring my words. Maggie will run interference for me until I’m all but invisible. And she’ll present a cracker of a case.’
‘She’ll present the case we give her,’ he said with some asperity.
Robin chuckled. ‘She will take whatever we give her and she will transmute it into legal gold.’
‘Well, I’m not convinced.’ He had an attack of gallantry. ‘And I don’t think anyone could make you seem invisible.’
‘You wait. You’ll see. I’ll be able to forget about the cursed make-up bag. I could go onto camera stark naked beside her and nobody would notice a thing.’
Andrew gave a bark of laughter and shook his head. He had supposed that women were jealous of other women more lovely than themselves, but not Robin, apparently. Probably not any women, actually. That was a piece of wisdom he had gleaned from books and bar talk, he realised with a flash of dangerous insight. He did not, he realised a little sadly, know a hell of a lot about actual women at all. He put the Vantage into top and took her screaming over the speed limit to compensate.
*
Sitting at the foot of Sulu Queen’s gangway was a silver Honda Accord. ‘Huuk’s aboard,’ warned Robin as soon as she saw it.
‘Will that be a problem?’ asked Andrew.
‘Might be. I don’t know. I’m not allowed to hit him, am I?’ Robin had not seen Huuk since Richard’s transfer and felt she had something of a score to settle with him. Andrew laughed, thinking she was joking, but in fact there was so much rage and frustration building up inside her that she genuinely had no idea what she would do when she next saw Huuk; hitting him seemed the least violent of the preferred alternatives. Andrew parked the Vantage beside the Accord because there was nowhere else available near the ship. Every space nearby was occupied, and there were even a couple of coaches parked among the cars.
When the Chinese officer met them at the top of the gangway, Andrew was suddenly suspicious that Robin might not have been joking after all when she threatened to assault him. The big solicitor abruptly felt an urgent need to step between them, such was the hostility crackling in the atmosphere. He was acutely aware that Huuk was backed up by two guards, both fully armed, and he had a feeling that Robin did not give a damn about the fact.
She managed to hold herself in check. Huuk himself hid behind a mask of Oriental inscrutability and from his demeanour during most of their visit aboard, it would have been hard to guess that he had ever met either of them before. Except for one brief instant right after they arrived on board. One of the guards said several words sotto voce to the captain; all Andrew heard clearly was the phrase ‘body search’ and he tensed, ready to protest. But Huuk spat a negative. Just for an instant, however, his long eyes dwelt on Robin’s body and Andrew was not a little disturbed by what he thought he saw in them. And then the shutters came down.
‘I have been ordered to give you full access to all areas, all equipment, and all existing records,’ Huuk said as he led them up the empty deck towards the bridgehouse. His voice was tranquil, distant. Andrew filed what he thought he had seen in a compartment of his memory. He would examine it and test it later on. But it would be interesting, he thought, if the prosecution’s chief witness had developed a romantic inclination for the mainspring of the defence.
‘All existing records?’ queried Robin at once.
‘There were no official logs, movement books, lading books or ship’s records found on the bridge,’ Huuk explained. ‘And, although an extensive set of records was kept in the ship’s computer network, a flaw seems to have developed in the system and we cannot retrieve all the files.’
Robin’s hand surreptitiously brushed the pocket containing the little disk. Her step lightened a little at the thought of breaking into it at last.
‘Of course,�
� continued Huuk, apparently unaware, ‘we have computer experts working on the system now so we may be able to give you more information in due course.’
‘Thank you,’ said Andrew, as though he was grateful.
They spent the next two hours going through the bridgehouse, with Robin making careful, knowledgeable observations and Andrew recording them. The process was detailed — they were not likely to have the time or the opportunity to do this again — but it was also oddly noncommittal because Huuk accompanied them every step of the way.
In fact, the ship was so busy that he need hardly have bothered. The whole vessel was one massive crime scene and although it was now more than two weeks since the crime itself had been committed, experts of all sorts were still checking and double-checking, testing, taping, taking, bagging, measuring and photographing. So busy were some sections of the bridgehouse that both Robin and Andrew began to wonder whether much of the activity was actually being staged for their benefit, to emphasise the range of dedicated expertise standing against them and to undermine their confidence. If this was the intention, it failed signally.
At the end of two hours, at half past five, the visiting experts all came to the end of their working hours. With much cheerful badinage they packed up and went ashore, some swiftly, some slowly; some laden, some empty-handed; just like a shift clocking off at a factory, they all began to go their separate ways. This was a crime scene to dream about, huge, complex, challenging; and absolutely secure.
Robin watched them from the bridge wing, deep in thought. Most of all, at that moment, she thanked God that Mr Feng and John Shaw had managed to make alternative arrangements for the shipping of the cargo — as soon as it was released from bond. The cargo — which Andrew and she would go over tomorrow — would not be held right up to the trial date. The ship certainly would. And then, of course, she would need to be completely re-crewed before she would sail.
Still, if the worst came to the worst, the Seram Queen was due in Hong Kong in a month’s time. She could take on anything still outstanding — if that rude bastard Captain Sin consented to take an order, for a change. And thinking of Sin and his rudeness brought the computer disk back to the forefront of her mind. It looked as though the computer experts were leaving with the rest Robin had been keeping a covert eye on them and was not really convinced that they were doing any serious work on the network. She was almost certain that, even if nobody else was, they were window-dressing put there to deny her access to the system. But now they were gone. She might get a chance to try it after all. If only she could think of a really good excuse to go back to the first officer’s cabin. If only she could get rid of Huuk for a while.
The first challenge proved all too easy. She had seen a fair number of computer monitors around the bridge, but only one printer. The one in the first officer’s cabin. ‘You promised us some records,’ she said to Huuk. She had not hit him; she had not been courteous to him either.
‘Yes, we did. They were printed out earlier. I believe they are still by the printer in the first officer’s cabin.’
‘Good. I’ll go down and start looking through them.’
‘Of course.’
Andrew was standing on the navigation bridge looking at the watchkeeper’s chair with a slightly sickened expression. As they went past him, Robin, who had been saving this suggestion for just this moment, said to him, ‘Andrew, would you mind looking over the radio room for me? I know the communication logs are missing but I never met a sparks in the commercial service who didn’t keep his own private record.’
She swept on across the navigation bridge as though unaware that Huuk was hesitating. In the Navy they never allowed radio officers to keep independent records — and they did not, in fact, usually allow them to do so on Heritage Mariner ships either; but Huuk did not know that, and Robin’s request sounded reasonable. The captain’s defences were split. Which should he oversee? The woman who was going through records that he knew all about or the man checking for something whose existence he had never suspected until now? Robin didn’t think she was taking too much of a gamble.
‘Right-ho,’ said Andrew amiably and turned towards the cluttered little room. Robin did not deign to look back but she knew Huuk was following him, not her.
With excitement bubbling in her, Robin ran down the stairs towards the first officer’s cabin. Still she would not allow herself to touch the little disk in her pocket — just in case. The cabin was just as she remembered it. She had been worried that they might have removed all of the furnishings, the books and the computer itself for testing, but no. It was all still there, except for the file of little disks. They were safely under lock and key somewhere until the computer network was up and running — always supposing it had really crashed in the first place, as Huuk had said.
Robin settled in front of the machine. There were several things she had to be certain of before she proceeded. To begin with, she had to be certain that when she used this machine, the rest of the other machines did not light up as well, as they had the last time. Secondly, she had also to be certain that the machine was not, in fact, faulty. If Huuk was telling the truth and if she put the precious disk into it, she ran the risk of wiping it clean and of losing all the information it contained.
At least the power was still running and the machine was on. By the look of things the computer was loaded up and was holding the directions from the network in its standalone memory. It was certainly a much more powerful machine than any of the others on the network. Holding her breath, she pulled the network circuit plug from the back. Sitting down again, she was relieved to see that the screen was still alight and asking for directions.
She wondered if Huuk’s men had gone through the bookshelves as thoroughly as she and Twelvetoes had done. She checked; they had. Even the disk behind the family photograph was gone.
Robin unbuttoned her pocket and slid the disk out, noting as though for the last time Brian Jordan’s schoolboy hand on the bright label, the numbers beneath the title, the little air bubbles trapped beneath the paper. Then she slipped it into the machine in drive A.
PRESS ENTER TO PROCEED said the screen.
She watched it as though it was a venomous serpent poised to strike her. Nothing happened. She raised her hand. She pressed ENTER.
The screen went black and all hell was let loose. She sprang back, upsetting the chair, such was the unexpected brutality of the noise the machine emitted. One of Huuk’s computer experts had rigged the machine so that the action of pressing ENTER would trigger an alarm. Nor was that all. When she pressed the release button, trying to retrieve the disk, it soon became apparent that this had been tampered with as well and the little grey square of plastic was not going to come out again at her command. And in the meantime, the siren wailed and wailed.
Huuk himself was there within moments, his face like stone. He gestured to her to get out and she obeyed. She did not see what he did, but the wailing stopped and when he came out into the corridor where she was waiting he was holding the disk.
‘Lieutenant Jordan had a system,’ he said. ‘All the disks were numbered as well as labelled. We knew one was missing from the time you last visited the ship. Thank you for returning it to us.’
‘Can I at least take the records you printed out?’ she asked a little desperately, just as Andrew puffed up beside her.
‘Of course. They are defence copies. Is there anything else?’
She looked at Andrew. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Nothing else.’ Huuk nodded. Silently he turned, stepped back, picked up the pile of print-outs and returned with them in his hand. He gave them to Robin with something of a gesture, like a duellist saluting a gallant but lesser opponent. Then he escorted them to the gangway and watched them as they walked down to the Vantage.
‘Was it worth it?’ asked Andrew as they settled into the massive sports car.
‘Wait,’ she said. ‘I’m half convinced that devil Huuk can still hear us. Do you suppose he’
s psychic?’
‘God knows.’ He turned the starter and the engine crashed into life. He pulled off before Robin fastened her safety belt, but it was not until they reached the main gate that she reached down and pulled a second disk out of her shoe. She put it up on the dashboard and the last of the evening sun glinted on the side with sufficient force to show the tiny traces of adhesive which remained where the label had been carefully removed.
As she was strapping on her seatbelt with a secret little smile playing around her lips, Andrew reached into his jacket pocket. ‘Brilliant idea, that, checking the radio room,’ he said. ‘Look what I retrieved from under the main transmitter while Huuk was downstairs dealing with you.’ And he threw a little black-covered notebook onto the top of the dashboard beside the disk.
Chapter Twenty-One
It was nearly midnight when Andrew said, ‘Look, Robin, you’ve got to go back to your own flat now and get to bed. Think of what you’ve got to do tomorrow. You have to meet Professor Fowler, brief him and take him in to see Richard. It’s going to be hard enough even if you’re brighteyed and bushy-tailed. It’ll be hell if you’ve had too little sleep.’
‘Sleep?’ she said in a tone of voice he hadn’t heard her use before. ‘You think I sleep?’
‘Listen to yourself, Robin. You’re exhausted. You want me to run you down the hill in the Vantage?’
‘What, wake up that monster simply to drop me somewhere I can get to in a five-minute walk?’
‘Well …’ he shrugged a little helplessly.
‘You’re sweet. And you’re right. I’ll go at once. Do you want a hand with this stuff?’ She gestured vaguely at the leftovers from a takeaway Sechuan feast.
‘No. The amah will tidy it up in the morning,’ he said. And she was too tired to argue.
At the door he took her coat down and then reached for his own. ‘No,’ she said gently when she saw what he was doing. ‘I’ll be all right. I want to walk slowly and finish thinking this through. You get some rest yourself.’
