| 1 | Alastair was a bachelor . All his life he had been inclined to regard women as something which must necessarily be subordinated to his career . Now he realised that he was entrusting not only his own life , but Geoffrey 's as_well , to a strange girl whom he had never met and on whom after no more than a couple of telephone calls he was prepared to place complete reliance . |
| 2 | It was a novel experience . |
| 3 | Alastair was quite unable to explain why he should feel so much confidence in her . Once again she checked back her instructions . It was obvious that she did not fail to appreciate the faith which he was placing in her and was prepared to accept the responsibility . ‘ Good luck , air Marshal , ’ she said gently . |
| 4 | ‘ I 'll be waiting for you at the Hotel Roma at six this evening — and I shall look forward to meeting you both at midnight . ’ |
| 5 | They might have been arranging a supper party . |
| 6 | Then she rang off . |
| 7 | Alastair admitted that never in a not altogether uneventful life had he come across a girl who sounded so charming and appeared to be so efficient . He looked forward to meeting her . |
| 8 | Chapter ten . |
| 9 | It was a perfect moonlight night ; there appeared to be no cloud over the whole of Europe . |
| 10 | From a height of 50,000 feet northern Italy strikingly resembled the great relief map which covers the floor of the southern Europe briefing room at NATO headquarters . |
| 11 | Seated beside Alastair , lulled by the uncanny silence of supersonic flight , Geoffrey could imagine himself in one of the upper galleries . |
| 12 | For some reason the orderlies had forgotten to switch on the lights ; there was no colour — physical features were distinguishable solely by gradations of silvery greyness . |
| 13 | Even the snow_-_capped summit of Mont Blanc , seven miles below , was not recognisable among the host of lower peaks . |
| 14 | The screen of the air_-_to_-_air radar glowed . |
| 15 | Occasionally minute spots flickered across its surface , but there was no permanent image . |
| 16 | The sky seemed to be deserted . |
| 17 | Alastair leant across and pressed a switch . |
| 18 | A tiny red light sprang into life , only to fade as the screen of the second radar scanner came into operation . |
| 19 | This was the ground definition unit . |
| 20 | Although Geoffrey had relatively little experience of interpreting radar pictures , he was able to recognise the land beneath him . In the exceptional clarity he was even able to make a direct comparison between the radar image and the ground itself . |
| 21 | Ahead lay the Plain of Lombardy ; to the right , Turin ; to the left , Milan . |
| 22 | The directional angle of the scanner could be adjusted to cover any particular area within its range . |
| 23 | Geoffrey turned the scale slowly to cover the ground immediately ahead . He was able to pick out towns , unrecognisable to the naked eye , obscured by the ground haze which even on the clearest night limited angular vision . He glanced at the speed recorder . |
| 24 | It seemed almost incredible that the tiny white figure of 8.5 against which the needle was resting could really mean hundreds of knots . |
| 25 | They were flying at more than 975 miles an hour , or nearly Mach 1.3 to use the modern jargon . |
| 26 | Thanks_to the massive cooling plant there was no suggestion of excessive heat . |
| 27 | Suddenly the nature of the silence changed . |
| 28 | During the fifty_-_odd minutes since they had left Boscombe Down , Geoffrey had become so accustomed to the unbroken note of the great engines that they were no longer audible . |
| 29 | Now , as Alastair reduced the thrust , the pitch changed as the nose of the aircraft dipped slightly . |
| 30 | The needle of the speed recorder swung gently through 8.0 , 7.0 , 6.0 before coming to rest at 5.0 . |
| 31 | ‘ We 're a_bit ahead of time , ’ said Alastair . ‘ We 'll run in on minimum engine power . ’ |
| 32 | Geoffrey smiled . |
| 33 | Alastair talked of running in when they were still more than four hundred miles from their destination . They were nearing Modena . |
| 34 | Geoffrey focused the radar scanner on the bridge over the Po , barely forty miles to port . He was able to trace the course of the river ; he thought he could recognise the route of N12 , along which he had motored so desperately little more than twenty_-_four hours earlier . Since then he had flown to England , attended the vital conference in Bruce Denton 's office , been whisked by special helicopter from the Horse Guards Parade to Boscombe Down , slept for six blessed refreshing hours and had now completed two_-_thirds of the journey back to the place where every indication pointed to Eve being held . Geoffrey set himself to consider the movements of the Bentley . It had passed him at the temporary bridge over the Tartaro at a_few minutes past ten on the previous night . He worked out the distance on the presumption that its route had been through Florence and Rome and then across Italy via Foggia to Barletta . It came to just over six hundred miles . |
| 35 | Provided they did not stop ( and with Eve unconscious — or worse — they would be anxious to avoid attracting attention ) , and if they drove as fast as the roads would permit , they could not hope to reach Barletta before midday . Magnificent as was the performance of the Bentley , Geoffrey doubted whether on the route they had chosen , involving a double crossing of the Apennines — once at Raticosa over the Futa Pass and once again near Campobasso — anyone could maintain the average of forty miles an hour which would be necessary . Far more probable that they would travel more leisurely . Of_course they could have bound and gagged her ; and provided no one examined what was hidden under the rug , they might get by . But they could hardly leave her in the car while they rested . No , he concluded , the probability was that they would drive continuously , only stopping for fuel and perhaps to purchase snacks of food and drink . They might not reach Foggia until late at night ; it was even conceivable he would arrive before them . Geoffrey forced himself to consider another possible alternative . Eve might be dead . If so , why had they troubled to bring her body all the way from Trento ? There were a hundred places between Trento and the Po where they could have dumped her body without fear of it being prematurely discovered . He had used one of them himself to dispose of Stefano and Pietro . He determined to act on the assumption that Eve was alive . He tried to imagine what the Italians would do next . Their final objective could only be to deliver Eve to Herring 's headquarters , which in the light of the information he had gleaned at the morning 's conference and of Gloria Falcon 's story appeared to be somewhere in the Gargano Massif . Of_course he was assuming that the man responsible for the aircraft , for Peter Lambert 's injuries and for the abduction of Eve was one and the same person — in_fact , Herring . |
| 36 | Nothing was certain . |
| 37 | All the deductions on which he was planning might be false . |
| 38 | The men who had captured Eve might have taken her anywhere but to Barletta , but to speculate on the innumerable alternatives was to invite confusion . |
| 39 | Far better to adhere to the one course which in the light of his present knowledge seemed most probable , while at the same time keeping keenly alert for any additional information which might prove to be of help . |
| 40 | Gloria Falcon was the key to the whole operation . On what she could report of her conversation with Peter Lambert depended ultimate success . Geoffrey had had no contact with her but Alastair seemed to have developed a tremendous admiration for her intelligence . During the earlier part of their flight from Boscombe Down he had repeated the gist of his third conversation with her . Gloria had been waiting at the Hotel Roma when punctually at 6 the call from Alastair came through . He found that she had done all and more than he had asked of her . She had managed to get hold of a Lancia Rapido — just the car for the job : fast and at the same time with a first_-_class performance over rough going . She had examined every inch of the runway and found it quite serviceable , although , as Alastair had feared , the whole landing area was obstructed by grazing cattle . Gloria had visited the farmer , told him that a high_-_level inspecting officer from the Italian ministry of aviation was proposing to land on the strip during the night and that it was as much as his life was worth to allow his cattle to be the cause of an accident . Gloria had laughed when she told him how she had accounted for the impending visit of the official from the ministry . ‘ I hinted , ’ she said , ‘ that he and I were having an affaire and only by making this desperate landing at night could he avoid the suspicions of his wife . |
| 41 | Every Italian is a romantic . |
| 42 | He promised that nothing should be allowed to increase the danger of our meeting . ’ |
| 43 | Gloria emphasised that even a slight mishap would draw attention to him being in the district and would be disastrous not only for her but for his career , and , she added significantly , for those responsible for obstructing the runway . |
| 44 | Within an hour the strip was completely clear ; a horde of the farmer 's family and all his workpeople hastened to remove not only the cattle but every trace of their presence . |
| 45 | Gloria admitted that she had not intended to initiate quite so much activity , but once she had told her story there was no way of going back on it . |
| 46 | ‘ I have arranged , ’ concluded Alastair , ‘ for her to have the car at the point where the 14 - kilometre stone track meets the runway . |
| 47 | It is about a hundred yards from the southern end ; so_that if all goes well we shall come to a stop quite near her . ’ |
| 48 | Geoffrey was impressed by the efficiency with which Alastair managed to surround himself . In his service he was known to be ruthless to incompetence , but he seldom had any difficulty in recruiting precisely the staff he needed . He possessed the strange gift of leadership which enabled him to imbue even an unknown film actress with all the qualities of efficiency and decision which he took as a matter of course among his own officers . Geoffrey remembered that a famous field marshal , inclined to pontificate , had once stated that a headquarters staff reflected the quality of its commander . It certainly seemed to apply to Alastair . |
| 49 | Now the N.F.E 67 was losing height more rapidly . |
| 50 | Alastair had decided to make the final approach to the airstrip at a very low level over the sea . He crossed the coast a_few miles south of Ancona and almost immediately made a steep turn to starboard . Now he was flying at less than a hundred feet , about five miles off the coast . ‘ I bet the radar boys are worried , ’ he laughed . ‘ They 'll have lost us by now and will be wondering where we 've got to . ’ |
| 51 | Geoffrey glanced at his watch ; it was eighteen minutes to midnight ; just one hundred and seven minutes since they had left Boscombe Down . ‘ We 'll land in five minutes , ’ Alastair announced . ‘ I 'd like you to be as quick as you can . Chuck your flying kit into the back of the aircraft and I 'll get weaving . The sooner I can show up on their radar screens the better . This is a very hush_-_hush job and we do n't want to create alarm and despondency by giving them the idea that I 've skipped with it to the wrong side of the curtain . If they spotted us flying due east over Ancona , it might give them ideas . ’ The landing was easier than either of them had dared to hope . |
| 52 | The old landing strip , perhaps helped by the spring_-_cleaning which it had undergone during the afternoon , shone like black glass in the moonlight . |
| 53 | Alastair came in very fast , but within less than half a mile the machine rolled to a halt . |
| 54 | He cut the engines and flung open the canopy . |