Part 45 (1/2)

They were still high up and she was looking down on a small section of the long lake way below. She felt she might have been in a remote region of Canada. The moon kept fading as transparent drifts of cloud crossed beneath it. The lake was still as death and black as pitch. Its surface was so unruffled it gave her the impression it was covered with ice. The opposite sh.o.r.e was banked by steep hills choked with fir forest.

'See anything?' Tweed asked.

'Nothing. No sign of life, of human habitation. Just nothing.'

'Very promising.'

'Marler has caught us up,' Newman called out, unable to conceal his relief.

'I'm getting out of the car for a closer look,' said Paula.

She had got out, closed the door quietly, when she found Marler standing beside her. A few yards behind Newman's Audi, Marler's was parked, lights dimmed, as were Newman's.

'Well, I gather Ronstadt's base wasn't in the Hollental,' Marler remarked.

'No, it wasn't,' Paula replied. 'Tweed has an idea it has to be somewhere near here. That weird lake down there is called Schluchsee.'

'Tweed is sure the base is in this area,' Tweed called out through a window he had lowered. 'Kurt Schwarz has a reference to this place in his little book. I missed the significance of the name - a blank page followed his note on the Hollental.'

'Let's get closer,' Paula suggested to Marler. 'I think there's a track beyond the verge.'

Newman had switched off his engine. They had been so close to Ronstadt he'd felt it was a wise precaution. The enemy could have had the same idea and switched off their engines to listen. Walking a few paces along the track, Paula was struck by the incredible silence which added to the sinister atmosphere of this place out in the wilds. She sensed they were waiting for something terrible to happen.

For a short time she welcomed the bitter night air, well below zero. It was a pleasant contrast to the fetid air which had built up inside the car. She'd left her gloves in the car so she could manipulate the binoculars more easily and already her face and hands were beginning to feel frozen.

'Marler, I should have asked first what happened when you vanished off the highway. Are Nield and Kent OK?'

'In the pink. We had a bit of a dust-up. Four down, eleven in front to go. Tell you about it later.'

Moving a short distance down the track gave her a far more panoramic view, no longer obscured by a copse of firs at the roadside. The lake was wide but seemed immensely long - far longer than Lake t.i.tisee which she had caught sight of earlier. She scanned it through her binoculars. Still no sign of a single building, or even a landing stage. The silence, lack of movement, the absence of even a small wooden house with lights in it was getting to her.

'Lake surface looks as solid as slate,' Marler commented. 'A perfect setting for a horror film. Subhuman giants with huge axes creeping out of the woods.'

'Stop it,' Paula protested. 'I have a vivid imagination. I'll be seeing them now.'

'Any data?' asked Tweed behind her after getting quietly out of the car.

'Not a d.a.m.ned thing. Look for yourself.'

'No thanks. I can see with my own eyes. As desolate a spot as I've seen for a long time. We'd better get back in the car. The red light has stopped flas.h.i.+ng. Ronstadt's on the move.'

40.

'We're nearly there, Moonhead,' Ronstadt said to the man beside him.

Ronstadt was behind the wheel of the third Audi, following the two cars ahead of him as they b.u.mped over the wide track round the tip of the lake. The moon had temporarily been blotted out by a dark cloud and the cars had their headlights full on. He suddenly let out a belly laugh of pure pleasure.

'What is it?' asked Leo Madison.

'Moonhead, it's turnin' out great. No sign of Tweed and his miserable crew. Brad and his boys must have made hash browns of them back in Hollental. With ketchup for the blood.' He laughed again, a raucous sound. 'Think of the avalanche hittin' those two white Audis. Think of what the people inside look like now. Hope that Paula Grey was with 'em. It's great.'

'Funny Brad and his boys haven't caught up with us,' Madison commented.

'Takes time to cook a dish like that.' He laughed again. 'I like it. Cookin' a dish like that. The dish is Paula Grey.'

'I just hope you're right.'

'You know your problem, Moonhead?'

'I guess you're gonna tell me.'

'You ain't got no sense of humour. Better roll up your sleeves, feller. Lot of work to do.'

'What kinda work?'

'Loading cartons - heavy ones - on to three trucks. I guess Bernhard Yorcke will have loaded one truck ready for the go. Makes four truckloads. What's in 'em will destroy Britain.'

'Who is this Bernhard Yorcke?'

'Came from Luxembourg years ago. He's a printer. Moved on to Switzerland as a youngster. Stayed there ever since. Just where he shoulda gone, being a printer. Swiss, I'll give 'em that, are best printers in the world.' He peered up through the windscreen. 'Nearly there. Trouble with Bernhard Yorcke is he can be a very nasty piece of work.'

Coming from Ronstadt, Madison wondered what on earth this Yorcke could be like.

'What's he print?' he asked.

'See when we gets there, won't you?'

'There is a base,' Paula said, 'and that has to be it.' 'I agree,' said Tweed.

They had driven down and down from the point where Paula had surveyed Schluchsee through her binoculars. Newman's car had progressed first, with Marler's following close behind. The red light on Newman's screen had glowed so strongly he had driven at a slow pace. Gradually the red glow had dimmed. Newman had had his lights dimmed when he'd stopped suddenly for two reasons. They were now on the level and he'd caught sight of an open stretch of road running next to the lake. They parked the cars on the left-hand verge, under cover of a copse of trees. Then they had cautiously walked into the open.

To their right was a shoulder-high wall between the road and the lake. All seven of them had kept out of sight behind the wall, peering over it. Paula had perched her elbows on top of the wall and stared through her binoculars. Immediately opposite them on the far side of the lake was the base.

A very large and old two-storey building stood on top of a bluff at the lake's edge. It had huge and very steep gables, was built of wood as far as she could see. It appeared to be a cross between a farmhouse and a private residence. It had been masked from her previous survey, much higher up, by the fir forest which extended forward almost to the brink of the bluff. Tweed had borrowed Marler's binoculars and now Newman spoke urgently.

'Tweed, loan me those gla.s.ses for a minute.'

'Take mine,' said Paula and handed them to him.

Newman swiftly focused them. His target was not the house. He was aiming them at the string of red lights from the three black Audis retreating round the tip of the lake. As he spoke he followed them through the lenses.

'They're driving along a wide track which leads round the end of the lake. That's where we'll follow them when they've reached their base. I can drive along that track without lights.'

'And with luck,' Tweed commented, 'driving in white Audis they won't see us coming. We'll merge with the snow.'

'Is that why you asked me to get white cars?' Marler enquired.