‘Never heard of them. But would I be right in assuming that the word ‘family’ in this context means a Mafia connection?’
‘You would be. That’s what’s bothering Joe. The woman of course wasn’t actually kin; she worked for them. But they’re not people to tangle with.’
‘Even for the CIA?’
‘There’s the rub. The CIA could certainly handle one of these families, but dealing with domestic thugs is not their remit. That’s FBI stuff. And involving the FBI in handling the mob to protect you means telling the Feds who and what you are. You’re not supposed to be working for the US Government. For God’s sake, you’re not supposed to be alive. And these people have long memories. They haven’t forgotten 1941, when they had you cold for killing those six Russians and were told to keep off the grass. That rankled. Apparently it still does. J. Edgar Hoover never forgets.’
‘And the Russian connection? As I have never had anything to do with the Mafia in my life, there has to be a connection.’
‘He agrees. That photo of you was certainly taken in Moscow. Would that have been in 1941?’
Anna shook her head. ‘1940.’
‘You remember it?’
‘Very vaguely. I had just arrived, officially as a secretary in the German Embassy, and was being shown the sights by this Intourist guide. And suddenly this character pops up and snaps me. I thought nothing of it. I was only a kid and I knew I attracted men. Anyway, as I had never had anything to do with the Reds either, at that time, I couldn’t believe they had ever heard of me, much less had any idea who I was and what I was there for.’
‘And when they found out, and you slipped through their fingers, they put the whole state mechanism to work, and came up with that photographer. And as since then they have tried to grab you on God knows how many occasions and failed every time, they’re employing the Mafia to have a go. And,’ he added bitterly, ‘your gallant employers, the CIA, seem quite happy to let you sink or swim, on your own, without lifting a finger to help you.’
‘Just as my other gallant employers are happy to send me off on a pretty tricky assignment with no relevant information and a totally duff contact.’
He sighed. ‘I know. I suppose Billy was worried that if you knew about the wife and kid you’d have said no dice.’
‘And he would have been absolutely right.’
‘Anna, you simply have to get out.’
‘So tell me how I do that. Right now, it’d mean that I’d have the MGB, the Mafia, the CIA, and MI6, all on my back. And it would mean giving up the cay. I’m not going to do that.’
‘Are you saying that you have to charge blindly onwards until one of your pursuers finally catches up with you, or your employers give you a job even you can’t complete?’
‘My plan is to outlast them all, or all who matter.’ She gave one of her wicked smiles. ‘I look at it this way. I’m forty-one years younger than Stalin, thirty-odd years younger than Beria, more than twenty years younger than either Joe or Billy. If I can keep alive another few years they’ll all just fade away. I will, of course, need some help from my friends to do that.’
‘Therefore I can’t possibly leave you alone here to cope.’
‘You have to, for a couple of days, anyway. You have to tell Baxter that the job has been completed, and that he may have a problem with Lustrum. You also have to point out that as I have fulfilled my part of the bargain, I expect him to fulfil his. That needs to be stressed at the very highest level you can reach. You are the only person who can convince them that I have no intention or desire to kill anybody unless I am instructed to or in self-defence. Will you do that?’
‘If I can’t, I am resigning on the spot and coming back to join you here.’
‘Just remember to bring the wedding ring with you.’
INCIDENT IN THE STORM
‘What happens,’ Clive asked, as they walked down to the boat the next morning, where Tommy was waiting to ferry him to Nassau – Anna had used her radio to call ahead and book him a seat on the overnight flight to London, ‘if our friends decide to pay you a visit before I get back? They’ve been taking a look at us, you know.’
‘I do know. Tommy told me. Taking photographs.’
‘Real military reconnaissance stuff. So what do you reckon is their next step? With you virtually alone on the cay?’
Anna pointed at the sky. ‘Ever seen those before?’
Clive looked up. ‘No, I haven’t. Piled on top of one another like that? Does it mean something?’
‘Yes. It means there’s a hurricane out there.’
‘My God! And you never told me! But isn’t it a bit early for a hurricane?’
‘The season officially starts in June, and today’s the fourth. There have been hurricanes on the first day of the season before. It all depends on the sea temperatures. Anyway, it’s not confirmed that it’s coming this way yet. I’m going to get a weather update from Nassau in a few minutes. But it’s close. And it’s our best protection for the next few days. No one in their right mind moves around, either at sea or in the sky, while there’s a chance of running into one of those.’
‘And you expect me to rush off and abandon you to face that as well as a bunch of heavies?’
‘Yes. Because you have more important things to do than nursemaid me, and you have to get out while you can. First thing they do if a hurricane gets too close is to ground all aircraft. I told you, I’m perfectly safe. This island has taken a direct hit before, and it’s still here, and while the weather is around I’m not likely to receive any visitors, welcome or unwelcome.’ She kissed him. ‘Now hurry. Tommy,’ she called, ‘back as quick as you can.’
‘You got it, ma’am.’
She waved them through the reef, then returned to the house, found Johann in the radio room. ‘Latest update,’ he said. ‘The eye passed just north of the Turks and Caicos a couple of hours ago. They’re taking a pounding; sustained winds are a hundred and twenty miles an hour.’
‘Then it’s a big one. Speed and track?’
‘North-west, sixteen knots.’
‘And travelling fast. At least that means it’ll be gone by tomorrow.’ She looked at the big chart of the Bahamas pinned to the wall, and used a pair of dividers. ‘When was that update timed?’
‘Six this morning.’
‘Shit! That’s three hours ago. When you say it passed the Turks and Caicos a couple of hours ago, is that what the report said?’
‘Well, yes. Is that important?’
‘It could mean that the eye passed the islands five hours ago! They’re about three hundred and fifty miles to the south-east. If it passed them more than five hours ago, travelling at sixteen knots, it could be not much more than two hundred and fifty miles from us right now. If it maintains that speed and track it’ll be here by midnight tonight. That’s the eye. The hurricane wind will be getting up well before that, perhaps several hours. I think it’s time to batten down the hatches, PDQ.’
‘Maybe we should have gone into Nassau with Clive.’
‘Now, Pa, we’re not going to be afraid of a little wind, are we? I’ll take care of what we have to do.’
*
Dogs at her heels, she went to Desiree’s house. ‘There’s a storm coming, Desiree,’ she said. ‘It could be a big one. Do you want to stay here or go up to Eleuthera?’
‘Ow me God, ma’am. You staying here?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then we should stay with you.’ She hesitated.
‘There’s a but.’
‘It’s me mother, ma’am. She ain’t too well since me daddy died. I don’t think she could cope with no big storm.’
‘And she’s in Eleuthera?’
‘Yes, ma’am. She living in Bluff.’
‘Then you must go to her. As soon as Tommy gets back. Meanwhile put your shutters up.’
‘But you must have yours up too, ma’am.’
Anna nodded. ‘I’m going to get the boys on it now.’
<
br /> She went to the vegetable garden and brought Elias up to date. ‘I know you’ll want to get home,’ she said. ‘And you’ll go with Desiree and Tommy as soon as he gets back from Nassau. Meanwhile, drop all this and put the shutters up on the house.’
‘You got it, borse. You staying here?’
‘Yes.’
He chewed his lip uncertainly.
Anna smiled at him. ‘I can manage on my own for a couple of days. And you have your houses and families to think of. Let’s hurry.’
*
The morning was filled with activity, as the storm shutters were carried from the store shed and put in place. The operation was simple in terms of mechanics – each shutter was fitted with bolts which slotted into sockets let into the walls of the house – but as they were great heavy things carting them about required a good deal of strength and effort.
The upstairs windows were far more simple, as there the shutters were built-in, with iron bars across. Anna attended to these herself with the help of her mother. She also wound down the aerial, as that was extremely vulnerable to a strong wind and she had no intention of making, or receiving, any calls.
The job was completed by one, and Anna sent the staff off to have lunch and pack up their gear; as Tommy had left at half past eight, he would have dropped Clive and be on his way back by now. She, Johann and Jane ate in the shuttered gloom of the dining room. ‘What do we do now?’ Jane asked as they cleared away the dishes.
‘We wait,’ Anna said.
She took the dogs for a walk, watched the clouds building to the south-east, while it remained clear overhead. As what might be going to happen was outside her experience, it was impossible to form any plan of action beyond utilizing the knowledge she had gained from books and from what she had been told. But she was trying to think of every eventuality.
She could do nothing about the poultry, who would have to survive as best they could; while she would be sorry to lose any of them, they could be replaced. From a human perspective, a more serious potential problem was the cistern. This was situated about ten feet above the normal water level; a lot would depend on the height of the storm surge, if there was one. But again, she could do nothing about that until after it happened, save . . . she returned to the house.
‘I think we need to fill all three bath tubs,’ she told her mother. ‘To the very brim. Then we stick to showers until this is over. That way, if the cistern is contaminated, we’ll have enough drinking water to last us a week or more, which should allow time to get a tanker up from Nassau.’
‘You really think there could be that big a surge?’
‘I hope not. But we have to allow for it.’
‘You’re always so calm,’ Jane observed.
‘I had to learn, at an early age, that getting agitated only ever makes things worse.’
Jane squeezed her hand and got to work.
Anna went up to her bedroom veranda and used her high-powered binoculars to survey the sea to the south. Although the clouds were building very fast and coming closer, now more black than white, the wind remained light and the sea calm. And immediately she gave a sigh of relief as she spotted the Chris-Craft, moving towards the cay at speed. There was no other shipping in sight, but from habit she swung the glasses to the west and north, sweeping the deep water channel. And frowned.
There was something out there, at the very limit of the binocular range even when positioned some thirty feet above sea level, perhaps forty miles. It was too far off properly to make out, but it had to be a boat of some sort, and she did not think it was large enough to be a liner hurrying for shelter, and in any event, it was coming this way. Most probably it was a trawler. Although she would have thought any trawler late returning would be heading for Nassau rather than Eleuthera; the only really snug harbours on the big island were on the south-eastern end, which was well over a hundred miles away from the cay, much less out there at sea; the vessel wouldn’t make it before the arrival of the hurricane . . . at the south-eastern end of the island.
She went down to the dock to greet Tommy. ‘Any problems?’
‘No, ma’am. Mr Bartley must have been in good time for his plane. You boys help me bed this down,’ he told the gardeners, who were waiting along with Desiree.
They fell to, carrying out double warps in every direction, massing the topsides with fenders.
‘Any other shipping about?’ Anna asked, casually.
‘Nobody in his right mind going to sea right now. Saving me.’
Anna decided against telling him about the craft she had just sighted. He could do nothing about it, and he might just be so agitated that he’d refuse to leave the island. As it was, he asked as they boarded the runabout. ‘You sure you going be all right, ma’am?’
‘That is the very thing bothering me,’ Desiree put in.
‘I’ll be all right,’ Anna assured him. ‘Just make sure you’re all right. That’s a big stretch of open water between here and North Eleuthera.’
‘Ah, is only thirty miles, ma’am. We be there in an hour and a half. And we coming back just as soon as the sea go back down.’
‘Just don’t take any risks. And make sure the runabout is safe.’
She waved them off, watched them steering over the shallows to the north-east, while she fondled the two dogs. Suddenly she felt intensely lonely, even if she knew that they had to go, both on account of the coming storm and because she couldn’t risk having them here if there was trouble coming out of the west. But with them gone, she could concentrate on the problems nearer to hand. She looked up at the sky, which was now entirely black.
‘Come along, chaps.’ She led them back up to the house, but before they got there the skies opened in a drenching downpour. She ran the last fifty yards, arrived laughing and panting, while the dogs barked with delicious excitement. ‘Now shake,’ she commanded, when they gained the veranda. They obeyed and she opened the door. ‘You’re spending the night in here.’
That seemed to delight them, and they followed her up the stairs to her bedroom, where they were regarded with outraged scepticism by Isis. Anna took her binoculars on to the veranda again. The squall had swept across the island and was now over the passage, obliterating visibility for the moment. Then it cleared, and she could see the mysterious boat again.
It was definitely coming straight for the cay, and now that it was some thirty miles off she could just about estimate that it was something over fifty feet long, and therefore capable of carrying at least twenty people in reasonable comfort.
She continued to study the stranger for some minutes, trying to ascertain its speed. This was certainly not very fast, about eight knots, she thought. That meant it would reach the outer reef in about three hours time, just about dusk. But there was only the one narrow passage, which required local knowledge, and within the reef there was no shelter, just open beach. As they had to know there was a storm on its way, if they were coming here they would need to round the south side of the island and gain the more sheltered shallows, and hope to get into her little harbour.
If they were coming here. But that was an increasingly likely scenario. She went downstairs, accompanied by the dogs, still excited at being allowed the run of this unknown territory, and opened the wooden cases, which had already been unsealed by Clive. Two hundred five-shot point-two-two magazines for her Walther. But she didn’t think they would be too much value in a major shoot-out. Two tommy guns, loaded, and with four spare drums each. Perfect! It was three years since last she had fired a tommy gun.
And then, the rocket-launcher. Although a heavy weapon it was both simpler and lighter than she had expected, and fitted neatly into her shoulder; open at both ends there would be no recoil to worry about. There were six rockets, each containing about three and a half pounds of penthalite, an explosive powerful enough, it was claimed, to penetrate five inches of armour; it should certainly get through a couple of inches of wood, once the enemy came within the rather limited range
of three hundred yards. The gap through the southern reef was just about that distance from the dock.
‘Have you ever fired one of those?’ her father asked from the doorway.
‘There’s a first time for everything.’
‘But you think there is going to be a first time?’
‘It could happen. Papa, you understand the drill about handling a hurricane?’
‘We’ve been through it often enough.’
‘Tell me. Word for word.’
He frowned, then concentrated. ‘When the storm is very close, there will be a catastrophic fall in barometric pressure, which in a confined space can be dangerous. So, as the first force will approach from the north-east, we open a shutter on the south-west side to equalize the pressure inside the house. This is safe until the eye passes over, when the wind will drop right away and the skies may even clear. But within a few minutes the wind will resume from the south-west, perhaps stronger than before. During the eye, therefore, shutter number one must be closed, and a north-east facing window opened.’
‘Perfect. Remember all that, and you can’t go wrong.’
‘But you’re going to be here, aren’t you?’
‘That is my intention. But you never know. I’m going out for a little while. Lock the door behind me, and don’t open it again until I call. Promise?’
‘Anna . . . there is trouble, isn’t there?’
‘Come with me.’ She took him upstairs to her bedroom, showed him the approaching boat, which was now visible to the naked eye.
‘You think that could be coming here?’
‘It’s beginning to look like it.’
Now that it was within about ten miles of the island, the boat was altering course to the south-east, for the passage through the main reef.
‘But . . . aren’t they just seeking shelter?’
‘Papa, that boat has come from far away. As everyone knows there is a storm coming, it shouldn’t be out there at all. If it hasn’t been listening to the forecasts, which is hard to believe, and has suddenly realized it’s in danger, it should be making for Nassau. It’s only forty miles, and it’s out of the direct path of the storm. But it’s not doing that. It’s trying to get in here, where there is no shelter at all, where there’s no room for a thing that size with my boat in place.’
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