Precipice

by Colin Forbes

  'Oh, all right. I suppose I have to work even to get that dinner at the Priory. There's no one in the house . . .'

  Brazil sat in the limo perched at the top of the slope as she walked away, her trench coat flapping round her like a cloak. The words of the cassette Gustav had played back to him were echoing in his mind. She would have sold him out to Newman for a hundred thousand. And he didn't for a moment believe that Gustav had decided on his own to try and kill Tweed. Someone had put the idea into his head - had probably relayed a fictitious order from himself. He knew who that someone had to be.

  Eve reached the edge of the cliff, glanced down, backed away with a shudder several paces. She pressed the binoculars to her eyes. Couldn't make out who was on board the incoming power cruiser.

  'Damned fool.' she muttered. 'I told him they were the wrong glasses. Now I'll have to wait until the thing gets much closer.'

  Inside the car Brazil unlocked a compartment, took out the black glove, slipped it over his right hand. Igor began to get excited. Brazil pointed his index finger at Eve.

  Leaning over, he opened the passenger door. Igor bounded out, began loping towards Eve who had her back to him. Brazil folded his arms, watched, waited with no expression on his face.

  Igor, unlike the time when it had toppled Jose over the brink, was not running over the snow which had muffled the sound of its fast-moving paws. Here the ground was hard and its paws hammered down on the surface, no longer muffled.

  Eve, with her acute hearing, realized what was happening. At the last moment she dropped the glasses, dropped her body flat on the ground, cushioning her fall with her gloved hands. Her chin was protruding over the abyss.

  Igor had already taken off, leaping up to crash into her back before he dropped to the ground. Instead, there was nothing to stop its flying leap and it continued on into space, then began falling with nothing to stop it until it reached the rocks and the sea far below.

  Eve stood up, her expression ugly. She composed herself before she turned round, began to march steadily back up towards the car. One hand opened her shoulder bag as she studied the position of the limo perched at the beginning of the downward slope.

  Brazil reached across to open the passenger door he had closed. He started speaking as soon as she reached the car.

  'Get in. That's the last wolfhound I have anything to do with.'

  'You bastard!'

  Her face was twisted in manic rage as she spoke and aimed the canister full in his face, pressed the button. Mace gas enveloped Brazil. He let out a choking cry, both hands over his eyes as he endured agonizing pain, unable to see anything.

  Eve slammed the passenger door shut, ran round the car, opened the driver's door, reached in to the automatic controls, moved the gear lever from 'park' to 'drive', released the brake, slammed the door closed. Shoving the canister back inside her shoulder bag, she leaned against the side of the limo, used both hands to push it with all her strength. It began to move downwards. She grinned sadistically. Inside, Brazil was using one hand to fumble for the door handle, couldn't find it. Eve felt herself moving with the car.

  She glanced down, saw with horror the wind had blown a large flap of her trench coat inside the car, so when she had closed the door it had trapped the flap inside. The limo's momentum began increasing, unbalancing her. She crashed down on to her shoulder, still dragged along beside the car. Desperately she extended her left arm, clutched at the trench coat on the outside of the door, trying to rip it free with her hand. But the cloth was strong, remained fixed inside the door.

  Her body, keelhauled along the hard ground, was partially protected by her clothing, but her shoulder bag was caught underneath her and the canister dug into her body. The limo was picking up speed now, she glanced ahead, saw the cliff edge rushing towards her.

  The car hit something as the front wheels went over the brink. A large long rock, shaped like a huge log, had trapped the chassis midway and began to act as a fulcrum, stopping the limo. Eve was perched over the edge from her waist. The car began to see-saw over the rock fulcrum. She was staring down the three hundred foot precipice, down its sheer face to the huge rocks like fangs at the base of the cliff. A huge wave crashed against the cliff, briefly submerging the rocks. The wind blew spume and spray high up the cliff, into her face.

  'What's happening on that cliff?' Philip asked. 'I can vaguely see a car hanging over the edge.'

  'I think it could be Brazil's car.' Tweed replied carefully.

  'But don't you seeRIGHT SQUARE BRACKET' Paula began.

  She was stopped saying anything else by a nudge in the ribs from Tweed. He shook his head, nodded towards Philip's back.

  Through their glasses they had seen it all. Tweed was able to make out the terror on Eve's face as she gazed down into eternity. He felt it better Philip did not know the details.

  The power cruiser was still some distance from the cliff-top and Philip was struggling to fight the current, his whole attention concentrated on steering the vessel.

  Tweed and Paula, along with Newman and Marler on the starboard deck, continued gazing through their binoculars at the horror on the cliff.

  The limo continued to see-saw slowly. The front wheels would be lifted into the air while Eve tore away with her left hand at the trench coat, hoping her body weight, uplifted with the car, would pull the cloth free. At the summit of the see-saw she glanced down, saw the ground at the edge of the precipice below her, knew that if she could get free she had a chance of falling on to terra firma. Then the front wheels would begin to descend and, once more, half her body was poised over the edge.

  Inside the car Brazil, who had taken the brunt of the Mace gas in his left eye, could see, mistily, the sea rolling in, realized the car was half over the brink. His clawing hand found the handle, grasped it, tried to open the door. But the cloth caught in the door had jammed it. He hardly knew what he was doing as the car continued its diabolical see-sawing motion.

  Eve's body was jolted. She knew something had happened. Something fateful. The limo was slipping forward off its fulcrum, sliding over the rock which had held it there for so long. There was a sudden lurch and her mind blanked out.

  The car slid forward, paused as the rear wheels met the fulcrum. With the major weight of the car now poised over the cliff the rear wheels were hauled forward. Eve had a glimpse of the precipice again, of the sea rushing up to meet her. She became unconscious.

  The car, with its second passenger attached to its side, plunged down, sheering past the black wall of the precipice, gaining more and more momentum. It hit the biggest of the fanged rocks on the tip just as a monster wave broke over the rock, exploding water halfway up the cliff. When it receded the car had vanished. The tide was going out, the savage sea had claimed another portion of its prey.

  'Philip, take us back to Poole Harbour.' Tweed said after he had lowered his binoculars.

  'The car went down, didn't it?' Philip asked.

  'Yes, it did.'

  'Who was inside it? What happened?'

  'Brazil was inside it.' Tweed said quickly. 'I think his brakes failed him at just the wrong moment, as brakes sometimes do. Paula, come with me. Time we had a word with Newman and Marler . . .'

  He ran down the steps leading to the deck, this time holding onto the rail. The vessel was pitching and tossing as Philip began to change course, and the wind was blowing like a banshee. Tweed spoke when he had Paula, Newman, and Marler together inside the luxurious cabin.

  'You all saw what happened. Philip, not using glasses, only saw the car go. I told him Brazil was inside it. After we've landed I'm going to tell him Eve was inside the car, sitting next to Brazil. I know he no longer has any emotions about Eve, but I think he'd find what really happened very upsetting. So, all of you, keep your stories straight. Understood?'

  They told him they did understand. Tweed suggested they might as well stay in the huge cabin until they docked. Paula said she thought it was a good idea, but she was go
ing back on the bridge to keep Philip company. When she had gone Tweed switched on a radio to the World Service.

  'It has just been reported,' the announcer said, 'that General Marov has called for a summit conference of the great powers to be held in Vienna. The President of the United States has agreed to attend, as have the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of Germany, and the President of France. It is understood that the ailing President of Russia has handed over plenipotentiary powers to General Marov to negotiate. That is the end of the announcement.'

  Tweed switched off the radio. He smiled without humour.

  'In short, that means first that Marov has established Russia again as a major force in the world. Second that Marov is the man who controls the new, sealed-off Russia. We may be busy in future.'

  'What happened to Archie?' Tweed asked Marler just after they had re-entered Poole Harbour and were close to disembarking.

  'Oh, Archie,' Marler drawled. 'When he'd seen the end of The Motorman he just vanished, the way he always does. He'll be in touch with me sooner or later.'

  'And Keith Kent will be sending me a big bill,' Tweed ruminated.

  'Kent did call me at the Elite,' Newman remarked. 'I told him there wasn't anything else he could do. He promised to send you his account. Feel that bump? We've landed . . .'

  They waited by their transport until Philip returned after dealing with the formalities of handing back the power cruiser. Paula took him to one side as the others climbed into their vehicles.

  'Philip, you're not going back to that empty house on your own, are you?'

  'Why not?' He gave her a warm smile. 'That's my home.'