November’s composure broke. “You’re a dead man,” he snarled at Thornhill.
“Thirty seconds ago, I was more dead than you could ever imagine. Now both of us are merely might-have-beens; you a colossus and I a squalid assassin,” Thornhill replied.
It took the Swiss security team some time to reach them. Removing prominent world figures from a crowded stairway was not a contingency they had planned for and their natural deference to status slowed them down. As they closed in, the security team recognised Thornhill as a colleague and tried to move November and Golkov away. But someone had taken the decision to move the procession on.
Enclosed in a bubble of self-importance and indignation at the delay, the crowd surged past November, Golkov, Thornhill and the security team. The group was pressed together by the shoulders and elbows of the rich, the powerful and the famous.
“You’re merely an island in the stream, Mr November. History moves on, but now you’re just a spectator, not a player,” Thornhill said.
The Swiss, embarrassed by their slow response, wanted to establish their authority and began to hustle November and Golkov away through the crowd.
“I will destroy you,” November hissed, as the distance between him and Thornhill widened.
“I nearly saved you the trouble,” Thornhill said.
Wolski was oblivious to the drama, pomp and circumstance of the event. For him, the moment was intimately personal.
“Wait.”
The loudest shout of which he was capable was almost lost in the surrounding hubbub, but his obvious frailty worked to his advantage as the crowd instinctively parted, allowing him to reach through the ring of guards and push a crumpled scrap of paper into Golkov’s hand. It was the postcard of the Night Watch.
“This is your property; I no longer need it and it should be returned to you,” Wolski said with formal politeness and the slightest of bows.
*
“How was it done? “Thornhill asked the group gathered in the security office.
It was Darcy who replied. “A number of the photographers had their gear stolen from the Press hotel. It was replaced late last night in an apparently generous gesture.”
“Go on,” Thornhill said.
Morag spoke. “The Swiss forensic lab have the gear and we’ll get their detailed report in the morning, but it seems that in the replacement flashguns there was a tiny cartridge of compressed air and a projectile made of ice. The mechanism was to be activated by radio so as to avoid discharge before photography of the signing of the Declaration began.”
“Why didn’t the ice melt?” Thornhill asked.
“Ice doesn’t have to be made with water,” Wolski said. “This was some kind of synthetic ice within a casing with remarkable insulating properties. The friction of the projectile through the air would have caused the casing to melt. When the pellet hit the skin of the target it would have delivered a calibrated dose.”
“That would have put them at each other’s throats?” Thornhill asked.
“I’m sure they were confident of the technology after trying it out on the pigs,” Wolski said.
“So only those being photographed at the signing of the Declaration would have been affected?”
It was Morag who answered the question. “Yes, that’s exactly what they wanted. It was important that nobody else was hit. The whole point of the exercise was to create bloody mayhem among heads of government in front of the world’s media.”
“A workable madness,” Thornhill said. “On the one hand, we have world leaders personally engaging in a display of violence not seen in public since Christians were thrown to the lions. On the other hand, Mr November is offering a hundred billion dollars for people to spend sorting out the world’s problems. Who would you choose?”
“That’s what his next appearance at Madison Square Garden would have been all about – to make the nation an offer it couldn’t refuse,” Darcy said.
Thornhill turned to Wolski with an outstretched hand. “Professor, how did you spot it?”
“I almost didn’t,” Wolski replied.
Chapter 36 - The End of the Beginning
There was a raw, clean cold by the slowly thawing lakeside. Thornhill stood alone beside the black water. Only the distant engine of a patrol boat troubled the silence.
“What are you doing?” It was Morag. The snow had silenced her approach.
“They’re making history in there; you’ll miss the show,” Thornhill said without turning to face her.
“You’re part of it, you should be in there,” Morag said.
“No, I’m not. I nearly was, but I’m not, thank God,” Thornhill said quietly.
There was a moment of quiet.
“You’re missing the event of the century,” Morag said insistently.
“So are you. Why are you out here?” Thornhill asked.
“I wanted to be with you,” Morag said.
The words swung Thornhill round, as he finally saw what he had missed for so long. Unsure of himself on unfamiliar ground, he couldn’t find the right words.
“Why?” he asked clumsily.
“You’d never understand,” Morag said as she closed the space between them.
Thornhill replied gently. “Perhaps it’s best for both of us if I don’t try.”
Morag turned to stare into the night. “Yes,” she said in a whisper.
Thornhill stood alongside her. He took the ceramic gun from his pocket and hurled it into the darkness.
“What’s that?” Morag said. For an instant, before it hit the water, the pistol was silhouetted against the looming lights of the city on the distant shore. “My God, you were going to…”
Letting her into his secret was a moment of intimacy. “Only you know,” he said.
“Thank you.” She turned to face him and stepped closer. “Will that be the only secret between us?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll keep it safe.”
“I know you will.”
He took her by the shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank you,” he said quietly.
They looked hesitatingly at each other. In the still air, a haze of frozen breath hung between them.
“I have to leave,” Thornhill said.
Morag turned back towards the lake. “I know.”
Thornhill’s snow-muffled footsteps receded across the lawn.
Without turning from the dark water, Morag called, “Where are you going?”
“Home.”
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Before the Beginning
Chapter 2 - Kloptik
Chapter 3 - Murphy
Chapter 4 - Thornhill
Chapter 5 - Westminster
Chapter 6 - Bach
Chapter 7 - Bermuda
Chapter 8 - Warsaw
Chapter 9 - Jakob
Chapter 10 - Cortexean
Chapter 11 - The Bialystok Road
Chapter 12 - Hamburg
Chapter 13 - The Experiment
Chapter 14 - The Judgement
Chapter 15 - November
Chapter 16 - Galesburg Illinois
Chapter 17 - 44th Street
Chapter 18 - The United States of Paradox
Chapter 19 - Madison Square Garden
Chapter 20 - Noplace, Nevada
Chapter 21 - A Journey East
Chapter 22 - The Cabinet Office, London
Chapter 23 - Washington, DC
Chapter 24 - The Refuge
Chapter 25 - Tribeca, New York
Chapter 26 - Chelsea, London
Chapter 27 - The Hog’s Back
Chapter 28 - Upper East Side, Manhattan
Chapter 29 - Geneva, Switzerland
Chapter 30 - Morristown, New Jersey
Chapter 31 - Golkov
Chapter 32 - The Flight
Chapter 33 - From the Rockies to the Himalayas
Chapter 34 - Helios
Chapter 35 - The Summit
Chapter 36 - The End of the Beginning
The Night Watch Page 31