A Prospect of Vengeance (40 page)

‘Yes, I do agree. It was quite unnecessarily violent. But that’s the Spaniards for you. And they are actually rather pleased with us: they’ve wanted to settle with that Irishman ever since the Basques hired him to blow up that general of theirs.’

‘
They left it damnably late, though. Aguirre could have taken the man long before. Straight off the plane, in fact
—
with no shooting. And no risk to Audley
’
s family
—
I really didn
’
t like that at all, Latimer.
’

‘Yes. But we couldn’t tell Aguirre what to do, Jack—could we? And, of course, I suppose he wanted as many of MacManus’s ETA contacts as possible: it was obvious that the man would call in their help to trace Audley once he knew where Fielding and Robinson were going.’

‘
And how the devil did he know that?
’

‘We’re not quite sure, as yet. But he did have the Romanians to help him, of course. And they could have leaned on one of Buller’s friends just as we did. But Aguirre assured me there’d be no risk to Audley.’

‘
There
’
s always a risk
…
And there
’
s also the death of that fellow Tully. The Special Branch has already been on to me about that. They seem to think MacManus was responsible.
’

‘Yes … well, that was a little rumour I let slip on the grapevine, Jack. So now that he’s dead they’ll most likely settle for “person or persons unknown”, I shouldn’t wonder.’

‘
But Mitchell says it wasn
’
t MacManus.
’

‘No, I agree. It was most likely one of the Romanians—the Departamentul de Informatii Externe doing its stuff … Mitchell’s pretty sure that MacManus’s minder was one of their officers. And it seems they’re missing one of their trade attachés, so that fits. Plus Masson was their murder-victim originally, of course: the whole thing was their project,
ab initio
…
‘

‘
And they
’
ve caused all the trouble now. Damned Romanians! I
’
d almost rather deal with the Russians, I sometimes think.
’

‘Yes … well, I rather hope we can leave it to the Russians to sort out now, Jack. Because they’re not at all pleased with the
Departamentul
as of now. In fact, there are going to be some heads rolling before very long. We may even pick up a defector or two—I have had a word with Jaggard about that, actually.’

‘
Well, just make sure it doesn
’
t get into the newspapers. Otherwise it
’
ll only stir up that damn Fielding woman even more.
’

‘She doesn’t know anything about the Romanian connection, Jack.’

‘
But she can put two-and-two together. And Audley
’
s already told her far too much for my liking. I don
’
t know what he was playing at, frankly.
’

‘Oh … David was taking a calculated risk. And for once I must support him, Jack. Because we really cannot afford the publication of another book. And particularly a book about R & D … So he really had to stop her somehow.’

‘
By telling her everything?
’

‘He didn’t tell her everything, exactly … But, look at it this way, Jack: the Russians will rein in the Romanians now—
they
know that no one will believe the DIE wasn’t acting on their orders. And they certainly wouldn’t like everyone to know that the Romanians have been feeding
our
disinformation to Moscow all these years—‘

‘
I
’
m not worried about them. It
’
s the woman Fielding I
’
m concerned with: she
’
s well-connected. And she
’
s tricky, like all journalists. And the man Robinson, who writes her books
—
he can
’
t be trusted, either.
’

‘Oh, I don’t think he’ll write this one, Jack.’

‘No?
Why not
?’

‘He doesn’t want to, apparently. And … he’s about to get the offer of a rather nice research fellowship at Rylands College in Cambridge, I happen to know.’

‘
How do you know?
’

‘I have a friend there who is an admirer of his work. We’ve had a little talk, and we both think Mr Robinson will be happier in the groves of academe. And he has rather gone off Miss Fielding-ffulke, Mitchell says.’

‘
I see. But that still leaves her, Latimer
.’

‘Yes. But … well, I think we can leave
her
to David now, Jack.’

‘
To Audley?But—
‘

‘They’ve rather taken to each other. And David says that she could be very useful to us, in the right place and handled properly. And … ’

‘
And?
’

‘And David also particularly wants to know who put her on to him in the first place. He says that Masson turning up like that again … that was pure accident. But the Honourable Jennifer Fielding-ffulke overhearing one particular piece of gossip about her beloved godfather …
that
was too much of a coincidence. And David doesn’t like coincidences. And nor, I must say, do I.’

‘
You mean
…
it wasn
’
t the Romanians?
’

‘We’re not sure. But we do have other enemies. And it’s as well to know who they are, don’t you think?’

‘
Very well. But only on the strict understanding that no
positive action is to be taken
—
is that understood, Latimer? Not by you
—
and not by Audley: no settling of scores
—
understood? We
’
ve had quite enough of that in this affair already.
’

‘Understood, Jack. “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord”. I’ll tell David that.’

The End