Authors: Wilbur Smith
Wild Justice (43 page)
âBut?' Peter prompted her.
âBut you do not order a man like Aaron to go against his deepest convictions, and under that forbidding exterior Aaron Altmann was a man of great humanity. I think that the reason for his agitation was the conflict of duty and belief that he was forced to endure His instinct warned him to destroy Caliph, and his dutyâ'
She shrugged, and picked up her fluted champagne glass, twisting it between those long slim fingers and studying the pinpricks of bubbles as they rose slowly through the pale golden wine. When she spoke again she had changed direction disconcertingly.
âA thousand times I had tried to discover what was so different between you and me than with the other men I have known. Why none of them could move meâand yet with you it was almost instantaneousâ' She looked up at him again as though she was still seeking the reason. ââ Of course, I knew so much about you. You had the qualities I admire in another human being, so I was disposed favourably â but there are other qualities you cannot detail on a computer printout nor capture in a photograph. There was something about you that made meâ' She made a helpless gesture as she searched for the word. ââ You made me tingle.'
âThat's a good word,' Peter smiled.
âAnd I had never tingled before. So I had to be very sure It was a new experience to want a man merely because he is gentle and strong andâ' she chuckled, ââ just plain sexy You are sexy, you know that, Peter, but also you are something elseâ' She broke off âNo, I am not going to flatter you any more. I do not want you to get swollen anklesâ' mixing the French idiom quaintly with the English, and this time not correcting herself. She went straight on. âCaliph must have realized that I had recruited a
dangerous ally. He made the attempt to kill you that night on the Rambouillet roadâ'
dangerous ally. He made the attempt to kill you that night on the Rambouillet roadâ'
âThey were after you,' Peter cut in.
âWho, Peter? Who was after me?'
âThe Russians â by that time they knew you were a double agent.'
âYes, they knewâ' She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. âI had thought about it, of course, and there had been two previous attempts on me, but I do not think the attempt on the Rambouillet road was Russian.'
âAll right, Caliph then, but after you â not me,' Peter suggested.
âPerhaps, but again I do not think so. My instinct tells me they had the right target. They were after you.'
âI would have to agree,' Peter said. âI think I was followed when I left Paris that eveningâ' and he told her about the Citroën. ââ I think they knew that I was alone in the Maserati.'
âThen we accept it was Caliph,' she stated flatly.
ââ or Mossad,' Peter murmured, and her eyes slowly widened, turning a darker thoughtful green as Peter went on.
âWhat if Mossad did not want an Atlas man getting close to their star agent, they didn't want you to have an ally in your hunt for Caliph? What if they just didn't want me cluttering up the carefully rehearsed scenario?'
âPeter, it's very deep waterâ'
ââ and there are packs of sharks.'
âLet's leave that night on the Rambouillet road for the moment,' she suggested. âIt merely complicates the story I am trying to tell you.'
âAll right,' Peter agreed. âWe can come back to it, if we have to.'
âThe next significant move was the abduction of Melissa-Jane,' she said, and Peter's expression changed, becoming flat and stony.
The choice of the victim was genius-inspired,' she said. âBut it required no special knowledge of you or your domestic arrangements. There was no secret that you had an only child, and it needed but a casual appraisal of your character to understand how powerful a lever she could beâ' Magda dipped the tip of her finger into the champagne and then sucked it thoughtfully, pursing her lips and frowning slightly.
âYou must understand that by this time I had faced the fact that I was in love with you. The gift was supposed to affirm thatâ' She flushed slightly under her honey tan, and it was appealing and child-like. He had never seen her blush before and it twisted something in his chest.
The book,' he remembered. The Cornwallis Harris first edition.'
âMy first love gift ever. I bought it when I finally admitted it to myself â but I was determined that I would not admit it to you. I am old-fashioned enough to believe the man must speak first.'
âI did.'
âGod, I'll never forget it,' she said fervently, and they both thought of the savage confrontation the previous day which had ended incongruously in a declaration of love.
âI try to be unconventional,' he said, and she shook her head smiling.
âYou succeed,
mon amour
, oh how you succeed.' Then she sobered again. âI was in love with you. Your distress was mine. The child was a lovely girl, she had captivated me when we met â and on top of all that I felt deadly responsible for her plight. I had inveigled you into joining my hunt for Caliph, and because of that you had lost your daughter.'
mon amour
, oh how you succeed.' Then she sobered again. âI was in love with you. Your distress was mine. The child was a lovely girl, she had captivated me when we met â and on top of all that I felt deadly responsible for her plight. I had inveigled you into joining my hunt for Caliph, and because of that you had lost your daughter.'
He bowed his head slightly, remembering how he had believed that she had engineered it. She recognized the gesture.
âYes, Peter. For me it was the cruellest stroke. That you
should believe it of me. There was nothing that I would not have done to give her back to you â and yet there seemed nothing that I could do. My contacts with French intelligence had nothing for me. They had no inkling of how or where the child was being held â and my control at Mossad was unaccountably evasive. Somehow I had the feeling that Mossad had the key to the kidnapping. If they were not directly involved they knew more than anybody else. I have already explained that I believed Aaron had given them the identity of Caliph. If that was so, then they must know something that could have helped you to recover your child â but from Paris I was powerless to gather that information. I had to go in person to Israel and confront my control there. It was the one chance that I could get them to co-operate. They might believe my value as an agent was worth enough to give me a lead to Melissa-Janeâ'
should believe it of me. There was nothing that I would not have done to give her back to you â and yet there seemed nothing that I could do. My contacts with French intelligence had nothing for me. They had no inkling of how or where the child was being held â and my control at Mossad was unaccountably evasive. Somehow I had the feeling that Mossad had the key to the kidnapping. If they were not directly involved they knew more than anybody else. I have already explained that I believed Aaron had given them the identity of Caliph. If that was so, then they must know something that could have helped you to recover your child â but from Paris I was powerless to gather that information. I had to go in person to Israel and confront my control there. It was the one chance that I could get them to co-operate. They might believe my value as an agent was worth enough to give me a lead to Melissa-Janeâ'
âYou threatened Mossad with resignation?' Peter asked wonderingly. âYou would have done that for me?'
âOh, Peter, don't you understand? I loved you â and I had never been in love before. I would have done anything for you.'
âYou make me feel humble,' he said.
She did not reply, but let the statement stand as though she were savouring it, then she sighed contentedly and went on. âI left everything in Paris. I have an established routine for disappearing when it is necessary. Pierre took me to Rome in the Lear; from there I telephoned you but I could not tell you what I was going to do. Then I switched identity and took a commercial flight to Tel Aviv. My task in Israel was difficult, much more difficult than I had bargained for. It was five days before my control would see me. He is an old friend. No! perhaps not a friend, but we have known each other a long time. He is the deputy director of Mossad. That is how highly they value my services, to give me such an important controller, but still it took five days before he would see me, and he was cold.
There was no help they could give me, he said. They knew nothing.' She chuckled. âYou have never seen me when I want something really badly, Peter. Ha! â What a battle. There is much I knew that would embarrass Mossad with her powerful allies of the West â with France and Great Britain and the U.S.A. â I threatened to hold a Press conference in New York. He became less cold, he told me that the security of the State took precedence over all personal feelings, and I said something very rude about the security of the State, and reminded him of some outstanding business which I would happily leave outstanding. He became warmer â but all this was taking time, days, many days, too many days. I was going crazy. I remembered how they had found Aaron's body, and I could not sleep at night for worrying about that lovely child. And you, oh Peter, you will never know how I prayed to a god that I was not too sure of. You will never know how I wanted to be with you to comfort you. I wanted so desperately just to hear your voice â but I could not break my cover from Tel Aviv I could not even telephone you, nor send you a letterâ' She broke off. ââ I hoped you would not believe bad things of me You would not believe that I did not care. That I was not prepared to help you I could only hope that I would be able to bring you some information of value to prove it was not true â but I never dreamed that one day you would believe that it was I who had taken your daughter and tortured her.'
There was no help they could give me, he said. They knew nothing.' She chuckled. âYou have never seen me when I want something really badly, Peter. Ha! â What a battle. There is much I knew that would embarrass Mossad with her powerful allies of the West â with France and Great Britain and the U.S.A. â I threatened to hold a Press conference in New York. He became less cold, he told me that the security of the State took precedence over all personal feelings, and I said something very rude about the security of the State, and reminded him of some outstanding business which I would happily leave outstanding. He became warmer â but all this was taking time, days, many days, too many days. I was going crazy. I remembered how they had found Aaron's body, and I could not sleep at night for worrying about that lovely child. And you, oh Peter, you will never know how I prayed to a god that I was not too sure of. You will never know how I wanted to be with you to comfort you. I wanted so desperately just to hear your voice â but I could not break my cover from Tel Aviv I could not even telephone you, nor send you a letterâ' She broke off. ââ I hoped you would not believe bad things of me You would not believe that I did not care. That I was not prepared to help you I could only hope that I would be able to bring you some information of value to prove it was not true â but I never dreamed that one day you would believe that it was I who had taken your daughter and tortured her.'
âI am sorry,' he said quietly.
âNo, do not say you are sorry. We were both Caliph's playthings. There is no blame on you.' She laid her hand upon his arm and smiled at him. âIt was not you alone who believed bad things. For at last I had prevailed on my Mossad control to give me some little scraps of information. At first he denied completely that they had ever heard of Caliph, but I risked lying to him. I told him that Aaron had told me he had reported the Caliph contact He gave
ground. Yes, he admitted. They knew of Caliph, but they did not know who he was. I hammered on, demanding to see my controller each day, driving him as mad as I was â until he threatened to have me deported even. But each time we met I wheedled and bullied a little more from him.
ground. Yes, he admitted. They knew of Caliph, but they did not know who he was. I hammered on, demanding to see my controller each day, driving him as mad as I was â until he threatened to have me deported even. But each time we met I wheedled and bullied a little more from him.
âAt last he admitted, “All right, we know Caliph but he is very dangerous, very powerfulâand he will become more powerful â God willing, he will become one of the most powerful men in the world, and he is a friend of Israel. Or rather we believe he is a friend of Israel.”
âI bullied some more and he told me, “We have put an agent close to Caliph, very close to him, and we cannot jeopardize this agent. He is a valuable agent, very valuable but very vulnerable to Caliph. We cannot take the chance that Caliph could trace information back to him. We have to protect our man.”
âNow I threatened, and he told me the agent's code-name to protect both of us should we ever have to make contact. The code-name is “CACTUS FLOWER”.'
âThat was all?' Peter asked, with evident disappointment.
âNo, my control gave me another name. As a sop â and as a warning. The name they gave me was so close to Caliph as to be virtually the same. Again he warned me that he was giving me the name for my own protection.'
âWhat was it?' Peter demanded eagerly.
âYour name,' she said softly. âStride.'
Peter made an irritable gesture of dismissal. âMy name is nonsensical. Why would I kidnap and mutilate my own daughter â and Cactus Flower. He might as well have said, “Kentucky Fried Chicken”.'
âNow it's my turn to say I'm sorry.'
Peter caught himself, realizing suddenly that he had been too quick to dismiss these scraps of information. He stood up and paced the deck of the Chris-craft with choppy, agitated steps, frowning heavily. âCactus Flower,' he repeated. âHave you ever heard it before?'
âNo,' she shook her head.
âSince then?'
âNo,' again.
He searched his memory, trying for a sympathetic echo. There was none.
âAll right.' He accepted that as having no immediate value. âWe'll just remember it for now. Let's come to my name â Peter Stride. What did you make of that?'
âIt didn't mean anything then, except as a shock. Strangely enough I did not immediately think of you, but I thought of confusion between the kidnapper and the victim.'
âStride?' he asked. âPeter Stride? I don't understand.'
âNo, well â Melissa-Jane is a Stride also.'
âYes, of course. They didn't give you the name Peter Stride then?'
âNo. Just Stride.'
âI see.' Peter stopped in mid-pace as an idea struck him â and stared out thoughtfully to where the ocean met a blue horizon.
âBut they gave me your full name later,' she interrupted his thoughts.
âWhen?'
âAfter we received the news that Melissa-Jane had been rescued. Of course, I wanted to return to Paris immediately â to be with you. I was able to get onto a flight from Ben-Gurion Airport six hours after we heard the news. My heart was singing, Peter. Melissa-Jane was safe, and I was in love. I was going to be with you very soon. At the airport, while I was going through the security check before departure, the policewoman took me aside â to the security office. My control was waiting for me there. He had rushed out from Tel Aviv to catch me before I left for home, and he was very worried. They had just received an urgent message from Cactus Flower. General Peter Stride was now definitely Caliph-motivated, and would assassinate me at the first
opportunity, he told me. And I laughed at himâbut he was deadly serious. “My dear Baroness, Cactus Flower is a first-class man. You must take this warning seriously,” he kept repeating.'
opportunity, he told me. And I laughed at himâbut he was deadly serious. “My dear Baroness, Cactus Flower is a first-class man. You must take this warning seriously,” he kept repeating.'
Magda. shrugged. âI still did not believe it, Peter. It was impossible. I loved you, and I knew you loved me â although perhaps you had not yet realized that yourself. It was crazy. But on the aircraft I had time to think. My control at Mossad has never been wrong before. Can you imagine my dilemma now â how dearly I wanted to be with you, and yet I was now terrified â not that you would kill me. That did not seem important â but that you would truly turn out to be Caliph. That was what really frightened me. You see, I had never loved a man before. I don't think I could have stood it.'
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