The Eagle's Covenant Read Free Page A

men from the window talking to his uncle. That had been the lucky bit. The instinct kicked in for some unknown reason and he felt suspicious. For all he knew they could have been a loyalist hit squad.
    He slipped out of the farmhouse and tailed the two strangers using the techniques he had learned in the SAS. Within twenty four hours he knew they were SAS, and there was no reason for them to be there, which meant that his cover had been blown. Somehow the British had discovered that he had been a ‘sleeper’ while in the Army, so there was no other reason for the soldiers to turn up at the farmhouse than to kill him.
    Twenty four hours later his IRA masters had spirited him away to a safe house in Germany and released him from his obligation to the cause. Conor Lenihan was now a free agent.
    *
    The drive from the hospital to Schiller’s residence was about twenty miles through some of the loveliest countryside in the Eifels Mountains, west of Koblenz. The convoy followed the green and white police car, trailed by a posse of pressmen and paparazzi , towards the foothills overlooking the Mosel’s route to the Luxembourg border. The towering beauty of this place was never lost on Schiller and he would often spend time there whenever he could.
    Schiller’s home was set high in the hills of the Eifels . Access to it was by a single road which cut its way through a forest of pine trees. The area around the house, with its commanding views across the valleys and peaks had been cleared of trees for reasons of security. It was bounded by a double fence, the inner of which was electrified. It was monitored by security cameras and patrolled at night by guards with dogs. Another fence had been constructed lower down the slope. This was a standard chain link fence, not electrified, and was there to determine the boundary of Schiller’s property. On both sides of the mountain this fence was about six miles in length. It was never patrolled and only checked as part of a standard maintenance programme.
    The police car drove past the gates leading to the access road and stopped. Immediately the lead Mercedes turned in towards the gates and was greeted by a security man. The convoy came to a halt. The pressmen and paparazzi automatically pulled into the side of the road and leapt from their cars to continue blazing away with their flashlights and TV cameras.
    The driver in the leading Mercedes lowered the window. “What the fuck’s going on?” he wanted to know.
    The guard was unmoved. He came round to the open window and placed one hand on the roof of the car and the other on the car door. He glanced inside at the occupants.
    “Herr Schiller’s instructions, said there should be extra security.” He nodded in the direction of Schiller’s limousine. “Make sure them paparazzi bastards don’t get in.” 
    As he spoke he placed his thumb at a point immediately below the driver’s shoulder. He rolled it against the paintwork, unseen to the people in the car. It was quite an unobtrusive movement, but when he pulled his hand away it left a white mark where his thumb had been.
    At that precise moment the driver in the police car rolled his window down. He had in his hand a small transmitter about the size of a mobile phone. He put his arm out of the open window and held it aloft. He made a pretence of waving and let the clutch up. As the car moved away he pressed a transmit button on the transmitter. Then he pulled his arm in and rolled the window up. He smiled at his companion.
    “ Frei geld, ” he said and laughed. ‘Easy money’.
    *
    Karl Trucco saw the red light flicker on and off. The small receiver was propped up against his back pack. The sound had been turned down to a minimum level, but he was just able to hear the intermittent bleep and the sharp, vibrating pulses. He suddenly felt nervous and his breath seemed to catch in his chest. It was no more than he expected. He got up and went through the trees to where Breggie