The Stockholm Syndicate Read Free Page A

emerging from a coma.
    "We are there already?" he demanded in some surprise.
    "Yes, you have been thinking." She said it in the way someone might say, You have been sleeping .
    Turn the car round so if there is an emergency ..."
    Only with a considerable effort of will was she able to stop herself bursting out in irritation. Unlike Berlin, who never seemed fatigued, she was tired and edgy and the prospect of bed seemed infinitely desirable. Of course she would have turned round. And what Berlin meant was that if she ran into trouble where she was going he must be in a position to drive away from the danger, leaving her to fend for herself. Sonia did not resent this; she understood the necessity for it. But the fact that he thought she needed reminding infuriated her.
    She dipped the headlights, switched off the engine and left the key in the ignition. Next, without a word, she reached under her seat for the Luger. She placed the weapon in his lap and turned away, opening her door.
    "Be careful to check that Frans and that bitch are alone before you go on board."
    The warning astonished her. Something momentous was imminent, or he wouldn't treat her like this. They must be close to the climax of the operation against Telescope, she decided. Gripping a torch she made her way down the little-used track. The stench of the canal was in her nostrils. Now she had to climb again, to mount the embankment to where Frans Darras' barge was moored. As she reached the top of the track her thin torch beam shone on the large bulk of the barge. Then a searchlight so it seemed to her -blazed on and glared into her eyes.
    She could see nothing at all, for Christ's sake. Was it the police?
    And inside her bag was a Walther automatic with a spare magazine. She raised one hand to fend off the fierce glare. From nearby she heard Frans' voice speak in French.
    "It is her, Rosa. You can put out the light."
    Sonia, blinded still, gave full vent to her feelings.
    "You stupid bitch! You could have called out instead of lighting up the whole world with that bloody lamp."
    It w as Frans who came out of the darkness, holding a shotgun, and with her own torch pointed the way onto the barge.
    "We've got a Zenith , Frans. That's why I'm here."
    " Zenith! "Keep your voice down, man."
     
    Frans took the lamp from Rosa and handed her the shotgun.
    "Keep a lookout on deck," he said. He continued in hushed tones to Sonia, gesturing to where the car was parked.
    "He is here?"
    "He is here. He won't be pleased with that idiocy with the searchlight." They went below-deck.
    "It was my fault I told her to aim the lamp while I stayed in the dark with the shotgun. We heard the car how could we be sure it was you and not the police or the other people?"
    "Wh at other people?"
    Sonia forced herself to speak casually, but could not meet his eyes for fear of revealing her shock at what he had just suggested he knew.
    "I mean Telescope, of course..." He stopped in mid-sentence.
    "I will transmit the signal," he mumbled, opening a cupboard.
    "What is the complete message? I'll write it down."
    "Yes, you had better do just that," she said coldly, watching his every movement now. Transmit over the whole network, "Jules Beaurain ex-Chief Superintendent Belgian police lives apartment off Boulevard Waterloo Brussels Zenith repeat Zenith".'
    Removing a bundle of screwed-up clothing from the lower shelf of the cupboard, Darras fiddled with a corner of the roof and the apparently solid back slid aside, exposing a high-powered transceiver. He pressed another button and a power-operated aerial emerged on deck and climbed
    into the night alongside the TV mast. Now he was ready to transmit and the signal he would send out was so strong it could reach any part of western Europe. He also set a clock-timer for three minutes, which must be the duration of the transmission. Police radio-detector vans normally n eeded five minutes to get a fix on any transmission their listening posts picked