'… If she is going away from the villa, if she is going outside the radius of transmission pick-up, if she doesn't know where she is being taken, then she is instructed to send a Stand-by alert. She is instructed to give us time to get there, to Mondello, because to tail her we have to track her.'
'Vanni cut his call. 'It's from the villa – communications says it's from the villa. We may have very little time.'
'I'm with you,' Dwight Smythe said. 'She is my responsibility.'
'Fuck you,' Harry Compton hissed. 'My orders are to bring her home. If her neck's on the bloody line, I'm there.'
'If she calls, I answer. I get to ride with you.' Deliberately, Axel Moen pushed up from his seat.
Dwight Smythe snapped, 'No way.'
Harry Compton snarled, 'You're off the pulse, friend.'
'It's mine. She doesn't know your fucking names. She calls for me.'
'We don't have time,' 'Vanni Crespo pleaded. 'You argue, you goddam women, you screw her up.'
'You don't exist to her, nothing to her.'
Harry Compton stood full square in front of Axel Moen. It was the moment he wondered if he would be hit, kicked. 'You go nowhere, we don't need you.'
Dwight Smythe found courage, jabbed at Axel Moen's chest so that he pitched back into his seat. 'Your rock is DEA, you obey orders, otherwise you get washed off the rock.'
'I'm obligated, I owe her.'
'Vanni Crespo said, soft, 'It is only the Stand-by. I promise, if it is Immediate, then I'll be there, I'll care for her like she's mine. Trust me.'
Axel Moen sat quite still. He was composed, and he locked his fingers and flexed them.
Dwight Smythe hissed, 'You're identified, you've no place with this now.'
Harry Compton whipped, 'You're just a liability to her, and always have been since you first walked in on her.'
Axel Moen dropped his head. The fire was doused.
'Vanni Crespo said, fast, 'I need the guys, I can't leave the guys with you. I'm trying to think on my fucking feet. I pulled rank to get the guys. If I leave them, then I have to call up, I have to explain, I have to start telling some bastard about an operation…
"Who authorized it? Who do you report to? Wait out, I have to check…" I don't have the time.'
'It's a public place,' Axel Moen said. 'I'm comfortable. I sit here, I wait, I get on the plane. So get the hell out.'
'Vanni Crespo held Axel's face in his hands. He kissed both his cheeks. Harry Compton nodded at him – he'd understand orders. Dwight Smythe shrugged – he'd appreciate responsibilities.
They were gone. It was eighty-five seconds from the first call. It was sixty-one seconds from the second call. They went out of Departures. Harry Compton looked back once, through the glass, at the back of the head of the man, at the pony-tail of his hair. He thought the man belonged to yesterday, and he hurried to catch the Italian.
Out in the night darkness they ran towards the cars.
Peppino had the engine started and Angela was beside him and smoothing her dress straight so that she would not crease it. Charley was fastening the seat-belts for the children. The gardener, at the bottom of the drive, was scraping open the gates.
She did not know who would be there, whether they would be there. And she did not know if anyone listened…
'I'm sorry, I've forgotten something.'
No play at hiding his irritation, Peppino snapped, 'Please, Charley, already we are late.'
'I won't be a second. Can I have the keys, please?'
Angela said, 'I am sure it is something important – yes, Charley – or you would not ask.'
She was given the keys. She ran back onto the patio and she unlocked the front door.
She was out of their sight. She could do it there… Christ, but she had to bring something back to the car… She scurried for her room. She pulled open a drawer. On the top of the clothes in the drawer was a small handkerchief. She snatched it up. She stood, and she breathed hard.
She remembered. Not Immediate Alert, and not Stand Down. She remembered the code. She did not know where they listened, or if anyone listened. Her finger wavered again on the button. She pressed hard, drove the back of the watch down on her wrist so that it hurt her. She made the pattern of the code for Stand-by.
She breathed again, deep, to swallow the trembling in her arms. She switched off the light and she locked the patio door behind her, and she went to the car. She was barely into the car when Peppino drove away. She sagged down into the seat and manoeuvred the carrycot onto her lap. They drove out through the opened gates. She did not try to look out of the back window to see if they were followed, if anyone had listened. She reached forward and passed the keys of the villa to Peppino. They came out of the narrow street that led to the piazza and swung onto the road that ran along the beach.
They passed the Saracen tower…
'Well, Charley,' Peppino asked, cutting, 'what had you forgotten?'
She said, felt the feebleness of it, 'I'd forgotten my handkerchief.'
There was the tinkle of Angela's laughter. 'You see, I was right. I said that it would be something important.' 'Herb? It's Bill Hammond
… Yes, I'm in the office, I'm in Rome.
Herb, would you go to secure… You OK now?… The Codename Helen thing, they've just gone to Stand-by… Yes, it's a hell of a scene down there today. He was a good guy, Tardelli, he was the best guy. They don't deserve people like that down there.
They hung him out to dry – but that's history… We got the Stand-by, that's the one below Immediate. I thought you'd want to know
… What? Come again?… Yes, the procedure's in place. If they get the fat cat, then I send the wings down from Naples, I throw my weight on the extradition business, we go fast-track – that's if… Yes, yes, Axel Moen is obeying the order you issued. He's at the airport, Palermo, waiting on his flight… No, no, didn't seem sore, sounded fine. Dwight and some English jerk with a crowd of Italians are out on the hunt… I'm kind of excited, Herb, and I wanted to share it… Yes, of course, I'll stay in touch. What you got, meetings all afternoon? You Washington people, Herb, you don't strain yourselves – that's meant as a joke… You'll hear the moment after I hear, but right now it sounds good. Herb, when I call next I may not be on secure. I'm going out to the airport to meet Axel off his flight
…'
Chapter Nineteen
No flash overtakings, no hammering on the horn when he was behind a lorry. Peppino drove with caution. He had the power in the big car to go fast. No blinking of the headlights when he was behind a tractor. Peppino didn't talk. Charley thought she read him.
There were soldiers at a checkpoint on the ring road, and more soldiers and another checkpoint at the cramped little town of Altofonte, and after they had weaved through the narrowed streets and bumped on the rough cobbles and then climbed there was a third checkpoint. Each time, as he was waved down by the flashing torch, Peppino lowered the window and produced his documents and was a study in politeness. Each time at the checkpoints she saw the young soldiers and their guns and their drab and ill-fitting uniforms. They made a show of checking the papers and they shone lights around the interior of the car, over Angela's face and the children's and over Charley as she held the carrycot on her lap. She reckoned most of them were not from the island, strangers, as she was. She thought that Peppino drove steadily so that he could be certain he did not attract attention, and he was gracious in his courtesy to the soldiers each time he was gestured forward.
After the third checkpoint, Charley turned and looked back through the rear window and she could see the lights of cars that followed them away, and far in the distance and far below were the patterns of lights that were the city. Peppino had the radio on. The RAI station played solemn music, German classical music, and she thought it would be a mark of sympathy for the magistrate who had been killed. She did not know whether they were followed, and she did not know who might follow. She could not press the button, send the tone signals for the Stand-by alert because she feared that a transmission would interfere with the radio in the car. She must take it on trust that they followed, that someone was close by.