“You’re sure?”
“Very sure.” He paused, thinking. His burst of temper seemed to have acted as a catharsis; for the first time in a long time, it appeared to him, his mind was clear, his thoughts precise. “Gerhardt—”
“Yes?”
“They have a transportation desk in the hotel, don’t they?” Where had his mind been for the past twelve hours? It was so painfully obvious that Huuygens had merely used the phone in his room.
“Yes...”
“Can you find out if Huuygens booked passage from there? Or can you arrange to hear if he books passage anytime tonight or tomorrow? And then let me know?”
Gerhardt nodded. It was obvious that Schneller suspected the other trips to be false; after the reports he had received, he concurred.
“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “If I can, it will cost money.”
“Forget the money,” Schneller said, even as his own words knifed deep into his heart. Gerhardt’s bill was going to be enough to get the country out of debt! “Can you do it?”
“I can try.”
“Then try. And let me know — do you hear? I’ll be right here.”
“I’ll be in touch,” Gerhardt said and hung up.
It was nearly midnight when the detective called back. Nearly a bottle of schnapps and a sack of tobacco had been consumed to make the wait endurable. Schneller snatched at the phone.
“Yes?”
“Gerhardt.” The detective’s voice was smug, filled with satisfaction. “I think this time we have what you want. Finally. I had to dig the clerk out of bed, since the office is closed, but I believe you’ll find it was worth it.”
He waited for some comment, but Schneller merely wheezed heavily into the receiver, waiting. Gerhardt took a breath and went on.
“He leaves for Lisbon tomorrow. One stop at Viracopos — that’s the airport for São Paulo — and nonstop from there. He—”
“Tomorrow? Not Thursday?”
“Not Thursday. That was as fake as his destinations. Tomorrow.”
“Which makes sense, a lot more sense,” Schneller said and nodded to himself. “Go ahead.”
“Tomorrow, seventeen twenty-five, by KLM. He changes planes in Lisbon to TWA to Madrid, has a stopover there, and then flies to Zaragoza by Iberia. He made the reservations by phone from his room as soon as he checked in; they were all confirmed by noon and the tickets issued and delivered long before he started that trip of his around to the airline offices.”
Cute. You’re a real cute one, M’sieu Huuygens, Schneller thought. And that bit of going right into Spain — of course! Why bother with the problems of going past a customs barrier at an airport and getting past the frontier both? Of course he would fly into Spain; it was the only thing that made sense. Why Zaragoza? Who cares! God, he must have been asleep when he let Huuygens pull all that garbage over on him! But he was awake now. Two can be cute, M’sieu Huuygens...
“Very good,” Schneller said with deep satisfaction. This was the true data, and about time! “How long is he in Lisbon?”
“If schedules are met, five hours.”
“And in Madrid?”
“He has a stopover there with an open ticket from Madrid to Zaragoza. I have no idea how long he plans to stay. I can get you the Iberia timetables, if you want.”
“It’s not important,” Schneller said and smiled at the telephone. “Very good, Gerhardt.” The compliment would probably cost him extra, but it was worth it. One possible flaw occurred to him. “Is there any way Huuygens can find out we have this information?”
“None,” Gerhardt said with conviction. “He handled the ticket purchase from his room and the clerk delivered the tickets to him; when he did, Huuygens gave the clerk a large tip — a very large tip — with the instructions that his booking was to remain a complete secret.”
“Then, how—”
“I simply gave the clerk a larger tip,” Gerhardt said calmly. “A much, much larger tip. And pointed out that I am here in Buenos Aires, whereas M’sieu Huuygens would be leaving, and therefore it would be wise to treat my deal with him a bit more confidentially than he treated M’sieu Huuygens’ deal. No. He won’t say anything.”
“Good,” Schneller said and tried not to think about the much muchness of the bribe, trying to concentrate on the good news instead. “Gerhardt, could you bother that clerk again?”
“For what I gave him I could bother him fifty times. Why?”
“I’d like plane schedules. Not just from Buenos Aires,” Schneller said, his brain really racing at last. It felt as if it had been freed from a fog-ridden prison. “From anywhere nearby. Montevideo. Asunción. Rio. São Paulo.” He bent closer to the telephone, his thick fingers toying with the tobacco pouch in his pocket, his mind fitting his facts into their proper slots neatly and definitively. “I want to get to Lisbon before he does. I’m sure he’s planning on getting out of Lisbon before anyone who might possibly be following him is aware he’s even left town. If I can get a quicker plane from Rio or São Paulo — Lufthansa, possibly, or Varig, or maybe even PAL — early this morning...”
“And to get to any of these places to catch your plane? Would you take a private charter?”
Schneller sat back in his chair. He had not considered a private plane; they had to cost a fortune! Still—
“If you have to,” he said bravely. “But then try for Montevideo, or Asunción. Not someplace too far...”
“I’ll be in touch,” Gerhardt said, not one to waste time, and hung up.
Schneller slowly lowered the receiver into place and leaned back, smiling, massaging the knuckles of one hand with the wide, calloused palm of the other, picturing his lethal fingers at work. Lisbon, eh? And then what was the man’s plan? Madrid and then where? Zaragoza? Whoever heard of it? Well, no matter. It was probably more of his smoke screen, in any event. Lisbon, yes, but after that nothing more for M’sieu Huuygens. He flexed his fingers and smiled more grimly. Oh, you’re a cute one, all right, M’sieu Huuygens. I’ll compliment you in person very quickly.
Nor will I need any help in the matter, he thought with satisfaction. No, M’sieu Huuygens, you will not get me to hire half of Berlin. I’ll do very well alone. Now that I know where you’ll be and when, I don’t need help. I’ll bet you are laughing right now, hein? Well, you thought I’d waste money on a young army, eh? You really figured I’d stay in a fog forever; you figured—
Good God! He had completely forgotten he still had not called Berlin back! Was it too late! Damn! Two men, one to Orly and another to Perpignan — and two more, one to London and the other to Gibraltar! Could they have already left? Four men and their expenses, and all needless! Damn that miserable Huuygens! This was all his fault; one more thing to pay for!
His hand shot out for the telephone, even his cigarettes forgotten for once.
13
It was a beautiful spring afternoon, warm and sunny, and the hired car hummed along smoothly, eating the miles of the wide parkway. The concrete sang beneath the tires, the open windows brought in the rich scent of newly mown grass. The city lay far behind, invisible even on that endless plain; here in the outskirts the bustle of the center seemed to belong to a different era as well as a different area. Little private housing developments, each styled quaintly, came and went like turreted villages of the past, their walled boundaries marching alongside the speeding car and then falling away to be replaced by another. On the distant horizon low clouds gave a simulation of hills, the only break in the monotony of the plain.