Dagger Magic

"I'm grateful for transport in any form, Aoife," Adam said as he stashed his bags. "Before this night is over, I'm probably going to owe you half a score of favors."

Aoife laughed, a deep chuckle. "I'll remember that, the next time my editor hits me up with a demand for a personal interest story. In the meantime, we'd better be on our way. You did indicate that the time clock in this affair is running."

They closed up the back and piled into the van. Upon leaving the airport, Aoife headed west, skirting Belfast itself and picking up the M2 motorway north and westward toward Antrim. From the seat beside her, Adam spent the next half hour updating their Irish allies and outlining his battle plan.

"Our timetable is tight, then," the Irish chief said, at the end of Adam's briefing. "Fortunately, all our physical arrangements are in place; we just need to nail down the exact location. We'll stop at my house - it's on the way - and you can change clothes as well. I hope you brought warm things, because it's apt to be cold, out there in the West."

Very shortly, they were turning off the motorway to Tem-plepatrick, a pleasant village not far from the town of Antrim.

Aoife's home was at one end of a narrow lane - a substantial stone-built cottage with a detached garage flanking one garden wall. Leaving the van parked in the drive, she shepherded her guests and their bags through a wicket gate into a lushly tangled garden, where pink and white roses climbed untrammelled through thickets of flowering brambles. A mossy path meandered to a side door to the house. Entering, Adam and his companions found themselves in a tiled service porch, between a washer and dryer on one side and an array of coat-hooks and Wellie boots on the other.

"Just leave your coats anywhere you see a space," Aoife said over her shoulder, shrugging out of her own. "Adam, you and Noel can go on through to the living room to change clothes while I put the kettle on. The toilet's beyond and to the right, if you need one."

Peregrine was already dressed for the coming foray, in a turtleneck and navy guernsey over denim jeans and sturdy hiking boots, so he merely went on into the big country kitchen and subsided onto a chair with his sketchbox as Adam and McLeod disappeared in the indicated direction. Aoife had made tea and was pouring it into two large thermos flasks when the pair returned, Adam wearing a dark tweed jacket over a polo-necked sweater and cords. McLeod was less formally attired in a navy fatigue sweater and baggy green army surplus trousers bedecked with multiple pockets.

The inspector ducked out to hang Adam's waxed jacket on a peg beside his own and Peregrine's, while Adam came and laid an Ordnance Survey map on the big kitchen table and sat down beside Magnus. A red Aga cooker set into the hearth of a former fireplace provided both a focal point and welcome warmth in the large room.

"Do you need more space, or can this be done right here?" Aoife asked as Adam began unfolding his map.

"This should be fine," Adam said. "As I indicated on the phone last night, we know where Scanlan and his partner were patrolling, so the sub has to be somewhere along here." He indicated a section of Donegal coast centered on Sheep Haven. "This is where their land backup last made contact, and their boat was later found up by Malin." His hand swept up the coast.

"So she's somewhere along here. And here's what we're looking for." He tossed a photo of a Type VII C German submarine in the center of the map that Peregrine had found and photocopied earlier that morning.

"Now, we do have a flag that we believe came from the sub, that we'd hoped to use as a link. The complicating factor is that someone didn't want the sub to be found, and put a rather impressive whammy on it to make sure of that. I've been given a method for getting past that, but I'll need a bit of help.''

While he explained what he proposed, Peregrine opened his sketchbox on his lap and produced the flag, wrapped in its plastic bag. He laid it on the map and set the sketchbox at his feet as Adam delved into a pocket of his tweed jacket and produced Tseten's rosary, which he laid atop the map.

"Now, we're all only too well aware of the evil this flag came to betoken," Adam said, dumping the flag out of its bag without touching it, and laying the empty bag beside his chair. "However, I'm given to understand that Tseten's mala can be used as a buffer, to keep the negative energies associated with the flag from interfering with my tracking function. So Aoife, I'll ask you to put some protection on me and then lay the flag around my shoulders."