Like A Hole In The Head

     "You take the rifle. I'll go first. You wait here . . . I'll call you."

     I saw his eyes widen in the moonight.

     "You think they could be here already?" His voice sank to an uneasy whisper.

     "They could be. From now on, I'm taking no chances. Give me your gun."

     He hesitated, then he picked up the automatic and handed it to me as I handed him the rifle.

     I moved to the trap door and listened, then holding the gun in my hand, I swung myself down into the darkness. I heard nothing and nothing happened. It wasn't until I had been through the whole house, moving like a shadow, that I was satisfied that Raimundo and I were still on our own. I returned to the foot of the ladder and called to him.

     He came down and I took the rifle from him.

     "Get the money and a suitcase," I said. "We might have to go to a hotel."

     Ten minutes later we were heading for Paradise City.

*

     The night porter of the Palm Court Hotel was an elderly negro who was sleeping peacefully behind the reception desk. The flyblown clock behind his nodding head showed 02.22

     We had had some luck. On our way to Paradise City we had come on a car with a hag of golf clubs in the rear seat. I had stood on the brake pedal and had nearly sent Raimundo's head through the windscreen.

     This car had been parked outside an 'Eat-'n-Dance' joint, the kind that litter Highway 1 until you reach Paradise City.

     "Get it!" I said.

     Raimundo read my thoughts. He slid out of the Volkswagen, grabbed the golf bag, emptied the clubs on to the back seat and was back in the car within ten seconds.

     So we arrived at the Palm Court Hotel with the Weston & Lees rifle hidden in the golf bag and a suitcase full of nothing : like two respectable guys on vacation.

     The old negro came awake and blinked at us. After a lot of fumbling with the register, he found us a double room with twin beds on the second floor. We signed in as Toni Franchini and Harry Brewster. I told him we didn't know how long we'd stay and he didn't seem to care. He took us up in a creaking elevator, unlocked a door and showed us into a big, shabbily-furnished room. He had tried to take the suitcase and the golf bag, but when I told him I was giving my muscles some exercise, he gave me a dismal smile as if he were sure I was going to gyp him out of his tip. I gave him a dollar after he had proved the plumbing worked and he went away, happy.

     I sat on the bed while Raimundo took the only armchair.

     Before arriving at the hotel we had driven past the Imperial Hotel and past the apartment block, under construction. We had luck as the night traffic was heavy and we could crawl without attracting attention. We even got into a solid jam of cars right outside the apartment block. I was able to take a good look at the building. Part of my Army training was to sum up a situation. I probably saw a lot more than Raimundo did. He was driving as I wanted to examine the set-up I was going to walk into.

     Along the sidewalk in front of the entrance to the apartments was a line of parked cars. As we crawled by them I spotted a Buick in which two men were sitting. There was no one hanging around the entrance to the block which was in darkness. To the left of the block was a builder's crane, its long steel arm stretching up to the top floor positioned immediately over the roof. The feet of the crane were in a vacant lot, high with weeds, and there was a big hoarding announcing another apartment block was to be built there.

     "How do you see it, soldier?" Raimundo asked.

     "I'll climb the crane."

     He gaped at me.

     "You'll never do it. That goddam crane is twenty storeys high."

     "That's the way I'm going. It's the only way."

     "You think Savanto's men haven't thought of that?"

     "Sure. So what do they do? They put a man or a couple of men in the

vacant lot to see no one gets near the crane." I looked intently at him. You and I will fix them . . . then up I go."

     "It's a pipe dream, soldier. You'll never get up there."

     "I'm going to bed. We do the job tomorrow night. By that time the guards will have got slack. It's tricky, but it can be done."

     When we got back to the hotel, I stripped off and took a shower. By the time Raimundo had taken his shower I was asleep.

     I have this knack of relaxing before a dangerous operation. During my years in the Army I had schooled myself to sleep. I had all day tomorrow to think about what I had to face the following night : now was the time to sleep.

     I came awake with a start to find Raimundo shaking me. The morning sunlight was coming through the faded blind, making me screw up my eyes.

     "Wake up! Listen to this !" Raimundo was saying and the note in his voice brought me fully awake.

     A voice was talking on the radio on the bedside table.