The World in My Pocket

‘Kitson drives to the bottleneck and stops. Here, Ed and me leave the car and get under cover by the side of the road. Kitson drives on.’ Looking at Kitson, Morgan went on, ‘You’ll leave the caravan in the wood and uncouple it. You’ll drive fast to the end of the road and put up the second diversion sign. Then you’ll come back, couple up the caravan and turn the car to face back the way you’ve come. The ground each side of the road is hard enough for you to make a circular sweep, and you have the same kind of ground when you get back to the bottleneck so you can again turn the car and the caravan so the back of the caravan will be facing the front of the truck. What you have to remember is when you get the signal, you have to move fast - and when I say fast, I damn well mean fast!’

Kitson said, ‘What’s the signal to be? How do I know when you’ll be ready for me?’

Morgan took his cigarette from between his lips and stared at the glowing end, frowning.

‘Well, I guess you’ll hear some shooting, but if there isn’t any, I’ll have a whistle with me. Act on the whistle. One long blast and you come fast.’

Kitson’s face tightened.

‘You think there’ll be shooting?’

Morgan shrugged.

‘I don’t know. I don’t think so, but there could be.’

He looked over at Bleck and then back to Kitson. ‘Anyway, come when I whistle.’ He turned to Gypo. ‘You’ve got it soft, but your end could be the toughest before we’re through: remember that.’

Gypo nodded uneasily. It gave him a feeling of relief to know that he wasn’t going to be mixed up in any violence. He was a technical man. His job was to bust into the truck. He felt it was only fair and right that he shouldn’t be expected to have anything to do with the capturing of the truck.

‘You understand what you’ve got to do now?’ Morgan asked, turning his attention to Kitson.

‘Yes,’ Kitson said.

He, too, was relieved that he had this end of the job to do. At least he wouldn’t be mixed up in the shooting if there was to be any shooting.

‘You, Ginny,’ Morgan said, swinging around to look at the girl who was listening, her face expressionless. ‘You wait in the sports car outside the Agency until the truck comes out. You follow it, keeping well behind it. The driver mustn’t see you. In the little car you’ll be driving, it shouldn’t be hard to keep out of sight. When the truck gets on to the secondary road, crowd up behind it. Start blasting with your horn. The driver will pull to one side to let you through. You’ve got to attract his attention: make him remember you. So blast with the horn while you are passing him, and pass him as fast as you can. We want him to think you’re in a hurry and you’re taking chances. Wave as you go by, and then drive flat out. If you time it right, you’ll have a mile stretch of straight road. The car we’ll get you will be capable of doing over a hundred, and I want you to push it so these two will tell each other driving that fast is asking to get killed. At the bend, they’ll lose sight of you, but keep coming as fast as you can without getting into trouble. You needn’t worry about any oncoming traffic. Kitson will have fixed the sign and have diverted the traffic, so you can risk driving fast, but for Pete’s sake, don’t have a smash. We’ll be waiting for you at the bottleneck with the crowbars. Ed and I will turn the car over into the ditch. We should have about a quarter of an hour to set the scene before the truck arrives, depending on how fast you drive. To make it look convincing, we’ll set fire to the car. We’ll need a long strip of rag to touch off the gas tank. Make a note of that.’ He looked at Kitson. ‘You go to the slaughter house at Dukas and get a couple of pints of pigs’ blood. Tell them you want it to use in your garden. You’ll have to have another dress with you, Ginny. The one you’ll be wearing will be messed up with blood. We’ve got to startle these guys into thinking you’re bleeding to death when they see you lying in the road.’ He paused to ask, ‘Any questions?’

Ginny shook her head,

‘It’s all right so far.’

‘Okay; you’re lying in the road in a pool of blood; the car’s burning in the ditch. Ed and me are under cover. Ed has the automatic rifle. The trucks turns up and stops.’ Morgan crushed out his cigarette. ‘Here we have to start guessing and we may have to improvise as we go along. It’s impossible to forecast exactly what the driver and the guard will do when they see Ginny lying in the road. One thing we can count on: they won’t run over her, so they will stop. Maybe both the driver and the guard will get out, but I don’t think so. I reckon the guard will go to Ginny, leaving the driver in the truck. When he is within a few feet of Ginny, I’ll come out behind the truck. Ed will be covering the guard with his rifle. As the guard bends over Ginny, I’ll step up to the truck window on the driver’s side and stick my gun in his face. Ginny sticks her gun into the guard’s face.’

There was a pause while the four looked at Morgan.