1958 - The World in My Pocket Read Online Free Page B

at Morgan and then at Kitson.
    ‘This is the big one,’ Morgan said. ‘You’ve got to face up to it, guys. If you don’t like it, you can always quit.’
    Bleck was studying the girl.
    She’s no bluffer, he was thinking. Sweet Pete! She’s as hard as a diamond. She’ll kill the guy if he starts anything. With any luck, he’ll see it in her eyes when she shoves the heater in his face. If he does, he won’t make a move. If I were he, and found myself looking into a gun held by her, I know damn well I’d stop breathing let alone make any sudden move.
    ‘Okay. I just want to know which way we’re heading,’ he said, reaching for a cigarette and tapping it on the table. ‘Let’s have the rest of the plan.’
    Morgan shook his head.
    ‘We don’t get the rest of it until we vote,’ he said. ‘That’s the arrangement. She tells me she’s taken care of all the details and ironed out all the snags. What I’ve told you just now is a sample of it. If we agree to work with her then we hear the rest of it, but if we don’t want the job, then she’s free to peddle it elsewhere. That’s fair enough. What do you say?’
    ‘But has she really ironed out all the snags?’ Bleck asked. ‘It seems to me there’re a hell of a lot of them. We’ve stopped the truck and we’ve fixed the driver and the guard. That in itself is something we didn’t think possible. But from what you tell me the truck is in continuous radio communication with the Agency. As soon as the truck goes off the air, a search for it will be started. They know where to look for it, and what’s more, not only the cops will come a-hunting, but the army as well, and that means hundreds of men, aircraft and cars. They have only ninety-three miles of road to check. An aircraft can cover that in a few minutes. The truck will stand out on any road like a boil on the back of your neck. We will have less than twenty minutes to get it out of sight. It might be possible if we didn’t have to stop the truck at the bottleneck. Beyond there and the other side of it is as bare of cover as the back of my hand. We’ll have to travel twenty-five miles to reach any good cover and they’ll know it and that’s where they’ll look for us. I can’t see how we can hope to stop the truck, bust it open, get the money and get away before the cops and the Army arrive.’
    Morgan shrugged.
    ‘I thought that too.’ He nodded at the girl. ‘She says she has taken care of that angle.’
    Bleck looked at Ginny.
    ‘Is that a fact? You really know the answer to that one?’
    ‘Yes,’ she said in her cold, expressionless voice. ‘That’s the hardest part. I’ve taken care of it.’
    She spoke with such assurance that even Kitson, who was listening cynically, had a sudden feeling that she might swing this job.
    Bleck spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders.
    ‘Okay, I’ll take your word for it, but you’ve certainly dreamed up a miracle. There still remain two more problems. The first is when we’ve stopped the truck what’s to prevent other traffic coming up on us just when we’re fixing the guards? This road isn’t overused, but there is traffic on it. We could be surprised.’
    The girl’s face became wooden and her eyes bored as she leaned back in her chair, her scarlet shirt tightening across her full, provocative breasts.
    ‘That’s an easy one, isn’t it? There are two roads, both linking up with Highway 10. All we have to do is to put a diversion sign at the bottom of the road after the truck has passed and the rest of the traffic will use the other road. What’s so hard about that?’
    Bleck grinned.
    ‘Yeah, that’s a fact. Now, bright eyes, solve this one: we have the truck and we get it under cover somehow. How do we bust it open? According to Kitson, it’s the toughest thing made. We’ll have to work fast. Have you solved that one?’
    Ginny shook her head.
    ‘That’s his headache,’ she said and pointed to Gypo. ‘He’s the expert.