The Stockholm Syndicate Read Online Free

had been several stops, traffic light stops, but now they kept moving as along a major highway. He chose his moment carefully when the van paused and the trio on the opposite couch looked towards the front of the van as though there might be trouble. He glanced quickly down at his wrist-watch; something they had overlooked. Two o'clock.
    As the vehicle started up again and his three captors relaxed, Litov half-closed his eyes and calculated they had roughly travelled two hundred kilometres, allowing for the van's speed and twelve pauses.
    They had to be a long way outside Brussels. West towards the coast?
    They would have reached it long ago. South towards France? They would have crossed the border long before now which would have meant passing through a frontier control post and there had been nothing like that.
    North towards Holland? The same objection. The frontier was too close for the distance travelled. Same applied to Germany which left only one direction and one area to account for the distance covered. South-east: deep into the Ardennes.
     
    Following the same route, Beaurain had long since overtaken the van. He had by now passed through Namur where vertical cliffs fell to the banks of the river Meuse. At this hour there was hardly any other traffic and they seemed to glide through the darkness. Beyond Namur he drove through Marche-en-Famenne and Bastogne where the Germans and Americans had fought an epic battle during World War Two. The country they were travelling through now was remote, an area of high limestone ridges, gorges and dense forests.
    "Jock," Beaurain said as he slowed down to negotiate the winding road, 'on the surface I was lucky back there in Brussels. Had Litov been just a second or two faster it would have been me you'd have carried inside that van."
    "We had it well-organised. You were quick yourself."
    "That motor-cycle, was it difficult to locate?"
    "Not really, although we were looking for something like that. It was propped against an alley wall very close to that intersection."
    "I see." Beaurain glanced at Henderson's profile. His sandy hair was trimmed short, he was clean-shaven and his bone structure was strong. A firm mouth, a strong jaw and watchful eyes which took nothing for granted. Beaurain thought he had been lucky to recruit him when he had resigned from the SAS -although really it was the other way round since Henderson had left the Special Air Service to join Telescope. The bomb in Belfast which had killed the Scot's fiancée had decided him to change the course of his life. He was by background, by training, the perfect man to control the key section they called The Gunners.
    The radio-telephone buzzed and Beaurain picked up the receiver, driving with one hand. The telephone crackled and cleared.
    "Alex Carder here," a soft deliberate voice reported in French.
    "Any news re delivery?"
    "Benedict speaking," Beaurain replied.
    "Expect the cargo in thirty minutes. Have you the manifests ready?"
    "Yes, sir," Carder replied.
    "We can despatch the cargo immediately on arrival. Especially now we have the time schedule. Goodbye."
    Beaurain replaced the receiver.
    "The chopper's ready as soon as Litov arrives. To make it work we need a swift, continuous movement."
    "I have been thinking about what you said in the rue des Bouchers. I think you're right the Syndicate would leave someone close by."
    "Which means that by now they know we have Litov, so we have to work out how they will react to that news."
    "Something else worries me." The Scot stirred restlessly in his seat.
    "I didn't mention it to you at the time because everything was happening so fast."
    "What is it?"
    "The safety catch was still on when we took the Luger away from Litov."
    They were now well inside the Ardennes forest. The full moon oscillated like a giant torch between the palisade of pines lining the road. They hadn't met another vehicle in twenty kilometres. Ahead, at a bend, the headlights shone on stone pillars,