Free Seawitch by Alistair MacLean Page B

will take you to the other girl. Check what she packs and especially her purse."
    Durand, followed by his men, entered the room, his gun in its concealed holster so as not to arouse too much alarm. That the bed was occupied was beyond doubt, although all that could
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    Alistalr MacLean
    be seen was a mop of black hair on the pillow. Durand said in a conversational voice: "I think you better get up, ma'am." Durand was not normally given to gentleness, but he did not want a case of screaming hysterics on his hands.
    A case of hysterics he did not have. Marina turned round in bed and looked at him with drowsy eyes. The drowsiness did not last long. The eyes opened wide, either in fear or shock, then returned to normal. She reached for a robe, arranged it strategically on the bed cover, then sat bolt upright, wrapping the robe round her.
    "Who are you and what do you want?" Her voice was not quite as steady as she might have
    wished.
    "Well, would you look at that, now?" Durand said admiringly. "You'd think she was used to being kidnaped every morning of her life."
    "This is a kidnap?"
    'Tin afraid so." Durand sounded genuinely apologetic.
    "Where are you taking me?"
    "Vacation. Little island hi the sun." Durand smiled. "You won't be needing any swimsuit though. Please get up and get dressed."
    "And if I refuse?"
    "We'll dress you."
    "I'm not going to get dressed with you two watching me."
    Durand was soothing. "My friend will stand out in the corridor. I'll go into the bathroom
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    there and leave the door open just a crack—not to watch you, but to watch the window, to make sure that you don't leave by it. Call me when you're ready and be quick about it."
    She was quick about it. She called him within three minutes. Blue blouse, blue slacks and her hair combed. Durand nodded his approval.
    "Pack a traveling bag. Enough for a few days."
    He watched her while she packed. She zipped the bag shut and picked up her purse. "I'm ready."
    He took the purse from her, undid the clasp and upended the contents on the bed. From the jumble on the bed he selected a small pearl-handled pistol, which he slipped into his pocket
    "Let's pack the purse again, shall we?"
    Marina did so, her face flushed with mortification.
    A somewhat similar scene had just taken place in Melinda's bedroom.
    Twenty-five minutes had elapsed since the arrival of Durand and his men and their departure with the two girls. No one had been hurt, except in pride, and the intruders had even been considerate to the extent of seating Jenkins in a deep armchair in the front hall. Jenkins, as he was now securely bound hand and foot, did not appreciate this courtesy as much as he might have done.
    About ten minutes after their departure, Lord Worth's helicopter touched down beside his
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    Boeing in the city airport. There were no customs, no clearance formalities. Lord Worth had made it plain some years previously that he did not much care for that sort of thing, and when Lord Worth made things plain they tended to remain that way.
    It was during the second leg of this flight that the second unfortunate occurrence happened. Again, Lord Worth was happily unaware of what was taking place.
    The Tiburon's (now the Georgia's) helicopter had located the Torbello. The pilot reported that he had sighted the vessel two minutes previously and gave her latitude and longitude as accurately as he could judge. More importantly, he gave her course as approximately 315 degrees, which was virtually on a collision course with the Georgia. They were approximately forty-five miles apart. Cronkite gave his congratulations to the pilot and asked him to return to the Georgia.
    On the bridge of the Georgia Cronkite and Mulhooney looked at each other with satisfaction. Between planning and execution there often exists an unbridgeable gap. In this case, however, things appeared to be going exactly according to plan.
    Cronkite said to Mulhooney: "Time, I think, to change into more respectable