Free Floodgate by Alistair MacLean

shirt, a Dutch bargee's cap and a circular brass earring. Compared to those among whom he lived and had his being, Vasco, van Effen thought, looked positively underdressed but was still outlandish enough to make himself and the two men sitting opposite him across the table in the booth in the Hunter's Horn look the pillars of a respectable society. One of them, clad in an immaculately cut dark grey suit, was about van Effen's age, darkly handsome, slightly swarthy, with tightly curled black hair, black eyes and, when he smiled - which was often - what appeared to be perfect teeth. Any Mediterranean country, van Effen thought, or, at the outside, not more than two generations removed. His companion, a short, slightly balding man of perhaps ten or fifteen years older than the other, wore a conservative dark suit and a hairline moustache, the only really and slightly unusual feature in an otherwise unremarkable face. Neither of them looked the slightest bit like a bona fide member of the criminal classes but, then, few successful criminals ever did.

The younger man - he went, it seemed, by the name of Romero Agnelli, which might even have been his own -produced an ebony cigarette-holder, a Turkish cigarette and a gold inlaid onyx lighter; any of which might have appeared affected or even effeminate on almost any man: with Agnelli, all three seemed inevitable. He lit the cigarette and smiled at van Effen. 'You will not take it amiss if I ask one or two questions.' He had a pleasant baritone voice and spoke in English. 'One cannot be too careful these days.'

'I cannot be too careful any day. If your question is pertinent, of course I'll answer it. If not, I won't. Am I - ah - accorded the same privilege?' 'Certainly.'

'Except you can ask more what you consider pertinent questions than I can.'

'I don't quite understand.'

'Just that I take it that we're talking on a potential employer employee relationship. The employer is usually entitled to ask more questions.' 'Now I understand. I won't take advantage of that. I must say, Mr Danilov, that you look more like the employer class yourself. 'And indeed, van Effen's over-stuffed suit and padded cheeks did lend a certain air of prosperity. It also made him look almost permanently genial. 'Am I mistaken in thinking that you carry a gun?'

'Unlike you, Mr Agnelli, I'm afraid I'm not in the habit of patronizing expensive tailors.'

'Guns make me nervous. 'The disarming smile didn't show a trace of nervousness.

'Guns make me nervous, too. That's why I carry one in case I meet a man who is carrying one. That makes me very nervous.' Van Effen smiled, removed his Beretta from its shoulder holster, clicked out the magazine, handed it to Agnelli and replaced his pistol. 'That do anything for your nerves?'

Agnelli smiled. 'All gone.'

'Then they shouldn't be.' Van Effen reached below the table and came up with a tiny automatic. 'A Lilliput, a toy in many ways, but lethal up to twenty feet in the hands of a man who can fire accurately.' He tapped out the magazine, handed this in turn to Agnelli and replaced the Lilliput in its ankle holster. 'That's all. Three guns would be just too much to carry about.'

'So I should imagine. 'Agrenli's smile, which had momentarily vanished, was back in place. He pushed the two magazines across the table. 'I don't think we'll be requiring guns this afternoon.'

'Indeed. But something would be useful. 'van Effen dropped the magazines into a side pocket. 'I always find that talking -' 'Beer for me,' Agnelli said. 'And for Helmut, too, I know.' 'Four beers,' van Effen said. 'Vasco, if you would be so kind -'Vasco rose and left the booth.

Agnelli said: 'Known Vasco long?'

Van Effen considered. 'A proper question. Two months. Why?' Had they, van Effen wondered, been asking the same question of Vasco. 'Idle curiosity.' Agnelli, van Effen thought, was not a man to indulge in idle curiosity. 'Your name really is Stephan Danilov?, 'Certainly not. But it's the name