Chavasse 5 - Dark Side of the Street by Jack Higgins

Author:Jack Higgins [Higgins, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Espionage, Fiction, Thrillers
ISBN: 9781936317363
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2010-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8 - Distant Thunder

Vaughan passed the cattle truck within fifteen miles, traveling fast in a green Triumph Spitfire. A mile further on he overtook the old black Ford with Molly at the wheel, but it meant nothing to him. He had never met Crowther’s stepdaughter and had certainly no reason to think she was in any way linked with the fugitives.

On the other side of Blackburn, he pulled in at a roadside cafe, found a telephone box and called World Wide Exports in London.

“Hello, sweetie, just thought I’d let you know I checked on our friend and he hadn’t managed to come up to scratch. I’m afraid the two packages are on their way to Bampton.”

“That’s a great pity. What are you doing about it?”

“I closed our account with this branch—seemed no point in carrying on and I can be in Bampton before the merchandise. Thought I’d ensure it gets a suitable reception.”

“I’m not certain that’s such a good idea. I’d better check. Give me your number and I’ll ring back in fifteen minutes.”

Vaughan left the phone box, sat on the high stool at the counter and ordered coffee. The young waitress smiled when she gave it to him, impressed by the handsome stranger in the expensive clothes, but Vaughan seemed to look right through her and she moved away feeling rather disappointed.

He lit a cigarette and frowned at himself in the mirror at the back of the counter. It was not that he was remembering what had happened at the farm—he had already dismissed it from his mind as unimportant. He was only interested in what lay ahead, in whether the Baron would decide that he wanted him to dispose of Youngblood and Drummond personally.

Simon Vaughan was thirty-three years of age, the son of a regular army colonel whose wife had deserted him when the boy was eight months old. From then on life had been a long round of other people’s houses, boarding schools and army stations abroad for short periods. He had developed into a handsome, smiling boy, strangely lacking in any kind of emotional response to life, but pleasant and popular with everyone.

After Sandhurst he was commissioned into the Parachute Regiment and the first rather unpleasant incident had occurred. Lieutenant Vaughan’s fanatical insistence on discipline and hard training had included the use of pack drill to punish those who failed to meet his standards. In spite of the physical collapse of four men and a slashing report from the battalion medical officer, he had escaped with only a reprimand.

In Cyprus he had been awarded the Military Cross for personally killing two EOKA members who had holed up in a farmhouse in a village in the Troodos and had defied all attempts to get them out. He had gone in through the roof and had shot it out at close quarters in a manner which had certainly left no doubts about his personal courage, although the discovery that the two insurgents had only one gun between them had left uneasy doubts in some quarters.

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