The Charlie Muffin Thrillers Volume One by Brian Freemantle

Author:Brian Freemantle [Freemantle Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2017-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

It was a tense, hostile encounter, different – although for opposing reasons – from what either the Americans or Wilberforce had anticipated when Smith and Ruttgers had stormed from the office less than twenty-four hours before.

‘Well?’ insisted Smith.

‘It isn’t what I expected,’ conceded Wilberforce, reluctantly.

‘Isn’t what you expected!’ echoed Smith, etching the disgust into his voice. ‘At this moment, Charlie Muffin should be trying to disappear into the woodwork!’

He stood up, moving to a sidetable where copies of the photographs had been laid out. He picked them up, one by one, as he spoke.

‘Instead of which,’ he said, displaying them to everyone in the room, ‘he’s practically advertising his presence from the rooftops, drinking champagne at the Savoy until he can hardly stand and then occupying the centre table at the river-view restaurant for a lunch that took almost three hours!’

‘He’s very clever,’ said Cuthbertson, in his wet, sticky voice. ‘We shouldn’t forget he’s very clever.’

‘We shouldn’t forget anything,’ agreed Smith. ‘Any more than we should have forgotten the point of this operation.’

‘It’s not been forgotten,’ said Wilberforce stiffly.

‘Just endangered,’ hit back the American Director. ‘God knows how badly.’

The Russian robbery had been in England, he thought suddenly. At the moment there was nothing to prove any American involvement. That was how it was going to stay.

‘We can’t eliminate him, not now,’ said Cuthbertson. ‘Not until we discover the reason for his extraordinary behaviour.’

‘Of course we can’t kill him,’ accepted Smith, careless of his irritation.

‘What do you think it means?’ demanded Wilberforce, of Braley.

Braley considered the question with his customary discomfort.

‘That there’s something we don’t know about … despite all the checks and investigations, there’s obviously something we overlooked … something that makes Charlie confident enough to act as he’s doing.’

Braley blinked at his superiors, worried at the open criticism.

‘I’ve always warned of that possibility,’ Wilberforce tried to recover. ‘That was the point of the bank entry in the first place, don’t forget.’

Smith looked at the other Director in open contempt.

‘It could just be a bluff,’ said Snare.

‘It could be anything,’ said Smith. ‘That’s the whole damned trouble. We just don’t know.’

‘The Russians are upset,’ said Cuthbertson, mildly. The first time anything had gone wrong and Wilberforce was unsettled, he saw. Practically gouging the pipe in half. He smiled, uncaring that the other man detected the expression. Always had thought he could do the job better than anybody else.

‘What’s happened?’ asked Smith.

Wilberforce looked sourly at his one-time chief before replying.

‘Formal note of protest to our ambassador in Moscow,’ he reported. ‘The Russian ambassador here calling at his own request upon the Foreign Secretary and two questions tabled in the House of Commons by some publicity-conscious M.P.s.’

‘Hardly more than you expected,’ retorted Smith. No one seemed to realise how serious it was, he thought.

‘We decided upon a course of action,’ said Wilberforce, pushing the calmness into his voice. ‘So far every single thing has proceeded exactly as it was planned. Certainly what the man did today was surprising. But that’s all it is, a surprise.

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