Read Online All Honourable Men by Gavin Lyall - Free Book Online

freed without it costing them a penny – but if she doesn’t, they’re ready to pay up. Without the relevant faction in the Turkish Government knowing, of course. And for that reason the money will have to be moved covertly. You still follow me?”
    Ranklin nodded.
    â€œGood. Now, Hapgood has a little scheme which I’ll let him explain himself.”
    Hapgood sat up straighter, cleared his throat, and launched into his Big Moment. “What I thought was, if we can slip you into the affair as Lady Kelso’s escort, you could then intercept this ransom payment and replace a fair part of it with – let’s say – lead. So when Miskal Bey comes to count it, he’ll think the Germans have cheated him, become even more obstreperous, and the tunnelling – and hence the whole Railway – will be delayed yet further.”
    And, after quick looks at the other two, he sat back smiling. Ranklin was doing his best not to gape; all his sympathy for Hapgood the outsider had vanished. Dazed, he instinctively looked to the Admiral, who should have some experience of making realistic plans. But Berrigan was studying the fire with deep concern. And Fazackerley was showing just as great an interest in his own finger-nails.
    â€œI see,” Ranklin said slowly. “But . . . just suppose Lady Kelso manages to get the engineers set free and the ransom doesn’t come into it?”
    â€œWe regard that as rather unlikely,” Fazackerley said, stillintent on his nails. “Particularly with a man of your ingenuity at hand.”
    In short, his first task might be to sabotage Lady Kelso.
    â€œDoes the Foreign Secretary know about the ransom demand?”
    â€œSir Edward sees everything that comes in from diplomatic sources.”
    So they’d learnt of the ransom from some back-door source . . . Gunther? he wondered. And whose office would he have come to: the FO, India or the Admiralty?
    â€œBound to be problems,” Berrigan said, waving the poker in slow circles, “but that’s what you chaps are trained for, isn’t it?”
    And in his way, the old bastard was right – if I’d had any training worth the name, Ranklin thought sourly. He said: “Naturally I can’t commit the Bureau myself, that’ll be up to my . . . Chief. But I’ll put the whole thing to him as fairly as I can.”
    â€œWe quite understand,” Fazackerley said. “And in the light of other matters, we hope you’ll emphasise the importance of this.”
    â€œAnd its urgency,” Berrigan said. “The Germans are in a hurry, so we can’t afford to dawdle.”
    Fazackerley nodded. “Now, as to details . . .”
    * * *
    The Commander listened to the story without interrupting, or not often. When Ranklin had finished, he said thoughtfully: “I’ve expected to be asked to do something about that blasted Railway for the last couple of years. . . And they’re quite right, of course; it isn’t just Foreign Office jingoism. We trapped ourselves when we decided to change the Navy from coal to oil and the only place we could find our own source was in the Gulf. So we’re bound to protect it when we see the Germans driving a railway down to that part of the world. Their intentions may be entirely peaceful – in peace. But come a war, they’ll use every weapon they can, and that Railway’s one of them.”
    â€œThen you want to take this on?”
    â€œI don’t think we have a choice. I’ve been saying that we’re here to do dark-alley jobs like this, that this is how we can coexist with the Foreign Office – and now they’ve taken me at my word. I don’t think we can say No.”
    â€œThe FO may be right,” Ranklin said, “but the the idea of interfering with the ransom is sheer lunacy. The Germans aren’t going to carry a load of gold coin into brigand country in a shopping