Read Online Floodgate by Alistair MacLean - Free Book Online Page B

for all that: the Waddenzee was already rushing through the narrow gap and into the polder beyond. Less than half a kilometre from the entrance to the gap an ocean-going tug was already headed towards the breach. As the pilot turned his Chinook westwards, presumably to see what the conditions were like in the polder, de Graaf leaned over to one of the Rijkswaterstaat experts. He had to shout to make himself heard. 'How bad is it, Mr Okkerse? How long do you think it will take to seal off the break?'

'Well, damn their souls, damn their souls! Villains, devils, monsters!' Okkerse clenched and unclenched his hands. 'Monsters, I tell you, sir, monsters!' Okkerse was understandably upset. Dykes, the construction, care and maintenance of, were his raison detre.

'Yes, yes, monsters,' de Graaf shouted. 'How long to fix that?' 'Moment.' Okkerse rose, lurched forwards, spoke briefly to the pilot and lurched his way back to his seat. 'Got to see it first. Pilot's taking us down.'

The Chinook curved round, passing over the waters flooding across the first reaches of the polder and came to hover some fifteen metres above the ground and some twenty metres distant. Okkerse pressed his nose against a window. After only a few seconds he turned away and gave the wave off signal to the pilot. The Chinook curved away inland. 'Clever fiends,' Okkerse shouted. 'Very clever fiends. It's only a small breach and they chose the perfect moment for it.'

'What does the time of day matter?'

'It matters very much. Rather, the state of the tide matters. They didn't pick high tide, because that would have caused heavy flooding and great destruction.'

'So they can't be all that villainous?'

Okkerse didn't seem to hear him. 'And they didn't Pick low tide because they knew - how, I can't even guess - that we would do what we are just about to do and that is to block the gap with the bows of a vessel. Which is what we are about to do with the bows of that ocean-going tug down there. At low water the tug probably wouldn't have found enough water to get close to the dyke.' He shook his head. 'I don't like any of this.'

'You think our friends have inside information?'

'I didn't say that.'

'I suggested that to your friend Jon de Jong. That those people have either an informant in or somebody employed in the Rijkswaterstaat.' 'Ridiculous! Impossible! In our organization? Preposterous!' 'That's more or less what Jon said. Nothing's impossible. What makes you think your people are immune to penetration? Look at the British Secret Service where security is supposed to be a religion. They're penetrated at regular intervals and with painful frequency. If it can happen to them with all their resources, it's ten times more likely to happen to you. That's beside the point. How long to seal the breach?' 'The tug should block off about eighty per cent of the flow. The tide's going out. We've got everything ready to hand -concrete blocks, matting, divers, steel plates, quick-setting concrete. A few hours. Technically, a minor job. That's not what worries me.'

De Graaf nodded, thanked him and resumed his seat beside Kondstaal. 'Okkerse says it's no problem, sir. Straightforward repair job.' 'Didn't think it would be a problem. The villains said there would be minimal damage and they seem to mean what they say. That's not what worries me.'

'That's what Okkerse has just said. The worry is, of course, that they can carry out their threats with impunity. We're in an impossible situation. What would you wager, sir, that we don't receive another threat this evening?'

'Nothing. There's no point in wondering what those people are up to. They'll doubtless let us know in their own good time. And there's no point, I suppose, in asking you what progress you've made so far.'

De Graaf concentrated on lighting his cheroot and said nothing.

Sergeant Westenbrink wore an off-white boiler suit, unbuttoned from throat to waist to show off a garishly patterned and coloured Hawaiian