Read Online Running Blind / The Freedom Trap by Desmond Bagley - Free Book Online
Authors: Desmond Bagley
Tags: Fiction
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Elin. She said sleepily, ‘What are you doing?’
‘I don’t like Slade’s mysterious box being in the open. I’m going to hide it.’
‘Where?’
‘Somewhere under the chassis.’
‘Can’t it wait until morning?’
I pulled on a sweater. ‘I might as well do it now. I can’t sleep—I’ve been thinking too much.’
Elin yawned. ‘Can I help—hold a torch or something?’
‘Go back to sleep.’ I took the metal box, a roll of insulating tape and a torch, and went over to the Land-Rover. On the theory that I might want to get at the box quickly I taped it inside the rear bumper. I had just finished when a random sweep of my hand inside the bumper gave me pause, because my fingers encountered something that shifted stickily.
I nearly twisted my head off in an attempt to see what it was. Squinting in the light of the torch I saw another metal box, but much smaller and painted green, the same colour as the Land-Rover but definitely not standard equipment as provided by the Rover Company. Gently I grasped it and pulled it away. One side of the small cube was magnetized so it would hold on a metal surface and, as I held it in my hand, I knew that someone was being very clever.
It was a radio bug of the type known as a ‘bumper-bleeper’ and, at that moment, it would be sending out a steady scream, shouting, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ Anyone with a radio direction finder turned to the correct frequency would know exactly where to find the Land-Rover any time he cared to switch on.
I rolled away and got to my feet, still holding the bug, and for a moment was tempted to smash it. How long it had been on the Land-Rover I didn’t know—probably ever since Reykjavik. And who else could have bugged it but Slade or his man, Graham. Not content with warning me to keep Elin out of it, he had coppered his bet by making it easy to check on her. Or was it me he wanted to find?
I was about to drop it and grind it under my heel when I paused. That wouldn’t be too clever—there were other, and better, ways of using it. Slade knew I was bugged, I knew I was bugged, but Slade didn’t know that I knew, and that fact might yet be turned to account. I bent down and leaned under the Land-Rover to replace the bug. It attached itself to the bumper with a slight click.
And at that moment something happened. I didn’t know what it was because it was so imperceptible—just a fractional alteration of the quality of the night silence—and if the finding of the bug had not made me preternaturally alert I might have missed it. I held my breath and listened intently and heard it again—the faraway metallic grunt of a gear change. Then there was nothing more, but that was enough.
THREE
I leaned over Elin and shook her. ‘Wake up!’ I said quietly.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked, still half-asleep.
‘Keep quiet! Get dressed quickly.’
‘But what…?’
‘Don’t argue—just get dressed.’ I turned and stared into the trees, dimly visible in the half light. Nothing moved, nor could I hear anything—the quiet of the night was unbroken. The narrow entrance to Asbyrgi lay just under a mile away and I thought it likely that the vehicle would stop there. That would be a natural precaution—the stopper in the neck of the bottle.
It was likely that further investigation of Asbyrgi would be made on foot in a known direction given by radio direction finder and a known distance as given by a signal strength meter. Having a radio bug on a vehicle is as good as illuminating it with a searchlight.
Elin said quietly, ‘I’m ready.’
I turned to her. ‘We’re about to have visitors,’ I said in a low voice. ‘In fifteen minutes—maybe less. I want you to hide.’ I pointed. ‘Over there would be best; find the closest cover you can among the trees and lie down—and don’t come out until you hear me calling you.’
‘But…’
‘Don’t argue—just do it,’ I said harshly. I had never spoken to her
‘I don’t like Slade’s mysterious box being in the open. I’m going to hide it.’
‘Where?’
‘Somewhere under the chassis.’
‘Can’t it wait until morning?’
I pulled on a sweater. ‘I might as well do it now. I can’t sleep—I’ve been thinking too much.’
Elin yawned. ‘Can I help—hold a torch or something?’
‘Go back to sleep.’ I took the metal box, a roll of insulating tape and a torch, and went over to the Land-Rover. On the theory that I might want to get at the box quickly I taped it inside the rear bumper. I had just finished when a random sweep of my hand inside the bumper gave me pause, because my fingers encountered something that shifted stickily.
I nearly twisted my head off in an attempt to see what it was. Squinting in the light of the torch I saw another metal box, but much smaller and painted green, the same colour as the Land-Rover but definitely not standard equipment as provided by the Rover Company. Gently I grasped it and pulled it away. One side of the small cube was magnetized so it would hold on a metal surface and, as I held it in my hand, I knew that someone was being very clever.
It was a radio bug of the type known as a ‘bumper-bleeper’ and, at that moment, it would be sending out a steady scream, shouting, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ Anyone with a radio direction finder turned to the correct frequency would know exactly where to find the Land-Rover any time he cared to switch on.
I rolled away and got to my feet, still holding the bug, and for a moment was tempted to smash it. How long it had been on the Land-Rover I didn’t know—probably ever since Reykjavik. And who else could have bugged it but Slade or his man, Graham. Not content with warning me to keep Elin out of it, he had coppered his bet by making it easy to check on her. Or was it me he wanted to find?
I was about to drop it and grind it under my heel when I paused. That wouldn’t be too clever—there were other, and better, ways of using it. Slade knew I was bugged, I knew I was bugged, but Slade didn’t know that I knew, and that fact might yet be turned to account. I bent down and leaned under the Land-Rover to replace the bug. It attached itself to the bumper with a slight click.
And at that moment something happened. I didn’t know what it was because it was so imperceptible—just a fractional alteration of the quality of the night silence—and if the finding of the bug had not made me preternaturally alert I might have missed it. I held my breath and listened intently and heard it again—the faraway metallic grunt of a gear change. Then there was nothing more, but that was enough.
THREE
I leaned over Elin and shook her. ‘Wake up!’ I said quietly.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked, still half-asleep.
‘Keep quiet! Get dressed quickly.’
‘But what…?’
‘Don’t argue—just get dressed.’ I turned and stared into the trees, dimly visible in the half light. Nothing moved, nor could I hear anything—the quiet of the night was unbroken. The narrow entrance to Asbyrgi lay just under a mile away and I thought it likely that the vehicle would stop there. That would be a natural precaution—the stopper in the neck of the bottle.
It was likely that further investigation of Asbyrgi would be made on foot in a known direction given by radio direction finder and a known distance as given by a signal strength meter. Having a radio bug on a vehicle is as good as illuminating it with a searchlight.
Elin said quietly, ‘I’m ready.’
I turned to her. ‘We’re about to have visitors,’ I said in a low voice. ‘In fifteen minutes—maybe less. I want you to hide.’ I pointed. ‘Over there would be best; find the closest cover you can among the trees and lie down—and don’t come out until you hear me calling you.’
‘But…’
‘Don’t argue—just do it,’ I said harshly. I had never spoken to her
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