"Higgins, Jack - Sheba" - читать интересную книгу автора (Higgins Jack)

'It looks good to me,' said Noval, a tough young man around Romero's age, who wore an old leather flying jacket.

Conde was older than either of them, thirty-five and stocky. He also wore a flying jacket and looked across at the Catalina, shading his eyes from the sun.

'What do you think, Juan, can you handle it?'

'Just try me.'

A motor boat nosed in to the dock and a man in brown suit and Panama hat waved from the stern. 'Senor Romero?' he called in Spanish. 'Fernando da Gama. Come aboard.'

They went down the steps and joined him, and he nodded to the boatman, who took the motorboat away.

'She looks good?' da Gama suggested.

'She looks bloody marvellous,' Romero told him. 'What's the story?'

'A local shipping line had the idea of regular flights down to the island of Madeira. Purchased the Cataliria in the United States last year. It has performed magnificently, but they wanted to concentrate on passengers and the capacity is limited - too limited for there to be any money in it. May I ask what your requirement would be?'

Romero stayed very close to the truth. 'General freight in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, flying as far as Goa perhaps. It's a new venture.'

'I know that area,' da Gama said. 'The Catalina would be perfect.'

They bumped alongside a small floating dock and as the boatman killed his motor, Noval and Conde grabbed a line and tied up. Da Gama opened the cabin door and led the way in. Romero looked into the cockpit with conscious pleasure, took one of the pilot's seats and reached for the control column. Noval took the other seat and examined the instrument panel.

'What a beauty.'

Da Gama, Conde at his shoulder, opened a file. 'I'll just give you approximate dimensions. Length sixty-three feet, height twenty, wingspan a hundred and four. The twin engines are Pratt and Whitney, twelve hundred horsepower each. Cruising speed a hundred and eighty miles an hour. Remarkably long range. Without freight it is possible to fly for four thousand miles before the need to refuel. I can't think of another aircraft that could do this.'

'Neither can I,' Romero told him and got up. 'You can take us back now.'

As they scrambled into the motor boat da Gama tried the usual tack. 'Of course, a number of people are interested.'

The motor boat pulled away and Romero said, 'Drop the sales pitch, my friend, just draw up the contract. I'll give you my lawyer's name, we sign tomorrow and you'll receive a cheque for your asking price. Satisfied?'

Da Gama looked astonished. 'But of course, Senor.'

Romero took out a cigarette and accepted a light from Noval. He looked back at the Catalina and blew out a long plume of smoke.

'Looks like we're in business, boys,' he said.

Baron Oswald von Hoyningen-Heune was Minister to the German Legation in Lisbon. An aristocrat and career diplomat of the old school, he was no Nazi and, like most of his staff, was thankful to be as far away from Berlin as possible. Initially wary of the strange Spaniard who was a Hauptsturmfuhrer in the SS, and resigned to following orders from Berlin, he had been pleasantly surprised, had taken to Romero.

He rose to greet him now as the Spaniard entered his office. 'My dear Romero, it went well?'

'Couldn't have been better. Da Gama will be in touch with the lawyer you gave me. You provide the funding and we conclude tomorrow. I'll need to speak to Captain Ritter at Abwehr Headquarters at once, by the way.'

'Of course.' The Baron reached for the red secure phone on his desk and placed the call. 'It shouldn't take long.' He stood up. 'Cognac?'

'Why not?'