"Brian Lumley - Psychomech 01 - Psychomech" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

Connery, I have employed - I still occasionally employ -men who know what terrorism really means. No, you have won
for one reason and one reason only. It is this: I would not employ men who breathe the same air as you, who sprang
from the same soil, who have lived in the same land. Regardless of their religious or political beliefs, I would not give
them work. I would not give them the time of day.’
‘Sir,’ Connery gulped as his own gun stabbed even harder through the fat covering his ribs. ‘Colonel, I—’
Tell your superiors everything I have said,’ Schroeder cut him short. ‘I am leaving Ireland tonight. Any of you who
follow - anyone who attempts revenge on me outside Ireland - will not return to his beloved Emerald Isle. Make sure
you tell them that, too.’
They were now deep into the ’safe’ area of the city, driving slowly along a quiet street. Koenig stopped the car
outside a grocery store. He got out and opened the rear door, dragging Connery out by his hair. The Irishman
squealed like a pig and a few passers-by stared for a moment before hurriedly moving on. Koenig grabbed the fat man
with both hands and whirled him around and around, as he had done with the monkey man. Finally he lifted and
heaved in one movement, releasing the man like a stone from a sling. Connery screamed as he shot headlong through
the grocery store window.
Then, before a crowd could gather - before a single voice could be raised in protest - the bulky man got back into the
Mercedes and drove it away.

They were staying at the Europa Hotel and had been there through a week of negotiations. Negotiations which were
now dead, finished. Urmgard had gone missing just three short hours ago. Then - the telephone call, the threats on her
life, the demands. Her life would not have meant a great deal, but - there are some men you must never threaten. The
Colonel had made certain demands of his own, which had been agreed; he had made one hurried telephone call to
Hamburg; then he and Koenig had gone to meet the men who held his wife.
In their absence Gerda, the nanny, had cared for little Heinrich. She had been told to stay with the boy at the hotel
through every moment that her master was away; and the rest of the world had not suspected anything was amiss.
Then there had been the arranged meeting on a certain, road just outside the Catholic area; the bearded men getting
into the back of the Mercedes and producing their guns; the tortuous route which must surely lose anyone not born
to Belfast itself; and finally the destination, a pub in the Old Park district of the city.
But all of that was over now, finished with. Except—
As Koenig turned the big car into Great Victoria Street, so the Colonel sat up straighter in his back seat. No, it was
not finished with. Just as the terrorists had underestimated him, so had the Colonel underestimated them. They were
not all of the same breed.
Police barriers had been set up, blocking the road and cutting off the hotel. RUC men were everywhere, uniformed,
flak-jacketed, SMGs a’t the ready. Military Policemen and Policewomen searched people on the street, their red hats
like splashes of blood in the thin drizzle which now fell from skies turned suddenly sullen.
Koenig’s window hummed down and he identified himself to an RUC constable at the barrier. Schroeder leaned
forward and said: ‘Was ist passiert? What is it? What’s happened here?’
‘Two men were caught coming out of the hotel, sir. They had guns and shot it out. One’s dead and the other’s
dying. We’re talking to him now.’
‘Do you know who I am?’ Schroeder asked.
‘Oh, yes, sir. That I do.’
‘I have to get through, get my wife and child out of there. They are in danger. That’s who they were after, my wife
and child!’
The constable seemed undecided. Schroeder reached out his hand and gave the man a roll of paper money. ‘Now
really, sir,’ the constable stuttered, ‘I can’t accept—’
‘Then give the money to someone who is not so foolish!’ Koenig snapped the words directly into the constable’s
face. ‘Only let us through!’
The RUC man checked to ensure no one had seen, stepped out of the way, removed the barrier and waved them
through.
Koenig brought the car to a halt at the hotel entrance and the Colonel jumped out. A Military Policeman stood on
the hotel steps with his back to the open doors. Inside, a second Redcap was visible, his narrowed eyes scanning the