Floodgate by Alistair MacLean Read Free Book Online Page B

he said: 'If you're too busy or too cowardly to accompany me to Texel, may one ask what you intend to do.'

'Depends on what I learn from Annemarie and Vasco. If, of course, anything. On balance, however, I think I'll go and do what poor George couldn't, merge unobtrusively among the Krakers in their garden suburb.' 'You! You're mad. The unchallenged bite noire of Krakerdom. Two minutes after your arrival all activity and conversation will wither on the vine.'

'I've been there more than once in the past and the vine has remained unaffected. I don't wear this rather nice pin-stripe you see before you or my official uniform. I wear another uniform. My Kraker uniform. I don't think I've ever discussed my wardrobe with you before.' Van Effen sipped some more bessenjenever. 'I've a sealskin jacket with lots and lots of tassels and a coonskin hat with a wolverine's tail attached to the back. Rather dashing, really.' De Graaf closed his eyes, screwed them tightly shut and then opened them again. 'The trousers are made of some other kind of skin, I don't know what it is, with lots of little leather strips down the sides. Moccasins, of course. Those were a mistake. The moccasins, I mean. They leak. Then my hair and my moustache are blond, not platinum, you understand, that would attract too much attention.' 'The rest of your outfit doesn't?'

'The dye is impervious to any rain-storm. Have to use a special detergent to get it off. A painful process. Then I wear half a dozen rings, solid brass, on my right hand.'

'That the hand you hit people with?'

'Among other things I'm a Green Peace, anti-nuclear, environmental pacifist. I also have a multicoloured bead necklace, double chain, and an earring. Only one earring. Two are passé

'This, some day, I must see.'

'I can get you one like it, if you like.' De Graaf closed his eyes again and was saved further comment by the arrival of George with lunch. George served the Rodekool met Rolpens, opened the ChAteau Latour with a suitably reverential air and departed. The meal was a simple one, red cabbage, rolled spiced meat and sliced apple, but, as George had promised, splendidly cooked: as was customary in Amsterdam there was enough food for four. The wine, also as George had promised, was superb. They had just finished when George brought in coffee. 'Annemarie is outside.'

'Bring her in, please.'

Annemarie was a young lady of undeniably striking appearance. She wore a roll-necked pullover of indeterminate colour which had once, perhaps, been white. It was about four sizes too large for her, a defect she had tried to remedy by hauling a three-inch studded belt tightly about her midriff. As she had a rather slender waist, the effect was incongruous in the extreme: she resembled nothing so much as a potato bag that had been tied around the middle. The faded and patched blue jeans were fashionably frayed at the cuffs and she teetered, rather than walked, into the room on a pair of stained short leather boots with ludicrously pointed high heels. The condition of her streaky blonde hair showed that she regarded combs as an unnecessary luxury. The jet-black mascara had been applied with a heavy hand, as had the turquoise eye-shadow. The ghastly pallor of her face, which could only have been caused by an over-enthusiastic application of some cheap powder, was in stunning contrast to the two circular red patches on her cheeks, which equally owed nothing to nature. The lipstick was purple and the blood-red nail varnish, which showed to advantage when she removed the cigarette holder from between her stained teeth, was chipped and flaking. The nose-wrinkling smell of her cheap perfume suggested that she had been bathing in it, although the impression was overwhelming that she hadn't bathed in anything for a very long time. Her brass earrings tinkled as she teetered.

Van Effen looked at de Graaf, but de Graaf didn't look at him: he was either mesmerized or petrified by the apparition before him. Van