The Main Chance Read Online Free PDF Page A

the study and Bella was quiet an though deciding how to phrase what she was going to say next. Tweed stood up.
    `Do you mind if I smoke a cigarette?'
    `By all means go ahead. I think I'll have one.'
    Reaching for a silver box on her desk, she lifted the lid and extracted one of her own. She lit it with a silver ball after pressing a button. Tweed was now standing in a dark cubbyhole by the window. The sun had gone in. Looking down he saw Lavinia diving inside a Saab. He was looking straight down the drive to the entrance gates as he pretended to have trouble with his lighter. When a high flame appeared he shook it, dousing it. He repeated the exercise four times before lighting up. Parked in the concealed track opposite the gates he felt sure Harry had seen his signal. He watched as the gates opened automatically and Lavinia drove out, turning left — which was the way to Gladworth, not right to Threadneedle Street in London, the address Bella had spoken aloud so clearly. He went back and sat in his chair.
    `Time I came straight to the point,' Bella began. `Mr Calouste Doubenkian. A billionaire and a crook. Owns large contracts in Eastern oil, an immense steelworks, several banks in the Balkans. All obtained by dubious, not to say murderous methods. To get one bank he had the wife of the owner kidnapped, one of his minor crimes. Now he wants to buy the Main Chance. He's offered a huge sum, about half what we're worth.'
    `Normal procedure with those people,' Tweed observed. 'You offer a low price to start with, then they haggle like Arabs in the Mouski bazaar in Cairo.'
    `His name sounds Armenian,' Bella remarked.
    `Yes, but I doubt it's his original name. He could come from anywhere east of Bulgaria — Georgia, Dagestan, Tajikistan, an oil-rich state.'
    `You know something about him, then?'
    `No. I've heard the name, know that he's dangerous. That's all. He has never crossed my path.'
    `I had him investigated by Medfords Security...'
    `They've very good,' Paula assured her. 'I was trained by them before I joined the SIS. Who did you deal with?'
    `A director called Matteson, who struck me as clever.'
    `After my time,' Paula said with a smile.
    `So what did he find out?' Tweed interjected.
    `Well...' Bella sighed. 'He used his best man in Europe, someone codenamed Louis in Paris. Poor Louis ended up in his apartment with his throat cut. He's on my conscience.'
    `It goes with the territory. You have a large family working for you. I met them downstairs.'
    `It's a dubious tradition going way back. They all want to work for me. They're all bright. Must be a genetic thing lasting for centuries. They know they can't get anything like what I pay them anywhere else. A few wandered off on their own.'
    `What is the executive set-up?'
    `Marshal Main and Warner Chance are co-directors with equal powers. I was once married to Marshal's father, Charles, deceased. Later I married Rupert Chance, but he was killed in a road accident. So Marshal and Warner are my sons.'
    `They choose their clients?'
    `They certainly do not! I do that. If they're accept-
    able I then decide who would handle them best. Marshal is charming and boisterous, very extrovert. Warner is quieter and more deliberate.'
    `What made you choose Snape?'
    `Good question. Originally he was an officer with the Berkshire Blues, then transferred to the Engineers. Among other duties he can cope with the lift if it goes wrong. He has presence when greeting clients.'
    `What about security? When we arrived the gates opened before I identified myself on the speaker-phone.'
    `We knew you were coming.' She smiled. 'You don't miss much. He spotted you leaving Park Crescent, took a photograph, then tore back here on his motorcycle.'
    `He took our photographs?' Tweed was alarmed. 'He wasn't spotted.'
    `He's clever.' She chuckled. 'The Invisible Man. When you arrived he was watching from the manor with binoculars...'
    `He's in charge of security?'
    `No. Lavinia, Chief Accountant, is. She's a