“Via Monte Grappa,” Robert told the taxi driver. During the drive, Robert looked out of the rear window. No grey Opel. I’m getting jumpy, he thought. When they arrived at Via Monte Grappa, Robert got out at the corner. As he started to pay the driver, he saw, out of the corner of his eye, the grey Opel half a block down the street, yet he could have sworn it had not followed him. He started walking, moving away from the car, strolling slowly, stopping to look in shop windows. In the reflection of a store window, he saw the Opel, moving slowly behind him. When Robert reached the next corner, he noticed that it was a one-way street. He turned into it, going against the heavy traffic. The Opel hesitated at the corner, then sped away to pick Robert up at the other end. Robert reversed direction and walked back to Via Monte Grappa. The Opel was nowhere in sight. Robert hailed a taxi. “Via Monticelli.”
The building was old and unprepossessing, a relic of better days. Robert had visited it many times before, on various missions. He walked down three basement steps and knocked on the door. An eye appeared at the peephole, and a moment later the door was flung open.
“Roberto!” a man exclaimed. He threw his arms around Robert. “How are you, mio amico?”
The speaker was a fat man in his sixties with white, unshaven stubble, thick eyebrows, yellowed teeth and several chins. He closed the door behind him and locked it.
“I’m fine, Ricco.”
Ricco had no second name. For a man like me, he liked to boast, one name is enough. Like Garbo. “What can I do for you today, my friend?”
“I’m working on a case,” Robert said, “and I’m in a hurry. Can you fix me up with a passport?”
Ricco smiled. “Is the Pope Catholic?” He waddled over to a cabinet in the corner and unlocked it. “What country would you like to be from?” He pulled out a handful of passports with different-coloured covers, and sorted through them. “We have a Greek passport, Turkish, Yugoslavian, English …”
“American,” Robert said.
Ricco pulled out a passport with a blue cover. “Here we are. Does the name of Arthur Butterfield appeal to you?”
“Perfect,” Robert said.
“If you’ll stand over by the wall, I will take your picture.”
Robert moved over to the wall. Ricco opened a drawer and took out a Polaroid camera. A minute later, Robert was looking at a picture of himself.
“I wasn’t smiling,” Robert said.
Ricco looked at him, puzzled. “What?”
“I wasn’t smiling. Take another one.”
Ricco shrugged. “Sure. Whatever you say.”
Robert smiled while the second passport picture was taken. He looked at it and said, “That’s better.” He casually slipped the first picture into his pocket.
“Now comes the high-tech part,” Ricco announced. Robert watched as Ricco walked over to a work bench where there was a laminating machine. He placed the picture on the inside of the passport.
Robert moved to a table covered with pens, ink and other paraphernalia, and slipped a razor blade and a small bottle of glue into his jacket pocket.
Ricco was studying his handiwork. “Not bad,” he said. He handed the passport to Robert. “That will be five thousand dollars.”
“And well worth it,” Robert assured him, as he peeled off ten five-hundred-dollar bills.
“It’s always a pleasure doing business with you people. You know how I feel about you.”
Robert knew exactly how he felt. Ricco was an expert cobbler who worked for half a dozen different governments, and was loyal to none. He put the passport in his pocket.
“Good luck, Mr Butterfield.” Ricco smiled.
“Thanks.”
The moment the door closed behind Robert, Ricco reached for the telephone. Information was always worth money to someone.
Outside, twenty yards down the street, Robert took the new passport out of his pocket and buried it in a trash can. Chaff. The technique he had used as a pilot to lay false trails for enemy missiles. Let them look for Arthur Butterfield.
The grey Opel was parked half a block away. Waiting. Impossible. Robert was sure that the car was the only tail they had on him. He was certain the Opel had not followed him, and yet it kept finding him. They had to have some way of keeping track of him. There was only one answer: they were using some kind of homing device. And he had to be carrying it. Attached to his clothes? No. They had had no opportunity. Captain Dougherty had stayed with him while he packed, but he would not have known what clothes Robert would take. Robert made a mental inventory of what he was carrying … cash, keys, a wallet, handkerchief, credit card. The credit card! I doubt if I’ll need that, General. Take it. And keep it with you at all times.
The sneaky sonofabitch. No wonder they had been able to find him so easily.
The grey Opel was no longer in sight. Robert took out the card and examined it. It was slightly thicker than an ordinary credit card. By squeezing it, he could feel an inner layer. They would have a remote control to activate the card. Good, Robert thought. Let’s keep the bastards busy.
