Red Alert by Alistair MacLean

his! work. He only wished he knew how to convince Carmen. I He stifled a yawn, turned over, and closed his eyes. Within] minutes he was asleep.
    The streets of Rome were still quiet when Kolchinsky! parked the hired Peugeot 405 in front of a small cafeteriaj on the via Nazionale.
    Sabrina looked through the passenger window. 'Gt/-| zone Caffe, that's it all right.'
    Graham, who was seated in the back, glanced at hi&| watch. Two minutes to seven. Perfect timing.'
    5°
    Kolchinsky switched off the engine. They got out and locked the doors behind them. The card hanging in the window read Chiuso. Closed. He waited until a couple had walked past then knocked sharply on the door. A
    \ corner of the red curtain which spanned the window was pulled back and a moment later the door was unlocked and opened. It was locked again behind them. Apart from the man who had let them in, there was only one other person in the room. He was seated at one of the tables, a copy of Paese Sera spread out in front of him. An empty coffee cup stood on the next table.
    'Please, come in,' he said, without looking up from the
    I newspaper.
    I 'Major Paluzzi?' Kolchinsky said, approaching the
    I table.
    I The man held up his hand, continuing to study the page
    I in front of him. He finally shook his head and sat back in the chair, a bemused smile touching the corners of his wide mouth. 'I hate the stock market. That's the third day in a row that my shares have gone down. I should have listened to my father when he told me to dump them.' He
    ^suddenly grinned and got to his feet, pushing back the ; chair, his hand extended. 'Fabio Paluzzi, Nucleo Operiativo Centrale di Sicurezza.'
    They each shook his hand in turn. Paluzzi was thirty-six years old with a gaunt, pallid face which, together with his cropped brown hair, made im look more like an emaciated prisoner on a hunger Strike than one of the most respected officers in the elite Italian antiterrorist squad, the NOCS, better known as     'Please, sit down,' Paluzzi said, indicating the table. |Have you eaten this morning?'
    'We had dinner on the plane,' Kolchinsky replied, pull-J ing up a chair.
    'You mean breakfast?'
    'Dinner, breakfast, it's the same thing. We're six hours! behind you in New York.' Sabrina stifled a yawn as if to | make her point. 'It's really disorientating.'
    'I can believe it. How about some coffee?'
    'The magic word,' Kolchinsky replied. 'We checked! into the Quirinale Hotel, dumped our things, and dashed] over here. Not even time for a coffee.'
    'That's easily rectified,' Paluzzi said, and signalled to j the man who had let them in. He held up three fingers. 'Tre tazze di caffe.'
    The man pointed to Paluzzi's empty cup.
    'S/, grazie,' Paluzzi said, nodding his head. He gestured I after the retreating man. 'Giancarlo's completely deaf. He used to be with the NOGS. His eardrums were shattered in a freak accident when a limpet mine detonated prema-1 turely during an underwater exercise. He bought the cafe when he was discharged from hospital. I thought it would | be the perfect place for us to meet. He can lip-read, but j don't worry, he can't understand a word of English. We j can talk freely in front of him.'
    'Where did you learn to speak English?' Sabrina asked, j
    'My mother's English,' Paluzzi replied. He took a telex j from his pocket and gave it to Kolchinsky. 'Your Colonel j Philpott asked me to give you this. It came through about j four hours ago.'
    Kolchinsky unfolded the telex and read it.
    Have held further discussions with the Secretary-General and the Italian Ambassador to the UN. It has been agreed, in view of the gravity of the situation, that the Red Brigades
    5*
    should be given the facts about the missing vial. I have asked Major Paluzzi to make the necessary arrangements.
    Philpott
    Sabrina read it, then handed it to Graham.
    'But this is playing straight into their hands,' Graham said,