Eye of the Storm

She smiled. ‘Total discretion, you have my word, Colonel.’

‘We’re here because Brigadier Charles Ferguson in London suggested it.’

‘That old Devil? And why should he suggest you see me?’

‘Because you are an expert in matters relating to the IRA, Professor. Let me explain.’

Which he did, covering the whole affair as rapidly as possible. ‘You see, Professor,’ he said as he concluded, ‘the Jobert brothers have combed our IRA picture books without finding him and Ferguson has had no success with the brief description we were able to give.’

‘You’ve got a real problem.’

‘My friend, this man is not just anybody. He must be special to attempt such a thing, but we know nothing more than that we think he’s Irish and he speaks fluent French.’

‘So what do you want me to do?’

‘Speak to the Joberts.’

Brosnan glanced at Anne-Marie, then shrugged. ‘All right, wheel them in.’

He sat on the edge of the table drinking champagne while they stood before him, awkward in such circumstances. ‘How old is he?’

‘Difficult, monsieur,’ Pierre said. ‘He changes from one minute to the next. It’s like he’s more than one person. I’d say late thirties.’

‘And description?’

‘Small with fair hair.’

‘He looks like nothing,’ Gaston put in. ‘We thought he was a no-no and then he half-killed some big ape in our café one night.’

‘All right. He’s small, fair-haired, late thirties and he can handle himself. What makes you think he’s Irish?’

‘When he was assembling the Kalashnikov he made a crack about seeing one take out a Land Rover full of English paratroopers.’

‘Is that all?’

Pierre frowned. Brosnan took the bottle of Krug from the bucket and Gaston said, ‘No, there’s something else. He’s always whistling a funny sort of tune. A bit eerie. I managed to follow it on my accordion. He said it was Irish.’

Brosnan’s face had gone quite still. He stood there, holding the bottle in one hand, a glass in the other.

‘And he likes that stuff, monsieur,’ Pierre said.

‘Champagne?’ Brosnan asked.

‘Well, yes, any champagne is better than nothing, but Krug is his favourite.’

‘Like this, non-vintage?’

‘Yes, monsieur. He told us he preferred the grape mix,’ Pierre said.

‘The bastard always did.’

Anne-Marie put a hand on Brosnan’s arm. ‘You know him, Martin?’

‘Almost certainly. Could you pick that tune out on the piano?’ he asked Gaston.

‘I’ll try, monsieur.’

He lifted the lid, tried the keyboard gently, then played the beginning of the tune with one finger.

‘That’s enough.’ Brosnan turned to Hernu and Savary. ‘An old Irish folk song, “The Lark in the Clear Air”, and you’ve got trouble, gentlemen, because the man you’re looking for is Sean Dillon.’

‘Dillon?’ Hernu said. ‘Of course. The man of a thousand faces someone once called him.’

‘A slight exaggeration,’ Brosnan said, ‘but it will do.’

They sent the Jobert brothers home and Brosnan and Anne-Marie sat on a sofa opposite Hernu and Savary. The inspector made notes as the American talked.

‘His mother died in childbirth. I think that was nineteen fifty-two. His father was an electrician. Went to work in London so Dillon went to school there. He had an incredible talent for acting, a genius really. He can change before your eyes, hunch his shoulders, put on fifteen years. It’s astonishing.’

‘So you knew him well?’ Hernu asked.

‘In Belfast in the bad old days, but before that he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Only stayed a year. They couldn’t teach him anything. He did one or two things at the National Theatre. Nothing much. He was very young remember. Then in nineteen seventy-one his father, who’d returned home to Belfast, was killed by a British Army patrol. Caught in crossfire. An accident.’

‘And Dillon took it hard?’

‘You could say that. He offered himself to the Provisional IRA. They liked him. He had brains, an aptitude for languages. They sent him to Libya to one of those terrorist training camps for a couple of months. A fast course in weaponry. That’s all it took. He never looked back. God knows how many he’s killed.’

‘So, he still operates for the IRA?’

Brosnan shook his head. ‘Not for years. Oh, he still counts himself as a soldier, but he thinks the leadership are a bunch of old women and they couldn’t handle him. He’d have killed the Pope if he’d thought it was needed. He was too happy to do things that were counter-productive. The word is that he was involved in the Mountbatten affair.’

‘And since those days?’ Hernu asked.

‘Beirut, Palestine. He’s done a lot for the PLO. Most terrorist groups have used his services.’ Brosnan shook his head. ‘You’re going to have trouble here.’

‘Why exactly?’

‘The fact that he used a couple of crooks like the Joberts. He always does that. All right, it didn’t work this time, but he knows the weakness of all revolutionary movements. That they’re ridden with either hotheads or informers. You called him the faceless man, and that’s right because I doubt if you’ll find a photo of him on any file, and frankly it wouldn’t matter if you did.’

‘Why does he do it?’ Anne-Marie asked. ‘Not for any political ends?’

‘Because he likes it,’ Brosnan said. ‘Because he’s hooked. He’s an actor, remember. This is for real and he’s good at it.’

‘I get the impression that you don’t care for him very much,’ Hernu said. ‘In personal terms, I mean.’

‘Well, he tried to kill me and a good friend of mine a long time ago,’ Brosnan told him. ‘Does that answer your question?’

‘It’s certainly reason enough.’ Hernu got up and Savary joined him. ‘We must be going. I want to get all this to Brigadier Ferguson as soon as possible.’