But Major Joel Dirke was as good as his word. He was waiting beside the guard-kiosk, raised a hand in greeting and jumped into my passenger seat. The gates swung open and the guard waved us through as I peered through my drenched windscreen into the black night. The streetlights on the air base blurred and starred as if they were swimming underwater, but I followed Joel Dirke’s instruction and pulled up outside a building that was marked ‘Recreation Hall’. I wasn’t here for recreation.

‘We’ll make a run for it through the rain,’ he laughed. ‘Ready?’ He had his fingers on the door handle.

‘Joel, will you sit here a moment first, please?’ I rested my hand lightly on the arm of his wet raincoat and swivelled to face him. ‘There’s something I want to talk to you about.’

He looked at me, surprised.

Say yes, Joel, say yes. I am staking everything on you.

I smiled at him encouragingly. The outside lights from the building shone into the interior of my car, turning us both an odd shade of green.

‘Well now,’ he said, his Southern drawl more pronounced, ‘what’s this all about? No more thatched-roof arson, I hope, or hand-grenade attacks. It’s getting increasingly dangerous around here.’ He laughed again and I thought how easily it came from him.

‘Joel, my brother has been taken.’

‘Taken? What do you mean by that?’

‘I mean he was abducted this afternoon.’

He was a military man, so his jaw didn’t drop open, but it came close. ‘You’re talking about André Caussade?’

‘Yes.’

‘Hell, Eloïse, that’s terrible, what happened? Have you informed the police?’

‘Yes. Three men came to the house. They attacked the man who was with him and seem to have driven off with André in their car. He put up quite a struggle.’ I kept my voice calm, my tone factual. ‘I thought you might know where they’ve taken him.’

‘Me?’ The laugh didn’t come this time. ‘Why me?’

‘Because I believe you are in touch with Communist agents down here.’

‘What? Why the blazes would you think that?’ he demanded.

I placed my hand on his arm but he snatched it away. ‘Listen, Joel, you told me that your brother is in the aircraft industry in San Diego, California.’

He nodded warily. ‘So?’

‘Colonel Masson told us yesterday in his speech that the aircraft company Convair is located there. They build the Peacemaker and are developing the version of it that will be powered by nuclear energy. Is that right?’

‘Yes it is.’ He was shifting uneasily in his seat. ‘What’s this about?’

‘Answer me this, Joel. Does your brother work at Convair? Quite a coincidence if he does.’

Silence. Just the rain battering the roof of my car and turning the windows opaque.

‘Does he?’

He nodded. He watched me the way you watch a snake.