Chapter 13 3. Offense and Counterattack

"I have one more thing to say," Aaron-Rourke said to Natalie, who was about to leave after thanking the two of them. "A short sentence. It goes like this: I just felt that there was a difference of opinion between us." "In what?" she asked. "I refuse to make any promises to reassure Falville. From your astonishment, I can see that there is something reproachful." "Yes, I admit it," she said. "Will you forgive him?" "No, I wish to forget him. Now that he accepts your terms, your rights cease." "I don't see it that way. We have a double duty to a bad man: first to stop him from doing evil, and second to punish him."

"Punish him? But we are not qualified to do so." "So, I have no intention of punishing him." "how to say?" "I'm going to take him to court." Natalie took a step back, she never thought he would do such a great job. "Why! Didn't you force this man to correct his evil ways and let him make up for his mistakes, but are you going to send him to prison?" "The only remedy for a crime is punishment. Everything else is secondary. If Forville does not atone for his crime, he will always be a scoundrel." Then he added sarcastically: "Besides, please believe that this man Fauville will not repent, he has no intention of repenting."

Natalie asked, "But... what about the others?" "other people?" "Yes...for example, the Chafferos you let go..." "That's letting him go temporarily. When the time comes, Chafellows will also be responsible for his actions." "What do you mean when the time comes?" "When I have wiped out this band of robbers, from the generals to the leaders, from Boniface to Jericho. He is the greatest enemy and the greatest criminal. Nothing can stop me from pursuing to the end. Hold his neck." He said these words with an unrelenting determination.This time, however, Natalie made no objection.She also hated the band of robbers who had killed her father, and she hated Jericho with gnawing teeth.

Alan Rock continued in a low voice, looking straight ahead: "Yes, maybe I have done too much. My nature is not balanced, and the memory has lost its coherence, making me inconsistent. , from time to time under the influence of hereditary brute force. But never have I hated evil so much as I do today. All evildoers seem to be my personal enemies. It may be said that I ache that they must be rendered incapable of evil." He went on, his voice getting deeper: "Especially these people, you know... these people who are chasing you everywhere and persecuting you like crazy. I promised to save you. I don't know how to count my words."

For the first time, he alluded to their conversation at Mirador Villa, and his mood seemed to calm down a little, and he said again, with a more friendly tone in his voice: "And... and... my premonition has all been confirmed To fight for you is to fight for myself. I recognize your face in the dead memory, as a blind man sees a beautiful scene that he loved before he was blind, and I think your image will carry me Back in the old days. Today we have all the evidence, don't we? I passed the gardens of Naples and you played with wreaths on your head like this band of robbers who spied on your father, Forville, Jay Rico, Boniface, and the others passed through the garden in those few days. I dug them out of the darkness, but I saw myself, and I revived myself. How wonderful Intoxicated! In a few more hours I shall know. The impressions in the memory are awakened. The crimes thought to have been forgotten shall be reenacted. I am chasing crimes, as I have chased them before? In a little while, Have I not the right to celebrate? Because I have regained my place, the one who saw you there before, in Naples, in Palermo, like Segeste, fighting for the same purpose!  … ...for you! ...for you! ..."

Natalie was in front of him, and when she heard what he said, she trembled slightly with excitement, as if she had never heard such a passionate voice. However, the passion lasted only a short time, and his inner thoughts did not allow him to maintain a similar state of agitation.The lightning flashed past, no longer shining on his weather-beaten face, which was frequently and rapidly changing from cloudy to sunny.Almost at the same time, Alan Rock stepped aside, far away from her, and fell into the contemplation that made her bewildered again. He said nothing.She was silent.She really hoped to leave quickly, the farther away from him the better.

He packed the papers and tied them together.Then, they walked together.He accompanied Natalie to her car.Maxim followed behind them.Before breaking up, he said: "The finale is coming soon. In the meantime, anything can happen, please don't be surprised and don't change your routine. For two weeks, you have been Eat in the restaurant of the hotel, don't you? Please do the same today, and go to your room as usual." Natalie spent the afternoon on the couch, tense, as if waiting for something important to happen.The sounds around her frightened her, as if they were all signals aimed at her, heralding the beginning of the big ending that Alan Rock said.She persevered hard, with a lot of curiosity amidst anxiety.

A series of unexplainable things made her flustered even more, and she was on pins and needles.First, at seven o'clock, the telephone rang loudly in the room, startling her.She ran over quickly.A familiar woman's voice, she thought it was Pascaela Torcy whispering on the phone: "Is this Monsieur Duthier?" "No," she replied, "Monsieur Duthiere is not here." "Ah!" said the voice, "he called me and said he had something to say to me. Are you Miss Manolson? In that case, I'll just tell you..." However, at this moment, the doorbell in the front hall rang.The maid opened the door.Maxim hurried in, as if he had been notified in advance, or heard the conversation, and snatched the receiver.

"Hello! . . . Yes, Pascaela, it's me, Maxime. Well, any news? Or tonight? No change, eh? Are you sure? . . . What did you say? . . . Don't drink? . . . Hey . . . make it clear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . He hung up the phone and grunted, "This is bad luck! What did she mean by that?...Don't drink." He hurried back into the hall as he had come in.Natalie wanted to keep him, but all he dropped was: "I have no time to delay. I have to find Alan Rock...especially Pascaela. Where is she? 'Don't drink', What does it mean?" Maxim's unexpected arrival, Pascaela's return to the stage, endless warnings, the relationship between the girl and Maxime, all of this confused Natalie, she clearly felt that the attack was coming, and she wanted to Take precautions without delay.Her pistol was on the little table beside the bed.She opened the drawer and found that some things in the drawer had been moved and the gun holster was not closed.She checked it out.

The six bullets inside were taken away. It was with great effort that she collected herself before the maid came upon her call. "Susan, did anyone come in while I was away?" "No, miss." "You didn't come in either?" "No, miss." "where are you?" "I'm in the room across the corridor. I opened the door for Mr. Maxim just now. Did you find anything unusual?" "No," said Natalie, not wanting to alarm the maid. "Nothing unusual. Susan, help me. I need a change." She didn't dare to stay alone, and she was so nervous that she even asked Susan to accompany her to the restaurant.

When she came to the dining room, the people present fell silent and paid her respect and appreciation.Her beauty, light make-up, and noble steps aroused the audience's astonishment as usual.A few minutes later, she looked up and saw Alan Rock coming in from the opposite door.He was wearing an evening dress, elegant yet simple, very eye-catching.He sat down, facing her, four tables away, and nodded slightly, signaling Natalie not to greet him. Their eyes intertwined several times, and it was obvious that Alan Rock wanted to keep in touch with her in this way.Suddenly, he hinted at the bartender who usually served her with his eyes. Every night, he came to open a small bottle of Bordeaux wine for her.Thinking of Pascaela's warning on the phone, she paid close attention to this man's every move, and judging from the way he served the wine, she believed that the bottle had been opened before.He poured half a glass of wine, and Natalie watched him intently.Suddenly, she was shocked. He was an accomplice of Boniface, one of the musicians who came to the Villa Mirador, they called him Rudovic. She tried her best to pretend she didn't care, and took advantage of Ludovic's turning around, she reached out and put the glass of wine on the table next to her. The guests at this table had just left, and at the same time she took another glass and poured some wine into it .So Rudovic thought she had drunk three-quarters of the poison.She herself did not expect to be poisoned for a moment.She thought that there were at most some narcotics in it, and when she went back to the room, it would cause her to fall asleep and not wake up. It can be said that she is already surrounded by bandits, the conspiracy is slowly advancing, the strongholds have been occupied, and the final attack will start every moment, and it will be carried out under their deployment. Like every evening, she went out into the hall, sat in an armchair, smoked a few cigarettes and read the newspaper.She saw Alan Rock go out, feeling extremely lonely, just like when he didn't come to help her repel the enemy's attack in the open space of Villa Mirador.She wondered if she should report to the manager of the hotel and ask for police protection.However, apart from Alan Rock, no one, no thing, no force can stop the development of the incident. So she mustered up the courage to stand up and took the elevator to the third floor. She lived in the last suite at the end of the corridor, and it was as deserted as if no one had ever been here.She went back to the recessed door frame, facing the opposite door, she took the key and opened the door.She walked into the vestibule that connected three rooms: the living room on the right, the bedroom in the middle, and the bathroom on the left. She opened the living room and saw Alan Rock and Maxim inside, and almost screamed. Although one incident after another caused her to be overwhelmed, she regained a sense of security when she saw Alan Rock. She let out a sigh of relief, "Ah!", and said, "So it's you... That's great!... But, how did you get in?" Maxim immediately put on a high-spirited and presumptuous look: "Dear friend, we can enter wherever we want. I wanted to say that we entered through the ceiling. However, I never use rhetoric. I To put it simply, I have been living in the room next to yours for a month. Through the double-leaf door that separates us, I opened the door to my side, listening to the movement in your room, and paying attention to your safety. This is how I spied on M. Fauville. In the same way I overheard your conversation with Pascaela, who tried to speak to me but dialed the wrong number. Also, I ask you to note that the latch is Plug it in, and we're in." "Who pulled the latch?" "Your faithful maid, Susan, is also our most loyal collaborator. I just sent her away, saying that you meant to send her to the movies like every Saturday, and she will return directly after watching the movie. Her room. So, don't worry about any disturbance. We are free to move about, and others are free to deal with us." "They've already started," Natalie said. "Yes, I know, they put narcotics in the wine. But you avoided it." "Also, they unloaded my gun, which means they are about to attack." "A trifle," declared Maxime. "The more the enemy prepares, the more he will be trapped. Our plan is set. He will attack? I will counterattack... He will set a trap? I will invite you to enter the urn... Rudovic will come out?... I will send Pascaela to deal with it he." He said looking at his watch. "Twenty past ten. At half past ten, the Italian is waiting for me outside. I will go find her and try to bring her here so that no one will find her." He went out. Allen Rock inspected the layout of the suite and each room, and confirmed the direction in which the door opened.He found the light switch, turned off the light, and turned it on again.At last he said to Natalie, "Where is your jewellery, madam?" "Paris, in a safe at the bank. I have only a few trinkets with me." "Are they...?" "In this desk, I keep the key myself." She took out a small red leather bag from the writing desk and dumped the contents on the marble countertop of the small round table, including two bracelets, several rings, a necklace and a Byzantine reliquary. "You don't wear it anymore?" Aaron Rock asked. "No, not since I knew it killed my father." Allen Rock looked at it casually, and drew a few intersecting straight lines on the paper with a pencil, as if he was drawing an accurate pattern. Nathalie, who was beside him, stooped to look, and said: "You drew a cross...with two bars...a cross of Lorraine, didn't you? Is there a sign of that on the little box?" He lifted the lid and held the box up to a light bulb.On the inlaid gemstones and scratched crystals, a pattern similar to the cross he drew was faintly engraved. "Have you seen this jewelry?" Natalie asked. "Yes," he whispered back. "I have the impression that I used to hold it in my hand when I was in Sicily, and it has always been a part of my being...it has always been...my fingers remember its texture. My eyes see it again. Definitely, Jericho stole it from me, and he thought of it for some reason . . . for some reason I don't know." Wrinkles formed on his brow as he struggled to answer the question.Until Maxim came back, neither of them made a sound. "Hmm?" said he, putting his head through the ajar door, "... nothing new? Can Pascaela come in?" He turned to let the Italian woman in, urging loudly: "Come on, Pascaela . . . and don't tremble. Look at me, am I trembling?" In just a few weeks, the Italian woman's face lost its charm and luster, her eyes became more severe, her clothes more ragged, more slovenly, and she was in a trance, almost insane. "Ah!" she said, "if I let 'em know, I'll die. They'll do anything. Oh, wait a minute, I thought they were poisoning you, miss. Once , I saw a person who ate the poison they concocted and just fell to the ground and died. Ah! These bastards..." "Okay, Pascaela," Alan Rock said, "I've got you covered now. Neither Rudovic nor Boniface know anything and never will. You sure Are they here?" "Boniface is coming soon." "Where's Rudovic?" "He works in the restaurant." "And what about Jericho?" "Don't ask me yet. I'll tell you what I know . . . what I know about Boniface and Jericho since we went to Sicily."