The Terminators by Donald Hamilton

somebody forward heaved a light line ashore, and a man grabbed it and hauled across a husky wire cable with a big loop on the end, which he fitted over a giant cleat on the dock. The ship, still gliding ahead slowly, came to the end of the cable and was drawn right alongside by her own momentum, after which the other docklines were put ashore. Simple. I wondered how many years of practice it had taken the guy on the bridge to make it look that way. There was a familiar, youthful, figure in jeans and wind-breaker among the people clustered on the pier. I went below. Diana was reclining on the unmade berth when I knocked and entered her cabin.
    "I told you to keep that gun handy, always," I said.
    "It's handy, darling. I just didn't want it in plain sight m case you were the stewardess coming to make the bed." She sat up and pulled her hand out of a fold of the blanket and showed me the ugly little snubnosed weapon.
    "Is he there?" she asked. "The other one, the one who went ashore last night?"
    I nodded. "He's there. The lad seems to take his duties seriously, whatever they are. Judging by my map he must have made a hell of a drive overland to rejoin us, with all kinds of ferries to catch across the fjords. Or maybe he had a friend with a fast yacht or handy helicopter."
    "Is he alone?"
    "As far as I can see but that means nothing. If he brought reinforcements, they'd be keeping out of sight."
    "What do we do now?"
    I looked around for something I needed, or thought I might need: a towel. A rather damp one hung over the edge of the washbowl in the corner. I rolled it up and stuffed it into my overcoat pocket.
    "You," I said, "do nothing. Don't leave this cabin. If he sees you, and makes the connection, the only way I can keep him from telling the Elfenbeins this isn't the dame he helped dump over the side in Bergen, is to kill him. So keep out of sight while I figure out how to get rid of him without distressing the local constabulary. They're nice Norwegian boys, and we don't want to bother them with any unnecessary dead bodies."
    Diana hesitated. "That's . . . kind of risky, isn't it, Matt? Leaving him alive, I mean."
    I looked at her sharply. The funny green glow was in her eyes again. They're the most dangerous people on earth: the ones who've been brought up on the cruel fairytale that peace is the natural state of mankind, and that violence is a rare and disgusting aberration. Once they realize how badly they've been conned, if the discovery doesn't shatter them completely, they tend to go so far in the other direction that no self-respecting Mako shark will associate with them.
    I said, "You're a bloodthirsty bitch."
    "No," she said, "just a practical one."
    "Well, maybe," I conceded. "But it depends. On whether homicide is feasible at this point, in broad daylight, without time to set it up properly or get help lined up."
    She shrugged. "You may be right, darling. I haven't had a great deal of experience at this sort of thing—less than twenty-four hours, actually. But —" She stopped.
    "What?" I asked.
    "Be fair, please," she said quietly. "If I were a professional agent, you wouldn't look at me as if I were some kind of a mad vampire lady, merely Because I point out that a certain person is a serious threat that might better be removed."
    I regarded her for a moment. Again she was perfectly right. I sighed. "My apologies. You are not a bloodthirsty bitch, Miss Lawrence. Okay? Now keep that gun handy, and don't let anybody in you're not sure of. This may take time, so don't get impatient and start roaming around. I'll be back as soon as I can."
    They were just shoving the gangway into place when I got back upstairs—excuse me, topside. Parson Elfenbein and his pretty daughter were not in evidence. The youth whose friend I'd been so mean to last night was still waiting among the greeters and prospective northbound voyagers down on the dock, with his gaudy nylon pack at his feet. He picked it up when the gangplank