‘We can hold you for as long as we like,’ threatened Chen. ‘Weeks if we want to.’
Gower wished the voice did not keep ebbing and flowing. It was becoming difficult for him to remember everything that was being said. There’d been a lecture about that: always vital to recall every word. And then he did remember. We’ve arrested him, Chen had said. And then: Just a few hours ago. That wasn’t possible! Despite the time loss, he had to have been in custody for more than a week: more than seven days. And the arrangement was for Snow to check the signal spot every three days. Any arrest would not have been just a few hours before. It would have been days before. So they still didn’t have the priest: suspected him but still hadn’t seized him. And all this was still a bluff, to get a confession. ‘You are holding me illegally. With no justification.’
‘You are subject to our laws,’ said Chen. ‘You will tell us what we want to know.’
Not yet, thought Gower: not for a very long time yet. If ever.
‘Why the hell wasn’t he on the plane he was supposed to be on?’ demanded the enraged Miller.
‘It’s typical,’ said Patricia. She hadn’t anticipated Charlie’s manoeuvre and it irritated her, although not as much as Miller. ‘At least we know it’s not sinister. Special Branch got a definitive photo identification from the Pakistan Airlines desk.’
‘Why does the bloody man do things like this?’
‘I don’t think he knows himself a lot of the time.’
Forty-four
The embassy introductions were formal but not as immediately hostile as some Charlie had experienced. There seemed to be a slight surprise at Charlie’s appearance, but then he was accustomed to that. On this occasion he returned the curiosity, head tilted upwards: the man had to be a long way over six foot tall. There was, of course, no open conversation until they got to Samuels’ office. Once inside Samuels said: ‘This is a hell of a mess.’
‘So everyone keeps telling me.’ Even seated, Samuels seemed as tall as he was when he was standing. Which gratefully he wasn’t.
‘Gower was accredited to this embassy, for God’s sake! If they proceed with these espionage accusations, and prove them to their satisfaction, there could be diplomatic expulsions.’
‘That’s why I am here. To try to stop them being proved.’
‘You weren’t on the plane upon which we’d been advised you’d arrive. I waited for two hours.’
‘Sorry about that,’ said Charlie, emptily. ‘Decided on a different flight.’
‘London want an explanation: they’re very annoyed.’
‘I’ll give it to them later,’ said Charlie, casually. ‘Are there any more details about Gower’s arrest?’
‘Only that it happened near a Taoist shrine, to the west of the city.’
London had already inferred that, merely from learning the district of Beijing. Just as they’d inferred Gower had been moving to place the signal, so that the seizure had been made before he had done anything incriminating. ‘Nothing else?’
Samuels shook his head. ‘And there’s no movement on access.’
Time to see how things were really going to be here at the embassy. ‘There should have been a request from London to give me every possible assistance.’
Samuel’s face tightened. ‘There was.’
‘With Foreign Office endorsement?’
‘Yes.’ Samuels appeared reluctant to make the admission.
‘I need to call upon it.’
Samuels raised his hands, in a stopping gesture. ‘The ambassador has protested in the strongest terms, about what’s already happened because of you people. And about this … your coming and possibly further involving the embassy.’
‘I’m trying to avoid a problem, not worsen it.’
‘Sir Timothy met Gower. Warned him …’ The man snorted a laugh. ‘For all the good that did! You can see the danger, can’t you?’
‘Help me,’ suggested Charlie. To get the maximum cooperation he’d have to go along at the diplomat’s pace.
‘If Gower makes a confession, Sir Timothy could be named in it!’ said Samuels, impatiently. ‘Associated with an espionage situation! He could be one of the expulsions!’
He shouldn’t have been such a silly sod to have got involved in the first place, thought Charlie. ‘All the more reason for me to be given as much assistance as possible, so the whole thing can be contained.’
‘He won’t see you,’ declared Samuels.
Charlie blinked in genuine surprise, which didn’t occur often. ‘I don’t want to see him.’
Now Samuels appeared surprised. ‘He thought you might. Because of the Foreign Office pressure.’
‘Even without the benefit of the hindsight we now have, I think it was unwise of him to have met Gower.’
‘Something else,’ Samuels bustled on, raising a stopping hand again. ‘We want to know as much as possible: we don’t want to be caught out, not as we were with Gower. The ambassador demands …’ The man hesitated, smiling in apology. ‘… is requesting, that you tell me as much as possible, of what’s going on. And it’s going to be me you’ll deal with all the time. No one else. That clear, too?’
Charlie frowned, in a different sort of surprise. The suggestion was illogical, following so immediately after the regret at any personal connection with Gower. And an absurd expectation that he’d discuss intelligence matters in detail with them, anyway. Or was it either? In usual operational circumstances, perhaps. But this was anything but a usual operational situation.
Seeing the expression on Charlie’s face, Samuels’ smile became even more apologetic. ‘This is Sir Timothy’s first prestige posting: all his other positions have been relatively minor. He’s still feeling his way.’
Charlie nodded, accepted the explanation. ‘I’m going to ask for certain things which I would not normally think of doing.’
The smile on Samuels’ face died. ‘I want a full explanation of that!’
‘I have to bring someone to the embassy,’ announced Charlie, shortly.
‘The person you want to get out of the country!’ seized the political officer, at once.
He couldn’t give the confirmation, Charlie knew. It was unthinkable, professionally, for him to offer or professionally for Samuels to ask: inconceivable, no matter how desperate they considered the circumstances, that the political officer or the ambassador or the Foreign Office would countenance the entry into the embassy of a man so close to exposure as Jeremy Snow. Lie and cheat time, Charlie recognized: it was like discovering an old friend, lurking in a dark corner. ‘No. I would not put everyone to that sort of risk. The person I wish to see is a conduit, that’s all.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous! There would still be a provable connection! I cannot agree to it. Neither will the ambassador.’
‘Gower was clearly trying to do it away from the embassy. Now he’s in jail. And we’re facing a diplomatic fiasco … possible expulsions, as you say: maybe expulsion of the ambassador.’
‘I don’t consider that an argument.’
Charlie thought he detected a weakness in the rejection. ‘The man is a Westerner. Someone who has visited the embassy on occasions. His coming here will arouse no suspicion.’
Samuels’ head was to one side, an attitude of intent curiosity. ‘Someone who’s attended public events here, as part of the Western community?’
Charlie paused, not wanting to give a millimetre more than he felt necessary. ‘Yes.’
The smile returned. ‘No problem. We have an event here in a fortnight! You can attend as welclass="underline" carry out your business without anyone being the wiser!’