“I’m sure you have.”
Stark looked unconvinced. “Oh, yes? And how did you find out?”
Brook shrugged. “When I phoned from that noodle-vendor boy’s of yours, I heard the bell here. It puzzled me — I couldn’t quite identify the sound. Also Jasmine’s voice. I know now it was Jasmine’s. I thought then it was a man’s.”
“Hear that, Jazz?” Stark said. “He thought you were a man.”
“I know better now,” Brook said.
Jasmine stared back at him. The talented lover of a few minutes ago had quite gone, although she had left her formidable equipment behind. Her eyes were blanked out, as empty of feeling as a snake’s.
“Hope you enjoyed it,” Stark said affably. “You’ll be interested to learn that Jazz didn’t. But then you couldn’t know, could you? That masculine-sounding voice is no accident. She prefers her own sex, whatever that is. But she’s a bloody good actress, what?”
“This talk is not necessary, Toby,” Jasmine said.
“Just a bit of man-talk, my dear. Too bad I couldn’t let the play go on. It was fun. Worked it out rather neatly, Peter, didn’t I?”
“Not bad,” Brook said. “A little on the complicated side, though. All that trouble planting Danny Boy and having him drive me to the festival where you could come to my rescue like a U.S. Marine. What were you trying to do, build me up to the big let-down?”
“You’re marvelous, Peter,” Stark said, “absolutely marvelous. Now you’re trying to divert me. While all the time your brain’s working like mad. And you sit here playing for time. You won’t get a chance to make a break, old chap. I assure you of that.”
Brook watched the Luger. It gave him no confidence.
“Toby,” Jasmine said, coming in and shutting the door. “Let us get on with it.”
“Plenty of time, Jazz. Whom were you telephoning at the Mitani Hotel, Peter?”
Brook did not reply.
“It doesn’t matter. We have the room number.”
“You won’t find anyone if you go there, Stark.”
“Probably not, but we’ll check it out just the same, eh? Bad luck, making that call. I walked into the lobby just as you hung up. Clerk’s jaw falls. He knows I’m a wizard, but he looks bloody surprised all the same. How could I be calling from the castle and standing in the lobby, too? Of course, it was a dead giveaway. Must say it’s forced my hand. And lost you a few rare moments. If you hadn’t made that call you might have enjoyed some more tussles with Jazz.”
“While she pumped me.”
“Very true.”
“Which means there’s still a lot you’re in the dark about.”
The fat shoulders shook; the hand holding the Luger did not. “A few details, old boy. I know you’re here to take Krylov over. That’s the main thing.”
“Then you’re one up on me, Stark. I don’t understand why, if you don’t want Krylov to come over, you don’t just ship him back to Moscow.”
The Australian stared at him in amazement. Then he laughed all over. “Hear that, Jazz? The Yank doesn’t know! Marvelous, absolutely marvelous.”
Brook was puzzled. “What don’t I know?”
“You lose more points, Peter,” Stark said, wagging his head. “What don’t you know? Why, that we’re not Krylov’s people.”
Brook said softly, “China.”
“How quick he is, Jazz,” Stark said.
“Krylov spent some time there in the old days. Helped set up the Chinese espionage network. So he knows too much about it. Bad enough when he was a loyal Russian Communist, but catastrophic if he should come over to us and spill what he knows about your Chinese playmates.”
“Go to the head of the bloody class.” He sounded piqued.
“But how did you know Krylov was fixing to come over? How did you find out we were working on him?”
“For one thing, we’ve watched him proper. Saw a lot of the same signs your people must have seen. We had your man Wilkinson compromised some time ago, and when he went after Krylov it was obvious what was in the wind. As for you, Brook, we weren’t sure till you went to see Krylov’s Jap doxy. The waiter overheard a few things when you talked to her, we put it together with your behavior here at the Spa — going to all that trouble to be alone in a boat with Krylov — and we had a clear notion what you were up to.”
“Why didn’t you kill Krylov a long time ago?”
“Seldom got the chance, for one thing — he’s well-guarded, you know. Also, orders from the top. They didn’t want to risk the KGB’s guessing we were responsible. Or something. We don’t question our orders. Do you?”
“So you took Wilkinson out, and that night when I left Kimiko’s you tried to take me out.”
“Now you have it, chappie.”
“Then you took out Kimiko. What was it? — did she know too much?”
“Actually,” the Australian said with a frown, “that’s the bloody thing. No reason for us to kill the girl. Either it was one of those coincidences — a prowler, or one of her ex-boy friends — or you did it yourself. Didn’t you?”
“No.”
“Didn’t think so. I loathe coincidences, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Brook said. Then he said, “How is it Krylov came yachting here — in the very place you were planted, Stark? Don’t tell me that was a coincidence, too.”
“Hardly. I installed the boats at Katori Spa, remember. Just made sure Krylov heard about it. Then sent him a diplomatic discount, along with the other foreign-service lads in town. With that Roosian’s mania for boats, it couldn’t miss, and it didn’t. We do things methodically, you see. Krylov and his bloody gang don’t realize how well they taught us in the old days.”
“So you’re a Marxist,” Brook said with a laugh.
“Me? Gawd, no! Oh, I had some notions in the days when I was mucking about with party members, but I never really fell for the line. Thing is, they’re bound to come out top dog sooner or later, and I like to run with the pack. And then there’s the travel and the excitement. Hard to explain, really.”
“Toby,” Jasmine said through her magnificent teeth, “we are wasting time.”
“Be nice, Jazz, and I’ll fetch a cute little geisha for you to play with tonight.”
She hissed at him.
“Oh, for the love of Christ,” Stark said. “How often do I get a chance to chin with a fellow-professional? Even if he does think he’ll see a chance for a break.” He grinned and wiggled the Luger.
Brook said, “Two questions, Stark. Why didn’t you take me out when Danny Boy handed me over to you? And why don’t you take me out right now?”
“Orders from up top again, chappie. Got them after we made that first try. Good sense, when you think of it — they’ve got brains up there. You see, Brook, what we need from you is the information Jazz was hoping to squeeze out while she was giving you the time of your life. It’s obvious you’re set up to take Krylov over. We want to know how so we can make an intercept. Your maneuvers have presented us with a shining opportunity, as they say.”
“Yes,” Brook said. “Though it seems to me your side’s being a little stupid about this.”
“Oh? How so? It’s always nice to get a professional opinion.”
“You can stay out of it completely. Just by seeing to it that the Soviet embassy gets the word about Krylov’s intentions. They’ll do the rest for you, I guarantee it.”
“Thank you,” Stark said, grinning, “but no thank you. By doing it ourselves without tipping off the Roosians we can so arrange it that your people are blamed for it instead of us. That’ll make the Roosians mad at you, chappie, even madder than they are about Viet Nam.”