Quiller's Run

I hadn't been thinking.

It was like a dog-pack tearing at my throat, the guilt, I couldn't shake it off. Sleep was the only anodyne, and even then I saw it again, the white flash in the slats of the shutters, heard it again, the dull booming, and Al's voice, startled, what was that, for Christ's sake?

Veneker.

You be all right, will you?

He'd been thinking of me, of my welfare, knowing that I was in the middle of massive surveillance and knowing from Pepperidge that I was up against Shoda – he'd hesitated, hadn't liked leaving me there on my own, Veneker, a man used to helping people out, getting them through if he could, I'd known men like that and he was one of them and it was my honour, my everlasting privilege, and all I'd done for him was send him straight into a booby-trap and let him get blown apart, oh Mother of God have mercy on my soul.

Chen had seen the rage, felt it. 'So what happened?'

'Wheel came off.'

He'd told me to come in, shut the metal door and reset the alarm. 'A wheel came off?"

Bureau idiom. 'Someone got killed.' Very intense, and he stared at me with his lidless eyes and decided not to say anything more. He was tense himself, shut-faced, and I said, 'Sorry about your friend.' The co-pilot of Flight 306.

'You went out there, didn't you?'

'Yes.'

'What was – I mean did he look -' and I waited, then he said, 'what the fuck difference does it make? Come on upstairs.'

In the huge cluttered room he asked me, 'What did you come here for, Jordan?'

'Shelter.'

'From the rain?'

'From people.'

'Shoda's people?'

'Yes.'

'You mean you want a safe-house?'

'Call it that. For a few days.'

He angled his narrow head, thinking, watching me. 'I'm due out on a flight in an hour, but you can stay if you want. Guess you could use a shower. Hang your things over there – they'll be dry by morning; this place is watertight.'

When I came back he gave me a worn silk robe; it smelt of opium. 'Some things you'll have to do for me while you're here, okay?'

'Whatever you say.'

He was still watching me, considering. 'When that flight went down, you must have thought I was in on it, right?'

'It occurred to me.'

'I'll bet. Now you know different, or you wouldn't be here.'

'Katie told me about your friend.' Pepperidge had also cleared him: I've done the necessary homework.

Chen looked at the aircraft chronometer on the desk. 'Sure.' Head on ope side. 'You're putting a whole lot of trust in me, right?'

'I don't think it's misplaced.'

'But if it is, you're dead.'

'Correct.'

'There's no particular reason,' he said casually, 'why I should drop you in the shit, but if I find a reason that's what I'm going to do. You don't have anything to worry over so long as what you've told me about you is true. You're also okay by Katie.' He got one of his black cigarettes and lit up. 'Just spelling it out for you, because I have to trust you too, if you're staying here in my absence.' Blew out smoke, watching it. 'I'm not talking about little Chu-Chu, so long as you're gentle with her – she's only a kid. But feel free. I'm talking -'

'She'd have stayed here alone, if I hadn't come?'

'She's learned life the hard way. She can take care of herself 'Is anyone likely to come here?'

'Nope. If anyone rings the bell – that's just figurative -she'll deal with the situation. You won't be disturbed. What I was saying was, I'm going to trust you with one or two things you can do for me that wouldn't get done if you weren't here, because she doesn't speak English, maybe a couple of words.' We were sitting on two of the leather-covered tabourets, and a coin fell out of his pocket as he reached for a notebook; he picked it up and wrote in the book and tore out the page and gave it to me. 'That's where you can call me, in Laos. There's an answering-machine over there, and I want you to monitor calls, okay?'

'Okay.'

'There won't be too many, nothing social – this place is a kind of safe-house for me too, as I guess you know. But if there's anything that sounds urgent, call me.'

'Will do.'

He nodded. 'When did you eat?'

'God knows.'

Let's have a snort!

'They been giving you a hard time?"

'Not as hard as it could've been.' Another wave of guilt, hot and overpowering. The hard time had been for Veneker.

Chen left another telephone number with me; it was punched out on an embossed strip and stuck to the side of the Autocall machine.

'I should be back in a couple of days, Tuesday some time. If I don't show up by Wednesday, or haven't contacted you here, call this number and tell them I'm overdue, okay?' He was stuffing a Walther P38 into his airline bag. 'This trip I'm not sure what's going to happen.' He zipped the bag shut. 'If you want to leave here before then, that's okay. And she'll be fine on her own. Take care.'

That had been hours ago and now she rested like the child she was, curved against me with one thin arm around me, her breathing as soft as a young animal's. I slept again, and the next time I woke it was because of the silence. The rain had stopped and it was almost first light.

She stirred.

'Johnny?'

'No. He'll be back soon.'

She drew herself up against the pillows, and when it was light enough to see her face I said, 'Can you smell smoke, Chu-Chu?'

She watched me quietly, that was all.

'I can smell smoke,' I told her. 'I think this place is on fire.'

She didn't turn her head to look anywhere.

'Are there any extinguishers here, Chu-Chu? We don't want to be burned alive.'

She gazed at me with soft and uncomprehending eyes, and I knew it was all right to call Pepperidge.

'Veneker's dead.'

Short silence, and I heard something being knocked over, alarm clock or something. Over there it was eleven o'clock last night and maybe he was trying to conserve sleep in case I needed him.

'What happened?'

'They rigged a bomb. I should have thought of that.'

'Can't think of everything. You -'

lThen I bloody well should have.'

In a moment he said quietly, 'You've got a war on. We have to expect casualties.'

I got control again. 'He didn't know a thing, of course.' Desperate for consolation.

'Best way to go. But I don't understand. That doesn't sound like Kishnar.'

'No. It must have been one of the surveillance people. I'd left a car standing outside, and they assumed I'd use it again.'

'And he got in.'

'Yes.'

It had been a thin chance but any chance had been worth taking, so I'd worked it out: Veneker would get into the car without being seen and drive to the airport. They'd tag him there and when he was under the bright lights they'd see it wasn't me, but by that time it would be too late because they'd have been drawn away from the Red Orchid and I could have walked out when I wanted to, and that's what I'd done, but in a dead man's shoes.

'It was obviously a temptation for them,' Pepperidge said.

'They must have been mad.' Shoda had wanted absolute discretion and had sent a soft-hit agent to take care of me with no fuss and no trace and she'd have that man's life when she heard about this, have his neck under a sword, because this time it wasn't going to be kept out of the papers and Veneker would be identified and she'd know I'd got clear and gone to ground, have his neck, another little shred of consolation, an eye for an eye, so forth.

'True,' Pepperidge said. 'She won't like it. Where are you?'

'At Chen's.' I gave him the number.

'What sort of condition?'

'I wasn't anywhere near.'

Should have been. Jesus Christ, a simple letter drop and bang and he was dead.