Quiller's Run

Above all I knew that if I were going to take him on it wouldn't have to be simply because there was nobody else — you can get killed that way. I'd have to do it because I wanted him, trusted him.

'Have you ever directed in the field before?'

'No.' He didn't look away.

'I suppose there's a first time for everything.'

He let out a breath.

'Be a privilege,' he said.

'Mutual.'

He got up and took a pace or two, watching the lighted windows, the people moving along the verandahs, not seeing them, I knew that. I also knew that it had suddenly hit him that he was taking something on that even a seasoned director like Ferris would have shied at, without the Bureau behind him.

Then he turned and took a slip of paper from his pocket and gave it to me. 'My number. Round the clock.'

I memorised it and gave the slip back to him.

'You've got your Thai papers?'

'Yes.'

'Any others?'

'No.'

'If you need any we can get them done here, overnight. You know Mayo Street?'

'No.'

'Reliable.'

He'd been out here two years ago on Flamingo, with Croder running him. That was a help: he knew the field.

He came and sat down again, sitting sideways to face me. 'Debrief?'

'All right. Thai Intelligence – did you do any more on mat?'

'Yes, but I didn't get anywhere. If there's a mole, he's down deep.'

'At the embassy itself?'

'You know what you're asking.'

'Of course.' It was next to impossible to check out a government intelligence agency without months of work, and in place. 'I'm still not easy on that score, so I'm not reporting to Prince Kityakara or anyone else for the moment, and they're not pressing me.'

'That's fair enough. They gave you the job and you said you'd do it and you've only been out here for how long? Fifteen days. They've already been months trying to bring Shoda down and they couldn't do it.'

'That's how I see it and that's why I phoned Katie to ask her to get the Shoda bug monitored. It's running now.'

He nodded quickly. 'Incredible. It might give us all we need. Now what about the bug on Johnny Chen?'

'It could have been put there by Sayako.'

'The woman who's been trying to protect you?'

'Yes. It could have been the Singapore narcotics people who bugged Chen, but I think they'd have dropped on him by now. It wasn't the Shoda hit team because they'd have heard me asking Chen to fly me out to the jungle and they'd have brought Kishnar in for the kill. But it could have been Sayako – and this is just an idea – because there's a connection between her and Colonel Cho.' I told him about Cho's extraordinary reaction when I'd mentioned her name.

'What is she? Wife, mistress?'

'Or possibly his daughter.'

'Married to a Japanese?'

'Not necessarily.'

'What's the connection -' He looked up.

'Mr Jordan, please?'

Lee Siang, one of the doctors: I'd been introduced to him when I'd signed in.

'Ah, right.' Pepperidge got up and spoke close. 'Dr Siang, why not go and see admin about our friend here? Ask Mrs Yih – she'll explain.'

'Need to make examination." He tilted his clipboard to catch the light. 'Mr Martin Jordan, yes?'

'She'll tell you all you need to know, doctor. Mrs Yih, all right?'

'Oh. Very well.' Big grin. 'Not know about this. Excuse me.'

I got up too and we made the round of the lawn under the frangipani trees, the scent of their blossom heavy on the air.

'They'll take a bit of time,' Pepperidge said. 'So what's the connection, with the Chen bug?'

'It could be anything, but he flies into that airstrip regularly and it's within forty kilometres of Cho's radio station."

'We'll see if we can get her to talk a bit more.' He put a hand into his pocket again. 'For you.'

He dropped it into my palm: a small, round plastic component like a black pill-box. The Chen bug.

"Thank you.'

'Chen gave it to McCorkadale and she gave it to me. What do you want it for?'

'I might need to talk to Colonel Cho some time, and this is the only way.'

'Does he speak English?'

'French.'

'He was monitoring Chen?'

'Not specifically. He was picking it up by chance across the wavelengths; he's got a whole range of stuff going into those tapes, totally at random.'

I reported at length on Cho and it took half an hour; Pepperidge got out a mini-recorder and put it on the cassette. 'The only two transmissions I heard in Shoda's voice were in Cambodian, and Cho translated for me, so I got this bit at second hand – she was telling one of her army commanders to hold back on mobilising his forces until the arrival of a consignment of some sort. She said it was vital for him to stay in liaison with her other forces, to avoid precipitate action.'

'Oh really.' His voice was quiet. 'A consignment of what?'

'Cho didn't know. I asked him that one, of course.'

He stood thinking. 'We'll be picking up some more about it as the material comes through; I'll analyse it myself and give you the essence. At the moment it looks as if she was talking about the Slingshot, and I'll pass that straight on to my people in London, see if they're willing to do a little research for me. Go on, will you?'

I finished the debriefing and filled him in on the village out there in the jungle and the way it was run. Then I went over the whole of the material and found something I'd missed.

'On the Chen bug, there's something else that points to Sayako. I was at his place when he said I should take Flight 306, and the next day she got me paged at the airport to stop me going. At the time I couldn't understand how she'd known.'

'And now perhaps we do. I wonder,' he said, 'just horn useful Sayako could be to us, if we really explored the question? We've got her phone number now, by the way.'

Got my attention very fast.

'How?'

'She gave it to us.' He pulled out the little recorder again and changed the tapes. 'She phoned Chen today and gave him the number and asked him to pass it on to you. He didn't know where you were, so he phoned McCorkadale with it and she contacted me. I phoned Sayako and taped it for you.'

He switched the thing on.

Yes?

My name is Pepperidge. Mr Chen passed on your number to me, since I'm a close friend of Mr Jordan's. Can I give him any message?

Where is he now, please?

I'm not quite sure, but I shall be seeing him soon.

A break as she hesitated.

Very well. I wish to talk to him, if he wishes also. It is very important to me personally. Also he should know that Mariko Shoda is very angry because of car bomb happening, which allow .Mr Jordan to escape Kishnar. She order execution of person who placed bomb. I will tell him more, if he wish to talk to me by telephone. Please tell.

I will. But he has my confidence, Miss Sayako, so you can tell me anything that Please? Confidence?

I mean, you can tell me anything that you can tell him. It is safe to do that.