Quiller Salamander

'Perfectly.'

Moving his shoulders against the wall again, restive as a caged bear, nothing but his veiled rage to thrive on, his rage against General Kheng and the shadow executive who refused to put him in the cross-hairs. 'So what makes you think I'll touch it now?'

'I rather think we've discussed that. It concerned compassion.'

'All right, I feel compassion for these people — anyone would. But that doesn't override my principles — and they're not only mine. Who else in the Bureau would have taken this on? Wellman? Locke? Thorne? They'd have turned it down flat and you know that. We're not hired guns, any of us, we don't kill in cold blood. And who, anyway, would take the risk?'

Flockhart turned his head. 'Of firing a single shot?'

'Of firing the shot and getting it wrong, of being shot himself before he could get clear. I told Pringle that for a single executive in the field to take on the Khmer Rouge is a suicide run, one man against an army of twelve thousand. How could anyone go in there — '

'No,' Flockhart said and came away from the wall and stood in front of me, hands in motion, chopping the air — 'No, it's not like that. You don't have to engage twelve thousand men. You have to destroy only one, and from a distance, and with a gun.'

'Where?'

'Wherever you can reach him.'

'He'd have to be isolated.'

'Isolated, then.' Staring at me, fire in his eyes.

"Then find someone to do it for you. Ask Bracken. Ask Symes. Ask one of the agents-in-place in Phnom Penh, or one of the sleepers.'

'Oh come, they're not marksmen. You brought home the Queen's Prize two years ago at Bisley.'

'That was another reason, was it, why you picked me out for this one?'

'But of course.'

'You knew it'd come down to one final shot if all else failed?'

'I believed so. Destroy the leader of a rebel army and the ranks will be left in total disarray. History is clear on this point.' Head on one side: 'I thought perhaps it might tempt you, in the last hours of your mission, to be offered a task that even the United Nations is powerless to take on, for whatever reason.'

He waited, sweat beading his face, his eyes locked on mine.

'An appeal to my vanity,' I said. 'That's in my records too?'

'You're known for undertaking operations that others might well refuse because of the difficulties. Rather, I would call it pride.'

'Bullshit.'

But he was right: he'd given this thing a lot of thought. I'd been the perfect candidate — a single man with no one and nothing to lose and a feeling for women and a streak of vanity that'd come close to getting me killed a dozen times, be this admitted. But Flockhart was finally trying to goad me into an operation I couldn't take on because of the one personal factor he hadn't believed would make any difference.

He turned away and I saw Pringle look up, look down again. Then he swung back to me: 'Having refused to complete the mission, would you at least set up the end phase, in case we can find someone else to bring it home?'

'Not if you put it like that.'

Anger flashed again in the cold blue eyes. He was a major control, very high in the echelon, and I, a lowly ferret in the field, wasn't expected to speak my mind in so forthright a fashion. Our good Pringle, yonder, was clearing his throat again.

'How, then,' Flockhart asked, his voice hushed with control, 'should I put it?'

'I'm not refusing the mission. I'm refusing to kill in cold blood.'

'Even for the most urgent and compelling reasons.'

'They're yours, not mine. You'd have to give me a reason I could call my own.' I looked across at Pringle. 'Have you got that map you made?'

While he was getting it from his briefcase I told Flockhart, 'You wouldn't have a chance of hitting Kheng at the airfield here in Pouthisat when he takes off at first light' — I looked at my watch — 'in four hours from now, four hours and nineteen minutes. There's no cover, only the freight sheds, and nowhere to run clear except into the six-foot chain-link perimeter fence, make a perfect target. Your only hope is to get Kheng when his chopper lands on the pad you saw in the film — if that's actually what it is — and shows himself in the doorway. I imagine there'll be a big welcome from the troops because this is D-day, so he'll do his photo-op pose in the doorway, giving your man five seconds or more to line up his sights. Be an oblique shot, partly across the lake — Kheng won't be seen face on, but he'll present a full enough target profile for a body shot.'

Flockhart had moved to the bamboo table, stood looking down at Pringle's map. 'Where would he be?'

'The sniper? I'd put him here, at the edge of deep jungle, perfect cover. You said you were going to send Bracken out there on surveillance. Did you?'

'He signalled an hour ago,' Pringle said, 'from the village.'

'By radio?'

'Yes.'

'What kind of reception?'

'Adequate, some squelch but no actual breaks.'

I looked down at the map again. 'All right, this is the way it could go. Assuming you could find a chopper from somewhere, you'd have — '

'I'm sorry,' Flockhart cut in, and looked at Pringle. 'My compliments to the officer commanding, Phnom Penh, and would he despatch a helicopter to Pouthisat immediately, highest priority. If there's any problem, contact General Yang, the king's military aide. Apologize for waking him and ask him to expedite matters if necessary — again, this is red alert. Then signal Symes to meet the aircraft and have him ask the pilot to stand by for further orders, with the likelihood of immediate take-off at any time, carrying a passenger.' He turned back to me.

'Please excuse the interruption.'

Pringle picked up the red telephone and I told Flockhart, 'All right, you'd fly your sniper out there at least one hour before first light, and the pilot would be told to put down somewhere here, two kilometres east of the village. Bracken would guide him in with lights or flares or whatever he's got available.'

Pringle was talking on the telephone behind me. Control had hotline access, then, to King Sihanouk and his army commanders, presumably through the good offices of the British prime minister. I would have expected that.

'The pilot,' I went on, 'would stand by at the landing point while Bracken drove the sniper — by this track here — to within a mile of his attack position. He would cover that mile on foot and by moonlight — '

'Following the shot,' Flockhart said, 'he'll have to run back over that mile, to — '

'No. When Bracken hears Kheng's chopper coming in he can use its sound cover to move his vehicle right up to the sniper's position and turn it round, leaving the engine running. It's deep jungle here, but the track runs through it to the camp.' I shrugged. 'It's not perfect, but I've cut down on the risk factors all I can.'

In a moment, 'This is how you would proceed?'

'Give or take a few changes according to how things were going.'

'Excuse me, sir.' Pringle.

Flockhart turned to him.

'Compliments of the officer commanding, Phnom Penh. The helicopter is lined up and the ETA Pouthisat is forty-five minutes from now.'

'Thank you.' Flockhart looked at his watch. In profile his face showed the stress that he managed to blank out when he looked at people.

'The deadline you've got to work with now,' I told him, 'is 0400 hours. Your aircraft will have to take off at that time, one hour before first light, to give the sniper time to reach his position.'

Flockhart nodded, not looking at me, didn't want me to see the frustration in his eyes, the anger. He'd flown out from London to push this mission personally into the end phase and the objective was attainable, almost in his hands, except for this obstinate bloody executive who valued his principles more than the lives of a million people, I could see his point, could feel for him, the man was a saint, could be a saviour if he could only find the instrument he lacked: a man with a gun and the will to fire it.