The 9th Directive

He went back to the windows. Maybe it was all he wanted to know. It wasn't all I wanted to tell him.

'For God's sake, Loman, if they'd meant to shoot the Person they'd have done it, shot him cold, and we couldn't have done a thing about it, not a damned thing about it, can't you get that?'

I'd lost it again and the room span and I heard him saying, 'He's alive and that's what matters--'

'Shot him cold in front of our bloody eyes--'

'You'll have to get over that.' Voice coming closer, talked like a bloody governess. There are more things I want to know, Quiller. London will ask for a very full report. Who was the man you – who was the man in the temple?'

'Pox on London.' I'd knocked something over, bits on the blue carpet. An ashtray.

'Who was the man in the temple?'

Eyes very bright.

The room steadied.

'What? I don't know. The seventh man. Pangsapa told us. A decoy.'

I'd have to watch it. Always a strain knowing you've got to do a bump even when you know it's an overkill, and always a strain, by God, when you see the whole mission go smash for all the effort you've made. Brain's got to go on ticking, or you've had it.

'He wasn't one of the original Kuo cell?'

I said, 'No. Kuo uses picked men. He wouldn't waste one. Look, I keep telling you--' I had to stop and think. 'I haven't told you. Listen, Loman. There are some bits I don't understand yet. I don't suppose they matter.' I found I was sitting in one of the chairs. 'They were on to me very early. Knew I was tagging them. For some reason they didn't do anything about it – that's one of the bits I don't understand. Maybe it was orders from on high – that girl's always talking about China – does that mean anything to you – China?'

'You put his fee at five hundred thousand pounds,' he said, 'remember?' He was down on his haunches, arms on his knees, hands folded together, perched in front of me, not letting me get away or think about anything else. 'Only a government could afford that. But I don't know anything about China particularly. They were on to you very early – well?'

'They could have put me in the crosshairs a dozen times – I knew that, but when they missed the first few chances I didn't worry any more: Christ, d'you think I'd have stood in front of an open window like that at the Pakchong Hotel with the light on and dark outside? I'd taken damn good care, believe me, before I knew they were letting the chances go. Look, I don't mind what risks I take providing there's--'

'They were on to you very early, you said.'

'All right.' I shut my eyes. They weren't certain of me till Kuo went to ground – then I had to show my hand, went into the Lotus Bar, other places, all over the bloody town, brothels, the lot. Then they knew I was interested. But they still didn't take a crack at me – you knew that, Loman. When you told me that Mil. 6 was protecting me I asked you what the hell they were meant to be protecting me from – Kuo? You said I wasn't in any danger from Kuo. Dead correct. But I was being a nuisance to them so they began fitting the two missions together, his and mine. They let me pick up their track – gave me a man to tag, led me to a hotel, let me tag their car down Rama IV, made a show of being worried when I got into their mirror. I knew where they were going, where they were taking the roll of gold cloth, because I'd haunted the bloody place for days – the Phra Chula Chedi – and they'd seen me haunting it. When I--'

'That isn't sufficient.' He got up from his crouch and walked about a lot. 'You're filling in gaps, making things fit--'

'All right. There's a gap, a big one. But somehow they knew my set-up; they knew I was going for an overkill. I've tried till I'm sick to find out how they--'

'Don't worry it, Quiller. We'll find out. Go on.'

'I've finished.'

'No, you haven't.'

'Oh for God's sake.'

I got out of the chair and fiddled with the telephone cord. 'I suppose they knifed them, the man in the back. Driver was shot, man in the back was knifed, so was the other one, the other bodyguard. Gasoline on fire, people lying crushed under the wheels, you could have got away with anything--'

'They couldn't have planned the fire.'

'No, but the rest was enough.' I twisted the telephone cord, garroting my wrist. 'We don't know how many dead do we? I think he's a bit of a shit and I'm keeping my gun, the Husqvarna, never know your luck.'

He was standing close to me again. 'I must ask you to make your report a little more precisely. You propose that the Kuo cell – six of them, four operators and two bodyguards – had an ambulance waiting at the spot and brought stretchers, ostensibly to remove the dead and injured, and that in the confusion knifed the two guards in the royal car, knocked the Person down--'

'Hit him behind the knees, rabbit-punch as he fell--'

'And took him to the ambulance with a blanket over him, and drove off.'

Tell me how else they did it.' The cord had left a weal on my wrist.

'It was probably like that. The police couldn't have reached the scene – the immediate scene – in time to realize what was happening, and those in the car wouldn't have gone on sitting there like dummies, with people all round them in agony – they would have climbed from the car to help, even knowing that their driver had been shot dead. It was a nightmare, the perfect setting for an abduction.'

The cell would have trained for weeks. He's a professional. Listen, Loman, how much chance have we got of--'

'What I would like you to do is to pick up where you left off. You say that they laid a false trail for you, letting you see the gun being delivered to the temple, and letting you see Kuo himself at the oriel more than once. I take you to mean that? You said they began fitting the two missions together.'

Tell me how else--'

'Oh, I accept most of what you say. It's glaringly logical. I am only trying to help you complete the picture.'

'Well that's it.' His calmness was beginning to stink.

The mission was over and it had failed, but the Person hadn't been shot dead so everything was all right now and Loman could go home and make his report.

Tell London,' I said. 'And don't forget the cost of the thumbtacks or they won't sleep.'

To continue,' he said equably, 'you believe they set up a decoy for you, a live dummy you could shoot at, the "seventh man" who joined the cell late. Why?'

'To keep me out of their way – to stop me finding out their real set-up – to keep me busy fiddling while the whole of bloody Rome was burning down.'

'Why? Why did they want to keep you busy – to keep you alive, instead of killing you off in the early stages?'

'How the hell do I know?' We were facing each other without meaning to, both of us wandering round the damned room looking at nothing, coming up against each other.

'Perhaps you were wanted, too. As well as the Person.'

I stared at him.

'Then why didn't they come and get me?'

'Perhaps they will,' he said.

16 Newsbreak

I went on staring at him.

'Now! But it's over, for God's sake. They've made a perfect snatch.'

He turned away with distaste. 'In view of the Person's standing I do wish you would refer to it as an abduction.'

My laugh exploded, unreal, like the squawk of a mechanical doll. 'Abduction…' I said. 'Abduction…' trying to make sense of the word. 'Listen, what would they want me for? Bumping that thug – the decoy? He was just a hired tool, a live dummy set up as a target for me. You think he meant anything to Kuo? There must have been ten killed in that crowd and the decoy meant as little to Kuo as any one of them.'

'Do you really believe' – he swung round on me suddenly – 'that they would have set up such an elaborate device to prevent your defeating their mission unless someone had given the most express orders that your life was not to be taken? Haven't you admitted that they could have killed you time and time again?'