‘Not if I’m dead they won’t.’
‘You have the idea of setting off the Semtex so they will believe they have been successful?’
Coburn had already made the decision. ‘There’s only one way for us to get out of this,’ he said. ‘And there’s only one guy who can access the information to get us out.’
Heather stood up and left the table. ‘If you mean O’Halloran, you’re crazy,’ she said.
‘Who else are we going to ask? Don’t say your godfather.’
‘I wasn’t going to. If you’re thinking of going to the States to see O’Halloran, you’re mad.’
‘Why? If I can convince O’Halloran that he’s being manipulated by his own government, he might be pissed off enough to see if he can get some proof about what’s really going on. If he can do that, he can go public with it or, if we have to, we can.’
‘And you think that’ll stop Washington from carrying on with this sick plan of theirs, do you?’ She turned away.
‘It’s worth a try. At least it’ll get them off our backs.’
Hari had more immediate concerns. ‘Do not underestimate the Singapore authorities,’ he said. ‘For them to believe you have died in an explosion, first they will require a body. Had we known, we could have brought one with us from the Selina. But no matter. I shall return to the village to collect one, and deliver it to you here in the morning. We leave many bodies to rot in the swamp, so if the wild animals have not yet taken them, I shall be able to choose a size that will be suitable for your purposes.’
‘You don’t have to do that,’ Coburn said. ‘It’s a hell of a long way to go just to get a body.’
‘It is not a problem. If you would be kind enough to call a taxi for me, I shall at once visit the bar where each evening Lin conducts his business. From there he can drive me back to the Selina and also pick me up again tomorrow.’
With some reluctance Coburn went to use the phone, leaving Heather to start searching for food in the kitchen cupboards.
‘We need to eat,’ she said. ‘If there’s nothing here we’ll have to go out.’
‘No, no.’ Hari shook his head. ‘For the moment it is best you stay indoors. I think there is little danger, but in case I am wrong, you should look after this for me.’ He gave her his gun. ‘You are happier now we understand the reason for everything that has been going on?’
‘No. No, I’m not. You’re both out of your minds. If the United Nations couldn’t stop the US from invading Iraq, why do you think anyone can stop them doing this?’
‘Different situation,’ Coburn said. ‘You stop this from the inside. That’s why we need O’Halloran.’
‘What if he already knows and agrees with what Washington is doing?’
‘Have you got a better idea?’
‘Yes. I’ve got a much better idea. For all anyone knows, you could have been shot when the village was attacked. Why don’t you just disappear and have a nice holiday somewhere?’ She tossed him a can of spaghetti. ‘If you want me to fix dinner, open that for me.’
If a holiday had been an option, Coburn would have taken it. But he knew it wasn’t close to being one. Exploiting the presence of the Semtex in his fridge would buy him time, he thought. But that in itself wouldn’t necessarily keep either of them safe for long.
While he waited for Hari’s taxi to arrive, he endeavoured to refine his plan, trying to convince himself that O’Halloran would listen and wondering what the hell he would do if the American proved to be uncooperative.
With so many other weak spots he had to somehow plug, he was no further ahead when he said goodbye to Hari at the door, remembering to ask the Frenchman to call in at an appliance store to buy a cheap electric timer, but nearly forgetting to thank him for all the trouble he was going to.
It wasn’t until they’d finished Heather’s spaghetti and she’d found them a can of peaches for dessert that he gave up searching for solutions and noticed how quiet she had become.
‘I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?’ she said.
‘Try.’
She smiled slightly. ‘I would if you weren’t such a complicated person. The minute I start thinking I’ve got to know you, something happens to make me realize I don’t. I’ve never met anyone like you before.’
‘Is that good or bad?’
‘Bad.’
‘You know more about me than I know about you.’ Coburn leaned back in his chair. ‘Are you going to tell me what you were doing in Darfur?’
‘I already did.’
‘You didn’t go there to drive food convoys, did you?’
She shook her head. ‘UNICEF kept sending medicine for the children in the refugee camps there, but none of it was getting through to them. I was supposed to find out why?’
‘Was the stuff going somewhere else?’
‘Mm, all over the place. The Janjaweed militia were controlling the distribution points. They were taking almost everything and selling it on to sick people who had the money to pay for it. About all they left behind was the white electrolyte powder that you mix with water to treat diarrhoea, and even that was being stolen by someone from the Sudanese Government who was using it to cut heroin — you know, ten per cent heroin, ninety percent electrolyte powder. I couldn’t fix the system, so I started driving distribution trucks — well, I did until I realized that most of the aid workers knew how to drive but none of them could handle a rifle.’
‘But you could, so you started riding shotgun for the convoys?’
‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘I was good at it.’
‘This was before you were assigned to Fauzdarhat, was it?’
‘I told you that too. I was in Darfur while you were getting into trouble in Iraq. In between Darfur and Bangladesh I had an office job in Brussels and six months off in England.’
‘Which is where you’re going now.’ He waited for a reaction.
‘Back to England?’
‘If the American Government knows I’m here, they’ll have guessed you’re here too. While I’m seeing O’Halloran, you’re the one who has to disappear. I don’t want to be worrying about you while I’m away.’
She opened her mouth, but shut it again without saying anything.
‘Is there a place you can stay where you’d be hard to find? Would your godfather know of somewhere?’
She frowned. ‘What do I say if he asks about you?’
‘Tell him I’m dead. Just say there was an explosion in my apartment. You don’t have to explain. Pretend you don’t know anything.’
As though she was unwilling to continue with the conversation, she left the table and asked if she could use his shower.
‘Sure. I’ll show you where it is.’ He went to fetch her a towel, hoping she wasn’t about to retreat into one of her moods, but deciding that he didn’t much care anymore whether she did or not.
While she was in the bathroom he took the opportunity to use the phone again, this time to book himself a seat on the first available flight to New York tomorrow afternoon — a less than foolproof means of guarding against the chance of the US Immigration Service receiving early notification of his death, but a precaution that he thought would be good enough.
To address his other problems, he sat down with a notepad and a pencil, but had got no further than listing them when he was interrupted by Heather calling to him from the bedroom.
She was standing by the dressing-table, wrapped in a towel and struggling with the clasp of a chunky bracelet she’d taken from the carryall she’d brought with her from the village.
‘I wanted you to see this.’ She held out her wrist to show him.
The bracelet was gold, set with diamonds and inlaid with entwined strips of what Coburn thought were platinum or silver.