'Yes. Quite a lot. I thought he was all right, and maybe he is.' If Chen were totally secure I could use him again if things got tricky.

'Did you find out anything from the wreck?'

'Hold it a minute.' There was an F11 taking off outside and the office became a membrane, filled with its power-scream. When quiet came back I told Pepperidge, 'Quite a bit.'

'What was in the briefcase?'

'That's not bad,' I said.

He sounded indignant again. 'I don't sleep when there's work to do. I've been in signals with the Thais most of the night.'

'No offence.'

'None taken. So what was in it?'

'Copies of the blueprints for the Slingshot, including specifications, modifications, computerised performance figures and component manifest.'

There was a short silence.

'Good God.'

'Dominic Lafarge was the Shoda organisation's main armament source.'

'I know,' he said. 'But why -'

'Who is General Dharmnoon?'

There was another silence. He was doing a lot of thinking, which didn't surprise me.

'He's Shoda's chief army commander, in charge of all her splinter groups.'

'There was a copy of a letter in the briefcase, written to Mariko Shoda. It said that Lafarge was "at present furthering arrangements for the acquisition of one hundred Slingshots, as outlined to General Dharmnoon". That's a quote.'

I waited for him to do some more thinking, suddenly aware of the sharp smell of antiseptics, an itching under the left wrist, hunger. They'd changed the dressing for me at the base hospital, and I hadn't eaten since the Red Cross had brought us the sandwiches at three o'clock this morning. Faint voices from outside, one of them an American's.

'They can't buy them,' Pepperidge said.

'For acquisition read steal.'

'Absolutely. I'll tell Laker Foundry to double the guard at the factory. And I don't know why you're so wary of Johnny Chen. This is a major breakthrough.'

'Just that it crashed. I'll get over it.' The memory wasn't ready to let go yet, that was all, the memory of the two voices, the one on the paging phone - There will be an accident, do you understand? - and the one on the radio three hours later - It has just been reported that a Thai International Airlines plane has come down in deep jungle north of Chathaburi. The names of the crew and passengers are being withheld until more information is available. One of the names on the passenger manifest had been Martin Jordan.

'Yes,' I heard Pepperidge saying, 'I know how you must have felt.' With hesitation he said, 'They kept me up to date, you see, the Thais, so I knew you were down to take that flight, and when they signalled me that it had crashed I broke the rules and hit the Scotch for a while. All right now, stone cold sober. You understand, I suppose, that a hundred of those things would give Mariko Shoda complete control of all air movement up to thirty thousand feet, wherever she chose to deploy them? Just a hundred launchers, plus, say, ten missiles to each.'

He was right. Major breakthrough.

'It's coming together,' I said.

'Indeed. And too bloody fast. I've got to go and get a few people out of bed, do some phoning round London. Look, can you send me copies of that stuff in the briefcase?'

'They're on their way.'

'Where to?'

'The Thai Embassy in London. I did it from the air base here through Bangkok.'

'First rate. I need to check them later with Laker for authenticity. Have you got anything else for me?'

'No.'

'Well, this is more than enough to get on with. Listen, old boy' - hesitating again - 'I ran into Fletcher yesterday.' I waited. The only Fletcher he could mean was a high-echelon control at the Bureau. 'I didn't say where you were, of course, or what you're doing. But they'd take you back, you know. Any time.'

'No.'

Once you've gone, we can never ask you back. That bastard Loman. Changed his tune.

'They'd be pretty accommodating. They'd send you a director in the field, right away. Anyone you asked for. Even Ferris.'

My God, what wouldn't I give for Ferris. . .

'They can't touch it,' I said. 'You know that. They haven't got-'

'Strictly under the table, of course.'

'That's where they put that fucking bomb.'

In a moment he said ruefully, 'Message understood. But I want to ask you something. When can you go to ground?'

'As soon as I can.'

'You're not going to survive, otherwise. They won't just leave it like that.' He meant the clowning around in the limousine.

'I know. As soon as I can.'

'I've got someone standing by,' he said, 'out there.'

'Listen, if you -'

'Now don't fidget. All I've told him is that I might want to call on him at any given moment. He's very good, and -'

'I've told you I don't -'

'I simply want you to know,' he said with studied patience, 'that if you ever need support, you've got it, instantly. If, for instance, you decided you can't trust Thai Intelligence." I didn't say anything; he waited and then asked, 'Have you ever heard of a man in that region named Colonel Cho?'

'How do you spell it?'

'C-H-O.'.