24 THE BIRDBATH.

He is my father.' Cho. The recorder was running.

'I see.'

Silence for a while. I think she took a quick breath to say something, then stopped herself. Then decided.

'He speak of me?'

In a way, though he'd said nothing, he'd spoken volumes, spoken of love.

'When I mentioned your name, Sayako-san, he was very moved.'

'Move?'

'He showed that he has great love for you.'

Silence again, for longer this time. I waited. She'd heard me talking to Johnny Chen on the bug, making our plans to see her father.

'He say he has love for me?'

'Yes.'

If his love for her had not been in that single bright tear, what else had it meant?

'I want to ask,' she said, as I knew she would, and with painful hesitation, 'how is he now?'

That last word told me a lot. She hadn't see him since that vicious blade had struck and left him.. . how he was now. She had only heard.

'He can only ever be,' I said, 'as you remember him.'

'People say -' and then quietness again, not quite silence.

'He is very strong, Sayako. He trains every day in Shotokan.

And he listens to the voices coming to him by radio. He is not alone.'

After a long time, 'So.' And she was over the worst. 'You ask him for wavelength of Shoda bug?'

'Yes, and he gave it to me.'

'I am very glad. I could not give it to you, because I did not place it. My brother place it. But after, he -' three seconds, four, 'she find him and execute.'

Dear God, what star had she been born under?

I said nothing.

'He give wavelength to my father. He listen to Shoda?'

'Yes.'

'He hate her.'

'Yes.'

'I hate her also.'

'Of course.'

It was then that she said that Shoda had landed in Singapore.

'What is she here for, Sayako-san?'

'Is extremely angry because of you. Angry with Kishnar. So you must be very careful, Mr Jordan. If possible, you must leave Singapore.'

'Perhaps. But I would like to meet you, first.'

'Not possible. Too much danger.'

I didn't press it because if she agreed to a rendezvous it'd have to be arranged with so much security that it'd hardly be worth it. I didn't know if the hit team were aware that she'd been in contact with me, and if they tagged her to this clinic it'd blow the safe-house and leave me exposed, finis.

'How did you learn to use bugs, Sayako-san?'

'I work in factor}1, assembly line. Sanyo.'

'I see. And why did you place a bug on Johnny Chen?'

Hesitation, then, 'Somebody say he fly to village, often. Village near my father. I hope to learn about my father perhaps.'

'Chen would have flown you there, if you'd asked.'

'Yes, but friends of my father tell me he not wish to see me again, ever, and I might meet with him in village, without meaning. He -'

'You mean your father didn't want you to see Aim,'

She thought about that. 'Yes.'

I wondered which would break her heart the more effectively: for her not to see him, ever, or to see him, as he was now.

'Sayako-san, do you know where Mariko Shoda is staying, in the city?'

'Yes. She has house in Saiboo Street.'

I asked for the number and noted it. 'We will keep in touch,' I said.

'Touch?'