'You should also know,' Loman said, 'that early yesterday morning Shoda had the radio station in Laos dive-bombed.'

I had to give it a beat.

'Is he dead?'

'Yes.'

Cho.

Os, Sempai, His head lowered over the chipped, grimed shelf of the radio console, a tear falling from his riven cheek to lie there glistening.

He is my father. Sayako, her soft; hesitant voice over the phone at the clinic.

I let out a breath.

'Hurt now?'

'No.'

Yes. Hurt now.

In a moment: 'I thought General Cho wasn't a threat to Shoda any more?'

'She didn't think so, until you went to see him. She heard about that.'

'How?'

'From the grapevine in the village there.'

'You got this from Johnny Chen?'

'Yes.'

'If she knew I was there, why didn't she put a hit on me?'

'She tried, but it was too late: you'd flown out.'

I'd flown out, leaving Cho with his last few hours to live. First Veneker, now Cho.

Sometimes I hate this trade.

'The important thing,' Loman said, 'is that this is yet another indication of the effect you have on Shoda, the increasing influence you're developing over her.' He stopped pacing and looked down at me, hands tucked behind him, his eyes intent. 'Let me tell you something, Quiller. You frighten her.'

I thought about that.

'Aren't you putting it a bit strong?'

'We don't think so.' A glance towards the couch. 'Pepperidge has given me a very clear picture of the relationship between you and Shoda - which is the fundamental axis of the mission, you understand that? - and I believe it to be absolutely true: you've got her frightened.'

Pepperidge had put it in a different way, debriefing me at the clinic. I think we've found her Achilles' heel, and it's you.

Loman began pacing again, motes of dust rising from the plum-red Chinese carpet as his polished shoes turned in a beam of morning light. 'Let me offer you a picture of our opponent. She wields, behind the scenes in Southeast Asia where much of the economy and political infrastructure is centred on the drug trade, a great deal of power. She is also a psychotic. Because of her childhood experiences she is on the one hand consumed by hatred of men to the point of pathological obsession and on the other hand fearful of them to the same degree. This knife-edge aspect of her personality engenders a strong element of superstition, far beyond her orthodox Buddhist faith.' He stopped once and looked down at me. 'And if this sounds like a psychiatric diatribe, it is. I am giving you a distillation of the expert opinions of three London psychiatrists of the highest reputation, whom Mr Croder consulted after we'd received a composite picture of Mariko Shoda's behavioural record over the past five years.'

Done their homework. Dr Israel had said at the clinic: 'One can be obsessed about so many things, but the real obsessions are focused on abstracts - hate, revenge, life, death, sex, sickness, health.'

'So our opponent,' Loman said, on the move again, 'is a classic type in world history, a powerful, dangerous megalomaniac embarked on a sacred crusade. Think of her as an Idi Amin, a Gaddafi.'

Loman stopped again, standing close, his feet neatly together. 'That is the situation, then, in terms of your personal mission and its personal target: Mariko Shoda.' He didn't glance across at Pepperidge, but I caught a feeling he was doing that. Pepperidge was looking carefully at nothing at all. 'Since you elected to undertake this mission otherwise than under the aegis of the Bureau, I was unable to inform you of the various aspects involved. You should now be told that Mr Croder has a second unit in the field, under the local direction of one of our most talented people.'

He looked up at me and I felt he was expecting a question. I already had a lot so I gave him one.

'What field?'

'Not this one, of course. This is yours.'

'What director?'

'Ferris.'

Oh you bastard.

We could offer you rather good ones, he'd said in London, meaning terms, your sole discretion, for instance, as to back-ups, shield, signals, liaison, contacts and so on. And he'd have asked me to choose my director in the field and you know the man I'd have chosen, don't you? Right - Ferris. And I'd have got him.

'So where's their field?' Nothing in my eyes, nothing in my voice to give him joy.

'It's very flexible.' He turned away and began walking, like a.bloody wind-up toy. But I was listening; I was listening very hard. This was major briefing. 'A consignment of one hundred Slingshot missiles complete with warheads has gone adrift somewhere in the Near East. Our second unit is at present trying to locate it, seize it and escort it to Thailand, its intended destination.'

I watched him. A hundred. A hundred Slingshots. Enough to control the whole of the air traffic across Indo-China, military and otherwise.

'But Christ,' I said 'what d'you mean by gone adrift?'

Tilted his head. 'A euphemism. We believe that the Shoda organisation has in fact diverted the consignment to a secret destination. As far as we can find out, it's due to reach the Shoda organisation's forces at some time tomorrow; hence the deadline of three days I mentioned to you is now reduced to twelve hours, perhaps less. The significance of this is of course obvious to you.'

I'm sure I don't need to emphasise, Mr Jordan, the devastation this weapon could cause, in the wrong hands. Prince Kityakara, when we'd seen the Slingshot in action. It means that any armed revolution could proceed with its enterprise in the certainty that it was completely safe from the air. It means that if the Shoda organisation acquired this weapon, it could set Indo-China aflame within a week. And that) of course, is its intention.

'We await hourly," Loman said, 'news from our second unit that the consignment has been found and seized.' He stopped pacing and stood directly in front of me. 'So you see that your own mission is perhaps even more vital than you might have believed. Whether or not we can keep the Slingshot out of her hands, Shoda must be destroyed. With the missile she can devastate Southeast Asia, but without it she will continue to present a dangerous element in the area, ready at all times to provoke havoc. We have, of course, something like a trump card. Even if she acquires the Slingshot consignment, I am virtually certain she won't feel able to deploy it while you remain alive.' He turned away, turned back. 'There is therefore no element so crucial, so pivotal or so potentially decisive as your personal threat to Shoda - and hers to you. I am convinced, in short, that over and above the question of the Slingshot consignment, the outcome of both these missions can only be decided by a personal and conclusive confrontation between yourself and Mariko Shoda.'

29 TREBLE THINK.

She came in quietly, soon after Loman had finished his main briefing. I didn't see her until she was quite near us, because I'd had my back to the doors, talking with Pepperidge.

'Good morning.'

Loman turned. Pepperidge got off the couch. She slung a leather bag from her shoulder; it looked like a diplomatic pouch, probably was.

'The tapes,' she said, and gave the bag to Loman.