'All of them?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Would you care for some coffee?'

'Please.'

Then she looked at me for the first time, just a little swing of her head as if she'd had to make an effort; but the blue-grey eyes were quite steady.

Flood had come in earlier with the message, the 'glad tidings' as Pepperidge had called it, going on with the charade for the sake of appearances, because no one could now admit the truth.

'She phoned her office,' he'd said, 'at the High Commission. Her aunt was taken ill yesterday morning, appendicitis, that's why she rushed off without telling anyone where she was going.' Loman hadn't been watching him as he'd told us; he'd turned away to do a little pacing. 'She stayed at the hospital till her aunt was out of danger.' Rueful smile. 'All that tra-la for nothing.'

Not to embarrass him, I'd said I was relieved.

Facing me now she said very quietly, 'Hello.'

'How's your aunt?'

'She'll be all right.' With a swing of her fair hair, 'I - hope you weren't worried about me.'

'No.'

She looked down, swallowing. 'Then I'm glad.'

'I knew there wasn't any need.'

She looked up quickly, then glanced across to where Loman and Pepperidge were sorting out the tapes, then back to me. 'Oh.' Puffing out a little laugh, shrugging. 'I think I've lost the score.'

'It doesn't matter. The game's over now. I'll go and plug in the thing, you like it white, don't you?'

'Yes. Your hand's all right?'

'Everything's fine.'

I went over to the percolator and plugged it in. There were lines under her eyes and she looked as if she hadn't slept too well, which probably meant that she'd been briefed about my blowing the safe-house, and why. Otherwise she might have gone along to the clinic and walked right into the surveillance team, and I didn't want to think about that.

The thing started singing and I called out to Flood, asking him for another cup. Loman was slotting a tape into the stereo recorder. Katie sat down at one end of the couch, slim in her khaki shirt and slacks, the heavy gold chain at her throat.

It had been treble-think, and Loman and I had worked together like partners in a tennis double, each leaving the ball for the other when that was the next move. He'd been certain I'd want to stay with the mission but couldn't do that, now I knew the Bureau had conned me into it after I'd resigned, so he gave me a way of saving my face and told me that Katie was missing. It was a lie and I knew that, and he knew I knew, but I went through the motions of believing it, and agreed to the deal and stayed with the mission. Treble-think, and in case you've forgotten, that's the trade we're in.

'We've boiled them down,' Loman said now, 'to the bare essence.'

The Shoda tapes.

I went over to him. The recorder was on the floor and we sat around it while Katie poured some more coffee.

'These are all translations from the Thai or Cambodian except the one where she's speaking English, presumably to someone whose only language it is. If you want to put questions I'll stop the recorder.

He pressed for play.

I want to stress that we are not mounting a series of isolated revolutionary actions designed to bring in the rabble with us. These are planned as military actions and they will be launched simultaneously as soon as the consignment has been received, evaluated, deployed in the field and readied for use, 'These transmissions,' Loman said, 'have been put onto a single tape. There's no continuity - they are separate recordings made at different times.'

I will repeat that this agent must be located and dealt with before we can launch our operations. It would be fatal if we ignored his influence and allowed him to infiltrate our intelligence and jeopardise our plans. There can be no action in any theatre until he is removed.

'I need hardly tell you' - Loman - 'that we for our part are using every endeavour to monitor and harass the various units now searching for you. In point of fact, by midnight last night, London had called in sleepers and local contacts from Hong Kong, Saigon, Hanoi and Bangkok, and they are now working in the field, liaising with Mr Croder personally through the British High Commission here in Singapore. There is a great deal going on in your support, Quiller, a great deal.'

Translated: You should never have left the Bureau: look at the resources we have.

Said nothing. He pressed the button.

Our entire action now depends on Kishnar. Until I learn that he has accomplished his assignment there can be no furtherance of our project. Tomorrow I shall go to Singapore and await this information.

'The day before yesterday,' Loman said, and lifted the pause button.

The preparations I spoke of are now set up, but our proposed action must await news of an unhampered environment. We must not underestimate the British-Thai intelligence operations mounted against us.

Loman played three more tapes, but they were mostly a distillation of the background political aspects of the revolutionary groups deployed throughout Indo-China, some of them under Shoda's command.

'This one,' Loman said finally, 'is where she is speaking either to an Englishman or an American or at least to someone who doesn't have her various Asian languages. We're trying to find out who he is.'

I am told that, pending the now imminent arrival of the consignment, every tactical element is now in place, but there is still no news from Kishnar, and I am now on my way to Singapore. If you need to reach me I shall be airborne at 5 p. m. and you can use the radio-phone.

It was the first time I'd heard her speaking in English. It was clear and almost without an accent. The sibilants were silky and attenuated, as I remembered from hearing her voice in the radio station, and it had the same energy; but there was something in her tone that hadn't been there before; it was a degree of tension, of strain. I had the sense that the world of Mariko Shoda wasn't any longer spinning the way she wanted it.

Loman shut the thing off. 'Do you have any comments?'

I got off the floor, wanting movement.

'I hadn't realised things were so close.'

He didn't answer, and suddenly I knew why. Things were close only if they could hit me between now and when the Slingshot consignment arrived.

'All right, her operation can't start unless I'm out of the running, so she's going to be throwing the whole thing at me now. She's got no more time to try doing it by stealth, trying to keep it discreet - one man with a bit of wire. If they see me, they'll just shoot, from anywhere - right?'

'That's why we've asked the Singapore police for their help, through diplomatic channels. That's why this place is under guard.'

'But, for Christ's sake, you can't just keep me cooped up in here so that she's got to put her operations permanently on ice. She might easily lose patience and risk it and have a go regardless.'

Loman didn't answer. And nothing from Pepperidge. They'd got things worked out and they wanted to know what my attitude was, because I was the key factor and they'd have to plan according to what I was prepared to do. This was routine direction in the field and that was all right but I couldn't see which way we could make a move, or if there were any way at all.

'Have you got any more briefing for me?' I thought he had, but was holding it back for some reason. Pepperidge was looking into the middle-distance again and I noted it.

Loman started walking around suddenly: it was like a bloody zoo - we all felt caged up in this place.

'Perhaps you should be informed,' he said in a moment, 'that in support of your assumption that Shoda will now do everything in her power to "remove the British agent", two charter plane loads of so-called tourists have arrived in Singapore this morning, one from Cambodia and one from Laos. Our contacts are reasonably certain that they've been brought in to support the surveillance teams.'

Meant hit teams.