'Hold on.' I turned to Loman. 'You heard what I've asked them to do and they say they can do it and I've worked out our end-phase and it'll give us the only chance we've got, so are you prepared to give me full discretion over this?' He stood there staring at me with his hands behind him and his feet together and his head on the tilt and I watched him computerising the whole situation including what would happen to him in London if it turned out that he'd let me screw up the mission and drive it into the ground. Pepperidge had taken a step closer and he was watching me too, his eyes blanked off and his mouth a tight line because he'd catch some of the flak if he let his executive talk his control into a last-ditch spectacu- lar fiasco. Then Loman made a curt gesture and I gave him the phone and he said, 'Control. I am placing the com- pletion of your operation into the hands of the executive here.' Gave me the phone back. 'Thank you, sir.' More than I'd asked for, more than I could have expected, much more - he was giving me immediate re- sponsibility for the whole show. I said into the phone, 'What's the ETA for that consignment in Prey Veng?' '21:14 today.' 'Where are you going to make the switch?' 'In Phnom Penh.' 'At the airport?' 'Yes, in a holding warehouse.' 'Clandestine?' 'We've bought two customs people.' 'Not a lot of risk, then.' 'Not a lot. I'd say we've got, you know, around ninety per cent in our favour.' I whipped through the main essentials to see if I were missing anything, didn't think I was. 'How long is it going to take them to unload the consignment and check on the contents, open up a crate?' 'I can't say, sir. I mean, it's up to them. But it wouldn't take more than a half hour to get the stuff off the kite and then all they'll need is a crowbar.' So I'd be working inside a time bracket of thirty minutes minimum. But then they'd go through all the crates before they contacted Shoda. 'How many crates are there?' 'Twenty.' Think . How long would it take to open up twenty crates and go through the whole contents, which was what they'd do before they got on the radio and informed Shoda? An hour. Say an hour. Time bracket, then, of ninety minutes minus an estimated - I looked at Pepperidge - 'From here to the airport, how long?' 'Forty minutes, with the escort.' Minus an estimated forty minutes and another forty-five minutes for the Shoda jet to start up and taxi and get to the grid. Bracket of five minutes. Five. Better than zero and I was having to make estimates and I might have longer than that and we still had a chance even if it were shorter below zero. So take the risk, go for it. 'All right,' I said into the phone, 'set it up. Any questions?' 'I don't think so.' 'Then keep in signals.' 'Roger.' I put the phone down and went into the little lav just off the smoking-room and slurped some handfuls of water into my mouth and splashed my face and towelled it and went back and through into the salon and told Loman and Pepperidge what I wanted to do.

' She kill my father.' There was a moth circling the lamp. 'I'm sorry,' I said. 'Thank you.' Thank me ... Mother of God, if I hadn't gone there to the radio station she wouldn't have sent the bombers

in.

Bitch! 'You know he die?'