The Girl From Peking

by George B Mair

  ‘Oui, monsieur. And anything else?’ Grant looked at the phone. ‘Put me on to exchange. A local number.’

  He dialled the department. Admiral Cooper was still at his desk and Grant could imagine how he felt. ‘Treble A One, sir, all clear, but I’ll be glad if you’ll send toxicologists with Professor Juin to the Ritz as soon as possible, and an ambulance for a gentleman who is unwell. May I also suggest that you keep the fire going so that we can burn a few documents?’

  ‘Such as what?’

  ‘Exclusive rights concerning a current top visitor to Paris from your own home town.’

  The Admiral sounded interested. ‘That hot?’

  ‘Enough to burn the fire itself,’ said Grant quietly and hung up. He still had to lay hands on the pix and now was the time to move. He pointed to the butane lighter. ‘One last time, Tania. But only if necessary. Give her a decent chance but we do want the photographs.’

  Tania was still holding the blow-pipe. She lifted it and put it to her lips. ‘My debt is paid and from now on I work to rule again.’ She spoke to Miki but her eyes never left Grant as he stood six paces away. And he knew that she couldn’t miss if she tried. ‘Where are the photographs, Miki?’

  The girl hesitated and groaned as Tania once more creased her skin with the lighter flame. ‘Where? Or I do it properly next time?’

  Grant saw that the pupils of Miki’s eyes were maximally dilated. She was scared sick. ‘Where, Miki?’ he said gently. ‘Just tell her where.’

  The girl quivered with shock. ‘Open that copy of Kisses from Satan. My negatives are attached to some of the pages. The book is hotel property but I knew it wouldn’t be opened by customs and I’ve a flight booked for Hong Kong tomorrow.’

  Grant opened the pages and smiled at coincidence. It was the story of his last big adventure and not dead accurate because some top secret stuff had had to be left out, but it wasn’t all that bad. Ten negatives had been fixed with tabs of sellotape, and he whistled softly. Washington wouldn’t believe it if ever they reached C.I.A. And yet, with modern drugs it had all been so very very easy!

  He carefully detached each and slipped them into an envelope from the writing desk. ‘Now, Tania, who may have been Jacqueline,’ he said. ‘Just to round things off. Who is the victim? You have an address where there is supposed to be a student. You let us believe that he was editing tapes. How come? Who and what is he? Or was it just a red herring too?’

  Tania was still holding the blow-pipe and her eyes were alert with some deep-seated emotion which Grant couldn’t even begin to interpret. He felt she might even be laughing at him. ‘There is a student,’ she said at last.

  ‘With tapes?’

  ‘He may have.’

  ‘But you don’t know.’

  She lifted the blow-pipe and held it near her lips. ‘Don’t move, David. He is an agent from the rebels in Formosa. I say Formosa in case you don’t know the proper name, which, of course, is Taiwan.’

  Grant relaxed. It was a typical Tania gimmick. By now Harry’s people would either have softened him up or killed him. It was an even bet. And it explained why they had been so long on the job. But the girl had been prepared to pay the price if her bluff had failed.

  ‘Sure,’ she nodded. ‘Though it would have been difficult to prove. The student couldn’t say anything to anyone because he knew nothing about this case. So your friends would have believed that he was simply one more spy with enough guts to survive torture.’

  The house phone rang. ‘Some more friends, sir. Shall I send them up? They say it is urgent.’

  ‘Right away.’ He looked once more towards Tania. The girl was still holding the blow-pipe and as he moved she lifted it to her lips. ‘Not one more step, David. I want these pictures of the Americans and my double.’

  Grant shook his head and she glanced towards the window. ‘I can still get away with them. But time is running out. Hand them over.’

  She was unpredictable and Grant sensed that he was nearer death than he had been with either Miki or Maksud Wang. She was back to the book and working to rules. But the rules said that she must win. And for once there was no time for stalling. She knew as well as he did that the others would arrive in less than two minutes. ‘No dice, Tania,’ he said at last. ‘Come and get them. And remember that the poison takes a little time to work. I can hold you off until my people arrive.’

  And then Maksud Wang spoke for the first time since Tania had shot in the antidote. ‘Leave him, comrade. This battle ends in a draw.’ The man was feeble but his colour had improved, and although his lungs were still gurgling with mucous Grant guessed that the worst which could happen would be bronchitis or pneumonia. Or possibly some mild heart damage. Only time would tell, and one could trust Juin to do everything possible. Plus a few other things as well!

  Tania seemed puzzled. ‘That is an order?’

  Maksud nodded. ‘That is an order, comrade Tania. This man is now our enemy, but we are all human. It has been our curse and our fate to be born on different sides. But he has saved my life by telling you what to do and making it possible for you to escape. I gather he must also have saved your life earlier this evening. So now we repay him and this must end in a draw. He has got the photographs of Miki and the Americans.’ He smiled cynically. ‘But we still have photographs of yourself and the President of France. Nor forgetting material which can be edited into a tape for dubbing on to movies of yourself with a man who can be passed off as the British Prime Minister. You have also succeeded in causing Doctor Grant’s staff to kill one of Chiang’s agents from Taiwan and you yourself have killed a woman spy from NATO. Though as against that the doctor has wiped out a photographer from my own department.’

  Tania and Grant were now kneeling beside the divan and Maksud feebly held out his hands. ‘I thank you, and I wish only that we could have been friends.’ His smile was weak and Grant realised that it had taken a colossal effort of will to force himself either to interfere or speak. But the man had still more to say as he released Tania and grasped Grant’s wrists in a typical Eastern gesture of friendship with both hands. ‘I salute a brave man and a brave enemy. Maybe one day when our governments have become friendly again you will be my guest in Peking. You will always be welcome when it becomes politically possible to receive you.’

  Grant hadn’t the heart to tell him that ADSAD already had the photographs of Tania and the President, and that only her tapes linking with the Prime Minister remained to be discovered. But Juin arrived with the last words and as two of his men stood on either side of Tania, Grant looked at them in his most official manner. ‘This young lady has an early morning flight booked. May I suggest that she be allowed to pack and that you have coffee together before she is taken to the airport.’ He kissed Tania’s hand and smiled. ‘It might be better for you to have company both on the way and all the way. These gentlemen will make formalities simple and arrange for you to have the seat already booked for Miki.’

  Tania ignored everyone in the room as she put her arms around Grant’s neck and kissed him gently on each cheek. But only Grant heard her farewell words. ‘I’ve fallen in love with you, David. And we’ll meet again . . . somewhere. I am now Chinese and the Chinese know how to be patient.’

  She left just before Krystelle arrived, with Harry and Frank bringing up the rear. ‘I left the others outside,’ said Harry and stared at Grant. ‘Looks as though you’ve been busy.’

  Grant tried to conceal the red weals on his wrists, the rip in one sock and the still crimson scratch between his fourth and fifth fingers. He knew that his face had been grazed by a corner of Tania’s chair when he crashed against it, and he was longing for a razor. ‘I’ve been busy,’ he admitted.

  Harry pointed to Miki, her breasts still exposed as she tried to daub the burns with a handkerchief. ‘You worked on her even better than we did with that student. Almost as good as Farouk!’

  A stretcher was carrying Maksud from the room and Grant realised that Harr
y had missed Tania on her way out. So far as he was concerned it was the same girl. He changed the subject. ‘Did you get what you went for?’

  Harry shook his head. ‘I’ll hand it to that boy. Maybe only twenty two or something. But he didn’t talk.’

  ‘Is he still with us?’

  Harry shrugged his shoulders helplessly. ‘Depends what you mean by “with us”. Frank took him with a knife and he ought to be floating down the Seine.’

  Grant pointed to Miki. ‘Let’s get her to hospital.’ He lifted the house phone and was on to the Admiral within a minute. ‘One more invalid, sir. A young lady. Shocked and needing skin grafts. Another for Professor Juin’s clinic, so with your permission I’ll take her by car.’

  He filled the glasses with champagne. ‘Be back within the hour. Enjoy yourselves.’

  He laid a clean handkerchief against the girl’s burns and escorted her downstairs. A Peugeot was waiting with an ADSAD driver and the girl spoke only once. ‘They’ll kill me if I go back to China.’

  Grant wasn’t even sorry for her. He figured she was stone cold sane. But he knew that she didn’t tick on his own wavelength. ‘Hospital now, and you can decide when you’re better. If you don’t want to go back to China apply for citizenship in Panama or somewhere.’

  She didn’t even speak as two male nurses escorted her into Professor Juin’s nursing home, a place more efficient than either the London Clinic or any in Switzerland. But with a difference. It didn’t cost you.

  He watched the car flash through empty streets on the way back to Place Vendôme. The thing was running out. Only a few angles remained to tie up. And there would be plenty of time for relaxation. Professor Juin would give Maksud an injection. There would then be a session with the truth drug. ADSAD would easily winkle out where the tapes had been concealed and why Peking had chosen twins for a one woman job. They would even discover the movies if there were any. And it would be child’s play to scoop the pool. Maksud would return to China in the normal way of things, probably via Pakistan or Moscow and he would be left with Harry.

  Or Krystelle!

  She was at ease on a low divan when he returned to the Ritz suite, and the men were rising to go. But they looked at him with a new respect. ‘I told you we don’t much like talking. So we won’t ask questions. Just one word. Did everything pan out O.K.?’ said Harry.

  Grant smiled. ‘Okay.’

  They looked at him again and Harry saw that the scar above his eye was still blenched white. ‘You’re still hitting the moon, son. Scar white.’

  Grant flushed. ‘And Julian Breem is still better with the guitar than you, boy.’

  They laughed and Harry nodded towards Krystelle who was now sitting on the bed with her legs crossed and a lapis cigarette holder firmly between her teeth. It looked a lot safer than the ivory blow-pipe, thought Grant. And then he wondered. ‘How about Krystelle?’

  Frank shrugged his shoulders. ‘You’ve earned a little relaxation, David. Krystelle should be good for you and that bed looks real comfy.’

  The door closed and the girl handed Grant his own Remington Lektronic. ‘Harry stopped at your flat to collect.’

  Grant paused. ‘How did he open up?’

  ‘Doors don’t mean much to Harry.’ She smiled. ‘But he figured you’d want the razor.’

  ‘You or me?’ Grant knew how to take a hint.

  ‘Me.’ She smiled again. ‘I got a sensitive skin.’

  She slipped into a house coat while he shaved, and she had rubbed herself down with Eau de Cologne when a thought crossed his mind. Admiral Cooper might like a word.

  He dialled the number for the last time. Juin had been busy even in the ambulance and the old man sounded satisfied. ‘Got the address.’ He broke off abruptly. ‘Outside phone ringing. Hold on.’

  Grant waited while Krystelle poured the beginnings of a second bottle of Veuve Clicquot. And he noticed that a bedside table had now been laid with assorted cheese, oatmeal biscuits and king prawns dressed with salad. She lifted her glass. ‘I can wait.’

  And then the Admiral laughed as he returned to Grant’s line. ‘Great stuff pentothal! Maksud spilled the beans under the truth drug and gave the address. Our boys have just collected everything. But . . .’ and he laughed again . . . ‘They were smart. Took the can of movies, checked that they were the real MacCoy and substituted a reel of Donald Duck in the same sealed container.’ He laughed again. ‘And we let them have the sound track of an old movie for the tape. See what they can do with Laurel and Hardy. That should keep them busy!’

  Grant raised his glass. ‘Sealing everything properly again, I hope?’

  The Admiral became formal and his voice smacked into a quarter deck accent. ‘You wriggled out of this one, David. But only by the skin of your teeth. So don’t start telling me how to brief staff. Especially since it was on my orders that they didn’t take over during the final moments of your party down there. The room was well and truly bugged, and we even used another two way mirror. You had everyone scared sick, but against all reason I held off and allowed you to cope, since you seem to have such a goddam instinct for survival.’

  Grant coughed slightly. ‘Thank you very much, sir.’

  The voice rumbled impatiently. ‘Thank me nothing! A battle would also have cost lives. The girl would have got at least one of you with the blow-pipe and you’d have gone first. It was damn near a stalemate and you left it altogether too close for comfort. In fact we were on the verge of gassing the lot of you as the only solution when you gave the girl that mayday signal and we felt things would begin to move again in the right direction.’

  Grant ignored the compliment. ‘Miss Sidders, sir?’

  ‘Doing well.’ The Admiral softened slightly. Miss Sidders was more than a friend to the old man. She had become his right hand. ‘But don’t change the subject, because I still say it was a close shave and that one day you’ll lose out. Anyhow, one last thing, David. The Meurice at eleven hundred hours. I want to meet these friends of yours.’ His voice suddenly changed. ‘Hold on. Be with you in a moment.’

  Grant could hear background noise from another phone crackling in the old man’s office and after more than three minutes he picked up a grunt of satisfaction. The Admiral was back on his own line. ‘Still there?’

  ‘Yessir.’ Grant showed that he could be as professional as the next when the time was suitable, and his ‘yessir’ had an authentic ring.

  ‘The Prof. has also got Peking’s reasons for using two women out of Maksud Wang. Miki was for use only if something happened to Tania, who is in fact Jacqueline. But at the same time their programme was fluid and they felt that there was a sporting chance of one girl picking up something which mattered in one or other of the Embassies while the other was operating elsewhere as an alibi. Seems they thought, for example, that if the Prime Minister came back to home base he might be dealt with by Miki if Tania had failed to get him at the party. All very complicated, but simply a matter of having a bird in reserve if any opportunity arose which would justify using it.’

  Grant was still puzzled. ‘Why couldn’t Tania have gone to the Americans?’

  The Admiral became impatient. ‘Are you tired or something? Don’t you remember that she was a prisoner and out of circulation? Which was exactly why the other woman was held in reserve. Peking had foresight, real inspired foresight. So give credit where credit is due. Even two years ago they figured that a situation would eventually arise in which it might be possible to blackmail the President of the United States of America. And when the time came they reduced margin of error to near zero. It must be the first time in history that identical twins have been used for such sophisticated Intelligence work. And whatever anyone says about China I still hand it to them for sheer genius in the way they almost pulled off this coup, working on almost off-the-cuff split second timing.’ He hesitated. ‘And don’t worry about speaking over this line. It has been ‘scrambled’ for some time and the gadget operated when we s
ee fit.’

  ‘Glad you are satisfied,’ said Grant, interrupting an unexpectedly talkative chief who was showing signs of reaction for the first time since Grant had met him.

  The Admiral’s voice became suspicious. ‘Are you alone?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘Your friends still with you?’

  Grant became flatly impersonal. ‘One only. From French Guiana.’

  The old man had the last word. ‘You’re acquiring a taste for colour! But just to gen you up, Maya returns from Rio tomorrow night, so make the most of what you’ve got. We’ve just switched off the bug,’ he added coldly, ‘and patrols have been removed from the mirror. So you’re all clear.’

  Grant heard the phone receiver being replaced and hung up as Krystelle slumped back against the pillow and opened her arms. ‘The chow can wait, David. I need medicine. What would you prescribe?’

  He kissed her just where tawny muscles joined her breast bone. ‘Thirty minutes of amorous physiotherapy twice within the next three hours. Separated by a meal, of course.’

  And he silently thanked his Chief for having switched off all monitors and given him privacy for once.

  She swept the sheets aside and lay on top. ‘I always obey doctor’s orders.’

  Grant slipped off his shirt. ‘And I’ll tell you a secret, Honey-chile. Amorous physiotherapy can cure most anything.’

  She laughed as he wriggled in beside her. ‘Ever hear this?

  La vie est brève,

  Un peu d’espoir,

  Un peu d’amour. . . .

  Et puis . . . Bonsoir.’

  Grant was silent.

  Life is short,

  A little hope,

  A little love. . . .

  And then . . . Goodnight.

  ‘Not a little, Honey-chile,’ he said at last. ‘Lots and lots.’

  But she had the last word. ‘You talk too much, Doctor. Get going. And remember . . . “Paradise can be just around the corner”.’

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