State of Siege (23 page)
“No, I won’t mind.”
As soon as we were ready to leave, I went into the bar and found Lim.
“About that air passage. What do I do about the ticket?”
“It is at the airport reception office, waiting for you, Mr. Fraser.”
“You were pretty sure of me, weren’t you?”
“Not of you, Mr. Fraser. But I was sure of Miss Linden. She is an honest and clear-thinking person. Do you not agree?”
Back at the apartment, I found that Jebb had returned and was surveying the damage with Mrs. Choong.
“Well, Roy,” I said.
“Well, chum,” he answered grimly; “I bet that’s the last time you mind anybody’s place for them.”
“I’m sorry, Roy. But first the bombing and then the grenades and stuff. There was nothing we could do. You see …”
“I’m not blaming you, you silly bastard, I’m apologising! How do you think I felt in Makassar, sitting there listening to the bloody radio and wondering how you were getting on up here? I’d sooner have been here myself. I was afraid I’d killed you, dammit! Where were you when all this happened?”
I told him a bit about it. He listened and swore at intervals, and then asked after Rosalie.
“She’s fine. I’m going to see her in a minute. I’m leaving today.”
“My word! On that five-thirty plane?”
“That’s right.”
“Who fixed that? People are fighting to get on it.”
“Lim Mor Sai.”
“What did I tell you? He can fix anything. Well, I’ll see you out at the airport. I’ve got to go out there to clear some stuff through Customs. I came straight in as soon as I touched down. Seen anything of Mina?”
“No, but she’s trying to find somewhere for you to live while this is being repaired.”
“That means a camp bed in her place. See you later, Steve.”
When he had gone, I packed. It did not take long. Mrs. Choong fetched my things from the
dobi
laundry. They were still damp. But I stuffed them into my suitcase
anyway. Then I gave Mrs. Choong a present and went downstairs again for the last time.
I had told Mahmud to wait for me and he was there at the door. On the way, I stopped at a shop in the Chinese quarter and bought a silver box with an amethyst set in the lid. When I had paid for it, I took out all the money I had left on me, set aside what I would need to pay Mahmud, buy my ticket to Djakarta and bribe the Customs at the airport, and put the rest in the box. Then I went on to see Rosalie.
There were two rooms, one hers, one her sister’s. They were clean and simple, like rooms in a kampong house, with bamboo blinds on the windows and mosquito nets over the beds. There was a small verandah with orchids growing in pieces of tree bark.
When it was time for me to go, I went over to the bed and looked down at her. She was lying there with her eyes closed and her body shiny with sweat. There was a smile on her lips. I thought that she might be asleep.
I put the box down on the small table as quietly as I could, but she heard and opened her eyes. For a moment she looked up at me; then her eyes went to the table and she sat up quickly.
“No.”
“You said that if we had liked one another it would make the parting easier.”
“That was before.”
“For me it needs to be made easier.”
“And for me.”
“Then this is the best way. Open it later when I’ve gone.”
I bent over and kissed her once more.
“We love each other,” she said.
“Yes.”
“But we are also wise.”
“I believe so.”
“Yes.” She smiled. “This way we shall always remember each other with love.”
A few moments later I carried my suitcase down the long, steep staircase and walked out into the blinding sun.
Mahmud had put the hood up, and I sat in the shade of it trying to think of the journey ahead as he pedalled me out to the airport.
E
RIC
A
MBLER
BACKGROUND TO DANGER
Kenton’s career as a journalist depended on his exceptional facility with languages, his knowledge of European politics, and his quick judgment. Where his judgment sometimes failed him was in his personal life. When he finds himself on a train bound for Austria after a bad night of gambling, he eagerly takes an opportunity to earn money helping a refugee smuggle securities across the border. He soon discovers that the documents he holds have more than monetary value, and that European politics has more twists and turns than the most convoluted newspaper account.
Fiction/Suspense
CAUSE FOR ALARM
Nicky Marlow needs a job. He’s engaged to be married and the employment market is pretty slim in Britain in 1937. So when his fiancée points out the Italian Spartacus Machine Tool notice, he jumps at the chance. After all, he speaks Italian and can endure Milan long enough to save some money. Soon after he arrives, though, he learns the sinister truth of his predecessor’s death and finds himself courted by two agents with dangerously different agendas. In the process, Marlow realizes it’s not so simple just to do the job he’s paid to do in fascist Italy on the brink of war.
Fiction/Suspense
A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS
A chance encounter with a Turkish colonel who has a penchant for British crime novels leads mystery writer Charles Latimer into a world of menacing political and criminal maneuvers throughout the Balkans in the years between the world wars. Hoping that the career of the notorious Dimitrios, whose body has been identified in an Istanbul morgue, will inspire a story line for his next book, Latimer soon finds himself caught up in a shadowy web of murder, espionage, drugs, and treachery.
Fiction/Suspense
JOURNEY INTO FEAR
Returning to his hotel room after a late-night flirtation with a cabaret dancer at an Istanbul nightspot, Graham is surprised by an intruder with a gun. What follows is a nightmare of intrigue for the English armaments engineer as he makes his way home aboard an Italian freighter. Among the passengers are a couple of Nazi assassins intent on preventing his returning to England with plans for a Turkish defense system, the seductive cabaret dancer and her manager husband, and a number of surprising allies.
Fiction/Suspense
JUDGMENT ON DELTCHEV
Foster is hired by an American newspaper to cover the trial of Yordan Deltchev, who faces charges of treason. Accused of masterminding a plot to assassinate his country’s leader, Deltchev may in fact be a pawn and his trial all show. But when Foster meets Deltchev’s powerful wife, he becomes enmeshed in a conspiracy that is more life-threatening than he could have imagined.
Fiction/Suspense
THE LIGHT OF DAY
When Arthur Abdel Simpson first spots Harper in the Athens airport, he recognizes him as a tourist unfamiliar with the city and in need of a private driver. In other words, the perfect mark for Simpson’s brand of entrepreneurship. But Harper proves to be more the spider than the fly when he catches Simpson riffling through his wallet for traveler’s checks. Soon Simpson finds himself blackmailed into driving a suspicious car across the Turkish border. Then, when he is caught again, this time by the police, he faces a choice: cooperate with the Turks and spy on his erstwhile colleagues or end up in one of Turkey’s notorious prisons. The authorities suspect an attempted coup, but Harper has something much bigger planned.
Fiction/Suspense
PASSAGE OF ARMS
Greg and Dorothy Nilsen had wanted to go on an adventurous trip, but their cruise is turning out to be a bore. So when the gracious Mr. Tan asks Greg to go to Singapore to resolve a bureaucratic detail involving a consignment of small arms, Greg is surprisingly receptive. All he has to do is sign some papers, he’s told, and he’ll be paid a handsome fee. And everything does go smoothly, until it comes to getting a check cosigned by the rebel leader.…
Fiction/Suspense
THE SCHIRMER INHERITANCE
George Carey, former WWII bomber pilot and newly minted lawyer, was given the ignoble task of going through the tons of files on the Schneider Johnson case, just to make sure nothing had been overlooked. But as luck would have it, Carey discovered something among the false claims and dead-end leads that made this into more than just another missing-heir-to-a-vast-fortune case. And what he found would connect a deserter from Napoleon’s defeated army to a guerrilla fighter in postwar Greece, and lead Carey into a dangerous situation where his survival would depend more on what he learned in the army than anything he learned in law school.
Fiction/Suspense
STATE OF SIEGE
After a three-year stint in the former Dutch Southeast Asian colony of Sunda, Steve Fraser is looking forward to going home. But Sunda is newly independent, and a fundamentalist Islamic faction is set on overthrowing the provisional government. So instead of enjoying his last weekend in the capital, Fraser finds himself dodging bullets as well as the shifting loyalties of the coup’s lieutenants.
Fiction/Suspense
FORTHCOMING FROM VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD
The Ability to Kill
The Care of Time
The Dark Frontier
Doctor Frigo
Here Lies Eric Ambler: An Autobiography
The Intercom Conspiracy
A Kind of Anger
The Levanter
The Siege of Villa Lipp
This Gun for Hire
Waiting for Orders
VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD
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