“Because you will have destroyed him anyway?”
He nodded. “Something like that.”
She gazed into the fire in silence for a while. “And what about me, Paul? What will happen when we cross over into Kashmir?”
He smiled and gently kissed her on the cheek. “I’m sure we’ll find a use for you.”
“You think there is hope for us, then?” Her face was like a young girl’s, the eyes probing into his very soul.
“There’s always hope, Katya,” he said. “That’s what makes life worthwhile.”
She laid her head on his chest and he held her close. After a while, she drifted into sleep and he sat there staring into the flames and waiting for the dawn.
Just before morning the wind died and Osman Sherif went outside. When he came back, he was smiling. “The snow has stopped. We should be able to cross over without any difficulty.”
As he started to lead the horses out through the door everyone stirred and, in a few moments, his wife had blown the fire into life and was heating water for tea.
Chavasse went out to help saddle the horses and told him that he wanted to leave one of the animals behind for Colonel Li.
“It would be wasting a good horse,” the Kazakh said.
Chavasse frowned. “Don’t you think he can make it to Rudok on his own?”
The Kazakh shook his head. “I mean something different. I have looked into his eyes, my friend. He is a dead man walking.”
Chavasse went back inside the hut and sat down beside Hoffner, who was drinking tea. The old man looked grey and haggard, but he seemed in remarkably good spirits.
“You look pretty grim, Paul,” he said cheerfully.
“You don’t look so marvellous yourself,” Chavasse told him, and held out his hand for the bowl of tea Osman Sherif’s wife passed to him.
Katya sat beside the children on the other side of the fire, staring vacantly into the flames. She looked ill and her skin was stretched tightly over the prominent cheekbones.
“Not long now,” Chavasse told her softly.
She came out of her reverie with a start. For a moment, she stared at him as if he were a stranger, a puzzled frown on her face, and then she smiled. A strange, sad smile that touched something deep inside him.
He emptied his bowl, filled it again and went and squatted beside Colonel Li, who sat with his back against a wall, a sheepskin across his legs.
Li held his bandaged hand against his chest and seemed quite calm in spite of his pallor. He smiled tightly as he accepted the tea. “I suppose I should congratulate you.”
“One thing still puzzles me,” Chavasse said. “Why didn’t Tsen have troops to back him up when he was waiting for me to turn up at Hoffner’s house?”
Colonel Li smiled faintly. “Six men were detailed to report to him at midnight, but I’m afraid the speed with which you escaped wrecked our plans. Did any of my men survive? There were three with me when I set out.”
“We didn’t see any. I was lost in the blizzard myself when I ran into you.” Osman Sherif came in and squatted beside the fire, and Chavasse nodded towards him. “You owe your life to our friend there.”
Colonel Li emptied the bowl and placed it carefully on the ground beside him. “But not for long, I imagine.”
Chavasse shook his head. “You’ve got it all wrong. We’re leaving you a horse and some food. You should be able to reach Rudok easily.”
Colonel Li’s lips twitched slightly and suddenly there was sweat on his forehead. “You mean you’re not going to shoot me?”
Chavasse shook his head. “There’s no need, Colonel. As our American friends would say, you’re all washed up.”
He started to get to his feet and a quiet voice said, “Not quite, Paul.”
He turned very slowly. Katya was standing on the other side of the fire facing all of them. In her hands, she held the machine pistol.
Hoffner was the first to speak. “Katya, for God’s sake! What does this mean?”
Her extreme pallor only made her more beautiful. The skin of her face was almost translucent and the dark sad eyes held a haunted expression Chavasse was to remember for the rest of his days.
He moved forward slightly, hands thrust deep into the pockets of his sheepskin coat, and smiled softly. “Tell him, angel. Tell him everything.”
Suddenly there was something that was almost horror in her eyes. “You knew,” she whispered. “You knew all the time. But if that’s true, why did you bring me with you?”
“My people would have found you a prize package. They don’t use the same methods as your side to extract information, but they’re even more successful. I’ve been waiting for you to show your hand ever since you recovered consciousness,” Chavasse said. “It was your boyfriend here who let you down, if you’re interested. When he exposed my little masquerade at Hoffner’s house that afternoon, he said that he and Kurbsky had run into each other at a village called Rangong a few days earlier. Unfortunately, Kurbsky had already told me they’d never met.”
“We all make mistakes,” she said.
“Not in this game – not if you want to stay alive, anyway,” he told her. “And the pair of you made two. When we were out riding, I told you I’d helped the Dalai Lama out of Tibet. I knew for a fact that Peking couldn’t have known I was involved and yet Colonel Li did. You were the only person who could have been his source of information. You certainly mix with the right people.”
“It wasn’t difficult – he is my brother,” she said proudly. “We know what we are doing and where we are going.”
“For God’s sake, don’t give me any more of that claptrap,” Chavasse said. “I’ve had my bellyful during the past few weeks. Would it be too much to ask why you were planted on the doctor?”
“He was important to us as a figurehead, because the people trusted him.” She shrugged. “It was necessary for some reliable person to share his confidences. This affair alone has proved the value of my presence in the house.”
“There’s one small point that has been bothering me for a long time,” he said. “When I tried to take a shot at your brother, my Walther jammed. I’ve never known them to do that before.”
“I’d taken the precaution of emptying the clip the previous night,” she said. “When you were asleep.”
“Most efficient of you.” He sighed. “You realize what will happen to us when you take us back? You know how we’ll be treated?”
“They will only do what is necessary for the good of the State,” she said. “Nothing more.”
“Katya!” There was pain in Hoffner’s voice. “Did I mean nothing more to you than that?”
“Nothing, Doctor,” she said flatly.
“I don’t believe you.”
He started round the fire towards her and she raised the machine pistol warningly. “Keep back, Doctor. I will shoot, I promise you.”
“And kill the brain,” Chavasse said mockingly.
“It is all in the briefcase,” she told him calmly. “I have nothing to lose.”
Hoffner kept on moving, a hand stretched out towards her. “Katya, please listen to me.”
“I warn you,” she said.
Chavasse had been watching her index finger curl around the trigger of the machine pistol, his own hand ready on Tsen’s automatic. As her knuckle whitened, he fired twice through the pocket of his sheepskin coat.
The force of the bullets lifted her back against the wall, and she dropped the machine pistol and slid down to the ground.
Hoffner gave an agonized cry, his hands going to his face, and Chavasse pushed him out of the way and knelt beside her. She stared up at him, that characteristic slight frown on her face, and then she choked as blood poured from her mouth. As he eased her down to the floor, the head lolled to one side.
Osman Sherif was already hustling his wife and their two children outside as Chavasse got to his feet and faced Hoffner.
