Kingfisher

straight.'

'State Department, and White House, anything there?'

'Secretary of State's office called. Said they didn't want to wake you – I said you'd be in the office by six- fifteen. The

Secretary will call you fifteen minutes later. They asked me to say he would be coming out of a function to do so. They describe it as a confidential and clarification matter.'

The lobby getting to work, all its power and all its tentacles beginning to weave into the scene.

To be anticipated.

'There was a demonstration outside the British Embassy in Washington late last night their time, a couple of hours ago. Few rocks over the fence and the police broke it up. Fairly Renta-mob, but the law went a bit heavy so there will be pictures that won't be friendly. Banners about not sending them back to their deaths, that sort of thing.'

'Trifle premature, but they don't waste time.' He reached for the new supply of coffee, poured it himself, and the PPS noticed that the hand was not steady, slurped into his saucer. Never at his best in the mornings, not till he'd put himself together. 'What do you think, my young friend?

Give me an opinion.'

'You can view the question from three angles. From emotion. From principle. From pragmatism. Take the first and last. If emotion wins the day then well find a reason not to return them. If it's the pragmatic we're after then we ship them home because sizeable though the Jewish stroke Israeli scene is it does not compare with the importance of our enjoying the continuing goodwill of the Soviet Union. Leaves only the principle of the matter. We're signatories to the Hague Aerial Piracy Convention, it's old now and it's gathering dust, but we and everyone else said at the time that we wanted a firm stand taken against hi-jacking. The firmest stand you can take is to send these people back.'

That's making it all very simple.'

The Foreign Secretary headed towards the bathroom. Once there he turned on the spurting taps, leaving the PPS to compete with the half-closed door and the running water.

'As our chaplain at school used to say, where principle is involved there can be no leeway.'

'And the limit of his concern was you little blighters smoking behind the physics lab and trying to deflower the art master's daughter.'

' If you take those three points you must come out two to one in favour of freighting them. It would only be emotion that would guide you to keep them here.'

'And votes' – a distant reply echoing from the tiled walls of the bathroom, 'and your seat in the House and mine.'

'All it comes down to is a selling matter. News Department can handle that. It's what they're paid for.'

'And if I were to extract a public promise from the Soviet authorities that in view of the youth of these three persons the death sentence would not be exacted should they be found guilty, how would that affect matters?'

'If you pulled that, Sir, I'd say you'd wrapped it all up very neatly.'

More water running, topping up from the hot tap. 'Get the Russian chappie in for half-seven, and my car here for six.' Would be very tidy if it worked, solve a lot of problems- and not wound too many consciences. Israelis wouldn't like it, but then they didn't like anything, so damned prickly, but it would be a fair solution, and one that he was pleased with.

An RAF staff car had brought Lt-Col. Arie Benitz from Brize Norton. There had been a shortage of serviced helicopters that was the excuse given to him on landing for the change of transport.

That they were not ready to have him at Stansted was immediately apparent by the initial niggling delays. They had insisted that he should eat something after his long overnight flight, not just a sandwich, but something hot, and the Mess would soon be open, the cooks on duty.

There was the problem of the civilan clothes that had to be mustered, a surprise to Benitz because he was medium height with unexceptional contours. It was suggested that he might care to telephone his Embassy and more time was consumed while they found the keys to a private office, and then again while the call was routed through to the Ambassador's home.

'The British have a dilemma, Colonel,' the Ambassador had said. ' If they bow to the Soviet pressure then your journey will have been wasted. But if they stand up for themselves and it might be the first time in many years – then there is a role for you. But do not count on it: remember the spare parts for the Centurions in the time of Yom Kippur. At the moment their decision has not been made. I suggest you let the Air Force bring you to London, to the Embassy.

There is not the great urgency that we had feared earlier, and the British show they are in no hurry to throw their apple to either side of the fence.'

Two and a half hours it had taken him, first winding and turning on the country roads, then powering along the empty M3, until finally they were catacombed among the half-lit streets of the capital. First visit to London, first to England, and nothing to do but stare at the fleeing sights from the window and with only a taciturn driver for company. When he reached the Embassy he was not surprised at its fortress- like protection. A private road and a message sent ahead by telephone from the Kensington-end gates to warn of his arrival. Floodlights at the front of the building, a remote camera on an arm jutting above him, steel-faced door, an age of identification and explanation before the bolts were withdrawn, the lock turned.

He was taken to the Ambassador's office to read the latest decoded communications from Jerusalem, to hear the most up-dated reports from Stansted, to study the photographs and biographies that the Russians had supplied to the Foreign Office and which had been passed on to the Israelis in confidence. He said little as he paced his way through the folder of documents, needing to scour the typed words only once, a man who assimilated information without hardship. When Benitz closed the file, signifying that the contents had been digested, the Ambassador spoke, quietly and with concern.

'You have a detestable job, Colonel – not one that should be given to an officer of your experience and ability. If there is a role f o r you in this matter it will be to talk these people into a surrender and will be both wounding and hurtful to many of the Jews of the world. The position as we see it is this – and you must forgive any repetition of what you may have been told before you left Israel, but I understand the briefing time was short. There is little to no chance that the British will provide fuel for the aircraft. The escape of the three students has ended at Stansted, and it is their future there that concerns us. If they defy the British calls for surrender, if there is more bloodshed, more killing, then and I do not have to stress this to you – there will be grave embarrassment to our government. We want them out of that plane before they have done more damage, before they have had more opportunity to fuel the propaganda machine of the Soviets.

But how, Colonel Benitz, can we wash our hands of them? Jewish children, fighting an oppression that we loudly and frequently condemn. We cannot abandon them. We cannot permit them to be returned to the Soviet Union. Our Defence Minister spoke in the Cabinet last night of our country's shame if they were to be sent back to their deaths.

It is a dreadful dilemma that we face. That is my speech, Colonel, but it was necessary that we should all understand the position we find ourselves in. We have offered your services to the British because we believe that the children will hear you, because you are a fighter, and that is how they see themselves. But we make one fundamental precondition for the use of your good offices. Should you help to win this surrender, then the British must guarantee that there will be no question of extradition.'

'Are the British likely to accede to our request?'

'No. It is unlikely in my opinion.'

'And if they do not?'

' I think we have not yet arrived at that point.'

'Most of the men we fight against in the Anti-Terrorist Unit, those that come into our country, have come to terms with the price of their struggle… understand that there can be no return… know that we will kill them.'

Not articulate, trying to find the words he wanted and disappointed in himself that he could not match the fluency of the diplomat.

'These will be different, without the training, without the discipline… their fear and confusion will be great by this time. Yet on their own scale they will believe they have achieved much.' A slow-forming smile on his face. 'Perhaps to them they have won their own Entebbe…'