“Remember me? Charlie Pettikin - Doshan Tappeh?”
Searching his memory. Things coming back slowly, hideous things. Big blanks, very big. Doshan Tappeh? What about Doshan Tappeh? Going there to hitch a chopper ride and… “Ah, yes, Captain, how are you? Good to… to see you. She’s asleep?”
“Yes, like a baby.”
“Best thing, best thing for her to sleep,” he had said, his brain still not working easily.
“First a cuppa. Then a bath and shave and I’ll fix you up with some clothes and shaving gear. You’re about my size. You hungry? We’ve eggs and some bread, the bread’s a bit stale.”
“Oh, thanks, no, no, I’m not hungry - you’re very kind.”
“I owe you one - no, at least ten. I’m damned pleased to see you. Listen, much as I’d like to know what happened… well, McIver’s gone to the airport to pick up our boss, Andy Gavallan. They’ll be back shortly, you’ll have to tell them so I can find out then - so no questions till then, you must be exhausted.”
“Thanks, yes it’s… it’s still all a bit… I can remember leaving Azadeh on the hill, then almost nothing, just flashes, dreamlike, until I woke a moment ago. How long have I been asleep?”
“You’ve been out for about sixteen hours. We, that’s Nogger and our two mecs, half carried you both in here and then you both passed out. We put you and Azadeh to bed like babies - Mac and I. We undressed you, washed part of the muck off, carried you to bed - not too gently by the way - but you never woke up, either of you.”
“She’s all right? Azadeh?”
“Oh, yes. I checked her a couple of times but she’s still flat out. What did… sorry, no questions! First a shave and bath. ‘Fraid the water’s barely warm but I’ve put the electric heater in the bathroom, it’s not too bad….”
Now Ross was watching Pettikin who was handing the whisky to McIver and to Gavallan. “Sure you won’t, Captain?”
“No, no thanks.” Without noticing it he felt his right wrist and rubbed it. His energy level was ebbing fast. Gavallan saw the man’s tiredness and knew there was not much time. “About Erikki. You can’t remember anything else to give us an idea where he might be?”
“Not any more than I’ve told you. Azadeh may be able to help - the Soviet’s name was something like Certaga, the man Erikki was forced to work with up by the border - as I said they were using her as a threat and there was some complication about her father and a trip they were going to make together - sorry, I can’t remember exactly. The other man, the one who was friends with Abdollah Khan was called Mzytryk, Petr Oleg.” That reminded Ross about Vien Rosemont’s code message for the Khan, but he decided that was none of Gavallan’s business, nor about all the killing, nor about shoving the old man in front of the truck on the hill, nor that one day he would go back to the village and hack off the head of the butcher and the kalandar who, but for the grace of God or the spirits of the High Land, would have stoned her and mutilated him. He would do that after the debriefing when he saw Armstrong, or Talbot, or the American colonel, but before that he would ask them who had betrayed the operation at Mecca. Someone had. For a moment the thought of Rosemont and Tenzing and Gueng blinded him. When the mist cleared, he saw the clock on the mantelpiece. “I have to go to a building near the British embassy. Is that far from here?”
“No, we could take you if you like.”
“Could that be now? Sorry, but I’m afraid I’ll pass out again if I don’t get with it.”
Gavallan glanced at McIver. “Mac, let’s go now… perhaps I can catch Talbot. We’ll still have time to come back to see Azadeh, and Nogger if he’s here.”
“Good idea.”
Gavallan got up and put on his heavy coat.
Pettikin said to Ross, “I’ll lend you a coat and some gloves.” He saw his eyes stray down the corridor. “Would you like me to wake Azadeh?” “No, thanks. I’ll… I’ll just look in.”
“It’s the second door on the left.”
They watched him go along the corridor, his walk noiseless and catlike, open the door noiselessly and stand there a moment and close it again. He collected his assault rifle and the two kookris, his and Gueng’s. He thought a moment, then put his on the mantelpiece.
“In case I don’t get back,” he said, “tell her this’s a gift, a gift for Erikki. For Erikki and her.”
Chapter 47
AT THE PALACE OF THE KHAN: 5:19 P.M. The kalandar of Abu Mard was on his knees and petrified. “No, no, Highness, I swear it was the mullah Mahmud who told us t - ”
“He’s not a real mullah, you son of a dog, everyone knows that! By God, you… you were going to stone my daughter?” the Khan shrieked, his face mottled, his breath coming in great pants, “You decided? You decided you were going to stone my daughter?”
“It was him, Highness,” the kalandar whimpered, “it was the mullah who decided after questioning her and her admitting adultery with the saboteur…”
“You son of a dog! You aided and abetted that false mullah … Liar! Ahmed told me what happened!” The Khan propped himself on his bed pillows, a guard behind him, Ahmed and other guards close to the kalandar in front of him, Najoud, his eldest daughter, and Aysha, his young wife, seated to one side trying to hide their terror at his rage and petrified that he would turn on them. Kneeling beside the door still in his travel-stained clothes and filled with dread was Hakim, Azadeh’s brother, who had just arrived and had been rushed here under guard in response to the Khan’s summons, and who had listened with equal rage to Ahmed relating what had happened at the village. “You son of a dog,” the Khan shouted again, his mouth salivating. “You let… you let the dog of a saboteur escape… you let him drag my daughter off with him… you harbor the saboteur and then… then you dare to judge one of my - MY - family and would stone… without seeking my - MY - approval?”
“It was the mullah…” the kalandar cried out, repeating it again and again. “Shut him up!”
Ahmed hit him hard on one of his ears, momentarily stunning him. Then dragged him roughly back onto his knees and hissed, “Say one more word and I’ll cut your tongue out.”
The Khan was trying to catch his breath. “Aysha, give me… give me one of those… those pills…” She scurried over, still on her knees, opened the bottle and put a pill into his mouth and wiped it for him. The Khan kept the pill under his tongue as the doctor had told him and in a moment the spasm passed, the thundering in his ears lessened, and the room stopped weaving. His bloodshot eyes went back onto the old man who was whimpering and shaking uncontrollably. “You son of a dog! So you dare to bite the hand that owns you - you, your butcher, and your festering village. Ibrim,” the Khan said to one of the guards. “Take him back to Abu Mard and stone him, have the villagers stone him, stone him, then cut off the hands of the butcher.” Ibrim and another guard pulled the howling man to his feet, smashed him into silence, and opened the door, stopped as Hakim said harshly, “Then bum the village!”
The Khan looked at him, his eyes narrowed. “Yes, then bum the village,” he echoed and kept his eyes on Hakim who looked back at him, trying to be brave. The door closed and now the quiet heightened, broken only by Abdollah’s labored breathing. “Najoud, Aysha, leave!” he said. Najoud hesitated, wanting to stay, wanting to hear sentence pronounced on Hakim, gloating that Azadeh had been caught in her adultery and was therefore due punishment whenever she was recaptured. Good, good, good. With Azadeh they both perish, Hakim and the Redhead of the Knife. “I will be within instant call, Highness,” she said.
“You can go back to your quarters. Aysha - you wait at the end of the corridor.” Both women left. Ahmed closed the door contentedly, everything going as planned. The other two guards waited in silence. The Khan shifted painfully, motioning to them. “Wait outside. Ahmed, you stay.” When they had gone and there were just the three of them in the big, cold room he turned his gaze back to Hakim. “Bum the village, you said. A good idea. But that doesn’t excuse your treachery, or your sister’s.” “Nothing excuses treachery against a father, Highness. But neither Azadeh nor I have betrayed you or plotted against you.”
“Liar! You heard Ahmed! She admitted fornicating with the saboteur, she admitted it.”
“She admitted ‘loving’ him, Highness, years and years ago. She swore before God she had never committed adultery or betrayed her husband. Never! In front of those dogs and sons of dogs and worse, that mullah of the Left Hand, what should the daughter of a Khan say? Didn’t she try to protect your name in front of that godless mob of shit?”
“Still twisting words, still protecting the whore she became?” Hakim’s face went ashen. “Azadeh fell in love as Mother fell in love. If she’s a whore, then you whored my mother!”
Blood surged back into the Khan’s face. “How dare you say such a thing!” “It’s true. You lay with her before
