Tamat had returned to his chair, where his big powerful body sat relaxed, his eyes showing mild amusement. ‘Yes, Minister?’
‘His Imperial Highness’s life is in danger, Colonel Tamat. As I have already informed you, a plot is being organized abroad, recruiting foreign mercenaries to assassinate our Head of State and overthrow the regime.’
‘Well? There have been attempts before on his life. It is a national hazard we have to put up with, like sandstorms and cholera. The Ruler is well enough protected, I assure you.’
‘I am not so sure,’ said Letif. ‘No man is inviolate. And how well is he protected against his protectors?’
There was a pause. Colonel Tamat lit another match, this time putting it to his pipe and sucking until a flame jumped out of the bowl. He breathed smoke in a slow haze in front of his face. ‘You will please explain that last remark, Minister.’
‘There are many people in our country who wish His Highness dead. They are not all revolutionary riffraff and Baathist scum. Some of them are respectable and highly favoured.’
Tamat put another match to his pipe, and this time dropped the burnt end on the carpet. ‘What is your point, Minister?’
‘You have contacts — very close contacts, sometimes — with some of these favoured people.’
‘Give me one name, Letif.’
‘Dr Zak, for example.’
Colonel Tamat choked on his pipe, and hastily spat into a silk handkerchief which he folded back into his breast pocket. ‘You have no proof,’ he said, with forced arrogance.
‘I do not require proof,’ Letif replied, ‘any more than you require proof before you submit one of your prisoners to the bastinado, or the electrodes, or your favourite barbecue a cheval. But if I did need proof, I would question why the good doctor is still alive and well.’
He gave a faint smile, which Tamat could not see. ‘When I took tea with him two days ago,’ Letif added, ‘the old man seemed in excellent spirits.’
‘I can assure you, Minister,’ Tamat said in a low voice, ‘that Dr Zak’s file is clean.’
‘No doubt — since you are responsible for the file,’ Letif murmured; and his doe eyes looked steadily back at the colonel. ‘But we are straying from the point. We were discussing a matter of national urgency — a plot to assassinate our beloved monarch. There is one factor, Colonel, which you seem to have overlooked — or perhaps you have forgotten? In the matter of the agent, Chamaz, you admit that your men were operating under highly difficult circumstances. Not only did they receive no cooperation from the Inner Circle — as you call it — but they appear to have been actively excluded from the whole affair. Yet this man Chamaz claimed to have photographs that might identify the would-be assassins. So what do you do? Do you attempt to kidnap Chamaz and interrogate him yourself? Or, better still, hold him until the moment is ripe for him to recognize the assassins? For that is what Ashak and his friends were surely trying to do — tuck Chamaz away in Dr Hubei’s house in Basel and wait for an opportune moment. Are you still with me, Colonel?’
Tamat did not reply. His pipe had gone out, and he stared out at the dark blue, maroon-streaked sky. Letif’s soft cloying voice went on: ‘I ask again, Colonel — what did you do? And I will give you the answer. You did the one thing that, for any Security Chief, is the ultimate and unpardonable sin — you destroyed the evidence. You eliminated the star witness — the only witness — who could have identified these would-be assassins of His Imperial Highness.’
The colonel flushed darkly and his eyes showed flecks of orange. He was renowned for his dangerous temper, and Letif watched him warily. For several seconds Colonel Tamat did nothing; then he deliberately unscrewed the stem of his pipe and poured several gobs of brown dottle on to the white carpet. Letif looked on impassively, knowing that this room, with its expensive fittings, might well be a passing luxury.
‘You are suggesting —?’ Tamat’s voice broke, and he spat again into his handkerchief, which this time he folded and used to wipe his forehead. ‘What are you suggesting?’ he added hoarsely.
Letif spoke with gentle persuasion. ‘I am not interested in your motives, Colonel. It is your tactics which concern me. While your strategy is bold and effective, it lacks subtlety. You have attacked, Colonel — but not on your own initiative. You were drawn into that attack. It is my opinion that you have been drawn into a trap.’
He waited, but the colonel was silent. ‘It is my opinion that the Ruler and his friends intended you to kill Chamaz. They despatched him across France like a fat worm on a long line and a big hook. You swallowed that worm this afternoon. You also swallowed the hook. You must now, my dear Colonel, expect His Highness to start pulling in the line.’
Colonel Tamat’s expression had become choleric; but when he spoke, the sneer in his voice was warped by suspicion. ‘Why would the Ruler want Chamaz dead?’
‘You are sure Chamaz is dead?’
‘Don’t play the monkey with me, Letif!’ Tamat roared. ‘I have a good sense of humour, but I do not appreciate jokes at my expense.’
Letif ignored the outburst. ‘You say the men were carbonized?’
‘That’s what my confidential source reported.’
‘Did your source state that Chamaz had been positively identified?’
Tamat drew in his breath, and this time his voice was barely in control. ‘The man who organized the operation did an excellent job. He had just two hours in which to make his plans. He assures me there was no mistake. And I trust his
