‘Your Most Serene Highness —’ Letif hesitated. The Ruler fondled the leather handle of his cane and waited. ‘Your Highness, permit me to ask a question which, I pray, Your Highness will understand —’
‘Speak. My time is valuable.’
Marmut bem Letif raised his head and licked his bloodless lips. ‘I humbly ask of Your Serene Highness why he does not arrest Colonel Tamat?’
‘Because he does not wish to. Do not ask for reasons, Letif. Even for a man in your office there must be secrets. Be content that your Supreme Ruler, the Holder of Almighty Power in our nation, enjoys the luxury of good enemies. Sham Tamat is very efficient, he is very proud, above all he is very self-confident. He is also stupid, base, and morally odious. He thus makes a very, very good enemy.’ He gave a quick white-fanged smile. ‘You see, like all good hunters, I bide my time. You too, Letif. Only you do not have much time. You have perhaps only a few days.’
He leaned forward and the cane slipped through his fingers, its wooden tip bouncing with a hollow click off the mosaic floor. ‘In the next few days, Letif, there will be men entering this country — foreigners with evil intent against our nation, and in particular, against my person. Remember, these men are not fanatics — they are impelled neither by ideology nor hatred of my Imperial Being, but by greed, by money, by great sums of money. We already know something of these men from the agent, Chamaz. But Chamaz has done the work of ten men, while the other nine have lain idle.’
He swung the bamboo cane lazily against Letif’s knee. ‘Stand up straight. For a Minister of my Court, your posture is a disgrace.’ He paused, his eyes half closed. ‘It is a pity that you are not younger, not better looking, Letif.’
His eyes opened again, aroused by some inner thought. ‘It is strange that the great and noble Hamid the Martyr, to whose memory even I bow my head in reverence, should have begat such a feeble, paltry creature as you, Marmut bem Letif. I even hear word — from tongues forked with envy and ambition, no doubt — that your paternity is in question, Letif. That such a wretched body could ever have sprung from a seed of the Great Hamid. But I am not troubled. I know that your body enjoys a good brain — and intelligence is always a virtue, even among my most obedient servants. Let us trust you use that virtue.’ His eyelids were drooping again, too far perhaps to see that Letif’s face had gone white. ‘Go now.’
The little man bowed three times and began to back down the long room.
‘Remember, he is very fat,’ the Ruler called. ‘He is as fat as the very fattest merchant that you ever saw when you ran as a child barefoot through the bazaars. Find him for me, Letif. Find him for me quickly.’
CHAPTER 30
‘I’m not going to discuss anything with you until you get rid of that ghastly moustache.’ Sarah turned away from Packer and gave Pol a tantalizing smile as she lifted the champagne glass to her lips.
Packer watched her sullenly from a chair by the door. ‘Charles prefers it. Tell her, Charles — she listens to you.’
Pol sipped his champagne and giggled. ‘You do not find him handsome like that, ma petite?’
‘Il est horrible.’
‘Ah, but it is also one of the simplest and most effective of disguises. A small precaution, perhaps — but a more important consideration than vanity, I think?’ He looked at Packer. ‘You still have some questions to ask?’
‘Several.’ Packer turned to Sarah, who had closed the window and pulled a cashmere shawl round her shoulders. ‘Do you know what will happen, Sarah, if you get caught?’
‘I’ve no idea.’
‘And you’re not interested?’
‘Why — are you? Or are you just trying to put me off?’
‘I’m just trying to make certain that you know the score. Because this time the rules are going to be different, and it won’t be a few years in a Swiss gaol, with the chance of parole if you’re a good little girl. The Ruler’s people do things rather less generously.’
She pulled the shawl more closely around her shoulders. ‘Well, what would they do?’ she asked, in a flat voice.
‘Sammy only told me what happens to a man, but no doubt they have an equally exciting recipe for women.’
Pol broke in with a wince of distaste. ‘Sammy has a vivid imagination.’
‘So, no doubt, have the Rider’s boys. It runs in the blood.’
‘You know something, Owen,’ she said slowly, ‘I honestly believe that you rather enjoy thinking about what they’d do to me. Well, go on — tell me what’ll happen to us both, if it goes wrong and we get caught.’
‘Ah, please, mes enfants!’ Pol looked distressed. ‘Such a morbid subject! It will spoil our evening.’
Packer spoke without looking at either of them. ‘The Ruler has the pick of every luxury whore outside the Iron Curtain — and he could probably get his leg over there too, if he bothered. So what guarantee have we got that he’s going to choose our little Sarah here?’
‘It is precisely because
