Best Kept Secret

join you?’ he asked.
    ‘Yes, of course,’ she replied, moving over to make room for him.
    ‘My name’s Peter,’ he said as they shook hands.
    ‘Annabel. What brings you to Argentina?’ she asked as the bus made its way into the city.
    ‘My brother Dick works out here. We haven’t seen each other for far too many years, so I thought I ought to make the effort as it’s his fortieth birthday.’
    ‘Your older brother?’ said Annabel with a grin. ‘What does he do?’
    ‘He’s a mechanical engineer. He’s been working on the Parana Dam project for the past five years.’
    ‘Never heard of it.’
    ‘No reason you should have. It’s in the middle of nowhere.’
    ‘Well he’s going to get a bit of a culture shock when he comes to Buenos Aires, because it’s one of the most cosmopolitan cities on earth, and certainly my favourite
stopover.’
    ‘How long will you be here this time?’ said Harry, wanting to change the subject before he ran out of details about his recently adopted family.
    ‘Forty-eight hours. Do you know Buenos Aires, Peter? If you don’t, you’re in for a real treat.’
    ‘No, this is my first time,’ said Harry, word perfect so far. Don’t lose your concentration, Sir Alan had warned him, because that’s when you’ll slip up.
    ‘So what route do you usually fly?’
    ‘I’m on the transatlantic hop – New York, Boston and Washington.’ The anonymous man from the Foreign Office had settled on that route because it took in three cities
Harry had visited on his book tour.
    ‘That sounds like fun. But make sure you sample the night life while you’re here. The Argentinians make the Yanks look conservative.’
    ‘Anywhere in particular I should take my brother?’
    ‘The Lizard has the best tango dancers, but I’m told the Majestic has the finest cuisine, not that I’ve ever experienced it. The crew usually end up at the Matador Club on
Independence Avenue. So if you and your brother find you’ve got time on your hands, you’d be welcome to join us.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Harry as the bus drew up outside the hotel. ‘I might just take you up on that.’
    He carried Annabel’s case into the hotel.
    ‘This place is cheap and cheerful,’ she said as they checked in, ‘so if you want a bath but don’t want to wait for the water to heat up, it’s best to have it last
thing at night, or first thing in the morning,’ she added as they stepped into the one lift.
    When they reached the fourth floor, Harry left Annabel and stepped out into a badly lit corridor before making his way to room 469. After he’d let himself in, he discovered the room
wasn’t a great improvement on the corridor. A large double bed that sank in the middle, a tap that dripped brown water, a towel rail that offered one face cloth, and a notice informing him
that the bathroom was at the end of the corridor. He recalled Sir Alan’s note,
We’ve booked you into a hotel Martinez and his cronies would never consider visiting.
He’d
already realized why. This place needed his mother to be appointed as the manager, and preferably yesterday.
    He took off his peaked cap and sat down on the end of the bed. He wanted to call Emma and tell her how much he missed her, but Sir Alan couldn’t have been clearer: no phone calls, no night
clubs, no sightseeing, no shopping; don’t even leave the hotel until it’s time to visit the ambassador. He put his feet up on the bed and lowered his head on to the pillow. He thought
about Sebastian, Emma, Sir Alan, Martinez, the Matador Club . . . Captain May fell asleep.

37
    W HEN H ARRY WOKE , the first thing he did was to turn on the light by his bed and check his watch: 2.26 a.m. He cursed when he
realized he hadn’t undressed.
    He almost fell off the bed, walked across to the window and stared out at a city that from the noise of the traffic and the sparkling lights was clearly still wide awake. He closed the curtains,
got undressed and climbed back into bed, hoping he would drop off again quickly. But he was robbed of sleep by thoughts of Martinez, Seb, Sir Alan, Emma, Giles and even Jessica, and the harder he
tried to relax and dismiss them from his mind, the more they demanded his attention.
    At 4.30 a.m., he gave up and decided he would have a bath. That’s when he fell asleep. When he woke, he jumped out of bed and pulled back the curtains to see the first rays of sunlight
bathing the city. He checked the time. It was 7.10 a.m. He felt