Devil May Care

left and didn’t want to waste any. If Silver was playing some cat-and-mouse game, that was fine by him – though it was unlikely, since Silver would have guessed that he and Darius were rushing to make contact with London.
    From near his feet, he heard groaning. ‘Are you all right, Hamid?’
    ‘I think so. Cut hands. But all right.’
    ‘Keep down.’
    A bullet cracked off the side of the Cadillac. Hamid began to pray noisily. What alarmed Felix was that the bullet came from above them on the upper road, where the call box was. Somehow Silver had sneaked out from behind the Pontiac and climbed through the bushes above.
    Felix cursed noisily and began to run as fast as his artificial leg would let him.
    ‘Got that, Babak?’ Darius was saying into the mouthpiece. ‘And the VC-10. Good man, Babak. Now as fast as you –’
    But Darius Alizadeh could not complete the sentence as two rounds of pistol fire went through his heart. His big body crumpled at the knee and fell forward into the dust of his homeland.
    Felix came toiling up the hill, dragging his leg behind him. He was too late to see Silver replace the smoking gun in his waistband as he knelt down behind a bush.
    Felix let out a cry when he saw Darius and the telephone receiver swinging by its cord. He got down beside him and put his ear to his chest. He was still just breathing, and he opened his eyes. ‘I got through,’ he said. ‘To Babak. The whole lot. Everything we know.’
    He closed his eyes as Felix lifted his head and cradled him in his good arm.
    ‘J. D. Silver,’ said Darius weakly, and the glimmer of a smile passed over his face. ‘Not what my father called a “citizen of eternity”.’
    ‘Not like you, my friend,’ said Felix. ‘No. JD’s what my father called a sonofabitch.’
    As Darius’s body went limp, Felix heard a pistol being cocked.
    ‘Don’t move, Leiter.’
    Silver stepped out, both hands steady on the gun. ‘Put your hands up. You don’t have to die. You can go back to your matrimonials and your missing girls. Just do as I say. Put both hands on your head.’
    ‘Who are you working for?’ said Felix.
    ‘Same as you. I just got new orders. We want the Brits in Vietnam. We need some help. If this is what it takes. A little reminder from the Russians …’
    ‘You’re out of your mind,’ said Leiter.
    ‘Shut up,’ said Silver, beginning to frisk him, and stopping when he came to the Colt in Felix’s waistband.
    ‘Big old thing,’ he said, hauling it out and putting it into his jacket pocket. ‘Now get down on the ground. Face down.’
    Felix did as he was told. ‘Did you tell Langley about the goddam plane?’ he said. ‘The airliner full of explosive?’
    ‘I don’t know it’s full of explosive,’ said Silver. ‘Neither do you.’
    ‘What the hell you think it’s got on board? Kids’ toys?’
    ‘I tell them all I know,’ said Silver. ‘They decide what to do with it. When the chips are down, Leiter, it’s the man in the White House makes the call. He’s looking at the whole picture. Russia takes a hit, he can live with that. London takes a hit – that’s not so good. But if it gets the Brits offtheir backside and into Vietnam and makes them take this whole war seriously, then, hey, that’s tactical. Once in a while you take a punch. And if it helps you win the bout, it’s worth it.’
    Leiter levered himself up on to his elbow. ‘But if you’re not letting them have all the detail they need …’
    As he spoke, he saw a shadow on the dusty ground behind J. D. Silver’s black penny loafers. Felix’s CIA training, many years ago but wired deeply in his reflexes, stopped him reacting in any way.
    But he knew he needed to keep talking. ‘I don’t think you’re telling me the whole truth, Carmen. Sure, we want the Brits in Vietnam, sure I think those guys in the State Department would absorb a small attack if they thought it would help us in the long run. But not this. This is a big one. A very big one. Know what I think, Carmen? I think someone told stories about you. You and your car men. I think you got turned. Blackmail. I think someone from the Soviet Union had a little word with you, my friend, and –’
    Silver screamed in anger and raised his gun to fire at Felix’s heart, but before he could pull the trigger, part of the contents of his head shot through his nose, as Hamid crashed a heavy white rock down on to his skull, with a crack that echoed round the foothills of