Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

And seeing this he followed that person,
whoever it was, and thus trailed all of us into the desert.”

Chapter E leven
     
    A t the ramifications of what Sheng had said Mrs. Pollifax gasped, ”One of
the guides?”
    Peter turned back to Sheng. ”No—no, Sheng says not a native, he
is sure of this. He says this person wore some kind of cloak, so it could have
been a man, it could have been a woman—I asked him—but he is certain it was a
foreigner, very definitely, because of the way this person walked and acted.”
    She drew in her breath sharply, remembering her searched suitcase and
realizing that it had never been far from her mind. Something is wrong, she thought. Terribly wrong.
    She accepted Sheng’s judgment, acknowledging his shrewdness and his
street wisdom. ”Where is this person now?” she asked.
    ”Back in the Guesthouse.”
    She turned her attention to Sheng Ti, realizing that he must be dealt
with first of all. ”What does he think or suspect about all this?” she asked.
”Does he perhaps expect money to not speak of this to anyone?”
    Peter spoke to Sheng in Chinese. ”He says he wishes to talk with us
alone somewhere about why we carry baggage out of the city and return without
it. He feels that he alone saw the baggage we carried—which is probably
reassuring if I ever find time to think about it. He also wishes to know why I
concealed my speaking Chinese so well, and why suddenly you have two teeth
missing and dress like a Chinese woman.”
    ”Yes,” she said. ”Where can we talk?” But she was thinking, Someone
in this tour group knows about Peter and me. Someone among them knows why we’re
here. How could this have happened? Who else would know about Wang? Who else
would even be interested in Wang?
    ”Not far,” Peter was saying. ”You think we can trust Sheng?”
    ”For the moment I think we have no choice,” she said dryly, but in
examining her initial reactions to Sheng she added, ”I believe we can trust
him, yes, but in any case I have a brown belt in karate.”
    Peter laughed. ”Wouldn’t you know! Okay—he says we leave the cart and
walk.”
    She thought, There is no one — absolutely no one — who
could know about Wang or be interested in him.
    Except the Russians, she remembered in horror.
    Carstairs had said, ”One of our agents who works for the Soviets—a
double-agent, needless to say—has brought us information of X’s existence and
of the Soviets’ interest in him.”
    Had brought them information of X’s existence...
    Information that came solely from the Russians, who badly wanted Wang
for themselves... The same Russians who supposedly had plans to abduct Wang
later in the summer...
    Supposedly...
    But what if instead, knowing themselves persona non grata in China , they
chose to leak their information to the CIA and let the Americans find Wang for
them instead? Let an American agent enter China and find the labor camp, find
and release Wang and then... and then... Oh God, she thought in horror, could
Peter and I be walking into a trap!
    They were following Sheng through narrow alleys, turning left and then
right; he stopped now beside an abandoned irrigation ditch spanned by a crumbling
bridge. Sheng led them under the bridge and gestured to them to sit down.
    Peter said in surprise, ”He says he sleeps here; this is his home.”
    They squatted, knees touching. Sheng had been eating garlic which made
for a powerful atmosphere; he was also anxious, and this too contributed an
odor so that they hunched together in a cloud of garlic, sweat, and dusty
earth. ”But why is this his home?” asked Mrs. Pollifax. ”Why doesn’t he have a
unit like everyone else?”
    Peter began to speak to Sheng, and Sheng replied at length, and while
they talked Mrs. Pollifax’s mind flew back to Car-stairs’ mysterious
counteragent. If all the information came from the Russians and they were being
followed... She shivered a little, exploring the idea of herself and Peter
being mere pawns because if her theory was correct and if the Russians were
masterminding this operation, then it would be a member of the KGB who had been
planted in the tour group.
    To watch them. To snatch Wang for the Soviets once he was free.
    And Carstairs doesn’t know, she thought, trembling at
the prospects should her suspicions be right. He doesn’t even guess and
there’s no way to communicate, to tell him that possibly... maybe...
    Peter turned to her and said, ”He tells me