Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

behind them, still
smiling, still looking affable except that in his hand he held a small
snub-nosed efficient pistol. Far behind him at the foot of the hillside she saw
a horse tethered to a tree and guessed it was his. Neither had heard him
approach over the pebbles and gravel of the desert floor.
    ”So you’re the one,” she said, nodding.
    ”The one what?” demanded Peter. ”What the hell’s the matter with you,
Forbes, pointing a gun at us, have you lost your mind?”
    ”Don’t,” Mrs. Pollifax told him. ”We’ve been working for the Russians
without knowing it, Peter. I’ve suspected this ever since Sheng told us we were
followed into the desert. It’s been a trap, Peter.”
    ”Trap!” he cried. ”You mean Carstairs—”
    ”Carstairs doesn’t know. The Russians simply leaked the information and
sat back to watch us do all the dirty work, and now I believe you’re meeting
your first KGB man, Peter. Take a long look.”
    Peter stared at Forbes in horror. ”KGB! YouI”
    ”Held in abeyance,” said Mrs. Pollifax. ”A ‘sleeper,’ I believe they’re
called. Wonderful credentials, very American, too. Waiting for you to locate
and free Wang, after which he was supposed to snatch the prize from you at the
last minute and run with it to Moscow .
The Russians never planned any attempt to free Wang, we were to do the job for
them.”
    Forbes said dryly, ”Only one thing wrong with that, Mrs. Pollifax—not
Forbes was to snatch —is to snatch the prize. Right now.” He made
circular motions with his gun, directing her to move to one side. ”It’s Peter I
have business with—get away from him.”
    ”No,” said Mrs. Pollifax, feeling all her senses giddily heightened by
pain. ”No I’m not going to move. Not one inch, thank you. You can’t possibly
expect Peter to tell you where Wang is.”
    Forbes smiled a lethal smile. ”No, but he’s going to show me
where he is. I speak Chinese better than I let on, and I know the Sepos are
searching these mountains for a prisoner who’s missing from a labor reform camp
somewhere nearby. Somehow you got him out and hid him, and I want him.” He
waved his gun menacingly again. ”We’re running out of time and—”
    ”Yes that is a problem for you,” said Mrs. Pollifax cheerfully.
”The lack of time. How are you going to handle that}”
    He gave her a pleasant glance that held touches of a sneer in it. ”Shut
up,” he said, and turned to address Peter. ”Either both of you go with me now,
taking me to Wang Shen—both of you—or I’ll kill your friend Mrs. Pollifax here
and now. In front of you, so that you can watch her die.”
    It was important that Peter not believe this. ”How absurd,” she told
Forbes hotly. ”You’d kill us both after we take you to Wang anyway, I’m sure
that Peter can’t possibly fall for that.” She gasped. ”Oh
damn—Peter—sorry—I think I’m going to faint.” She stumbled backward toward a
small mound of stones and sat down, putting her head between her knees.
    Peter started to move toward her but Forbes stopped him. ”You’ve already
lost her,” he said contemptuously. ”What a ridiculous accomplice they
gave you, an old woman who faints at the drop of a hat. A boy and an old
woman... typical American ineptness.”
    ”To hell with you and your assumptions,” Peter said angrily. ”She broke
her wrist, damn you, and—”
    From her seat on the rocks Mrs. Pollifax cautiously lifted her head. She
had only pretended to feel faint; actually she had never felt so keyed-up, or
so alive, but it had seemed a convenient way to put distance between the three
of them and now she saw that Peter and Forbes were confronting each other so
intensely that she was forgotten. Her good right hand found and curled around a
smooth stone under her foot. As Forbes opened his mouth to retort to Peter she
lifted her arm and hurled the stone at Forbes.
    It hit him on the shoulder, doing him no harm, but it threw him off
balance. He fell back and before a startled Peter could move—before Forbes
could even regain his balance—Mrs. Pollifax was on her feet and in motion,
dealing Forbes a quick karate shin-strike and then a hard slash to his temple.
Forbes collapsed to the earth without a sound, his arms outstretched, his eyes
open and vacant.
    ”My God,” gasped Peter, rushing to him and prising the gun from his
slackened fingers. ”My God, Mrs. Pollifax, only brown belt you said?”
    ”Yes,” she said,