Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

Jenny,” she said, and went out.
     
    Malcolm, when she opened his door, looked up and said cheerfully, ”The
Sepos seem to have fallen in love with you, it seems forever since I’ve seen
you. How’s your broken wing?”
    ”Tiresome,” she said.
    He nodded. ”Quite a change from that Heavenly Lake we were supposed to be visiting today. If anyone asks, I’m ready to terminate
the whole darn tour and fly home. After all,” he added with a smile, ”I’ve
progressed to three teaspoons of tea now, I’m practically well.”
     
    George Westrum gave her a hostile glance when she stopped in to see him.
”I’m ready to sue,” he told her angrily. ”Sue the whole damn tour company for
allowing this to happen. I’ve missed Heavenly Lake today, and tomorrow we’re off to Inner Mongolia , and if anyone suggests canceling the rest
of this tour they’ll have a real fight on their hands. I paid good money to see China , and I’m damn well
going to see China !”
    ”Yes, George,” said Mrs. Pollifax, and left him to his spleen and went
back to endure two more interrogations that afternoon at security headquarters.

Chapter Sixteen
     
    S he was awakened at five
o’clock the next morning by . an anxious-looking Mr. Li. ”You are to be taken
to security headquarters now,” he told her. ”The car is outside, they want you
immediately. At once.”
    ”Before breakfast?” she said in alarm. ”Now?”
    He nodded. ”For this I am very sorry,” he said, and from the sympathy in
his voice she had a sinking feeling that the interrogations were to accelerate
now and that she might not be returned this time to the hotel. They must
have found Peter, she thought. There must he something changed, something
terribly wrong.
    ”I’ll be dressed in two minutes,” she told him, and this time chose a
jacket with pockets into which she placed her last chocolate bar, a handful of
peanuts from yesterday’s breakfast, and snapshots of Cyrus and her
grandchildren. She walked alone through the silent hall to the lobby, out to
the driveway, and climbed into the waiting gray limousine. It was a misty
morning, the sun not warm yet; she was again in the car with the cigarette hole
in the seat beside her and she tried to remember whether her previous trips in
this car had been fortunate or unfortunate. Above all, she wondered if somehow
they had discovered that Peter wasn’t dead; it had been some forty hours now
since she had said good-bye to him.
    Once again she was escorted into the same spartan room at headquarters,
but this time she was shaken to find only Mr. Chang waiting for her. He sat
behind the table that had previously been occupied by Mr. Pi. A few papers lay
spread out before him but his elbows rested on them and his chin was in his
hands; he was staring into space but he glanced up at her arrival and spoke
sharply to the guard, dismissing him. He watched her cross the room and sit
down on the same plain wooden chair. He said curtly, ”Good morning,” and
shuffled the papers in front of him.
    Mrs. Pollifax waited, practicing a calm that she didn’t feel.
    He said at last, looking at her, ”You have maintained—with remarkable
consistency—that you were unconscious—in a deep faint—during very important
moments, Mrs. Pollifax.” He paused, the very slightest hint of a smile passing
across his face. ”I would like to tell you now, Mrs. Pollifax, that I have been
aware since the very first interrogation that you have been lying.”
    ”I’m sorry to hear that,” she told him politely, thinking no holds
barred now, off we go. ”I can’t think why or how you’ve reached such a
conclusion. Perhaps one might ask why?”
    He smiled. ”Certain nuances, shall we say? Certain techniques familiar
to me?” He stopped, staring at her with an expression not at all unpleasant,
and then he startled her by leaning forward and saying, ”There are no tapes
recording our conversation this morning; there is the utmost privacy at this
hour.”
    ”Oh?” she said, not believing him.
    ”Yes. You see,” he went on, ”I consider myself—if I may be forgiven such
immodesty—a long-time student of character, and in you I have found many of the
attributes of my first wife, long since dead.”
    She had not expected this diversion. Thoroughly startled she said, ”Oh?”
    ”At the time of our Revolution,” he continued, ”she was a most fervent
and conscientious soldier. She underwent several interrogations—yes, and