"Trevor, Elleston as Hall, Adam - Quiller 01 - The 9th Directive 1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hall Adam)

Pangsapa wanted to talk and I let him.

'I remember when your Princess Alexandra made a visit here a few years ago. It went off marvelously. Everyone loved her on sight and we coined a new title for her - the Gentle Ambassadress. She's having the same success with her current excursions; and last year she went over wonderfully in Tokyo. It's so intelligent for the British to send interesting people abroad as a change from those dreary diplomats with rumpled waistcoats and Derby winners' teeth.'

I hadn't told him why I had come. Loman must have given him a hint. I had only one question for him: Where were the professionals? But he wanted to go on talking.

'You may think it odd that I hold such an affection for members of the British royalty. After all I was born in poverty. I remember very clearly the time when I was beaten by a merchant for thieving - my choice was to steal or starve in those days. It happened when I was ostensibly watching a state procession on the river, with the Royal Barge and all the trimmings. Have you ever seen that barge, the Sri Supanahongs? It's quite enormous and covered entirely with pure gold leaf. The bag of rice I was filching at the time from one of the market canals was half soaked in filthy water, but it kept me alive for six days.' He smiled wistfully. 'It wasn't likely to endear me to the monarchy, my own or any other. But events happen so quickly. My father - or the man I believe to be my father -was toying with a certain hazardous operation in cahoots with a ship's captain not long afterwards, and the wind was fair. Five years later I was at Oxford, of all places.'

He sat with remarkable stillness and his smile was seraphic. 'My degree is in economics. But I cherish far more the spiritual experience the life of your country vouchsafed me. It was in those years that I learned to bear a certain love for complete strangers - I'm talking again of the monarchy.'

He leaned toward me an inch and his lisp became more pronounced. 'I would be sorry if anything happened in a few weeks' time on the 29th.'

'You might be able to prevent it.'

'I would welcome the chance.'

'All I want to know is where the professionals are. If any of them are here. In Bangkok.'

'The professionals?'

I got up from the cushions to walk about. Maybe he hadn't been briefed fully enough. 'Did Loman come to see you?'

'I don't know that name.'

'Who told you I was coming?'

'No one.'

I stopped and stood looking down at him.

'You didn't expect me?'

'Not before you telephoned.' He sat like a small dark effigy, only the light in his yellow eyes showing that he was alive.

I said: 'All right, Pangsapa. What was all that about your undying love for the monarchy?'

Patiently he said: 'You forget that the whole city is preparing for this important visit on the 29th. The police and security branches are very active, and it is obvious that trouble is expected - specific trouble. What else could you have come about? You seek information.'

I said: 'You've never seen me before.'

'You have been in Bangkok before.'

I accepted that. He'd been given to me as a source of information and no source of information was much good if it had never heard about my job here two years ago. I pressed him, though.

'Have you ever been in contact with us before?'

'I know a man called Parkis.'

'All right.' Parkis was in London Control. 'Let's talk about the professionals. I want to know their travel patterns.'