"Trevor, Elleston as Hall, Adam - Quiller 15 - Quiller Bamboo 1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hall Adam)

'Well, let me deal with what's going on at this end and then I'll get back to you, or someone will.' Tilson put the phone down.

'A minute ago,' I said. 'My pleasure.'

'Who's that?' Tilson asked me.

'Drunk down there, just reporting it.'

His eyes took on a stare. 'Down where?"

'The thing is,' I told him, 'I got back precisely ten days ago and my nerves feel like barbed wire and the dressings are still being changed every day. Shall I spell that?'

Tilson leaned back in the chair and leveled his eyes.

'I quite understand. But you don't even want to know the score?' And he waited.

In a minute I said, 'You really are a bastard.'

We could hear a siren cut in and die away again as a police car came around Parliament Square into Whitehall, heading for the Cenotaph.

'I can't tell you much,' Tilson said, 'because they slapped a your-ears-only on this thing the minute it started coming in, but you're not the only one they got out of bed and Mr Shepley himself has been alerted, so it's just conceivable that if they're going to pick you as the shadow executive you won't let the odd shark bite get in the way.'

'It's the nerves,' I said, 'more than that.' In an ideal world you could come off a mission and get a few nights' sleep and drink lots of Sanatogen and see Deirdre or someone and report back for work, but the Caribbean thing had been very busy and the whole organism still felt tender. 'It's Hong Kong, is it?'

'That area.'

'Who's available for the DIP?' If they could give me a really first-class director in the field it could make a difference.

'I'd have to check on that. But if youЧ' He broke off as the door opened again and Hyde came in.

'Did they alert Mr Shepley?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Is he on his way?'

'He just said he'd monitor his phone.'

'All right.' Hyde gave me a nod and stood for a minute looking around him at nothing at all, his large head tilted back and his tongue poking at his cheek, his big hands hanging by his sides and his feet splayed a little to support his weight. He didn't react when a phone rang and Tilson took it and told them he wanted priority calls only from now on and put the receiver back.

Hyde was in a dinner jacket; I suppose they'd beeped him at a nightclub or somewhere. He went on looking around him while he thought things over, then he brought his head down and told Tilson, 'This is where the focus is, until we can open up the board in there. Can you handle it?'

Tilson said yes and Hyde turned to look at me. 'You're resting, they said.'

'Technically.'

'Technically. What kind of shape are you in?'

'Not bad.'