Dragon Fire

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London

‘Do we know where Togden is?’ asked Christopher Baker.

‘We don’t, Foreign Secretary,’ said Sir Malcolm Parton, the Permanent Under-Secretary and the civil servant in charge of the Foreign Office. ‘If he’s alive, he’s probably hiding out with ten or twenty of the guerrillas, trying to make their way to India or Nepal.’

‘With the Chinese army in hot pursuit, we assume,’ said John Stopping, the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. ‘Even if he turns up in Nepal, his final destination will be India.’

‘And if he doesn’t make it?’ said Baker. ‘If the Chinese get him?’

‘That would be a more settled outcome,’ said Sir Malcolm, exchanging glances with Stopping.

‘If he gets to India?’ pressed Baker.

‘The Indians might give him asylum with the usual conditions that he doesn’t engage in political activities,’ Sir Malcolm explained. ‘They might feel he’s too hot to handle and pass him on to a third country. Wherever he is he will become a focal point for violent resistance against Chinese rule in Tibet.’

‘And how’s China going to react to India’s inadvertent incursion?’

‘President Tao will milk it for everything he can,’ said Stopping. ‘But quiet diplomacy through the Security Council should keep it in check.’

The Foreign Secretary stood up, looking at his watch, indicating that the meeting was over. His mind was far away from China, a country which he didn’t like and didn’t understand, and which didn’t fall in the British or European hemisphere of world affairs. The press were still running with a story about his numerous infidelities, no doubt leaked by his soon-to-be ex-wife. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs select committee was homing in on a bribery scandal in Malaysia, about which he had known nothing. Apparently, the papers on it had been sent to him at the bottom of his red box one weekend six months earlier.

His Under-Secretary had made a valiant attempt to defend him, so, when Sir Malcolm called asking for an urgent early-morning meeting, he reluctantly agreed. The presence of John Stopping, Chairman of the JIC and soon to be appointed Ambassador to Beijing, indicated that something both secret and significant was afoot. The JIC was not directly involved in policy-making, and Sir Malcolm had not made it clear why he had insisted on bringing Stopping along. The most obvious colleague would have been the Director for Asia — Pacific.

But right now he was running late for a breakfast meeting at Downing Street with the Prime Minister and the new German Chancellor. ‘Draw up some options, will you, Malcolm,’ he said, putting on his jacket. ‘Apart from that my instinct is to keep our mouths shut. It seems that Britain’s most pressing concern is if Lama Togden turns up alive and says he wants to live in Clapham.’