Year Of The Tiger

18

The hut was low-roofed and built of great blocks of rough stone. Outside, the wind howled through the pass all the way from Mongolia, piling snow against the walls in great drifts.

It was more like a stable than anything else, with the horses occupying at least half of the available space, and Chavasse sat in a daze drinking hot tea from a bowl while steam rose from his sheepskin coat.

On the other side of the fire Katya, utterly exhausted, slept beside the two children, and their mother waited patiently for more water to boil in an iron pot.

In the corner farthest from the door, a small butter lamp flickered in a niche, and in its feeble light, Hoffner and Osman Sherif crouched over Colonel Li. He groaned several times and Hoffner spoke soothingly to him; once he reared up convulsively and the Kazakh had to force him down again.

After a while the old man got to his feet and returned to the fire, instructing Osman Sherif to cover the Chinese with a sheepskin.

“How is he?” Chavasse said.

Hoffner sighed. “I’ve had to amputate three fingers on his left hand. A drastic step, but better than gangrene. It’s a good thing Osman Sherif found you when he did.”

The wind roared through the great tunnel of the pass and Chavasse shuddered. “We wouldn’t have lasted long outside on a night like this. He’s quite a man. It took a lot of guts to come looking for me in that blizzard. I’d already circled back on my own tracks when I found Colonel Li.”

Hoffner filled his pipe slowly and frowned. “I used to think I understood him rather well, but now I’m not so sure. I wonder what drove him on to follow us on foot in such appalling weather.”

“God knows. The workings of the Communist mind are too complicated for my understanding.”

Osman Sherif squatted beside them and grinned as his wife handed him a bowl of tea. “You make things too complicated; that is the trouble with you Westerners. Out here, our values are more basic. The hunter never stops following his quarry until he has made the kill or is himself dead.”

Hoffner shook his head and said softly, “No, there’s more to it than that in this case. It needed something stronger to drive a man on in the state Colonel Li was in.”

“It’s perfectly simple,” Chavasse told him. “He was after the briefcase.”

“But how could he have been? Captain Tsen didn’t get a chance to report back to him.” Hoffner shook his head and said gently, “I think it was you he wanted, Paul.”

“He was after all of us,” Chavasse said. “That’s obvious.”

Hoffner shook his head again. “I meant something more than that, but it doesn’t matter now.” He leaned back, his head on his briefcase, and pulled a sheepskin coat over his body. “I think I’ll get a little sleep.”

Chavasse stretched out beside him and stared into the fire and tried to make some sense out of it all, but there was no answer. Or none that he could think of. After a while, he drifted into sleep.

He awakened and lay for several moments staring up at the low roof, trying to decide where he was. So many places, he thought. So very many places, and where am I now? As realization came, he tried to sit up.

His hands were swollen and chapped and his face hurt. He touched his cheeks and winced as his fingers probed great splits in the flesh.

Everyone seemed to be asleep and he leaned forward to stir the embers into life. As the flames leapt up he saw that Katya was crouching beside Colonel Li.

She looked pale and ill as she picked her way between the sleeping bodies and sat down beside him, holding her hands out to the blaze.

“How are you feeling?” she said.

“I’ll survive. How’s our friend?”

“I couldn’t sleep and heard him groaning. I thought I’d better take a look. What’s wrong with his hand?”

“Frostbite,” Chavasse said. “Doctor Hoffner had to amputate three fingers.”

Her breath hissed sharply between her teeth and he put an arm around her shoulders. “I know this has all seemed like some terrible nightmare, but it won’t last much longer. As soon as the weather clears, we can move across the border.”

For a little while there was silence and then she said, “Paul, why do you think he continued to follow us alone and on foot in such awful weather?”

“Whatever it was, it must have been eating him up inside,” Chavasse said. “Hoffner thinks it was me he was really after, not the rest of you.”

She turned, a slight frown on her face. “What did he mean by that?”

He shrugged. “In Colonel Li you have a man who lies by faith as much as any priest, but faith in the political creed on which he has based his life.”

“But what has all this to do with you?”

“I can only guess. I think that for some strange personal reason, it was of supreme importance to him that I not only confess my crimes against the People’s Republic, but that I also become a sincere convert to Communism through his agency.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because I believe he likes me, God help him.” Chavasse sighed. “I think that in another time and place we could have been friends.”

There was a long silence before Katya said softly, “And what happens now?”

Chavasse shook his head. “I don’t really know. I’ve shaken his faith in his belief, because I refused to accept it, even under coercion. He can’t continue in that state of mind. Now he has no choice. If he fails to destroy me, he destroys himself.”

“Strange,” she said with a frown. “You speak of him with words that suggest compassion, and yet there is no kindness in your voice.”

“Pity’s the last thing I feel for him. There’s too much blood on his hands for that.”

“What will you do with him when you leave?”

“Give him one of the horses and a little food. He can make it from here to Rudok easily if he wants to. I’m not going to kill him if that’s what you mean. There’s no longer any need.”

“Because you will have destroyed him anyway?”

He nodded. “Something like that.”

She gazed into the fire in silence for a while. “And what about me, Paul? What will happen when we cross over into Kashmir?”

He smiled and gently kissed her on the cheek. “I’m sure we’ll find a use for you.”

“You think there is hope for us, then?” Her face was like a young girl’s, the eyes probing into his very soul.

“There’s always hope, Katya,” he said. “That’s what makes life worthwhile.”

She laid her head on his chest and he held her close. After a while, she drifted into sleep and he sat there staring into the flames and waiting for the dawn.

Just before morning the wind died and Osman Sherif went outside. When he came back, he was smiling. “The snow has stopped. We should be able to cross over without any difficulty.”

As he started to lead the horses out through the door everyone stirred and, in a few moments, his wife had blown the fire into life and was heating water for tea.

Chavasse went out to help saddle the horses and told him that he wanted to leave one of the animals behind for Colonel Li.

“It would be wasting a good horse,” the Kazakh said.

Chavasse frowned. “Don’t you think he can make it to Rudok on his own?”

The Kazakh shook his head. “I mean something different. I have looked into his eyes, my friend. He is a dead man walking.”

Chavasse went back inside the hut and sat down beside Hoffner, who was drinking tea. The old man looked grey and haggard, but he seemed in remarkably good spirits.

“You look pretty grim, Paul,” he said cheerfully.

“You don’t look so marvellous yourself,” Chavasse told him, and held out his hand for the bowl of tea Osman Sherif’s wife passed to him.

Katya sat beside the children on the other side of the fire, staring vacantly into the flames. She looked ill and her skin was stretched tightly over the prominent cheekbones.

“Not long now,” Chavasse told her softly.

She came out of her reverie with a start. For a moment, she stared at him as if he were a stranger, a puzzled frown on her face, and then she smiled. A strange, sad smile that touched something deep inside him.

He emptied his bowl, filled it again and went and squatted beside Colonel Li, who sat with his back against a wall, a sheepskin across his legs.

Li held his bandaged hand against his chest and seemed quite calm in spite of his pallor. He smiled tightly as he accepted the tea. “I suppose I should congratulate you.”

“One thing still puzzles me,” Chavasse said. “Why didn’t Tsen have troops to back him up when he was waiting for me to turn up at Hoffner’s house?”

Colonel Li smiled faintly. “Six men were detailed to report to him at midnight, but I’m afraid the speed with which you escaped wrecked our plans. Did any of my men survive? There were three with me when I set out.”

“We didn’t see any. I was lost in the blizzard myself when I ran into you.” Osman Sherif came in and squatted beside the fire, and Chavasse nodded towards him. “You owe your life to our friend there.”

Colonel Li emptied the bowl and placed it carefully on the ground beside him. “But not for long, I imagine.”

Chavasse shook his head. “You’ve got it all wrong. We’re leaving you a horse and some food. You should be able to reach Rudok easily.”

Colonel Li’s lips twitched slightly and suddenly there was sweat on his forehead. “You mean you’re not going to shoot me?”

Chavasse shook his head. “There’s no need, Colonel. As our American friends would say, you’re all washed up.”

He started to get to his feet and a quiet voice said, “Not quite, Paul.”

He turned very slowly. Katya was standing on the other side of the fire facing all of them. In her hands, she held the machine pistol.

Hoffner was the first to speak. “Katya, for God’s sake! What does this mean?”

Her extreme pallor only made her more beautiful. The skin of her face was almost translucent and the dark sad eyes held a haunted expression Chavasse was to remember for the rest of his days.

He moved forward slightly, hands thrust deep into the pockets of his sheepskin coat, and smiled softly. “Tell him, angel. Tell him everything.”

Suddenly there was something that was almost horror in her eyes. “You knew,” she whispered. “You knew all the time. But if that’s true, why did you bring me with you?”

“My people would have found you a prize package. They don’t use the same methods as your side to extract information, but they’re even more successful. I’ve been waiting for you to show your hand ever since you recovered consciousness,” Chavasse said. “It was your boyfriend here who let you down, if you’re interested. When he exposed my little masquerade at Hoffner’s house that afternoon, he said that he and Kurbsky had run into each other at a village called Rangong a few days earlier. Unfortunately, Kurbsky had already told me they’d never met.”

“We all make mistakes,” she said.

“Not in this game – not if you want to stay alive, anyway,” he told her. “And the pair of you made two. When we were out riding, I told you I’d helped the Dalai Lama out of Tibet. I knew for a fact that Peking couldn’t have known I was involved and yet Colonel Li did. You were the only person who could have been his source of information. You certainly mix with the right people.”

“It wasn’t difficult – he is my brother,” she said proudly. “We know what we are doing and where we are going.”

“For God’s sake, don’t give me any more of that claptrap,” Chavasse said. “I’ve had my bellyful during the past few weeks. Would it be too much to ask why you were planted on the doctor?”

“He was important to us as a figurehead, because the people trusted him.” She shrugged. “It was necessary for some reliable person to share his confidences. This affair alone has proved the value of my presence in the house.”

“There’s one small point that has been bothering me for a long time,” he said. “When I tried to take a shot at your brother, my Walther jammed. I’ve never known them to do that before.”

“I’d taken the precaution of emptying the clip the previous night,” she said. “When you were asleep.”

“Most efficient of you.” He sighed. “You realize what will happen to us when you take us back? You know how we’ll be treated?”

“They will only do what is necessary for the good of the State,” she said. “Nothing more.”

“Katya!” There was pain in Hoffner’s voice. “Did I mean nothing more to you than that?”

“Nothing, Doctor,” she said flatly.

“I don’t believe you.”

He started round the fire towards her and she raised the machine pistol warningly. “Keep back, Doctor. I will shoot, I promise you.”

“And kill the brain,” Chavasse said mockingly.

“It is all in the briefcase,” she told him calmly. “I have nothing to lose.”

Hoffner kept on moving, a hand stretched out towards her. “Katya, please listen to me.”

“I warn you,” she said.

Chavasse had been watching her index finger curl around the trigger of the machine pistol, his own hand ready on Tsen’s automatic. As her knuckle whitened, he fired twice through the pocket of his sheepskin coat.

The force of the bullets lifted her back against the wall, and she dropped the machine pistol and slid down to the ground.

Hoffner gave an agonized cry, his hands going to his face, and Chavasse pushed him out of the way and knelt beside her. She stared up at him, that characteristic slight frown on her face, and then she choked as blood poured from her mouth. As he eased her down to the floor, the head lolled to one side.

Osman Sherif was already hustling his wife and their two children outside as Chavasse got to his feet and faced Hoffner.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know how much she meant to you.”

Hoffner shook his head slowly. “There was nothing else you could do. For the first time in my life I’m beginning to realize the strength of the opposition. I think we ought to do something about it.”

He picked up his briefcase and doctor’s bag and followed the others as Chavasse turned and looked down at Katya for the last time.

Colonel Li knelt beside her. After a moment, he got to his feet, and when he spoke, his voice seemed to belong to someone else.

“You are a hard man,” he said. “Harder than I ever imagined a man could be.”

“I’m a professional,” Chavasse told him. “That’s something you wouldn’t understand, but she would. She was one herself.”

He started to turn away and Li caught his arm. “Kill me, Paul!”

Chavasse jerked himself free without speaking and went outside. The sky was grey but already beginning to clear, and the snow was startlingly white.

The others were already mounted and Osman Sherif held a horse ready for him. Chavasse reached for the pommel of the high wooden saddle and pulled himself up. It was an effort, but he made it and they started to move forward.

He was aware that Colonel Li had stumbled out of the doorway to stand beside the tethered horse they had left him, but he didn’t bother to look back.

The effects of Hoffner’s injections were beginning to wear off and all of a sudden, he felt really tired. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except that in some strange way, life was now beginning all over again.

It must have been an hour later when they reached the crest of the pass. From somewhere a thousand miles away he seemed to hear his name and he turned and looked for the last time at the small figure, black against the snow beside the customs hut. He urged his horse forward and rode after the others, down into Kashmir.