She had to clear this matter first. 'But you're not, are you.'
'No. More's the pity.'
'So what has all this got to do with you?'
He thought for a moment. 'If I was to say that what happens to you does concern me - ' He held up his hand quickly to forestall her ' - no, let me finish - that would not be good enough, I know! So I'll give you a choice: either I'm insatiably inquisitive, and when something rather extremely interesting is happening I like to know about it - especially when I've been written out of it.' He smiled. 'Curiosity and sour grapes, maybe?'
Some truth might be there, but nowhere near all of it. 'Or?'
'Or…' He took another moment. 'You know, the way our revered department works, Elizabeth, is never in straight lines. We circle round problems, in different dimensions, looking for openings. We behave eccentrically, even amateurishly, and certainly unpredictably.' He squinted at her suddenly. 'How did you get away from David?'
Whatever it was that he didn't want to say, it must be closer to the truth. But she would come back to it from a different direction. 'I'll tell you how, Paul - if you'll tell me why you tried to follow me this morning.'
'To the Xenophon Building?'
She stared at him. 'What? I started from outside there. But - ?'
'You thought you'd lost me? You did. But I've seen David use that silly trick before. And the coincidence of Xenophon was worth a try, so I went back and lurked behind the Magdala obelisk. And back you came.'
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'What coincidence?'
'Oh - come on, Elizabeth!' He cocked his head at her knowingly, but also with a suggestion of anger. 'Stop buggering around, for God's sake!'
'What do you mean?' She hated to be sworn at like that, and he knew it.
'What do I mean?' The anger increased. 'I mean… I mean that I stuck my neck out for you this morning, to the edge of blowing a secure classification, when I gave you Ed Parker.
Because you weren't cleared then for the material in which his name comes up - I know, because I punched it up on the computer not ten minutes before, and your name wasn't on it. There were only four names there: Jack Butler's, of course. And then Latimer, Oliver St John and Audley, David Longsdon, and finally poor bloody Mitchell, Paul Lefevre. And the computer duly registered that I'd made that particular inquiry, so any moment now I shall be in trouble, for sure.'
'Paul -'
'No. I haven't finished. So then you went in for your little session with Fatso, and did your Joan of Arc bit, letting yourself be summoned by your voices. Which I also know, because I waited for a bit, and then I punched the Beast again. And low and behold! There was a new name on the clearance! Which was - would you believe it - none other than Loftus, Elizabeth Jane. Recognize that name?'
' Paul - '
'I haven't finished, dear Elizabeth Jane.' He bulldozed forwards. 'Which inquiry the computer also duly registered. But you can only die once, so they say… So what did Elizabeth Jane do then, I ask you? Or, what did she eventually do? Why, she went and stood outside the London headquarters of Xenophon Oil Incorporated, did she not? Which are presided over by none other than Barrie, Sir Peter William, KBE, whose name also rang a bell, because it figured in a certain list, from long ago, to which Elizabeth Jane now has free access. Correct?'
As a small boy, he must have been objectionable, she decided. Indeed, she had known girls at school like him, whose power lay in their precocious understanding of how systems worked, and who never scrupled to use their knowledge. But, on the other hand, he had stuck his neck out - for that last and as-yet-unrevealed reason.
He nodded. 'But that was all of two hours since.' He looked at his watch. 'What have you done with David, Elizabeth Jane?'
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He had never called her 'Elizabeth Jane' before. But there was an edge of bitterness in that additional 'Jane' which could mean that he was going off her at last, thank heavens!
'I gave him a job to do. Or two jobs, actually.' When she thought about it, she didn't really want him to go off her in bitterness: she wanted so very much for him still to be a friend, but even more than that she needed him as a colleague, to pick his brains.
'Two jobs?' He grinned. 'I'll bet he didn't like that!' The grin vanished. 'Was one of them - '
The rattle of the curtain-runners stopped him. 'What is it, Tom?'
The strange sucking noise was repeated. 'Thought you might like a refill, Doctor Mitchell.
An' maybe it's not too early for the lady now?'
'Go away, Tom,' said Paul.
'I only arsked - '
'And I only said "Go away".' Paul addressed the curtain, which had closed again, and then caught Elizabeth's eye, which had just taken in the emptiness of the saloon bar of the Marshal Ney public house. 'You don't need to worry, Elizabeth Jane: he's nipped out and put a "Closed" sign on the door, so we shan't be disturbed. And his standard charge is pound a minute, or double-or-quits. But he won't play with me, because he says I cheat when we cut the cards.' He shrugged. 'Which isn't true, actually - I'm just lucky at cards.
But half the burglaries in this part of London are probably planned here anyway at the same rate - a pound a minute, tax-free. Or double-or-quits.'
It was all according to what you were used to, remembered Elizabeth. '"One of them", you were saying?'
'Yes. Was one of those jobs to talk to Neville Macready? About Sir Peter Barrie?'
Neville Macready was their economic intelligence specialist, so that would have been a sensible move, thought Elizabeth. So she would not deny it. 'And if it was?'
'I've already asked him.' He accepted her question as an admission all too easily because it suited him. 'Xenophon's money is Texas money, ultimately. So Barrie's loyalties are American, in the final analysis. Macready says he's buddy-buddy with the State Department at a high level when it comes to global decisions. He advises the Americans, and then they tell him what to do. And then he does it, more or less - sometimes more, and sometimes less, but always thereabouts.'
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'Indeed?' She tried to sound more knowledgeable than she was. 'But Xenophon's big in the North Sea.'
'Oh, sure. And Barrie was one of the driving forces there early on. That's how he got his
"K". In fact, Mac rates him a pretty sound chap, all in all… I think he must have tipped us off now and then, about American intentions, for Mac to be so protective.' He cocked an eyebrow. 'I hope you haven't been nasty to him - you or David? I don't think Mac would like that very much.'
'No.' She shook her head hastily. Maybe she should have seen Neville Macready herself.
But after that one look at the Haddock Thomas material on screen - and only on screen, because no print-out was allowed - it had seemed even more urgent to pick Paul's brains further.
'I should bloody-well hope so!' He pulled a face. 'Barrie can probably pull strings all the way to the Cabinet Office. You're messing with the top brass now, Elizabeth Jane. And don't say that I didn't warn you, either!'
He was patronizing her again, but this time she had to be nice to him, no matter what he said. 'You did warn me.' Why was it so hard to smile at him? 'I'm grateful for that.' The smile came at last, even though she was ashamed of it. 'So now I really would like to know what the hell's going on, Paul dear.'
'Uh-huh?' The smile weakened him, but insufficiently. 'What d'you think is going on?'