Blood Is a Stranger (24 page)

Perdonny was waiting for Cardinal in the car. ‘You shouldn't have stopped like that,' he said as Cardinal got in. He ordered the driver to take them away.

‘I wanted to test the guy on the roof,' Cardinal said.

‘Chan goes to Bandung on Friday,' Perdonny said.

‘So you said.'

‘You would have to strike in the next thirty hours.'

‘It can't be organised in that time.'

‘Why not?'

‘Finding the right person, alone, takes time. You need a professional.'

‘I heard it was easy to have someone murdered here.' Cardinal tried to draw out Perdonny.

‘You could get a killer for a hundred dollars, but he would fail. All the capable people we know would take a lot of tempting.'

‘You need someone from outside the country.'

‘Definitely.'

‘What about a weapon?'

‘Most pros have their own, but we have suitable weapons.'

‘I would like to see one.'

Perdonny eyed Cardinal. ‘Why?'

‘I want to do it myself.'

Three tries and two hours later, Rhonda got through to Cardinal at his hotel. They were cut off once and the line was bad, with voice-back and crackling making it difficult to talk easily.

‘Did you speak to our friend?' Rhonda asked. She was careful not to mention names.

‘No,' Cardinal replied, his voice echoing down the line, ‘but her mother turned up.'

‘Did she tell you anything?'

‘Everything I wanted to know.'

‘Everything?' Rhonda repeated. She was surprised, but reluctant to ask for details.

‘I've got what I want.'

‘So you'll be coming back to Sydney soon?'

‘In a few days.' His tone was chilly.

‘Why not immediately?'

‘Rhonda, I've much on my mind, but I've still been thinking about you. A hell of a lot.'

‘I've been thinking about you too. Do you know what day you'll be in Sydney?'

‘No.'

‘Have you made a booking?' she asked more anxiously. ‘Ken, is there something wrong? You sound as warm as a Siberian winter.'

‘Nothing's wrong,' he said. ‘I'll have to leave now. Goodbye, Rhonda.'

She felt a knot tightening in her stomach as she replaced the receiver. ‘Perdonny,' she mumbled as she reached for her diary, ‘must call Perdonny.'

When Chan's profile filled the rifle's telescopic sight, Cardinal pulled the trigger.

‘Better,' Perdonny said. He moved forward to inspect the piece of paper that had fallen from the tree trunk where it had been pinned. ‘Perhaps you should rest and practise again later.'

Cardinal's right shoulder was numb from the butt pressing into it, and his eyes were smarting from the sun and the need to squint into the sight. He followed Perdonny around the edge of the swamp at the rear of the villa and through a gate that led to the pool. The atmosphere was sticky as the red streaked sky rushed from sundown to dusk then darkness. Buildings on Jakarta's skyline were changing rapidly into grey shapes. The green jungle beyond the swamp would soon be shadows. Servants served them scotch as they sat at the poolside table.

‘You're a good shot,' he said, raising a glass to Cardinal. ‘Do you feel comfortable with that rifle?'

‘It's solid,' Cardinal said. He patted the weapon. ‘What make is it? The brand seems to have been scraped off.'

‘It comes from the Soviet Union.'

‘You seem to have good relations with them,' Cardinal said.

‘I know you are suspicious of that,' Perdonny said, ‘but we must have mutual trust at this moment.'

‘Do you work for the KGB?' Cardinal asked bluntly.

Perdonny shook his head. ‘That would be incompatible with my other work for Australia, but I do keep in good contact with the Soviet Embassy people. It will be useful when we are in power.'

Cardinal wiped his brow.

‘We know Chan's movements,' Perdonny said, removing a folder from a briefcase and placing it on the table. ‘We only know for sure of the one time when he will return to the Embassy. That's tonight at ten.'

‘Jesus,' Cardinal muttered. ‘I was hoping for another day's preparation.'

Perdonny opened the folder. ‘You can always abandon this.'

Cardinal did not react.

Perdonny put on glasses to read from notes and then looked up. ‘Ten is a good time. The curfew is at midnight. You will have plenty of time to return to your hotel . . . afterwards.'

‘You think that's wise?'

‘The idea is to act as normally as possible. But you must get out of Jakarta fast by plane.'

‘Won't the police be checking Halim?'

‘Exactly. My idea is for you to fly to Bali. Planes go from Jakarta's internal airport.'

Cardinal frowned. ‘And then?'

‘Bali and Ambon are my two homes,' Perdonny said. ‘My contacts will hide you. You'll be safe until we arrange
an external flight.'

‘When does the Bali flight leave?'

‘Six is the first. You should be at the airport at five-thirty. The curfew is lifted at five, so that's okay.'

‘But the cops and soldiers will be on the look-out for . . .'

‘You're a tourist. Act like one if you're picked up. We'll help by providing some diversions to keep Bakin and everyone else busy through the night.'

Cardinal put down his drink. ‘I should be doing more practice.'

Perdonny looked at the sky. ‘Wait until it's dark, then you will be simulating conditions better . . .'

‘You never met me,' Hewson said. He looked out over Brunton Avenue's sweep past the Melbourne Cricket Ground. From the Regent Hotel's thirty-fifth floor piano bar, cars looked like remote-control beetles as they shunted slowly in the evening peak-hour traffic.

‘Cut out the James Bond stuff,' Rhonda said. ‘Are you trying to tell me this is not a social gathering?'

‘Yes and no,' he said, pulling an envelope from his pocket, and handing it to her.

‘May I open it here?'

He laughed and nodded. It was a clipping from a Chinese newspaper.

‘That's about all I can do,' she said. ‘I certainly can't read it.'

‘But you could have found it in the National Library,' he said dryly, ‘about this time next year.'

Rhonda nodded. ‘Or our Peking correspondent could have posted it to me.'

‘Exactly. Let me summarise it.' He sipped his light beer. ‘The article accuses the Russians of using their Vietnamese puppets to experiment in the war in Kampuchea with chemical weapons and lasers.'

‘So?'

‘It means the war is being used for experimentation. It's also most unusual for such an article to be so specific and vitriolic about what the enemy is using.'

‘I know you think my bust measurement matches my IQ,' Rhonda said, ‘but I still don't know what you're driving at.'

Hewson took off his dark glasses. His turned eye made it difficult for Rhonda to concentrate. She wished she was sitting next to him.

‘Could it be,' he said, leaning forward, ‘that the Chinese are getting in first with an accusation because they intend to use the same weapons?'

Rhonda's expression brightened. ‘You mean the Chinese on behalf of the Americans?'

‘And maybe the Khmer Rouge,' he said. ‘The Killing Fields have become the laser-testing fields.'

Rhonda studied Hewson. She leaned close. ‘I'll need more than that to follow up.'

‘That's all I can say.'

‘Hartina Van der Holland's transfer to Bandung must have caused ASIO much embarrassment,' she said.

‘Some,' he said, refusing to be drawn.

Rhonda took some cashew nuts from a bowl.

‘Don't ask me anymore for the moment on this one,' he said.

‘There was something else on my mind.'

‘Shoot.'

‘I've been doing some research on the death of Harry Cardinal. I was wondering about one aspect of it.'

‘I really don't think I can help. No one can on our side.'

Rhonda sipped her champagne. ‘Then could we consider something hypothetical? Is it possible to substitute a body so that someone living could disappear?'

Hewson leant back in his chair. ‘When I was a kid of around ten, the Olympic Games were held in Melbourne.
My father insisted I miss school and go to the main events. We were in the city a few hours before the start of some track events at the MCG, and he took me to a movie to kill time.'

He paused while a waitress filled their glasses and moved to the next table.

‘The movie was called “The Man Who Never Was”,' he said, dropping his voice. ‘I can remember it very well even after more than thirty years.'

‘Nice title.'

‘It was a dramatised version of a true story about the body of an English soldier washed up on a beach in Europe occupied by the Nazis in World War II. The Nazis fell for the misleading information on the body, which made the soldier seem like an Intelligence courier, and made some disastrous errors that affected the outcome of the war.'

‘So there are precedents?'

‘Yes.'

‘Then, just imagine that someone wanted to make us all think that Harry Cardinal was dead. Where would a substitute body come from?'

‘Do you know how many unidentified Caucasian male bodies are found in South-East Asia, including Australia, each year?'

‘Surprise me.'

‘Scores.'

‘How come?'

‘People die on vacation or even disappear on business trips. Some are murdered, some end up in remote hospitals in India or Korea and are never heard of again. Some become drug addicts and never leave the Thai countryside. Others traffic in drugs in Malaysia and get caught.'

‘You mean, there's a kind of body bazaar? A reject shop for corpses?'

‘Hospitals are often buyers.'

‘But how would the CIA . . .,' Rhonda began, raising her voice.

Hewson's face expressed caution.

She leaned forward. ‘How would they get the body into the country?'

‘We're discussing the art of the possible, right? Not specifics.'

‘Sorry.'

‘Australia allows some special representatives of friendly nations security clearances in and out without checks.'

‘But bodies? Would people become suspicious?'

‘Not if no one is looking for a corpse.'

Rhonda was thinking quickly.

‘But how would you choose the right body? And how would you make it look exactly like somebody else?'

‘Suppose the person you were wanting to make look dead acquiesced with everything,' Hewson said. ‘Then he or she would be the model.'

‘But Harry Cardinal had a pin in his shoulder from a football injury . . .'

‘Have you seen what funeral parlours can do to a body?'

‘God!' Rhonda said.

‘They don't even need him. Hair dyes and coloured contact lenses can make such a difference.'

‘What about birthmarks?'