INCARNATION (32 page)

‘Bloody good sherry, too,’ she said.

‘Apostoles,’ he said.

‘Sort of in-between.’

‘Yes.’

‘You don’t like me much, do you, Doctor?’

Her question startled him, as did the coolness with which it was put.

‘I’m trained not to put personal judgements between me and my patients, or their relatives. I don’t like or dislike you.’

‘Bollocks. That’s like saying I don’t fancy you or not fancy you. If I took my clothes off, you’d have a hard-on inside five seconds. If I said all the things I’d like to say, you’d have me out of the door and in the street.’

‘Mrs Laing, you seem to be getting the wrong end of several sticks.’

‘Yes, well, I’m sure that’s true. But at the moment I get the distinct impression that someone’s been shoving the sticks hard up my backside. I’d like to see What’s-her-name, if you don’t mind.’

‘Has your husband come back from his travels yet?’

‘No idea. Could have been gobbled up by tigers, for all I know.’

‘I don’t think they have tigers in Scotland.’

‘Is that where he told you he is? He must think we’re all a pack of idiots.’

‘Perhaps we are. If you’d care to wait here, I’ll ask Maddie if she’d like to see you.’

‘Why the hell wouldn’t she? I’m her mother, for God’s sake. And I pay the fucking bills.’

‘I’m sure there’s no reason at all. But as long as Maddie’s in my care, I really can’t introduce visitors without her permission.’

He hared off before she could stop him. She sat, savouring her sherry, gazing at the well-tended lawn below. They must have been having tea outside when the rain began, she thought, noticing the forlorn tables with their cups and plates that no one had yet come to clear away. What was Anthony doing now? she wondered. Each time she thought of the face that had looked up at her, showing such naked anguish, her mind flinched away from it and all it implied. But it couldn’t be ignored. She’d have to go back to him in the end.

Rose returned. He was showing signs of fraying at the edges, Elizabeth thought. She wondered if she had such a bad effect on him. But no doubt running a clinic like this was a cocktail of stresses.

‘Well, Doctor?’

‘She’ll see you if you go up now. Try not to tire her. She’s been getting on quite well over the past few days.’

In her room, Maddie waited patiently. She’d finished her chicken, and she’d finished her dessert. The rain outside had grown gentle, and she could sit now and listen to it fall across the garden. She could remember their garden at home, remember it vividly. There’d been a wooden bench beneath an ash tree. And birds in the high branches, and in the summer hollyhocks and Canterbury bells. She’d played there with Sam when he was younger. If she went home now, she’d play with him again. She wondered why he hadn’t come to visit her.

That bloody man Rose had had the effrontery to suggest his being present while Elizabeth paid her visit to Maddie. Bloody cheek. She’d soon seen that one off.

She pushed open the door and fastened her sights on Maddie, who was sitting in her chair as usual. Elizabeth smiled and closed the door. She felt a wave of overpowering love for her daughter, but other passions pushed it aside. She did not move any closer, not at first. She wanted to weigh up the strange being fate had bestowed on her.

Maddie was nothing like her mother. Had it been the father, eyebrows would have been raised. But Maddie did resemble David. She was a feminized version of the man; very slim, very petite, very vulnerable. She had auburn hair, and a face that would have been beautiful had it not been haggard.

She looked up.

‘Hello, Mummy. I thought Daddy might have come along as well.’

‘Afraid not, sweetheart. He’s still in China. Serving his country.’

‘Don’t make fun of him.’

‘No intention. Maddie, I’ve come to take you home.’

‘But Dr Rose

‘Forget about Rose. Your father agrees. Staying in this place isn’t doing you any good. You need to get out with people.’

‘But the nurses take me out.’

‘I’ll get you a nurse, dear. Not one of these Filipinas, wouldn’t know if they were nursing or waiting on tables. Proper nurse. I actually believe we have some company nurses. Laurence will know. He’s been asking about you. And Max.’

‘How is Granddad?’

‘Not so well since the fune- … He’d like to see you.’

‘The funeral?’

‘Oh, one of his friends died. It happens a great deal at that age apparently. Shook him a bit.’

‘And what about Sam? He hasn’t been to visit me.’

‘Sam? He’s been quite poorly, actually. Nothing serious, but it has kept him indoors a lot.’

‘Poor thing. What is it? Flu or something?’

'I’ll tell you all about it once we get home. Now, we’re going to go downstairs together and tell that nice Dr Rose you’re off.’

‘Why’s your hair so wet, Mummy? You haven’t been out in that, have you?’

Elizabeth ground her teeth together.

‘Some bastard stole the Merc. The little imbecile who brought it home must have forgotten to set the alarm. I had to get a taxi over, and we’ll have to get one back.’

Maddie burst into giggles.

‘I can’t help it, Mummy, really I can’t. You look just like Mrs Robinson in The Graduate. You know, the scene where she’s been outside in the rain and then comes in, and Elaine knows she’s the woman Benjamin was sleeping with. Remember?’

Elizabeth shook her head.

‘Probably. We saw lots of films back then. I rather fancied myself as Audrey Hepburn.’

‘Never heard of her.’

‘You will, dear. Now, come on, let’s get out of this morbid place before we all get suicidal.’

Kashgar

T
he cordon round the city had grown tighter and more ominous by the hour. The sound of tanks had stopped, and a hush lay over everything, as though everyone was just waiting.

David and Nabila spent the day making plans. As far as possible, they worked separately, to avoid any hint of scandal. The maid Asiyeh haunted them pitilessly, clearly disappointed that they gave her so little to do. On occasion, there was nothing for it but to consult one another, whereupon Asiyeh was whipped into service, watching and sewing as they pored over maps or went though one another’s lists.

Around noon, they ate lunch with the family. Nabila’s mother stayed in her room, but her brothers and some of the fighting men stayed. Osman said nothing to them over lunch, but afterwards he followed them into the courtyard.

‘I wish you’d let me in on what you’re doing,’ he said. ‘I don’t like things going on without my knowledge.’

‘Too bad,’ said Nabila. She held a glass of tea in her hand, tenderly, as though it would crack.

‘When the time is right, you’ll know everything,’ David said. ‘We may need your help. You may need ours.’ He paused. ‘Have your men decided whether or not to attempt a rescue?’

Osman shook his head.

‘I managed to talk them round. They know it’s pointless. They won’t even get out of the city.’

Nabila looked at her brother eagerly.

‘Surely there must be more than one way out.’

He shook his head wearily. He’d been up most of the night, talking, arguing, trying to reason with unreasonable men. And all the while, worry about his father had eaten away at his self-control.

‘No,’ he said. ‘And it gets worse every hour. There was a young girl from Shule this morning. Her family live there, and she comes into Kashgar every few days with eggs to sell. She got desperate when she found she’d been trapped in the city, so she tried to get back to the village. Some soldiers found her and shot her. Just before lunch, I heard of a family of Kirghiz who’d tried to return to their pastures. They were attacked and beaten, and now they’re being held at a camp on the Tashkurgan road. The animals are gone, of course. It’s as if there’s a ring of steel round the whole city.’

David nodded. It was beginning to fit only too ominously into a pattern he’d begun to perceive.

‘Are they holding everyone,’ he asked, ‘or only Uighurs?’

‘Anyone who’s not Chinese. The Han Chinese have already gone. They sent a delegation up to the checkpoint before the river. That was this morning, about eight o’clock. About an hour ago, they sent soldiers into the Chinese quarters. They’ve been escorted out of the city, and I hear they’re being flown out this afternoon. Where to, I don’t know. But it leaves the city completely in our hands.’

‘What about the city officials?’ asked Nabila. ‘Or the police?’

‘The Gongan Bu? They cleared out hours ago, even before the rest of the Chinese. They’d been briefed well in advance, you can bet. The officials have gone too.’

‘Who takes their place?’ asked David.

‘I do.’ He said it without pride or self-assertiveness. It was a simple fact. ‘Where there is an absence of power, it’s proper for Muslims to set up their own rule. I’ve already given orders to prevent looting. Some young men broke into the houses left by the Han. I’m ordering their execution. A notice is going up, warning everyone that looting or stealing during the period of the siege will be punished by death.’

He looked at his watch. A few yards away, his escort was waiting, impatient to be on their way.

‘I have to go now,’ he said. ‘Our biggest worry is food. Without it, we can’t survive. And we still don’t know what they want.’

David shook his hand. He watched Osman go, feeling sorry for him. He could have answered his biggest question if he’d chosen: he knew what they wanted, why they’d locked the inhabitants of Kashgar into their own city. But he knew that, if the least rumour was started, the result would be mass panic and who could guess how many deaths?

They set up a trestle table in the courtyard, and laid out a map of the city. David flattened it with one hand. Nabila’s hand grazed his as he did so.

They faced two major problems: how to get out of Kashgar, and how to make their way to a suitable point on the southern rim of the Taklamakan to enter the desert safely. The ring round the city was solid, and over lunch they’d heard of individuals whom desperation had led to try a dash across the fields, where there were no checkpoints. None had got through alive.

‘I can’t come up with anything,’ Nabila said at last. They were sitting in the courtyard, drinking tea. Asiyeh sat ten yards away, sipping black tea with sugar as if her life depended on it, which it probably did. Her daily intake threatened to leave the house with nothing to see it through the siege.

‘If we could disguise ourselves as Han Chinese, we could just walk on out of here,’ said David.

‘What about flying out?’

‘No use. Those tanks carry anti-aircraft missiles.’

They laughed at the absurdity of it.

‘Or we could dig a tunnel to the outside. It would only need to be a couple of miles long and come out in a safe spot.’

David sipped his tea and watched the wings of a tiny bird as it played through the branches of the mulberry tree.

‘We wouldn’t have to go that far,’ he said. ‘If we could start inside a house at the very edge of town, we’d only have to dig underneath the cordon. If we exited when it was dark …’

‘Is it possible, do you think?’

‘I’m not sure. There’d be a lot of digging. If we had help, we could dig right through the day. Even so, it could take a week or two to get there.’

‘We can’t get help.’

‘Are you sure? I’d have thought a tunnel would be some help to Osman and his men.’

‘I’m sure it would. But then it would be their tunnel, and they’d control who went through it. I wouldn’t be allowed.’

‘Well, perhaps ...'

‘No, David. I meant it when I said I’d go into the desert with you. I’m not afraid of that, but I am afraid of sitting here not knowing what might be happening to you.’

‘Can we get help from someone else? I’ve got enough money to pay some boys to dig for us.’

‘That might work. There’s plenty of cheap labour at the best of times. But you’d have to be able to depend on every single labourer. Some of them wouldn’t be above visiting one of the checkpoints late at night and giving them exact details in exchange for a new pair of shoes.’

‘Perhaps we could keep them in one spot.'

‘We’d have to think about it carefully. If only ...' She put down her glass. Cardamom seeds floated on the surface of the golden tea like tiny barrels.

‘Come with me,’ she said, pushing her chair back and heading for the door. David followed.

Nabila muttered something to the guard at the entrance, then shooed David into the alleyway.

‘Where are we going?’ he asked.

‘Officially, to the hospital. In fact, you and I are off to meet one of my neighbours.’

She hurried him through a tortuous maze of dusty lanes, where each turning seemed only to lead into three or four passages, where what seemed a cul-de-sac would suddenly open to reveal a narrow gap between high, windowless walls. However dark and bewildering it all became, she did not hesitate once, or retrace her steps, or dither. She forged ahead as though she could have done it all blindfolded.

They came at last to a high wooden door whose only distinguishing marks were the Chinese character for ‘peace’, and next to it a calligraphic version of its Arabic translation.

‘Chinese?’ asked David, surprised to find any Han this deep inside the Old City.

Nabila shook her head.

‘Hui,’ she said. ‘This house has belonged to my neighbour’s family for over one hundred years.’

The Hui were Chinese in appearance and language, but Muslim by religion. Officially, they formed a separate ethnic group.

Nabila rang a bell, and within minutes they were ushered inside and asked to wait in a little room by the gate. David looked round. Quotations from the Koran, some in Chinese, some in the original Arabic, lined the walls.

The door opened again, and a man in Muslim dress came in, leaning on a cane with a brightly polished silver head. He bowed politely to David, then fixed a pair of mischievous eyes on Nabila. David guessed he was about fifty years old. He was very thin, and his posture suggested some form of wasting illness.

‘Nabila,’ he said. He spoke in Uighur, with a flawless accent. ‘How unexpected, and how kind of you to come to visit me. And to bring a friend.’