Алистер Маклин - Borrowed Time

‘The red lines are – what? Drug convoy routes?’

‘Correct.’

‘And the blue ones?’

‘Dead routes. They indicate trails that have gone inactive as a result of police or military action. You could say each blue line represents a dead drug caravan.’

Lenny looked at the Commissioner over the top of the map. ‘Dead?’

‘Literally. There is no point in arresting bandits and trying to interrogate them. They might as well be a different species for all the help they provide. So they are eliminated as they are encountered. It’s tidy.’ Mantur smiled delicately. ‘It’s also confidential.’

Lenny refolded the map. ‘You stand by this information, then. The red lines are active drug convoy routes.’

‘It cost a lot of time, sweat and called-in favours to make sure the maps are accurate, Mr Trent.’

‘Then I have to ask you, sir – why haven’t you acted on this intelligence, if it’s so reliable?’

‘Manpower, that’s the first obstacle. I don’t have the men. Every time I mount an offensive against drug peddling I have to borrow officers from other regions. I have to justify the expense to my masters. I even have to give one month’s notice of my intentions – which, of course, gives the peddlers roughly three weeks’ warning that I’m on my way.’ Mantur spread his hands. ‘All I can do, to be effective in any measure, is to keep my intelligence updated in the hope I can use it from time to time.’

‘And in the meantime?’

‘I concentrate my main efforts on the kind of local drug manufacturing outfits whose liquidation does not rely on the deployment of large numbers of police officers.’

Lenny started to say something, then realized Mantur had only stopped for breath.

‘The other obstacle is disloyalty. Most of my officers are straight and honest men, Mr Trent. But there are a few, an unidentified few, who keep the criminals informed of our planned movements. On balance this would not mean that every assault on drug convoys would be fruitless, but because my masters know there is a problem with disloyalty, they are even less inclined to support my efforts.’ Mantur smiled again. ‘Can I take it that your people are planning some kind of major assault on the drug people?’

‘Nothing’s planned,’ Lenny said. ‘First we’re getting acquainted with the situation, as fast as we can. Then when we know the scale of the sickness, we’ll try to formulate a remedy.’

‘The drug problem is not a new one, Mr Trent. Nor will it ever be stamped out. Sources of supply are remote and beyond our reach, so as long as someone is prepared to pay poor men and hardened criminals to transport the poison, the trade will survive. I hope you don’t think you can wipe it out.’

‘Our concern is a specific area of trade, Commissioner. There’s been an escalation of violence, political agitation and drug running in a previously stable territory, in the west of the Vale of Kashmir …’

‘Yes, yes,’ Mantur said. ‘I hoped that would at least figure in your schedule of matters requiring attention. In fact it’s my biggest concern. The old drug trade has at least discernible limits and predictable features. To some extent it can be contained. Most importantly, it doesn’t carry the threat of all-out chaos.’

‘But the troubles in the Vale do?’

‘At the centre of those troubles is the traffic in drugs. We are dealing there with a brand new line of supply, and it passes right through that territory. I am aware also that some of the drug couriers are recruited from local communities.’

‘And this traffic is well organized?’

‘Dishearteningly so. And it is a new style of drug trade. The merchandise includes exceptionally refined cannabis oil, very very fine heroin, top grade cocaine and even quantities of crack. It is a more profitable trade area than the others and it is operated more ruthlessly.’

‘Who are the main customers?’

‘Moneyed intermediaries and end-users in South China and Thailand.’

Even the exhaustive data supplied by Dr Arberry hadn’t mentioned a new kind of trade, or what was being peddled. ‘I’d appreciate anything you can tell me about this, Commissioner.’

‘I have notes, I will give them to you. But briefly, the drug couriers, or mules as they’re called, are recruited from peasant areas. They work one time only, and they are paid very highly for their single trip. The drawback is that if they are caught, they must poison themselves. They are supplied with capsules of potassium cyanide for the purpose. If they do not kill themselves, or if they try in any way to renege on the deal, their families will be tortured and killed.’

‘Do you have much intelligence on the line of supply?’

‘Information is thin, because no one will talk. They would sooner rot in one of our stinking jails than say anything.’

Mantur took three slim school exercise books from the desk drawer and put them on top of the maps. ‘My notes on the new trade. There is much speculation in there, Mr Trent. For the present, it can’t be any other way.’ Mantur spread his hands and shrugged. ‘Manpower.’

‘Do you happen to know anything about a bandit leader alleged to be active in Kashmir, an American, name of Paul Seaton?’

Mantur rolled his eyes. ‘I have heard of him, yes. He has a number of names, but I must say Paul Seaton is one that is used more than most. Again, Mr Trent, it’s speculation. Lots of people have heard lots of things, others know people who know people, who have seen this and that. Personally, I happen to believe there is never this amount of smoke without there being a fire somewhere. And I suspect Mr Seaton may be an active element of the new trade through the Vale.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘He moves around a good deal, or so the story goes, and his brand of savagery, what we know of it, seems to fit the general characteristics of the new trade operators.’

Lenny looked at the maps and the notes. Information wasn’t going to be in short supply, he thought. But organizing it would be hard.

‘You said you hoped we would be interested in this particular area of drug traffic, Commissioner. Is that because it’s likely to cause dangerous instability right at the heart of the state?’

‘Certainly, but foremost in my mind is the certainty – the uninformed certainty – that for once, there may be a chance of finding the manufacturers. For once, we can look at the possibility of wiping out a line of trade all the way, with nothing left over to grow again.’

‘What makes you so certain?’

‘A small thing,’ Mantur said. ‘We have confiscated drugs from maybe ten, eleven peddlers on this new route. All of those peddlers, I may say, are dead.’

‘Suicide?’

‘Exactly. They died in accordance with their terms of employment. But it was their merchandise that made me sure the stuff is manufactured not far from the western territory of the Vale. It was so fresh-looking, Mr Trent. The packaging, the wrappers and bags and phials and capsules – they simply had not travelled very far when we intercepted them.’

The possibility of drugs actually being manufactured in the Vale of Kashmir put a new light on the project. Lenny looked at the Commissioner. ‘Neat observation,’ he said.

‘Yes, I thought so.’ Mantur smiled broadly. ‘I would stake my chequered reputation that we made those busts – that’s the phrase, yes? – very close to home base.’

Daylight burglary was a very unnatural activity, C.W. Whitlock decided. The whole business of theft from property, all the way from breaking and entering to going through drawers and cupboards and then sneaking out again, was an activity that screamed for the cover of darkness.