Jack Higgins: Year Of The Tiger

As he came to the end of the corridor, he heard voices talking quietly, and when he peered round the corner he saw two soldiers leaning against the wall at the stairhead. They were both armed with machine pistols.

Colonel Li was obviously taking no chances. Chavasse retraced his steps and paused suddenly as he heard voices approaching from the other end of the corridor. There was a small door at his back and he opened it quickly and stepped into darkness.

He was standing at the head of a narrow stone circular stairway that seemed to descend through the thickness of the outer wall. He went down cautiously, and when he opened the door at the bottom found himself in a long, whitewashed corridor.

He walked quickly along, checking the rooms as he did so. Suddenly he heard voices coming from behind the door at the far end. It was slightly open, and he peered in. Two soldiers were sitting at a wooden table having a meal and laughing over some joke. He continued on and turned the corner into a smaller corridor in which there were just two doors.

He opened the first one and found himself in a lavatory, but the other room was more promising. It contained five beds and several tin lockers, and was obviously living quarters for some of the guards.

All the lockers contained the same things: spare uniforms, rubber boots and various personal items. He grabbed the first uniform which looked something like his size and a pair of rubber boots and started to change quickly.

When he was ready, he examined himself in a cracked mirror. In the drab, quilted uniform he would pass anywhere, with a little luck. He needed only one extra touch.

He found what he was looking for in the end locker. It was a uniform cap with the Red Star of the army of the People’s Republic set above the peak and he pulled it forward over his eyes to obscure as much of his face as possible. At that moment, the door opened and a soldier walked in.

He was a young and brawny peasant with slightly bowed legs and the hands of a farmer. His jaw went slack with astonishment, and then he moved in.

Chavasse was in no condition to fight fairly. There was an old broken chair leaning against the wall behind him. He snatched it up and smashed it down across the head and shoulders of the unfortunate intruder.

The soldier sank to his knees with a terrible groan. He tried to get up, his arms reaching out as Chavasse moved for the door. His grasping fingers clawed at the quilted uniform and Chavasse turned and kicked him in the stomach. The man went over backwards and writhed on the floor, his face slowly turning purple.

Chavasse closed the door and moved quickly along the corridor. He mounted the steps at the far end, opened another door and found himself in a narrow passage that opened into the main hall.

There was a tiny glass office by the entrance and two guards were sitting in it drinking tea. He walked steadily forward, keeping his head down, and one of the guards looked over his shoulder, called something and laughed, exposing decaying yellow teeth. Chavasse waved a hand casually and went out into the night.

A jeep was parked at the bottom of the steps, its canvas hood raised against the rain. He hesitated for only a moment before going down the steps quickly and climbing behind the wheel. The engine roared into life at the first touch of the accelerator and he released the handbrake and drove slowly away.

He waited for the sound to come from behind, for the sudden cries of alarm, but nothing happened. There was a soldier on duty under the light at the main entrance, a submachine gun crooked in his arm. Chavasse slowed to stop, but the man raised an arm and waved him on. He turned into the square outside and drove down into the centre of Changu.

When he parked the jeep in the courtyard outside Hoffner’s house, the rain was still drifting slowly down and it was cold and raw. It had been easy – almost too easy – and as he mounted the steps to the front door he felt no particular jubilation. He was tired, very tired, and curiously light-headed.

When he pulled on the chain, the bell echoed into the darkness inside. He leaned against the door and when it opened suddenly he staggered forward.

And then he was safe – truly safe. Arms reached out to steady him, soft arms, but with strength in them for all that, and Katya Stranoff’s face glowed out of the half-darkness.

It was pleasant and far removed from the world outside, from the rain drumming against the shutters; Chavasse relaxed, the warm fire on his bare chest, and watched Katya make tea by the hearth.

Hoffner sounded him with a stethoscope, his face intent. After a while he straightened and shook his head. “You should be in hospital, Paul. Physically, you’re in a terrible state.”

“My condition’s hardly likely to improve if I stay round here for much longer,” Chavasse said. “What I need is something to keep me going for a while. Can you do anything?”

Hoffner nodded. “But only for a limited time.” He turned to his black bag and took out a small glass ampoule and a syringe.

“How long will that last?” Chavasse asked.

“Under ordinary circumstances, twenty-four hours,” Hoffner said, “but in the state you’re in, I can’t be sure. I can give you this and one more. Two days at the most. After that you’ll be flat on your back.”

“But safe across the border into Kashmir.”

He hardly felt the needle go in, and as soon as it was withdrawn he started to dress again hurriedly. Katya turned and handed him scalding tea in a porcelain bowl and he raised it to his mouth and drank greedily.

“When do you intend to leave?” she said.

He frowned. “When do I intend to leave? Butwe’re all going.”

She placed a hand on his knee and said earnestly, “ You must try to get out, Paul, that I can understand, but Doctor Hoffner is an old man. It’s at least a hundred and forty miles from here to the border, over rough country. He’ll never make it.”

“I’ve got a military jeep standing in the courtyard with a tankful of petrol,” Chavasse said. “We can drive from here to the other side of Rudok, leaving the jeep at the foot of the Pangong Tso Pass and go through on foot for the last two or three miles.”

“But his heart won’t be able to stand the altitude,” she insisted.

Hoffner brought her to her feet and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Katya, I’ve got to go. You must understand that, but I want you to come with us more than anything else in the world.”

Chavasse buttoned his quilted tunic and stood up. “I’d like to remind you that we haven’t got much time. They’ll discover I’m missing within the next half hour at the outside.”

She shook her head. “But why is it so imperative? There’s something here I don’t understand.”

Hoffner glanced at Chavasse, eyebrows raised, and Chavasse nodded. The old man looked down at her and said gently, “I’m afraid we haven’t been completely honest with you, my dear. You see, I’ve made a discovery of some importance. A significant new contribution to mathematical concept.”

“And that’s the understatement of the age,” Chavasse said.

Hoffner ignored him and continued, “This discovery means that I have suddenly become important, not only to my own country, but to the entire Western world.”

Her face was completely expressionless, and yet there was pain in her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me this before? Didn’t you trust me? Do I mean so little to you?” She turned to Chavasse. “To either of you?”

“But it would be asking so much,” Hoffner said. “To turn against your own people. To live amongst strangers for the rest of your life.”

She lifted one of his hands and held it against her cheek. “You are my people.” She turned and smiled straight at Chavasse. “You and Paul. Who else have I got in all the world?”