Gavin Lyall - Judas Country

I said: 'There's a snag: the aeroplane's been sort of confiscated.'

Jehangir went stiff and expressionless.

'Only a tiny bit sort of,' Ken reassured him, and passed over the copy of the court order.

The crowd grunted the Lebanese version of 'They're off,' but Jehangir went on reading. Even when the rest of us got up and stood on our chairs to watch the finish, which was nicely choreographed into a tight bunch with our fat friend in front by a nose. Mind, his horse could have dropped dead twenty yards before and they'd still have won on combined inertia.

The sand cloud settled and Ken shook his head at me. 'The next time you get your mother on the ouija board, pass her a message from me, will you?'

Jehangir looked up. 'How did you get on the wrong side of the Aziz family?'

'Do they frighten you?' Ken asked.

'Only like a big truck: no problem if you can see it coming.'

Ken grinned. 'It's a frame, of course. Mitzi – the lady mentioned there – her fathermay have taken twelve thousand from Aziz to finance an archaeological dig, but that's nothing to do with us anyway: we just gave her a lift to Beirut.'

Jehangir nodded gently. 'Of course. I heard about her father's suicide in Cyprus.'

I'd forgotten he'd been in Nicosia perhaps as late as we were, and I rather think Ken had, too.

Ken said: 'She's on her way back to Cyprus now, so we can't count on any help from her… Any steps you think we should take?'

The line of horses walked back past us, led by the fat boy, who at least had the decency to look a bit uneasy. Jehangir just sat frowning at the paper.

At last he said: "This is a nuisance. I hoped to be able to unload this evening. I suppose I could try talking to Aziz himself… point out that the lady has gone, that by keeping the plane here he's only causing you unnecessary trouble…'

'I don't think,' I said, 'he much minds about that.'

Jehangir raised an elegant white eyebrow. 'Ah – it's gone that far, has it? Well, I'll try ringing him anyway. I might persuade him to release the cargo, at least.'

Ken said:'I've just thought of a much simpler way: you give us twelve thousand dollars as a delivery fee, we give it to Aziz – and bingo, everybody's happy.'

Jehangir was staring at him, mouth drooping. Then he closed it with a snap and swallowed. 'Actually, that sounds to me rather a complicated way – as well as making for somewhat expensive champagne. Let me see… at a thousand a box that would be…er, just over $83 a bottle. I know champagne's been going up quite frightfully these last few years, but…' And he smiled appraisingly at Ken. He'd only been talking to give himself time to think.

'It's a rather special champagne,' Ken said quietly. 'And in fact it isn't twelve boxes any more. One got opened in Cyprus by mistake.'

'Ahh,' Jehangir nodded; but by now he'd been expecting something Jike that. 'What happened to that box, do you know?'

I said: 'The man who opened it, he doesn't really appreciate that class of wine. So he – laid it down, as it were. His grandchildren's grandchildren might find it, but not until then.'

Jehangir's mouth twitched, but he said gravely: 'Splendid. If one doesn't understand these rare vintages, one shouldn't touch them. I suppose weare talking about Mr Kapotas?'

I nodded.

Jehangir went on: 'But that makes things even more expensive: we're up to… to ninety dollars a bottle, now. I hope and believe that I'm a good trader – so does everyone in Beirut -but that's going a bit high for even my customers.'

The trouble is,' Ken said, 'that nothing less than twelve thousand is any practical use to us.'

'Just to get your plane out of the pawn-shop? If you wait a few days it'll fall back into your lap. The court can't keep up the pretence of this order for long. It may cost you a couple of hundred dollars in legal fees, but you might well recover that, too. Or were you wanting to get Mr Aziz out of Miss Braunhof -Spohr's affairs entirely?'

'Something like that,' Ken admitted.

'It's very noble of you.'

Ken smiled bleakly and said: 'I was thinking that you wouldn't be buying just the stock but also, as you might say, the goodwill.'

'Ahh.' Jehangir nodded slowly. 'That puts it very nicely. But you don't seem to have considered that I've already bought quite a lot of goodwill in connection with this cargo. Possibly more than you have. I don't think my name is on any of those documents Mr Case carries?'

He looked at me and the best I could do was shrug.

Jehangir beamed at me. 'I thought not.' Then Janni came back with a sombre expression and no wad of notes. Jehangir waved him to a seat. 'You can't win them all, can you?'

He was looking at Ken, but I said: 'That's what my mother told me. What d'you suggest now?'

"That I contact Mr Aziz and see what we can work out. Then I contact you. Will you be at the hotel?'

'We'd better be, hadn't we?'

'Good. Would you care to leave the manifest and so forth with me? – It might speed things along.'

'I'm not in that much of a hurry.'

Jehangir gave me one of his quick grins. 'Now, I must think about the third race.'

I stood up, but Janni was on his feet first. His English might be lousy, but he was a good enough fighter to smell the change of mood. He just stood there, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Ken stood up slowly, his face clenched tight. Jehangir grinned at him, too, and said: 'You will still have a delivery fee, of course. It will cover a few days in Beirut and any legal fees. And you will get the plane back – unless Castle does, first.'

Ken said quietly: 'What happened to your leg?'

Jehangir tapped his thigh gently, getting a muffled tinny noise. They do a very good job, these days. Light alloy with a glass-fibre socket moulded exactly to your stump so it can be held on by pure suction; brilliant. I actually had this fitted in England, at Roehampton. Oh yes – I lost the original to a bit of stray firing in the 1958 troubles.'

Ken nodded. 'Not something that's still going around, then.'

'Oh no.' Jehangir looked at him carefully. 'No, I don't think so.'

As we walked away I said: 'Never try to blackmail a gambler: he's accustomed to risking the odds.'

'Who told you that? No, don't say it.' His face was still stiff. "The bastard. The swindling sod.'

'Hell, you said yourself the guns had probably been mostly paid for. Why should he spring another twelve thousand?'

'You took all the risks without being paid for them. I was just standing up for your rights.'

'Yes? Well, if my rights happen to feel tired, you just leave ' em lay. D'you think we should let him have those guns?'

'Why? – d'you want them for yourself?'

The gate to the path across the course was open so we walked out through the men raking the sand smooth again, along with a few punters who'd seen the light after just two races. But there were still twice as many hurrying in the opposite direction.

I said: 'I'd trust me with them more than I would him. Anyway, if he doesn't unpack the things fast, it wouldn't be much of a trick to trace them back to us.'

Ken shrugged: 'He's just another middleman. He's not charging up El Hamra shouting "Liberty! " with an M3 and a tin leg. They probably aren't even for this country.'

We reached the main gate just before they shut it for the third race, and stood on the pavement waving at taxis.

Ken said thoughtfully: 'What d'you think hewill do next?'

'Talk to Aziz. He's got to.'

'And we just wait?'

'No, we ring Aziz first.'

'Us? Ring Aziz?' He stared at me. 'And what do we tell him?'

'Promise not to laugh? Why not the truth?'

It was six o'clock, almost sundown, when we met Aziz by the souvenir counter in the airport lounge. I suppose we shouldn't have expected him to come alone; the party of the. second part was a short, brisk fifty-year-old with a big beak, gold-rimmed spectacles, tufts of white hair sticking out like awnings over his ears, blue suit and smart black briefcase. He could have gone a step further and worn a placard saying LAWYER around his neck, but he didn't need it.