The Chinese Agenda by Joe Poyer Page B

aisle as if to back him up and Leycock got slowly to his feet, his hands relaxed at his sides. Gillon glanced at Stowe, noting that his face, although still pale with the after-effects of his beating, was set into hard lines of anger. Ìll-fated is the word, Colonel. Perhaps you will explain what all this nonsense is about and who these people are ... were,' he corrected himself.
    'Certainly, but first . . .' He said something to Rodek in Russian, Rodek nodded and stepped into the cockpit. Dmietriev waited a moment, a look of concentration on his face, and Gillon felt the roar of the engines deepen and the deck under his feet tilted upward slightly.
    `Sergeant Rodek is an excellent pilot. He feels that perhaps a bit more altitude is necessary. In view of the height of these mountains,' he finished, half-apologetically. Gillon had almost forgotten that they were well into the Tien Shan by now and he stooped to peer, through the window.
    `No,' Dmietriev smiled, 'I am afraid it is too dark to see anything. The moon will not rise for several hours
    yet. Now come,' he invited, 'let's be seated and I will tell you what has happened.' He gestured to the seats and, rubbing his aching wrist, Gillon sat down on the armrest., Stowe took the seat across the aisle from Jones while Leycock remained standing.
    'I am afraid this deception, hard on you as it was, was completely necessary. As you probably know, one of your operatives was murdered in Rome.'
    Behind him, Gillon heard the sudden intake of breath as Jones reacted to this news. Gillon felt the same way. How the hell had the Russians found out so quickly?
    Dmietriev laughed at their response. 'But you forget, we are supposed to be partners in this operation. We knew of course as soon as your people did that your operative had been killed . . . knew from two sources, I might add. Your people and our own channels of communication.'
    Dmietriev paused and looked at them. Gillon could feel the hostility that was being directed toward the Russian by the other three. It seemed foolish to him, but then he thought, perhaps if he was as involved in intelligence work as they were, he might feel the same way. It all seemed like pure nonsense to him, serving only to aggravate the differences between nations.
    'So,' Dmietriev continued, 'we are now quite certain that he was killed by the Chinese. I say this because within hours of your man's death, the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China handed our Foreign Minister a note of diplomatic protest couched in the strongest terms. This mission is as important to us as it is to your country, perhaps more so since we share common borders with China. As far as my country is concerned, that data must be retrieved at all costs . . . and this was stressed to me by no less than the Minister of Defense himself. So we devised this little drama to convince the Chinese that we had nothing to do with you, that everything was the exclusive idea of the United States. I must say that there are certain elements in my government, as there are in the Chinese Government, that have reacted with strong approval to the idea of destroying whatever progress had been achieved to date in the American-Chinese talks?
    Dmietriev glanced at his watch as he continued. `So you were put under arrest as soon as you landed at Ala Kul ... I trust it did not prove onerous?'
    He was met by a stony silence and chuckled. 'We knew that the Chinese would be arriving within hours of your aircraft . . . we could only hope that it would be after and not before. Both of your arrivals coincided so closely in fact that we did not have time to explain to you what was happening . . . which from my standpoint was just as well, as your reactions were certainly convincing.'
    `You are saying then,' Stowe broke in, 'that this whole business was just a sham to convince the Chinese that the Russians had nothing to do with this mission . . . ? You really didn't expect them to believe that, did