The Rybinsk Deception by Colin D. Peel

know by now if he had. Does it matter?’
    ‘If he and his crew were being held hostage by the guys who were expecting us, it’ll explain why he’ll be better off keeping his mouth shut, won’t it?’
    ‘You’ve been away from home too long.’ Armstrong made no attempt to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. ‘Maybe you’re the problem. Who have you been talking to that you shouldn’t have been talking to?’
    ‘No one. Has anybody besides O’Halloran been asking about me?’
    ‘Not unless you count Sir Anthony Fraser. They were both sent copies of your personal file. You remember who Sir Anthony is, don’t you?’
    ‘I’m not likely to forget,’ Coburn said, ‘not while I’m looking after his goddaughter for him.’
    ‘What’s she like?’
    He deflected the question by asking Armstrong to contact him in Singapore if any news on the Pishan came through, then ended the call prematurely, hoping he hadn’t prejudiced his position and knowing that he was no further ahead than he had been ten minutes ago.
    He took the phone back to the armoury, but instead of returning to the hut, sat down again on the veranda steps to think.
    He was still there when Heather came to find him. She was wearing the same white halter-top, but had put on a yellow skirt he hadn’t seen her in before – clothes that in the moonlight seemed to make her uncomfortably desirable.
    She joined him on the step. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
    ‘I’ve just phoned Armstrong.’
    ‘You said you weren’t sure whether you could trust him.’
    ‘I don’t think it makes any difference,’ Coburn said. ‘He wasn’t much help anyway. Whatever it is I’m missing, I’m going to have to figure out by myself.’
    ‘You miss a lot of things, don’t you?’
    Had her statement been less ambiguous it would have been easier to figure out what she meant. As it was, before he could decide, a small green frog jumped on to her lap, and the chance to find out had gone – an opportunity that over the next four days was not to repeat itself because she started spending more and more time with the children, or in the company of her friend Indiri.
    It was on the evening of the fifth day while she was sitting quietly on the jetty with him that she chose to make her announcement,informing him that she was signing off her patients at the village and that, if he was ready to return to Singapore, she was ready to go with him.
    She could have chosen her moment better. No sooner had he started to remind her that neither the Selina nor the launches could make the trip until fresh fuel supplies arrived, than Hari came hurrying out on to the jetty.
    The Frenchman was breathing hard and looked uncharacteristically concerned. ‘I fear we have trouble,’ he said. ‘Since early this afternoon two boats have been anchored off Bengkalis. They are not familiar to the fisherman who sends me this message on his radio, and he says that above the deck on one of them, steel plates are being fitted in which gun slits have been cut.’
    For Coburn, the information was particularly worrying, made worse by it following so closely on the heels of the abortive raid the other night. ‘How long do you reckon we’ve got?’ he said.
    ‘I cannot be certain, but in less than one hour the tide will be at its highest, and it will be dark, so by then our preparations must be complete. If you would take responsibility for arming yourself, perhaps Miss Cameron could arrange for the children and the wounded men to be transferred to the containers where they will be safer.’
    Even if Coburn had been visiting the village by himself, the news would have been disturbing. But he wasn’t here by himself, and although he hadn’t expected Heather to come to grips with how insecure life in the marshes could really be, if accounts of previous attacks were anything to go by, this was not the way for her to learn.
    And it was his fault, he thought. By agreeing to let her stay on,