The Rybinsk Deception (22 page)

‘So you did – by taking out some insurance of your own with your godfather?’

‘Mm. I asked him if I could take a friend to stay for a week at a condominium he owns in Bali. It’s not right on the beach, but I’ve seen
photos of it, and it looks really nice. Bali’s not that far, and my UNICEF pay cheque came on the fuel boat last week, so I’ve got the money for our airfares.’ She made herself more comfortable by leaning against him and crossing her legs. ‘If we’re having dinner at Hari’s we’ll be late home, so if you really are tired, do you want me to help you get over your jetlag this afternoon?’

Since she knew as well as he did that no one got jetlagged flying from Seoul to Singapore, and because she’d purposely neglected to pull down her skirt now she’d uncrossed her legs, the invitation was impossible to misinterpret.

She knew that too. Without waiting for him to reply she bent over and pressed her lips against his forehead. ‘I’ll be in the bedroom,’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll call you when I’m ready.’

He watched her walk away, then stood up and went to look out the window.

Around the mangroves at the edge of the estuary, the incoming tide was beginning to stem the flow of the river, while in mid-stream, where birds were using a clump of weed as a floating raft, every so often fish feeding at the surface were creating tiny rings of ripples.

Closer to him at the site where the school was being built on the east side of the plateau, children who’d come back from the jetty were balancing a plank on a bucket to make an improvised seesaw. They were taking turns on it, bouncing up and down harder and harder until a woman shouted at them and they ran off giggling and laughing.

While he waited for Heather to call him, he continued staring out the window, taking care to remind himself of the reason for the village’s existence. On a lazy sun-filled day it was too easy to believe the place was perfect, he thought, a safe haven that was nothing of the kind. But so what? There might be somewhere better to start a new future, but now the young woman he’d found on the beach at Fauzdarhat had asked him to stay here with her, just as he knew this was where he wanted to be, so did he know how lucky he was to have her to share a future with.

The Third Way 
The Rosenberg Principle 
Chicane
White Desert 
Cogan’s Falcons 
Cherry Red and Dangerous 
Blood of Your Sisters 
Dark Armada Covenant of the Poppies
Atoll 
Hell’s Arena 
Firestorm 
Snowtrap 
Glimpse of Forever 
Hell Seed 
Nightdive 
Flameout 
Cold Route to Freedom 
On a Still Night 
One Sword Less 
Bitter Autumn 
Adapted to Stress

Writing as Lindsey Grey

Smoke from Another Fire

Writing as Richard Hawke

Eye of the Warrior