A Certain Persuasion by Mike Leonard

Author:Mike Leonard [Leonard, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-11-05T22:00:00+00:00

***

The letter was waiting for Dan Forsbrook at the reception desk of his Singapore hotel on his way back in that afternoon. The girl on duty extracted it from a pigeon-hole behind her, and, smiling, handed it to him. He was sticky and hot from the vast humidity outside. The slow-fanned and green-fronded coolness of the lobby engulfed him in an aura of mock colonial propriety as he made his way over to one side and sat down.

The communication, whatever it was, was not one he had been expecting. The simple fact was he was only just getting over the implications of the first message – the one from Head Office – received late the previous day. The one that told him of the success of the Venus Prince in the recent US checks; checks, it intimated, that he himself had so assiduously helped prepare it for.

To make things worse, there had been Jamieson’s congratulatory tone – so effusive in its thanks that it almost choked him. There was no doubt his boss was delighted with the way things had turned out. How, in particular, his planned changeover of itineraries was now very definitely on course. So, where the hell did that leave him personally, now? Dan had spent a lot of time the night before trying to work this one out.

His first inkling that the latest of his ploys had ultimately failed was when confirmation of Luke Darius’ arrest in Cartagena had not come through in the way he had expected. Somehow or other, that doctor had made it back to the ship okay after all. Dan still had no clue as to what exactly had gone wrong with his plan. So curious was he, in fact, that a few days after leaving Colombia, he had taken the opportunity of contacting Head Office directly from Hong Kong on some pretext or other. It soon became clear through their conversation that Head Office itself had nothing of burning significance to report on the subject of that, or indeed, any other ship’s doctor.

Nor had time passed easily for him since that day. All he had really been able to do was effectively sit and wait to see what the outcome of the ship’s inspections might be. He had not been entirely idle in the meantime, though. He had managed a couple of days, for appearances’ sake, on their other ship, Venus Princess, as it had passed through. Then, he had flown on to Bangkok. His intention there was to meet up with Bill Newman – the guy Delgardo had so rightly identified as his partner – and, if possible, catch up on business.

What he discovered there, though, gave Dan fresh grounds for concern. The agency, Eastern Promise, no longer appeared to be in operation. Not only had the office been empty, but the hotel, Thai Orchid, too – the one they owned and used as part of their set-up. Newman himself was nowhere to be found. Dan recalled the problem Bill had specifically called him about in London.

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