Ceremony of Innocence by Humphrey Hawksley

Author:Humphrey Hawksley [Hawksley, Humphrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing
Published: 2018-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Clem Watkins paid cash for two more nights, pulled the car out of the motel parking lot and accelerated north up the highway with the Pacific Ocean crashing in below on his left. Twenty miles along he called the motel, checked for messages and told them to put the phone in his room on divert to his mobile. Fifty miles further on, he drew up at a roadside diner.

Clem had let his hair run wild and dirty. He wore his clothes filthy and crumpled and hadn’t taken a shower since he had landed in the States. The people in the diner were his type, quiet, suspicious, dirty and poor. Or at least they looked it, like Clem. They sat alone, eyes on their food, their coffee and their vehicles.

Clem chose a table by the window looking out both sides, onto the Chrysler and the petrol station. He ordered a black coffee and a cheeseburger. He had tried McKillop during the day but Mike had cut the line, which meant it was too dangerous to talk. Clem sipped his coffee and thought. There had been two people whom he trusted absolutely because he had known them for so long. He would have counted Hollingworth until four days ago. He thought of calling a friend in the FBI about Joyce Hewlitt, but that would blow his cover. His number would show up and they would track him. There were two men outside of America whom he could talk to safely. Satish Krishnan, the office administrator in Bombay, wouldn’t have an incoming number identification on his phone and Win Kyi, who should be back in Yangon by now. The waitress set a steaming cup of coffee down on the table and told him the burger would be another five minutes. Clem asked where the washroom was. He followed the directions and went outside. When he finished, he crossed the parking lot to the payphone at the petrol station.

He used his AT & T access number from the Heshui account and found it hadn’t been cancelled. Satish Krishnan was surprised to hear Clem who began flippantly: ‘Hi Satish, did you think I was dead?’

‘I’ve got the message about your assignment here,’ said Satish. ‘It got fouled up and delayed in the system.’

Satish sounded normal, his urbanity covering the irritation of being disturbed during his evening meal. Clem heard him pause and swallow, then scold a child who appeared to be tugging at his shoelace. ‘Do you have a flight number for me now?’ Satish Krishnan was saying.

‘Should have tomorrow,’ said Clem brightly. ‘Hong Kong want a China debrief, but I just needed to check with you that I was actually expected.’

‘How is it up there?’ said Krishnan. It was a strange tone, the sort onlookers might adopt as they gather outside a besieged city.

‘In what way?’ said Clem cautiously. He cupped his hand around the mouthpiece to ensure that no loud American voices betrayed that he was not in China.

‘There’s rumblings in the defense ministry about instability in the Chinese government.

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