Assignment Peking by Edward S. Aarons

Author:Edward S. Aarons [Aarons, Edward S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Action & Adventure, Crime, Espionage, Fiction, Mystery, Spies, Suspense, Thriller
ISBN: 9781555048167
Publisher: Greenwich, Conn. : Fawcett
Published: 1969-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

He sweated, but he felt cold, ms eyes were open, but he saw nothing. He lay on something hard, and metal thrust into his ribs, and yet he floated gently in a nothing world of no-thought and no-feeling. Then his head ached, but his thoughts seemed crystal-clear.

He looked up into Colonel Chu's young, benign face.

"I never thought," said Chu, "you would get this far.

"Why not?"

"It was arranged to stop you,

"And you finally had to do it yourself?"

Chu smiled. "You shattered Tai Ma's kneecap. For a man of his size, it will be a lifelong disability."

"I should have killed him."

"As you killed Chien Y-Wu?"

"Tai Ma did that."

"So?"

"Precisely. So."

Chu hit him in the face. The pain of the blow seemed to sort out his detached thoughts and put them in order again. His senses began to work normally again. The hard cot under him was filled with springs; the darkness went. He saw Chu's narrow yellow face shadowed by a brightly glaring light behind him. What he could make out of the room looked like a duplicate of the torture cell where Chien had died; but he couldn't be sure of this, and he didn't concern himself about it. When he tried to sit up, he found he was fastened to the cot by leather straps at both wrists and both ankles and a wide leather band across his chest. He felt blood in his mouth.

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Colonel Chu smiled pleasantly and rubbed his knuckles. "You are not surprised to see me here in the Black House?"

"Nothing surprises me now."

"You were betrayed from the start, you see. Your mission was aborted before it was properly originated."

"I knew that."

"This is why you were reluctant to go, back on Taiwan?"

"I never trusted you," Durell said. "How long have you been working for Peking?"

"Always. Since I left the Chinese mainland." Chu lit a cigarette with delicate gestures. He wore racing driver's gloves, the fingers exposed, long and tapering. "You really should not have killed Chien, you know. We wanted more information from him."

"Tai Ma did it with his litde switchblade."

"Do not provoke me with lies. You have no hope for mercy unless you cooperate with me." Chu walked back and forth in the narrow cell. The light reflected glossily from his slick black hair, his youthful face, his thin moustache and somewhat pouting mouth. He had been speaking in English, Durell suddenly realized, and now he saw in a corner of the room an elaborate tape recorder that had been dutifully taking down DurelTs replies. But Chu was different from the rather foppish, effeminate KMT flight officer Durell had known in Taiwan. There was a sense of power and assurance that had not been there before. Durell was grateful for the ebbing of the pain in his head from Chu's blow. He turned his head and the movement pulled at the blood caked on the back of his neck. He tested the leather straps tentatively. He couldn't move in any direction on the table.

"How can I cooperate?" he asked quietly.

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