wait a minute, dont think about it, and it u be fine. remember you re safe now.

he
took a deep breath, and found himself asking, so what was all this about the parcel
of money anyway? what was it for? why did the american push it through the letter-
box disguised as a fish supper? the fish supper was a red herring, said amaryllis,
and burst out laughing. it was dirty money - it had been used for drug trafficking.
the americans got it from the iranians your brother-in-law in fact, or his
henchmen. they tricked the americans into being postmen for them. told them you
were a terrorist and you d try and use the money for explosives to blow up a plane,
but they were setting a trap for you to walk into - the payoff for the americans
was going to be your head on a platter. Christopher shuddered. amaryllis continued.
your brother-in-laws friends were waiting for the parcel to get to you, then they
planned to tip off the police and they would find it and arrest you... they d be
able to take the children without you getting in the way. the american bugged it so
that if by some mischance the police didnt find it, you would do something silly
with it, and he d be able to keep tabs on you. until he got the chance to - wellyou
know the rest. take the children? my brother-in-laws friends? it doesnt make sense
does it? he remembered the flash of insight he had experienced on the way to
auchterderran. he didnt really want to believe that caroline y husband - faisal and
marina s father - was a crook, but... amaryllis hesitated. i u be fine, he said,
what has this to do with the children? everything, said amaryllis simply. simon and
his sidekick were working for the children s father, in iran. but their father sa
political prisoner..... no, he isnt a political prisoner. he sa drugs baron. he has
so many people on his payroll that it's hard to find anybody who isnt working for
him in certain areas. but he cant be - caroline said - Christopher ground to a
halt. caroline had let him believe the children s father was a political prisoner
because he himself had guessed that was why the man was still in iran and not in
scotland with his family. the children s father hadnt been prevented from leaving
iran by the merciless penal system; he had deliberately chosen to stay there to be
in the best position to continue managing his drugs operation. no wonder caroline
was such a wreck. she must have run away from him, and been constantly worried that
he would send people after her. but why hadnt she told him? and what did amaryllis
have to do with it? she was waiting now, watching him to gauge his reaction before
saying any more. caroline managed to get herself and the children away from him by
being very brave, said amaryllis. she contacted us a few years ago, and we got her
out of iran. that was well before i retired. when it looked as if she might need
protection they brought me out of retirement on a temporary basis, since i wanted
to be here anyway.... i think i m going to have to leave town, by the way. my cover
shot to pieces. if it hadnt been for you, i would have been shot to pieces, said
christopher. do you still need a cover now that you ve really retired? pitkirtly s
a nice quiet little place - well, apart from the things that have been happening
over the past few days, that is you could pick a worse place to retire to, all
things considered. he didnt know why he was rambling on like this. She didn t want
to hear it, and he didnt think he was making sense anyway. getting back to what
happened, said amaryllis, studiously ignoring his last couple of sentences, the
children s father wanted to get them back, by fair means or foul. according to his
value system, they belong to him - and so does caroline. he wasnt too bothered
about her though - she was no longer of much use to him. too flaky. She said it
without censure, just as a matter of fact. She carried straight on. he recruited
simon, who was one of ours. a british spy? we call them agents... somebody got
suspicious of him, and they decided i should come out of retirement for a while and
keep an eye on things here. simon was meant to be doing that and we wanted to give
him just enough rope... his iranian friends got a bit out of hand though - that's
what all the shooting was about the other night, and the taking of steve payman. so
it was all part of the same thing? christopher tried to suppress the na�ve surprise
that was in his mind as he spoke. i must be slipping i used to be able to guess
what my target was going to do, and get ahead of him, and i very nearly left it too
late this time. simon sout of circulation now, but it may not stop with him. there
could be others. you have to be aware of that. but we re building up a dossier
about caroline s husband which were going to pass on to the iranian authorities
when it y complete. he could be looking at a real jail sentence. not a soft option,
in iran. what about the americans? where do they fit in? they well, they havent
been very nice either they wanted the kids too. they wanted to use them as
bargaining counters. to get to their father. that was why they went along with all
this stuff about terrorism they cant really have believed that