Trask grunted and said, 'Tzonov was pretty desperate the last time I saw him, about .. . what, two minutes ago? He's out of it by now, though, on his way to Starside. But I know what you mean: his agents will be active as ever, carrying out whatever policies he left behind. As for CMI: I expect lan Goodly will be stirring it for them right now! But in any case, don't worry, Nathan won't be held up here. Not if all goes according to plan.' He looked at her questioningly, and she nodded.
And leading the way out of the room into the Refuge's complex, she answered, 'It's all in hand. Except . .. wasn't Nathan going to bring arms with him?'
'I still am,' Nathan told her. 'Everything I need is back at E-Branch HQ. Until I go back for it.'
But Trask was quick to point out, 'Ah .. . maybe it won't be as easy as that, Nathan. Not after what's happened.' And to Anna Marie: 'The plan was that once Nathan had the Refuge's co-ordinates, he'd be able to come and go - ' he shrugged - 'at will. Then he would ferry his arms, in, piece by piece, along the Mobius route. That's all there was to it. Maybe he'll still be able to do it; it all depends on E-Branch, the situation back home.'
As he finished speaking, they arrived at the administrative office in time to catch the first chirrup of the telephone. It was E-Branch from London, lan Goodly asking for Trask. Anna Marie handed the telephone over.
'Ben here,' Trask said. And, 'Are we scrambled?'
They were, and Goodly told him about the rest of the visit by CMI. They were after Nathan,' he finished off, 'with orders to take him if they could, or to kill him!'
Trask nodded absent-mindedly, and said, 'Someone's afraid of him, even as we were afraid of his father.' And glancing at Nathan: 'And just as mistakenly. But how did they know we were getting ready to ship him home to Sunside/Starside?'
'Would you believe . .. our Minister,' (and Goodly gave an imitation cough) 'Responsible? I have to admit, though, that he seemed genuinely upset. And you have to remember, it was the Minister who warned me that CMI would be calling on E-Branch in the first place. Thinking back on it, I recall that he mumbled something about setting watchers to watch the watchers?'
Again Trask nodded at the telephone. 'Right. At E-Branch we're all big fish. But when it's something as important - or as potentially dangerous - as this, then there are even bigger fish, even sharks! They're called Advisers to the Inner Cabinet: top-level, stone-cold "thinkers" specializing in finance, world affairs and security, internal and external. Lots of brain but not an ounce of heart in the whole bunch. You can bet your life that somebody up there, someone a lot bigger than our Minister, set this ball rolling. Well, that's as may be, but whoever he is, he's obviously as prone to making mistakes as anyone else. Killing Nathan would have been one hell of a big mistake, and for a hell of a lot of reasons!' Turkur Tzonov was just such a reason, of course, but Trask wasn't going to talk about him right now, not even on a scrambled telephone.
'So what's next?' Goodly asked. 'And is there anything we can do at this end?'
'Nathan's arms and ammo,' Trask answered. 'Still safe and sound?'
'Hidden away,' Goodly said. 'CMI didn't find them. And if they had, so what? We're E-Branch; we're entitled.'
'And where are CMI now? Are they watching, listening, interfering?'
'Not that we can discover.'