In the Palace of the Khans by Peter Dickinson Page B

couple of helicopters on Saturday morning, then driving over to the gorge that evening to have a look at the fish-owls.”
    â€œIn the dark?” said Nigel’s mother.
    â€œHe’s already got a project set up to study the birds with a view to providing them with a fresh habitat further down the gorge. There’ll be night vision binoculars and so on. The project director—I’ve met him—he’s a very live-wire little German—looks like a cross between an Old Testament prophet and a garden gnome—he’ll be on hand to tell us what’s what.”
    â€œYou’ve already accepted?”
    â€œDifficult not to. It would be a considerable snub. Mostly he uses the lodge as a private retreat. I believe he took the President of Kyrgyzstan out there when he came on a state visit a few years back, but that was very much the exception.”
    Nigel could hear the purr in his voice. The visit would be a real plus for him at the Foreign Office.
    â€œIs Taeela coming?” said Nigel.
    â€œIndeed she is. He specifically asked me to remind you, Lou, that she mustn’t be left alone with Nigel, or indeed with any member of the male sex over the age of four, including himself, but it’s all right if you’re there too.”
    â€œWhat a crazy mind-set. Helicopters and sophisticated economics and CCTV and this! Poor girl. Am I going to have to dress for dinner, Nick?”
    â€œNot if we’re going owl-watching, I imagine. But we’d better take something presentable, just in case. There’s limited baggage-space in the helicopters, so a car will come for our stuff on Friday morning and take it up by road. Oh, one other thing. Don’t tell anybody where we’re going. Anybody at all. Even here in the Embassy.”
    â€œI bet you I hear about it at the next wives’ lunch,” said Nigel’s mother. “These things always come out. They’ll be green with envy.”
    â€œThis is serious, Lou. I’ve promised the President that none of us will breathe a word about our visit until we’re safely back in Dara. By the best intelligence we’ve got there’ve been two foiled assassination attempts in the last eighteen months.”
    â€œWow!” said Nigel. “Who by?”
    â€œCould be any of a number of people. The odds are it’s something to do with the dam. According to rumours it was the Moscow mafia, hoping to muscle in on the project if the President isn’t in the way. But it’s just as likely to be home-grown Dirzhaki, some of them pretty high up in the administration, who’ve got the same idea. And then there’ll be some of the military who’d like to be able to order absurd numbers of tanks and aircraft in the arms market because of the kick-backs that go with them. And there’s even an old clan feud still active. You know what the great Dirzhani epic is called, Niggles? The Vengeance of the Khan . They still think like that.”
    â€œHave you got it?”
    â€œThere’s an English translation in the library. I found it pretty unreadable. I hope you’re both happy about this.”
    â€œAnything to get out of Dara for a couple of days,” said Nigel’s mother. “I was in the market before ten, and it was stifling already. Rick says according to the local radio it’s going to get worse.”
    â€œThat’s all right, then. Now I’ve got to gobble and go. Tell me what you’re up to this afternoon.”
    â€œI thought we’d go and look at the caves. At least it will be cooler in there.”

CHAPTER 4
    Day 4 was yesterday
    Mr G’s again in the morning, but then I got a crummy great headache and Mum made me go to bed. Sorry about that …
    (He didn’t like lying, but it was the best he could do.)
    It seemed even hotter next morning by the time the driver dropped Nigel off at the back entrance to the Palace. The same guard was