The Shadow Walker by Michael Walters Page A

interest.”
    â€œIs there likely to be?”
    Nergui shrugged. “Not from me. But we are involved in politics here. Politicians think differently from the rest of us. They perceive conflicts where we do not.”
    Drew nodded, not sure if he was really following this. He recalled Nergui’s earlier words: “I’m a patriot at heart.”
    â€œYou seem to know the ambassador well?” he said.
    â€œI come across him from time to time. In the course of duty. He’s a likable enough person.” Nergui left the comment hanging in the air, as if there were more he could say. “Well,” he said, at last, “tomorrow, then—I’ll give you my office and cell numbers, and then you can call me when you’ve finished and I’ll send a car over.”
    Drew found himself absurdly surprised that the country had cell phone coverage. But, of course, in a remote country like this a cell infrastructure made more sense than fixed lines.
    â€œI think the best use we can make of tomorrow is for us to give you a short tour of the city, and show you where the four bodies were found. Doripalam can also talk you through the various crime reports and witness statements. They’re not in English, of course, but we can give you the gist easily enough.” Nergui paused. “There is nothing we can do, really, but press on and hope something turns up. And maybe we can throw a few stones into the pond and see what ripples we cause.”
    Drew wasn’t entirely sure what he meant but nodded anyway. He noticed that Doripalam was watching the older man closely.
    Nergui rose slowly to his feet. “But, as I say, you’ve had a long day. We will let you get some sleep. Give me call as soon as you’re free in the morning.”
    Drew watched Nergui and Doripalam walk slowly across the restaurant, Nergui pausing to speak briefly with the head waiter. Suddenly, sitting alone, Drew thought about Ian Ransom, who hadpresumably eaten alone in this very room the evening before he was killed. Drew would shortly have to make his way through the silent hotel corridors to a room identical to that where Ransom met his brutal death. The thought was far from comforting.

CHAPTER 4
    It was stupid, he knew, and he’d spent the first three or four months trying to resist it. He knew what they thought, and told himself that he didn’t care. After all, why should he have any respect for them? He recognized what they were, most of them, and given half a chance he’d have had them out of the place. But it was impossible; there were no alternatives. That, of course, was precisely why he had been given the job in the first place. Because, everywhere you looked, this place was desperately short of alternatives.
    So he should have just ignored them. That was the advice that Nergui had given him, and it was the advice he would have given anyone else in the same position. But it was much easier to say than to do. He knew how much they despised him—almost, he supposed, as much as he despised them. He knew that they were watching, waiting for him to make his first slip. And he was determined not to give them the satisfaction.
    So, against his better judgment, he found himself arriving earlier and earlier each morning, getting in before any of the others arrived, making sure he was fully on top of everything. And of course Solongo, who had initially seen his promotion as finally proving him to be a husband potentially worthy of her social aspirations, now began to complain bitterly about the amount of time he was spending in the office. There was, he thought, no way of pleasing everyone, but at the moment he felt he was pleasing no one, least of all himself.
    And now, on top of all that, Nergui’s return had made everything ten times worse. He didn’t entirely blame Nergui himself, though he knew full well that Nergui would have been unable to resist the prospect of returning to the