She was obviously only controlling her anger by a supreme effort of will, and when she replied her voice vibrated slightly. “Where a moral principle is involved I refuse to be hampered by a spurious nationalism.”

“Is that a fact?” Mallory said. “Well, I’ve got news for you, Mrs. Hume. I’d rather have that lot out there in the jungle than you and your kind any day. At least they fight for what they believe in. I can respect them for that.”

“Even when they butcher nuns and young girls?” she taunted.

“We managed things like that on a much more impressive scale during the war. After all, for a purist like yourself there can’t be much difference between the terrorist’s grenade and the bombs released at the touch of a button from forty thousand feet.” She was suddenly very still and he said softly: “But then I was forgetting. Wasn’t your husband a bomber pilot during the war? I’m sure his opinion would be most interesting.”

“My husband is dead, Colonel Mallory. He was killed in the war.”

“I know, Mrs. Hume,” Mallory said softly.

She turned abruptly and went back inside and Mallory took out a cigarette, striking a match against the verandah rail.

There was a rustle in the bushes below and Sergeant Tevvak said quietly: “Colonel, there is bad news at the command post. It would be well for you to come.”

Mallory glanced over his shoulder quickly. Mr. Li and Mary Hume sat at the table, talking earnestly, heads together, and Suwon busied herself preparing drinks at the sideboard. He vaulted over the rail and followed Tewak through the bushes.

The little Malay hurried along without speaking, leading the way out through the rear gate and down the hill to the village. The streets were quiet, but outside the command post Mallory found what seemed to be the whole detachment standing in twos and threes, each man armed and in marching order.

As Tewak led the way round to the store hut at the side of the bungalow Mallory was aware of the emptiness that snatched at the pit of his stomach. The Malay opened the door, switched on the light and led the way in.

The body was covered by a groundsheet and lay on a trestle table in the centre of the room. Mallory knew it was Gregson at once because of the American Paratrooper’s boots which he had bought at a second-hand shop in Singapore three months previously. Tewak pulled back the ground-sheet and waited, his face like stone.

The teeth were clenched, lips drawn back in the death-agony. His hands had been tied behind him, the eyes gouged out, quite obviously while he was still alive. The rest of him was like a piece of raw meat.

Mallory took a deep breath and turned away. “When did it happen?”

“About half an hour ago. He was tipped off that a wounded terrorist was hiding at the house of Sabal the ferryman. I arrived back about an hour after he’d left. He only took two men. When he didn’t return I thought I’d better investigate.”

“Are they all dead?”

“Also Sabal and his wife and their four children.”

Mallory nodded slowly, a slight frown on his face. He looked down at the body on the table, once more covered with the groundsheet.

“Go to Mr. Li’s bungalow. There’s an Englishwoman there, a Mrs. Hume. Tell her I want to see her. If she refuses to come use force.”

The door closed softly and Mallory took out a cigarette and lit it, thinking about Gregson, about the senseless, needless cruelty of his going. It had been intended as a threat, so much was obvious, and had been directed at him personally. Whoever controlled the sixty or so terrorists in Perak had simply used Gregson as a calling card.

A few minutes later the door opened and Mary Hume was pushed inside. Behind her Mallory was conscious of Li’s troubled face in the doorway.

She was trembling with anger, her face very white as she moved forward. Mallory cut in quickly before she could speak.

“So sorry to trouble you, Mrs. Hume, but one of my young officers was very anxious to meet you.”

As the frown deepened across her forehead, he pulled the groundsheet away quickly. She stood staring at the table, an expression of wonderment frozen into place, and then her head started to move from side to side, the lips trembling. Mr. Li took her gently in his arms and held her close.

“This was not a good thing to do, Colonel.”

“You go to hell,” Mallory said, “and you can take her with you,” and he turned and covered Gregson carefully.

In the distance thunder rumbled and then lightning flared. In the split second of its illumination Mallory saw each item of furniture in his bedroom clearly. He tossed his swagger stick and beret on the bed and opened the shutters. As he stepped on to the verandah the rain came with a sudden, great rush, filling the air with its voice.

He breathed deeply, taking the air into his lungs, and a quiet voice said, “The night air is not good when the rains start, Colonel.”

Suwon stood a few feet away by the rail and as lightning flared again her face seemed to jump out of the darkness, the embroidered dragon on the scarlet dress coming alive like some strange night creature.

“I was hoping you’d come,” he said.

She moved very close until their bodies touched and her scent was warm in his nostrils, the sharply pointed breasts hard against him. She placed one hand behind his neck, her mouth slack with desire, and he said softly, “Why did you tell Gregson that a wounded terrorist was hiding out at Sabal’s house?”

As his hands slid round to the small of her back her body tensed, taut as a bow-string. She gave a terrified gasp, turned and stumbled down the steps to the lawn. As she started across, lightning exploded again and in that brief moment of illumination Sergeant Tewak and half a dozen men moved forward in a semicircle. As Tewak reached her the sky seemed to split wide open with a crash of thunder that made the earth tremble, drowning her cry of terror as she was turned roughly and pushed towards the steps.

In his room Mallory lit the lamp, pulled out a chair and sat down. Suwon’s dress was saturated, clinging to her like a second skin, and her face was very white as Tewak brought her forward.

“Earlier this evening you visited the command post by way of the garden. You told Lieutenant Gregson there was a wounded terrorist at Cabal’s house.” She started to shake her head weakly in denial and Mallory went on: “Don’t waste time in stupid lies. The duty corporal overheard the entire conversation.”

Tears started to roll down her face and he said: “Gregson is dead, but I don’t blame you for that. Only the person who gave you your orders. Who was it? You indent be afraid. I’ll see you’re protected."

She shook her head desperately and tried to pull free from Tewak's iron grip. She was wasting her time. The Malay raised his eyebrows. Mallory nodded and Tewak smashed his clenched fist into her mouth, sending her staggering across the room on to the bed.

When Mallory pulled her forward her lips were crushed and bleeding and a couple of teeth were missing.

“Two weeks ago your friends burned down a Catholic mission and butchered thirteen little girls,” he said calmly. “Last July they derailed a train and killed or injured nearly a hundred peasants. As far as I’m concerned you’re expendable. Now either you tell me what I want to know or I’ll let Tewak really go to work on you, and one thing I can promise – you’ll never want to look in a mirror again.”

Tewak started to take off his belt and she shook her head weakly, the breath bubbling out through her broken mouth.

“Mr. Li,” she moaned. “It was Mr. Li.”

Li examined himself in the bathroom mirror, a pair of tweezers in one hand. Very carefully he plucked a couple of gold hairs from his upper lip, then opened a large, gold-capped bottle of perfumed astringent and poured some into his palms. He carefully massaged his face, wincing slightly at the stinging coldness, turned and moved into his bedroom.