and Christine were in the same line of business, they had a loose arrangement whereby they checked people and organisations for each other. When dealing with enquiries from people 12,000 miles away it was useful to have a local contact to check them out. There were no sexual doubts about Saul, Wallace had met him and his wife twice and had thoroughly enjoyed the nights out.
Two months had elapsed since the scary trip to Jakarta, the first two weeks had been spent looking nervously over his shoulder. He had seen Bramble; they had met for lunch a few weeks ago at a restaurant in the city. Bramble had graciously paid the bill.
‘What was it?’ Wallace had asked him, but Bramble eyed him askance.
‘Nothing much,’ Bramble had answered, which must have been the understatement of the year, Wallace was so affronted that he actually dropped his soup spoon.
‘Nothing much!’ he ejaculated and then dropped his voice as heads turned. ‘I lost about ten years of my life from that trip.’
‘All right…all right!’ Bramble had looked carefully around and then said, sotto voce. ‘It was a piece of confirmatory information regarding an incident that occurred, and someone’s intentions. It gave us advance information and enabled us to take necessary steps before something happened…I can’t say any more than that…except that it was damned useful…all right?’
‘All right,’ Wallace answered grudgingly.
‘Hell man, you were financially better off as a result, it was worth it wasn’t it? It was for me’
‘It bloody nearly wasn’t!’ Wallace had said cuttingly. ‘I nearly finished up in an Indonesian gaol with all the druggies.’
‘Well you didn’t, did you? If you had we’d have sorted it.’ Bramble had said, but Wallace had not been so sure. He had applied himself to his soup again, using a new spoon that an observant waiter had supplied after recovering the former one from the floor. Wallace had resolved that he would ask for much more money the next time…if there was a bloody next time!
‘It’s time for lunch!’ Christine announced and rose to her feet. She was a stylish dresser and as she walked over to her wardrobe for her jacket Wallace could understand how Elsie’s busybody friend could have jumped to the wrong conclusion. As she turned around she became aware of Wallace’s gaze and she smiled. He smiled back and also rose to his feet.
‘Usual place?’
‘Sure, why not.’
Ironically it would be the same restaurant where Elsie’s friend had done her snooping act. Now he came to think of it, the presence of Elsie’s friend that day had been the most fortuitous event of his life, though he had been unaware of being observed at the time. It had provided the trigger action that had finally ended a most unsatisfactory marital relationship.
‘How was Indonesia?’ Laurie Frazer asked. It was the first time Wallace and Frazer had met since his return from Jakarta.
‘Oh all right,’ Wallace answered lamely. ‘But once was enough. I have another trip later this year, I’m off to the UK in August.’
‘Let me know if you go to Scotland,’ he answered. ‘I have relatives up there.’
‘I’ll bear it in mind,’ Wallace said gravely.
Saul Prosser had come up with some speaking engagements, they were nothing too spectacular but they made it worthwhile staying the extra two weeks. Wallace called upon Christine again and checked off the itinerary. He would be in England for about six weeks. There were six engagements that could easily pay the fare and accommodation costs and leave a little over. He also had friends and relatives who could put him up if required, and possibly some of Laurie Frazer’s in Scotland if there was time to cross the border.
‘It may be an idea if we cast around for something in the States and come back that way,’ suggested Christine.
‘I’m game,’ Wallace said. ‘See if you can find anything.’
‘I’ll drop a line to John Springfield,’ she said, naming a contact of hers in the same business in New York.
As Wallace walked out from her office he was reasonably content, it seemed that there would be sufficient engagements over the next four months to keep the wolf from the door, plus six weeks in England. It would be ideal if John Springfield was able to find a couple of presentation opportunities in America as Wallace travelled westwards across the States en route to Australia.
There was another call from Bramble who suggested a meeting with Wallace. Wallace reluctantly agreed when Bramble mentioned there may be something in it for Wallace’s bank balance. The meeting took place in Bramble’s office.
‘What is it this time?’
‘Oh nothing much’
‘That’s what you said last time and I had security police chasing me from one end of Jakarta to the other.’
‘Well this time you haven’t got to deliver anything or pick anything up.’
‘Then what the hell do you want me to do?’
Bramble pursed his lips, clearly the interview was not going the way he wanted it.
‘We have a man based in London, he does some journalistic work, freelance work for…’he named a well known London daily ‘…and they know nothing of his intelligence connections.’
‘What the hell is there for us to spy on in England?’ Wallace asked crossly. ‘Does he hang around Lords to see if they’re doctoring the pitch?’
‘We just like to know what is going on. England does not always tell us everything….look what happened during the war.’
‘Eh?’ This was a common innuendo uttered by anti-Pom Australians, Wallace had no doubt that Winston Churchill’s perfidy would be mentioned in a minute. He decided to let it go and said. ‘So you want me to go around England ferreting out intelligence?’
‘No we do not. Just call on the man for a general chat. He knows where places and things are, and he can’t be everywhere at once. If there is something he thinks we should know about then you could possibly have a quick look for him…us. There is, however, one small task you could do for us’
‘Like Jakarta?’
‘We need to keep some tabs on a man living in England,’ Bramble continued, ignoring Wallace’s pointed sally. ‘He caused us much trouble when he was here, he betrayed classified information and various other things when he lived and worked here and we have reason to believe he may still be active’
‘I’ll be damned if I’m getting involved with anything like that again,’ Wallace snapped angrily. ‘The answer is NO!’
‘We shall pay you, of course,’ Bramble remarked mildly.
As the plane banked preparatory for the descent into Heathrow Wallace could see the City of London spread around to the left. The sight of the city, old when Norman William reached it, stirred the blood. From previous visits he could remember the atmosphere that the city generated, of all the overseas cities Wallace had visited only Paris and New York had a similar effect. A mixture of the hustle
