A Dangerous Game Read Free Page A

Nicolas Schlemann.   A very clever fellow.   He's quite happy to
    let Hernandez parade around in front of the crowds, but he controls the
    purse-strings, and that makes him the real power behind the throne."
     
    The civilian faces were out of focus.   Nicolas Schlemann looked like a
    blurred shadow.   Jacey could make out dark hair and a dark suit but
    that was all.
     
    "A German?"   she asked.
     
    "German father," Major Fairhaven said.
     
    "Spanish mother.   His father arrived in Guachtal in 1945, and by the
    early 1960s he'd doubled the illegal fortune he brought with him.
    Nicolas has probably trebled it since."
     
    Jacey glanced at the anonymous face again.   How old would this man
    be?
     
    Thirty?   Thirty-five?   You couldn't tell from that smudgy,
    black-and-white image.   A crooked wheeler-dealer who kept a smalltime
    dictator in power.   She didn't think she would like Senor Nicolas
    Schlemann.
     
    "And he knows how to spend as well as save," Fairhaven added.
     
    "Wine, women and song?"   she asked.   Her voice was cool.
     
    "Women, women and women," the major asserted.
     
    A dissolute WOMANISER, too?   Nicolas Schlemann went even further down
    in her estimation.   She pushed the photograph back towards the major.
     
    She was beginning to understand why he had called her.   But do I want
    this?   she asked herself.   I need to get away but is this the answer?
     
    "When I worked for you I was part of a team," she said.
     
    "We trusted each other.   This would be different.   I don't think' "Wait
    a minute," Major Fairhaven interrupted gently.
     
    "This isn't anything like last time."   He smiled at her.
     
    "The hospital at Techtatuan needs a doctor, preferably one who speaks
    Spanish and English.   It's all above board.   You can even use your own
    name."   His smile was warmer now.
     
    "They call it La Primavera because it was built in the spring, and it's
    supposed to be symbolic of new growth, a new beginning.   It's a
    beautiful place, so I'm told, and I don't think your duties would be
    too arduous.   You'd have plenty of time to enjoy yourself and to
    socialise."
     
    "Oh, come on," she said, with undisguised sarcasm.
     
    "You're beginning to sound like a tour operator.   If you're not
    planning to remove the crooks who've running Guachtal, why do you want
    me to go out there?"
     
    "At the moment we need a barometer," Major Fairhaven said.
     
    "One that we can trust.   We want you to talk to people.   Listen to the
    gossip.   And then send us the occasional, er, weather report, so to
    speak."
     
    She smiled.
     
    "Now you're making sense.   You're expecting storms in Guachtal?"
     
    "Let's just say we want to know which way the winds will be blowing in
    the near future," the major said.
     
    "South America is opening up.
     
    They're cutting roads through the jungle right now.   Guachtal's main
    resource is the rain forest.   They haven't done much with it yet but
    that could change quite soon."
     
    "They could start destroying it, you mean?"   Jacey said.
     
    The major smiled.
     
    "You're not turning eco-warrior on me, are you?"
     
    "It seems a shame to destroy something irreplaceable."
     
    The major shrugged.
     
    "If your country was in debt, and the people starving, you might not
    feel so sentimental about a few trees.   But that's also what we want
    you to find out.   How do the people of Guachtal see their future?"   He
    linked his fingers and leant forward.
     
    "Or to put it more accurately, how does Hernandez and his clever friend
    Schlemann see it?   It would give us a chance to make our own plans." He
    smiled.
     
    "An occasional report, that's all we need."
     
    "And if I say yes," she said, 'what about my job at the hospital?   I
    can't just walk out."
     
    "If you say yes," the major said, 'we'll organise a replacement for
    you, don't worry."
     
    She gave him a long, hard stare.
     
    "I bet you've got someone lined up