Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station Read Free

Shi Huang?” gasped Mrs. Pollifax, scanning the first page. “But I’ve read about that—all those lifesized terra-cotta warriors and horses they found! How thrilling—and the Silk Road, too?”
    “Yes,” said Carstairs. “Miss Markham was one of the first to visit China when it opened up, and to arrange for visitors. This won’t be one their regular tours, but they’ll make the arrangements and use their considerable connections to make sure it’s a bona fide sight-seeing experience for you all. What they
can’t
provide at such short notice, however, is one of their own American guides to accompany you, so you’ll be in the hands of a native guide, which may or may not be limiting, depending on his or her command of English.”
    And which
, added Bishop silently,
is not at all accidental, my dear Mrs. Pollifax, no matter how contrite and apologetic Carstairs may sound
.
    “I see,” she said, and was silent, thinking about all that he’d said. “What occurs to me—”
    “Yes?”
    “What I don’t understand—seeing that you’re sending in an agent to find Mr. X, or Wang—is how that person will be able to smuggle Mr. X out of China and—”
    “That,” intervened Carstairs smoothly, “will be
our
problem.”
    “—and also,” she added relentlessly, “how that agent will have any freedom of movement to even contact Mr. X, or Wang, especially traveling in a group and under the eyes of a government guide.”
    Good for you, Emily
, thought Bishop,
you’re getting close to the heart of the matter which is exactly why I’m having chills
. He waited patiently for Carstairs to field this with his usual tact.
    “That will also be our problem,” Carstairs said silkily.“It’s much safer if you know nothing about it, not even which member of your party will be the agent.”
    Caught off balance by this, Mrs. Pollifax gasped. “Not even who—!”
    “Not until you’ve contacted our Buddhist chap Guo Musu in Xian,” he told her firmly. “Believe me, it will be best for both of you. After all, it will be a very small tour group,” he said, “and we want you to treat everyone openly and equally. After you’ve visited the Drum Tower in Xian—Guo’s barbershop is in its shadow—your coagent will contact
you
.”
    Bishop watched her struggle with this, and then he turned his head and glanced at Carstairs and saw that his face had suddenly tightened. Bishop guessed what he was thinking; a moment later Carstairs proved it by saying in a surprisingly harsh voice, “There’s one other instruction for you, Mrs. Pollifax. If anything unusual happens on this trip—
no matter what
—I expect you to get that tour group the hell out of the country, you understand?”
    Mrs. Pollifax smiled. “Which means, of course, that you’re expecting something unusual to take place?”
    Carstairs gave her an unforgiving glance that was totally unlike him, and when he spoke again his voice was cool. “On the contrary, we trust it will be happily uneventful, and I believe that will be all for now, Mrs. Pollifax. Bishop can fill you in on the missing details and give you a visa application to fill out, and for this perhaps you wouldn’t mind waiting out in his office for him? In the meantime we’re delighted, of course, that you’re taking this on.”
    He didn’t look at all delighted; he looked rather like a man who had just swallowed a fish bone and was going to choke on it, and deep inside of him Bishop chuckled: it had finally happened, he had simply underestimated the time it would take for Carstairs to realize all the things thatcould go wrong, and how devilishly fond he was of Mrs. Pollifax.
Ah well
, thought Bishop cheerfully,
I’ve already passed through it and been inoculated, I’ll just have to shore him up
.
    Watching Mrs. Pollifax leave the office he waited for the door to close behind her and then he moved to a panel on the right wall with a mirror set into it. “You can come out now,” he told