Free The Adversary by Michael Walters Page B

concerned.”
    â€œEven if the case hadn’t fallen apart quite so spectacularly, the Minister’s comments might have been prejudicial to a fair trial,” Doripalam pointed out. “I wasn’t exactly pleased about that, though in the circumstances it didn’t seem appropriate to bring it up afterward.”
    â€œI understand that Muunokhoi’s lawyers were planning to argue precisely along those lines,” Nergui said. As always, it was not entirely clear how he had come by this particular piece of information. “But the question was entirely academic, as things turned out.”
    â€œAnd so now we—by which I mean you—have to investigate how Tunjin was allowed to get us into this mess? I’m not sure I quite see how that’s likely to help us. I certainly don’t see how it’s going to help
me
.”
    â€œI’m just being opportunistic,” Nergui said. “The Minister has to be seen to be doing something if only to cover his own back. He wants a short sharp review that will result in a few suitable rolling heads.”
    â€œWith my name high on the list?”
    â€œOf course not. The Minister can be impetuous, but he’s no fool. He knows—not least because I’ve repeatedly told him so—that you’re the best asset he’s got in this force. He’s not going to risk losing you over something like this. But, in any case, that’s not the way this thing is going to go.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause the Minister has made what might turn out to be—in terms of short term political expediency—one tiny error. He agreed to let me run the inquiry.”
    â€œWhich means?”
    â€œWhich means we do it properly. You and me. We take this as an opportunity really to come to grips with the problems in this team. We can root out the real problems—the real corruption. We make as many heads roll as we need to, knowing that the Minister has to back us up.”
    â€œWhy does he have to? He’s never been keen on raising his head above the battlements before.”
    â€œBecause having announced the inquiry—which he did with as much fanfare as when he announced Muunokhoi’s arrest—he can’t then be seen not to support it just because the outcome turns out to be rather more radical than he might have expected.”
    Doripalam shook his head. He was beginning to suspect that Nergui had been with the politicians too long. “Are you sure about this?”
    Nergui shrugged. “Not at all. I’ll probably be whipped off the inquiry and find myself facing a sudden early retirement. But I think it’s worth a shot, don’t you?”
    He’s bored, Doripalam thought, suddenly. That’s what this is about. He’s bored witless in that comfortable office of his, shuffling his paperwork. All that talk about the nation under siege—well, that was probably sincere, knowing Nergui’s distinctive form of patriotism. But it wasn’t what was really driving Nergui. What was really driving him was the need to stir the pot again, to get things moving. To raise some sort of hell.
    Doripalam smiled. “As long as it’s you facing theearly retirement and not me. Yes, maybe it’s worth a shot.”
    Nergui sat silently at the desk, listening to Doripalam’s footsteps receding down the corridor. He supposed that it might have been possible to have found him a temporary office that was smaller and even more isolated than this one, but probably only by utilizing a broom cupboard. Not that he could blame Doripalam. On the whole, Nergui thought that the younger man was taking it all rather well. Nergui was behaving like the very worst kind of manager. The kind who gets kicked upstairs and then just can’t tear himself away from the job he’s supposed to have left behind. Just can’t believe that anyone could do it as well as him.
    Was that it? Nergui