Free The Care of Time by Eric Ambler

to be no chance of my peeking around the corners of the curtains.
    ‘How long is this going to take?’ I asked.
    ‘The journey? Less than an hour. If you are tired you could have a little nap.’
    I didn’t bother to reject that idiot suggestion. I was still acutely aware of the bruising on my knees and shins. The pain in my right shoulder hadn’t eased either. The expensive scent she used was beginning to give me a headache. Delayed shock can produce odd side-effects.
    The door slid open again and the teenage girl climbed in. She had my raincoat with her and tossed it to me before shutting the door and saying something to the invisible driver. He said something back and started up. Moments later the minibus bumped down off the sidewalk and ground up the ramp. As it turned into the traffic on the street above, the two junior thugs took off their porters’ coats and dropped them on the floor behind. Their own clothes were matching flower-patterned shirts and plastic windbreakers. The boy produced candy bars for them both and they began to chatter quietly in their own language as they chewed. About what? About how easy I had been? About how good they were? Or about the greater job satisfaction they experienced when the assignment was more straightforward, as the attack on Pacioli’s driver must have been? Hard to tell, but they both had that peculiar wide-eyed impassivity so often to be seen on the faces of those for whom violence is easy. It is an expression that tends to sweeten with age, eventually giving its wearers an appearance of kindliness and good humour that can be dangerously misleading.
    I looked at Chihani and held up the raincoat. ‘What’s this for?’
    She seemed pleased that I had asked. ‘Who knows how long you may be away from your room, Mr Halliday? Someone might ask for you. Pacioli perhaps. So, your bags have been unpacked for you and your suits hung in a closet.Your toothbrush is damp. One of the beds looks as if you may have tried to sleep. Your room key is there in your coat pocket. Perhaps you went for a walk. You see, I try to plan for all eventualities.’
    The delayed shock was turning now into anger. ‘I’ll bet there’s one eventuality you didn’t plan for,’ I said.
    ‘What is that?’
    ‘Really having to use thiopental on me. You weren’t prepared to do that.’
    ‘What makes you think so?’
    ‘You were all set to swab my arm with spirit, and yet you hadn’t loaded the syringe. You hadn’t even taken it out of the pack. You were bluffing.’
    She looked pleased. ‘Very good. Hindsight is beginning to work. And why didn’t you call the bluff? Let me tell you. Isopropyl alcohol has a very distinctive smell which you associate with injections. So, you smelled, you believed and you were frightened, as I intended you to be. Why? Because I didn’t want to make you unconscious unless it was absolutely necessary. It would have been inconvenient. Something could have gone wrong. Supposing you had swallowed your tongue while we had you in the linen basket. Such a happening would be dangerous.’
    ‘Very. You might have had a corpse on your hands. Better to bluff. That way you get a live-and-kicking, free-breathing writer to take to your leader. I hope he won’t mind when I tell him, very politely of course, to get stuffed.’
    She shrugged. ‘Naturally, you are upset at the moment.’
    ‘Upset, yes, and even more, surprised.’
    ‘Surprised? You are an experienced person. What could there be to surprise you?’
    ‘Odd as it may seem to you, Miss Chihani, I am not used to being assaulted on arrival in a strange hotel by thugs masquerading as bellhops. What’s more, the only reason I’ve come here is to assist Dr Luccio in the writing of a book to counter terrorism. When I find that he has a terrorist gang of his own working for him I think I’m entitled to be surprised.’
    That drew a light laugh. ‘Have you been terrorized, Mr Halliday? How terrible! But is it true? I