She gave me a nervous glance. ‘That was the one part of the plan I had reservations about. But I didn’t have an awful lot of choice. And anyway, you’d already survived two assassination attempts. I didn’t think you’d have any trouble with a third.’

I laughed.

Hanna held out his arm and helped Leotta to her feet, then did the same for me. He pointed to the still-burning hangar. ‘There’s an awful lot of money going up in smoke there.’

Automatically I said, ‘I wonder who insured it.’

Then I began to laugh again and Hanna stared at me. ‘What’s so funny?’

‘The Learjet,’ I said, chuckling. ‘A very expensive aircraft. It’s insured by Western and Continental.’

I was still laughing when the doctor gave me a sedative.

III

It was a bright London day but inside Heathrow Airport Trans-Continental Terminal Building the weather makes no difference. Rain or shine, it’s always the same: a flat white glare of fluorescence. I had some time to kill so I bought The Times at the news stand. The information I wanted would certainly be in the old reliable Times and when I turned to the foreign news page there it was, a couple of paragraphs towards the bottom of the page.

The Campanillan election results made fascinating reading. The Liberal Party – 19 seats; the Conservative Party – 18 seats; the People’s Party – one seat. The new Prime Minister, Dr Jacob McKittrick, was expected to make a speech later that day outlining the policy of the new government.

I smiled. I had first met Jake when he was hoeing a field of corn. He had a harder row to hoe now. Joe Hawke would see to that with the break-even vote of the People’s Party. Politics on Campanilla were going to be even more interesting in the next few years.

The first passengers had started to come though Customs so I wadded up the newspaper and dropped it into a waste bin. When I saw her appear, she looked drawn and thinner. She saw me as I walked up and said, ‘Hello, Bill. It’s good of you to meet me.’

‘Hello, Leotta,’ I said. ‘Are these all your bags?’

‘That’s right.’ She paused. ‘Is there anywhere we can get a coffee? The stuff they serve on the plane hardly qualifies.’

As we walked to the coffee shop, she took an envelope from her handbag. ‘Mr Stern asked me to give you this.’

‘Thanks. How is he?’

‘He’s been looking after everything,’ she said. ‘He saw me on to the plane.’ She shook her head in wonder. ‘Mrs Salton has been very good to me.’

‘Did you see her?’

‘No. She’s left Campanilla and gone to live in the States.’

We went into the coffee shop and sat down. I ordered coffee and opened the envelope. There were two pieces of paper, one a short note:

Dear Bill,