“I’m sorry, Professor, you’re right about that.” Condley broke from his semitrance and stared at Muir. “This is a great argument we’re having, but aren’t we a little ahead of ourselves, anyway? First, we have to find him. And after that we have to, shall we say, cause him to be apprehended. And this is not a stupid man.”

“Indeed, he’s not.” Muir casually fingered some papers on his desk, thinking hard. “But why would this fellow in Moscow even consider talking to us?”

“To me, that is,” said Condley. “He’ll talk because Colonel Pham is going to help us.”

“Colonel Pham?” Muir seemed incredulous. “Why do you think Colonel Pham would—or even can—help us in Moscow?”

“He lived in Moscow after the war,” answered Condley. “I caught him talking Russian with one of his Interior Ministry pals one day. He seemed pretty fluent. When I asked him about it he told me he’d spent a few years there as a so-called ‘student’ in the late seventies, and you don’t get sent there by Ha Noi unless you have some kind of pull in the Vietnamese government. He knows Moscow; he speaks Russian.”

“That was more than twenty years ago. You saw how little power he has, just by watching him try to help us up in the Que Sons.”

Condley stroked his chin judiciously, his eyes faraway. “Maybe, maybe not. I thought that too, at the beginning of our trip. But did you see his smile when they stuck me for the five thousand dollars? The colonel knows how to play both sides. We have no idea what he was really doing with us in the Que Sons. It all could have been an act. He’s a very clever man.”

“Precisely, Brandon. That’s another thing. I’m not sure I’d trust him with this piece of information. It could be volatile.”

Condley shrugged, his eyes burning with challenge. “I just have a feeling he’ll help us. If nothing else, why would he turn down a free trip for a sentimental journey back to his old stomping grounds?”

“You want to take him with you?”

“You got any better ideas?”

“Except for this Mathew Larkin business, I don’t have any ideas at all.” The two stared at each other for several seconds, and then finally Professor Muir nodded, folding his arms across his chest. “Come with me to Australia. I’ll come back here while you’re in Moscow. I’d be in the way there, and my paperwork is piling up anyway.”