De Payns let a moment go by, nodding his head to the band’s beat. He didn’t want to appear too keen. ‘You mean in Pakistan?’

She nodded. ‘You get privilege, but they have you in their pocket the whole time.’

‘Who’s they?’ asked de Payns.

‘The government, the police,’ she said, waving her glass.

‘So, your family is political?’ asked de Payns. ‘That’s why you speak English and French?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘My family is academic, scientific.’ She was drunk now, her words not flowing. ‘I didn’t tell you the truth about those facilities.’

‘Which facilities?’ asked de Payns. ‘In Pakistan?’

She tried to swallow her drink. ‘Yes, I know a bit more about them than I told you.’

De Payns shrugged.

‘There’s a place outside Islamabad which is the kind of research institute you were talking about.’

De Payns frowned as if he didn’t know what she was talking about.

‘It’s called the Pakistan Agricultural Chemical Company, and it’s supposed to be about fertilisers and pesticides, but they do a lot of high-level research for the government—actually, for the army,’ she said, looking around her.

De Payns could feel his heart thumping. ‘You mean the military?’ asked de Payns, keeping his voice calm. ‘What do they have to do with agriculture?’

Her laugh was a bleak rattle. ‘Agriculture? I’m not so sure.’

De Payns’ guts twisted. If the ISI caught her talking like this, they’d kill her.

‘Well, okay then,’ he said, bringing it back to his legend. ‘That’s good for our marketing materials, but how do you know this?’

‘My brother is the head scientist of all the weapons programs at this place,’ said Raven, hiccupping. ‘I talk to him once a week.’

‘Right,’ said de Payns, his tone offhand. Meanwhile, his mind was doing somersaults. The person of interest is her brother and he runs the MERC!

He was very careful with the next sentence. ‘Well, that might help us target our marketing, do you think?’

Raven shook her head and turned her body towards de Payns. ‘You don’t understand. Yousef runs a weapons program, I’m sure of it. He’s completely controlled by the government and he’s allowed to speak to me for just ten minutes, once a week.’

De Payns mimed confusion.

Her face changed very suddenly, as if in panic. ‘You can’t ever mention this to anyone. You have to promise.’

‘I promise,’ said de Payns, putting up his hands as she poked him in the chest.

‘I mean it,’ she said. ‘If they knew I was telling you these things, we’d all be dead.’

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

CHAPTER

FORTY-TWO