Tilson said yes and Hyde turned to look at me. 'You're resting, they said.'

'Technically.'

'Technically. What kind of shape are you in?'

'Not bad.'

'Not good?'

'It depends on what I'd have to do.'

He left a dead stare on me, miles away, and then his eyes focused again. 'All I know,' he said slowly, 'or all I can tell you at this stage, because there's a blackout on, is that it's Far East and I'm running it and I want you in the field.' There were beads of sweat on his forehead where the hair had thinned back; they always turned up the heating in this bloody place in the wintertime, but it wasn't that. This thing had obviously been dropped into Hyde's lap without any warning and he was trying to size it up. 'As far as I know,' he said, 'you wouldn't be going into anything terribly active in the opening phase, but' — his huge shoulders in a shrug — 'nothing's ever predictable. I want you for this one very much, but I do not want you to go into the field if you don't feel ready for it.'

I thought about it, because if I made a mistake at this stage it could be disastrous. 'I'll have to know a bit more; then I can made a decision. Isn't there anyone else available?'

'It's not quite that, you see. There's no one else, in my opinion, who could do this one better than you. And you know the territory, I believe.'

'Some of it. I've been to-'

Tilson,' Hyde said, 'for God's sake tell them to turn the thermostats down to something reasonable. Say seventy.' He swung his head back to me. 'Sorry. You've been to — ?'

'Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, but that's all.'