The next morning the drizzle had given over and a pale sun was trying to show through the clouds, with a March wind rising.

Flockhart saw me in his office not long after nine, giving me a chair and going behind his desk again, throwing some papers to one side. They fell across a silver-framed photograph, and he left them there; I couldn't see it clearly at this angle because of the reflection on the glass, but it looked like a woman's face.

'You can do your medical clearance,' he said, 'with your own doctor, or mine if you prefer. Your expense account is open as of now, and I shall be personally responsible.'

He looked much the same as I'd seen him last night: cool, very controlled, expressionless. But the anger had gone. His speech and the movement of his hands were faster; anger had gone and left room for energy.

'Fair enough,' I said. 'What about briefing?'

'None, officially.' He turned his head to look from the window on my left, where a pigeon was waddling on the sill; then he looked back at me and said, 'There's nothing official about this at all, you must understand. Let me put it this way: your mission would not necessarily meet with acceptance by Administration, if I proposed it to them. That is why I didn't.' He watched me carefully. 'Does that bother you?'

'I've spent most of my career,' I said, 'doing things totally unacceptable to Administration.'

'Yes, I've heard it rumoured. That's why I selected you.'

'There was a chorus line?'

'Only in my head,' he said quickly. 'I've spoken to no one else, be assured. No one.'

The pigeon flew off the sill, and through the gap in the window I heard the soft beating of its wings. 'All right,' I said. So if there's no briefing, what about instructions?'

'You'll find them at the office of Trans-Kampuchean Air Services in Phnom Penh; I've already sent them on ahead of you. Here's their address. Your sealed envelope also contains rather substantial funds in US dollars and local currency, together with your hotel reservation and identity papers as an agent for Trans-Kampuchean.'