The Solitary Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

the door open.
    'You should have spoken to her, John,' Mallen's wife said, her voice little more than a whisper.
    'Not yet,' said Mallen, putting a hand on her shoulder. 'I can't. Not yet.'
    'It wasn't her fault.'
    'I know that. I don't blame her.'
    The woman nodded slowly. 'Yes, you do, John. You think you don't, but you do.' She stood up on tiptoe, raised her veil and kissed him softly on the cheek, close to his lips. 'She loved him, too, you know.'
    'She had a strange way of showing it,' said Mallen bitterly.
    'They'd have worked things out, if . . .' She left the sentence unfinished.
    'Yes,' said her husband. 'If.'
    The two men in dark suits came up behind Mallen, their eyes watchful. One got into the front passenger seat, the other stood slightly behind the couple.
    'Aren't you coming?' she asked.
    Mallen shook his head. 'Duty calls.'
    'Today of all days?'
    Mallen shrugged. His wife shook her head sadly and climbed into the back of the limousine. Mallen turned and walked away as the limousine drove off.
    Further down the road a short, stocky man in an overcoat a size too small for his massive shoulders stood waiting by another limousine.
    'Thanks for coming, Jake,' said Mallen. They shook hands. Both 24 STEPHEN LEATHER men had firm grips but the handshake was no trial of strength; they knew each other too well to play games.
    'He was a good boy. He'll be missed.'
    'There's no need to patronise me, Jake. He was an arsehole,' said Mallen, as he slid into the back of the limousine.
    Jake Gregory followed him into the car and pulled the door shut. The soundproofed panel separating the passengers from the driver was closed and they were cocooned in silence. The car pulled smoothly away from the kerb. A dark blue saloon with three men in suits followed them.
    Mallen looked around. 'How come you don't have babysitters?' he asked. 'I'd have thought the number two man in the Drug Enforcement Administration would be guarded like Fort Knox.'
    Gregory shrugged his wrestler's shoulders. 'Low profile. When was the last time you saw me on the cover of Time magazine?'
    Mallen smiled tightly as he settled back in his seat and unbuttoned his overcoat. 'So, I'm listening.'
    'The heroin that killed Mark was part of a batch that came from an area of the Golden Triangle close to the border between Burma and Thailand under the control of a Chinese warlord called Zhou Yuanyi. He's relatively new, up and coming you might say. He's moved into the areas that Khun Sa used to control, and he's trying to grab a bigger share of the market. He's brought in a team of chemists from Russia and has started purifying his own opium before shipping it across the border into Thailand. As a result there's been something of a price war, both out in the Far East and here at home. We've been aware of this for some time; on the streets heroin is now almost sixty-six per cent pure compared with six per cent in 1979. But as the quality has improved, the price has dropped, to about a third of its cost in the late seventies. In real terms, heroin is now about one-thirtieth of the cost it used to be, which is why it's starting to become the drug of choice again.'
    Mallen folded his arms across his chest and studied Gregory with unblinking eyes.
    'Your son isn't the only one to have died,' Gregory continued. 'The stuffs getting so pure now that it's practically lethal. The pusher has to really know what he's doing. If he doesn't tell his customers what the purity is . . .'
    'I get the point, Jake,' said Mallen. 'Tell me about Zhou.'
    'Zhou was one of the warlords in the Golden Triangle we targeted in Operation Tiger Trap, but so far we've had no notable success,' Gregory continued. 'In fact we lost two Hong Kong Chinese agents just last month.'

The Solitary Man
    'Lost?' Mallen repeated disdainfully. 'Lost in what way, Jake?'
    'They were tortured and killed. Impaled on stakes at the entrance to Zhou's camp as a warning to others. It's a jungle out there. Literally and