The Year of Dangerous Loving. John Davis Gordon

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      Hargreave felt proud of her; she was the centre of attention and she was handling the task admirably. He knew everybody was being kind because they felt sorry for him because Liz had left him in a blaze of embarrassment, but he also knew they were genuinely charmed by Olga, and he was delighted.

      ‘Interesting woman,’ Whacker Ball rumbled beside him. ‘Telling me about the Roman ruins in Istanbul.’ Whacker liked Roman ruins.

      ‘She was working in Istanbul before she came here,’ Hargreave said.

      ‘One of my favourite watering-holes,’ Denys the Menace slurred. ‘Which nightclub?’

      ‘I’m not sure,’ Hargreave said, ‘I think she mentioned the Trocadero as one of them.’

      ‘Trocadero?’ Denys said. ‘Don’t know it.’

      Jake put his hand on his shoulder. ‘Nice to see you looking happy, pal; how long is she around for?’

      ‘Her agent’s trying to negotiate another contract for her in Macao, in the Estoril, I think.’

      ‘Where’s her agent?’

      ‘Moscow.’

      ‘Congratulations on that heroin case,’ Whacker rumbled. ‘Twenty years – that’ll keep Edward Lo out of mischief for a while.’

      ‘Will it stand up on appeal?’ Denys asked. ‘Evidence mostly circumstantial.’

      ‘It’ll stand up,’ Hargreave said. ‘There was nothing wrong with the judge’s summing up.’

      ‘The Chinese will probably shoot convicts like Edward Lo when they take over,’ Denys said, ‘appeal or no appeal. That’s what Mao did when he took over China. Oh, justice is going to be such fun after 1997.’

      ‘Are you staying on?’ Hargreave asked.

      ‘Where else can a beat-up lawyer like me make money like this? I’ll stay until they make life too uncomfortable, like shooting defence lawyers as subversives. And you?’

      ‘I don’t know yet.’

      ‘I thought you were definitely quitting?’ Isabel Phipson said. Isabel didn’t know about Californian divorce law and Community of Property.

      ‘Why don’t you go up on to the bench, Al?’ Denys said. ‘You’ll probably be safer from the Comrades up there.’

      ‘Until I hand down judgements they don’t like?’

      ‘Oh, justice is going to be such fun,’ Denys said again.

      ‘And what about our pensions?’ Isabel said. ‘We better save like hell in the next eighteen months, chaps, I don’t see the Comrades letting our pensions flow out of the holy soil every month. Are you leaving, Whacker?’

      ‘Me leave?’ Whacker growled. ‘When the Comrades take over is when the Oriental Israelite really starts getting bitchy – it’ll be an honest journalist’s dream.’

      ‘Until they close you down,’ Hargreave said. ‘And shoot you, for “literary hooliganism”.’

      ‘Amen,’ Denys said. ‘And us for defending him. And the judge for acquitting him.’

      ‘If there’s a trial at all,’ McAdam said. He turned away to recharge his glass.

      ‘Hullo, my dear,’ Denys murmured to Olga as she joined them. She looked radiant, the sunset on her golden hair and face. Hargreave smiled at her proudly.

      ‘I’ll go down fighting,’ Whacker growled. ‘I’m almost seventy, for Christ’s sake, what else is there to live for at my age but the truth? And I’ll defend myself, thanks, really give ’em an earful. No, I’m staying. I wouldn’t miss the fun for the world.’

      ‘Do you really think,’ Monica asked Hargreave, ‘that China will get rid of people like Whacker? And Jake? And Martin Lee?’

      ‘No doubt about it,’ Denys said.

      Hargreave said, ‘China probably won’t shoot them, but a trumped-up charge to throw them in jail after a show trial is quite likely, to silence them.’

      ‘I’ve begged Jake,’ Monica said, ‘to pull his punches in his electioneering, but he won’t. I think he’s being very foolish, antagonizing China so.’

      Whacker growled, ‘Courageous yes, reckless maybe, but foolish never. He’s got to tell the people the truth.’

      ‘He can’t tell the truth for long if he’s in jail,’ Monica said.

      ‘What is the difference,’ Olga asked, ‘between Jake and Martin Lee?’

      Monica grinned: ‘Martin Lee is richer, smarter and better-looking.’

      Everybody laughed.

      ‘Richer, no doubt, smarter, probably,’ Jake said, returning with his glass recharged, ‘but personally I’ve always wondered about the better-looking.’

      ‘I mean,’ Olga grinned, ‘why is Jake an independent, not working with Mr Lee, what is the difference?’

      ‘None,’ Whacker said, ‘except Martin Lee is a gentleman who only calls a spade a spade; Jake calls it a fuckin’ shovel.’

      Everybody laughed again. Jake said to Olga: ‘No difference except, as an independent candidate I can say things he can’t because I’m not bound by party rules.’ He added: ‘However, I won’t win a seat – my eyes are the wrong shape. I’m only really interested in making a lot of noise so the people hear what I have to say.’

      ‘And what is that?’ Olga asked.

      McAdam sighed. ‘What Martin Lee says: we must have a strong democracy in place so we can stand up to China when she takes over. We must show China we are a voice to be reckoned with, we must insist that Britain – and the United Nations – enforces the Joint Declaration, forces China to abide by its international undertakings, forces China to abide by the agreement that our Court of Final Appeal will be made up of respected Western judges, not party toadies appointed by Beijing who can’t read English, let alone understand English law and who will do what the party instructs – ’

      ‘Hear, hear,’ Hargreave said.

      McAdam made a fist: ‘We must insist that Britain punishes China when she sweeps aside our elections, insist the world comes down like a ton of bricks with all kinds of economic sanctions: freeze her foreign assets, close down her embassies, throw them out of the United Nations, treat them as untouchables – really hurt them. Even threaten war – Christ, there’re six million Chinese British subjects in Hong Kong who’re entitled to Her Majesty’s protection.’

      ‘Hear, fuckin’ hear,’ Whacker growled.

      ‘But what is Great Mother Britain doing? Appeasing China at every turn, so as to not rock the boat, appeasing “in the interests of a smooth transition”. By the Joint Declaration China must СКАЧАТЬ