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"What does this have to do with the Air Shanghai flight?" asked the Prime Minister.
"Everything," said Bean. "And with the attempt on Suriyawong's and my life last night. The Chakri's little game was meant to provoke Thailand into an immediate entry into the war with India. And even though the ploy did not work, and the Chakri was exposed, we are still maintaining the fiction that it was an Indian provocation. Your meet-ings with the Chinese foreign minister are part of your effort to involve the Chinese in the war against India-no, don't tell me that you can't confirm or deny it, it's obvious that's what such meetings would have to be about. And I'll bet the Chinese are telling you that they are mass-ing troops on the Burmese border in order to attack the Indians sud-denly, when they are most exposed."
The Prime Minister, who had indeed been opening his mouth to speak, held his silence.
"Yes, of course they are telling you this. But the Indians also know that the Chinese are massing on the Burmese border, and yet they proceed with their attack on Burma, and their forces are almost fully committed, making no provision for defense against a Chinese attack from the north. Why? Are we going to pretend that the Indians are that stupid?"
It was Suriyawong who answered as it dawned on him. "The Indi-ans also have a nonaggression pact with China. They think the Chi-nese troops are massing at the border in order to attack us. They and the Indians have divided up southeast Asia."
"So this missile that the Chinese launched from Thailand to shoot down their own airliner over their own territory," said the Prime Min-ister, "that will be their excuse to break off negotiations and attack us by surprise?"
"No one is surprised by Chinese treachery," said one of the generals.
"But that's not the whole picture," said Bean. "Because we have not yet accounted for Achilles." "He's in India," said Suriyawong. "He planned the attempt to kill us last night."
"And we know he planned that attempt," said Bean, "because I was there. He wanted you dead as a provocation, but he gave approval for it to happen last night because we would both be killed in the same explosion. And we know that he is behind the downing of the Air Shanghai jet, because even though the missile was in place for a month, ready to be fired, this was not yet the right moment to create the provocation. The Chinese foreign minister is still in Bangkok. Thailand has not yet had several days to commit its troops to battle, depleting our supplies and sending most of our forces on missions far to the northwest. Chinese troops have not yet fully deployed to the north of us. That missile should not have been fired for several days, at least. But it was fired this morning because Achilles knew Sister Carlotta was on that airplane, and he could not pass up the opportunity to kill her."
"But you said the missile was a Chinese operation," said the Prime Minister. "Achilles is in India." "Achilles is in India, but is Achilles working for India?"