“I figure it this way, Biff. I’m sure if Palung had been able to kidnap you, they’d have started putting the pressure on me much sooner. When you escaped, it upset their plans and their timetable. They had to have you to force my hand.”
“To sign the paper, you mean?”
“That’s right. They would have held you hostage. They would have promised to release you, unharmed, if I would agree to their demands.”
“You wouldn’t trust them to live up to their promise?”
“No. But more than that. I didn’t think they had you. Certain questions I asked led me to believe you were safe in Unhao.”
“And now I turn up right in their own backyard.”
“That’s about it. I expect now they’ll start turning up the heat.”
“What do you figure is in this paper they want you to sign?”
“I think, Biff, they want me to sign an official paper, stating that I came here under the orders of the United States Government to spy on the Chinese. Just what they think I was looking for, I don’t know.”
“Would such a document be so damaging?”