He Only Died Twice

Nshila Ileloka, former pupil of the witchdoctor Kwaname, holds British nationality and is the proprietor of The Rain Consultancy, a meteorological and weather prediction company based in Eastcheap, London. Behind this cover she operates as consultant assassin, specialising in the discrete removal of 'above suspicion' and otherwise untouchable villains. In this book she learns of contract opportunities likely to come her way from two organisations that are both part of the national security service. They never speak to each other, but each has a problem with a serious evil-doer and wants a target eliminated. In one of the cases the crime is abducting young women and selling them to rich buyers in the middle east. The other is the import and distribution of hard drugs. As these contracts become more definite, Nshila takes pains to up-grade her witchcraft skills and in doing so experiences unforeseen excitements. Nshila carries out her normal research activity to establish the degree of villainy of the targets and discovers that there is really only one man, operating different criminal activities and using two different names. This is not known to either agency. To satisfy her two clients, Nshila must provide two bodies: but she has only one person to kill. Through a mixture of witchcraft and technology she destroys the target under his first identity. She recovers the body from the 'reception' station at the crematorium and arranges a traffic incident in which it is consumed beyond recognition. One of the contracting agencies is involved in a major scandal that results in extensive cuts to the budget: they are unable to pay the agreed fee. A compromise is reached in which the agency takes huge risks to recover from the middle east a particular victim named by Nshila. Additionally, she herself is rewarded with a national honour. By a clever bureaucratic subterfuge this is awarded for services quite unrelated to assassination. The other agency pays up honourably.