Complete Works of Nevil Shute

by Nevil Shute

  ‘It seems to me,’ said Warren, ‘that first of all I’ve got to make a contact with Theopoulos. Unless I can get him sweet, I don’t think it looks so good.’

  ‘I should say you’re right,’ said the Commercial Secretary gravely. ‘But I’m afraid you’ve taken on something. The Germans have got him in their pocket, properly.’

  ‘How would you set about it, if you were me?’

  Mr Pennington considered for a minute. ‘I’d get hold of the Prime Minister first,’ he said, ‘old Deleben, and make him sweet. We might be able to help you there a bit; the Minister’s pretty thick with the old boy. If you could get him on your side, at any rate you’d have a good representation in the Cabinet.’

  He took Warren across the road, made him a member of the English Club, introduced him to the Military and Air Attachés, and gave him a pink gin.

  Warren went back to his hotel, lunched thoughtfully, and spent a quiet hour in meditation afterwards. Then he wrote a short letter to the Prime Minister, asking for an interview.

  He spent the remainder of the day in taking stock of his surroundings. Little seemed to have changed about the town since his last visit, three years previously. In the squares people sat in front of cafés with queer drinks of alcoholic aniseed. All serious business negotiation was still done in the long bar of his hotel, between the hours of seven and nine. He met the Military Attaché there and had a drink with him, dined alone, and went early to his bed.

  Next morning he waited on the Prime Minister in the House of Assembly. He had not previously met M. Deleben, and found him amiable enough, a rotund, black-visaged little man. When out of office he was a lawyer in a small country town.

  They talked in French for some time. Warren was told that the Commission, headed by M. Potiscu, would continue to function and to deal with the Oil Development. They were, of course, primarily answerable to M. Theopoulos, who would bring their decisions to the Cabinet.

  ‘I had the honour of meeting Mr Potiscu several times in London,’ said Warren, who thought nothing of him. ‘I feel that a more able man for the position could hardly have been chosen. M. Theopoulos I have not yet met.’

  ‘That we must arrange,’ said the Prime Minister.

  ‘It will be indeed a pleasure,’ said Warren. He thought for a moment. ‘It has occurred to me,’ he continued, ‘that a matter of such importance to your country will naturally take a little time to negotiate. Such matters can hardly be hurried.’

  ‘That is very true,’ said the Prime Minister.

  ‘It may be necessary that I should travel to England, or to Paris, before the matter is finally concluded — possibly more than once, in order to assist the business from our side. Such absences on my part may be very inconvenient to you, and that I wish to avoid. It is in my mind to employ an agent here in Visgrad, a confidential agent — you understand, a man of complete discretion, in whom you would have confidence.’

  The little beady eyes were watching him intently. ‘Such agents are not very easy to find, Mr Warren.’

  Warren smiled. ‘If this were an easy matter,’ he said smoothly, ‘I should not have troubled the Prime Minister of this country with it. On my side, I should be prepared to pay the highest fee for the services of the right man, on the assumption that the business should develop to our satisfaction. I realize that to employ the wrong man would be a disaster. It is because of this, and because of the importance of this matter to the State of Laevatia, that I have come to you.’

  He met the little black eyes fixed on him in all innocence.

  ‘Could you recommend to me the services of a good agent for this very delicate purpose?’

  There was a silence in the room. At last the Laevatian arose, and Warren got up with him. ‘Such a matter would take much consideration, Mr Warren,’ he said. ‘Something may perhaps be arranged. I will think about it, and communicate with you at your hotel.’

  ‘I shall be infinitely obliged,’ said Warren.

  He left the Assembly, and went over to the English Club. The Air Attaché introduced him to the Consul. The Consul stood him a drink. ‘I’ve read about you in the local papers,’ he remarked. ‘Will you be here for long?’

  ‘Six months,’ said the Air Attaché. ‘It’ll take him that long to appreciate the — er — atmosphere they do business in out here.’

  Warren raised his glass. ‘You forget,’ he said gravely, ‘that I know a little bit about the atmosphere. I’ve been out here before.’

  The Air Attaché grinned. ‘I’ll come to you for a course of lectures. If you can tell me how to get our aircraft in.... Though why we want to get our aircraft into a dud place like this beats me.’

  ‘Member of the League,’ said the Consul gravely. ‘Horse, foot, guns, and aeroplanes all march to our assistance when we get attacked.’

  ‘Like hell they will,’ said the Attaché.

  Warren returned to his hotel for lunch. In the middle of the afternoon the porter brought a note to him in the lounge.

  ‘For m’sieur,’ he said. ‘Delivered by a messenger.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Warren, and dismissed the man. He went up to his bedroom, sat down on his bed, and opened it. Inside there was a single sentence written in precise, clerkly characters upon a single sheet of blank paper, unsigned. It read:

  I think M. Petre Vislan, Amontadeo 4, will make for you a suitable agent.

  He sat for a time waving it to and fro between his fingers, deep in thought. Then he copied the name and address into his diary, put a match to the paper, and destroyed it.

  He rang up the Commercial Secretary from his bedroom. ‘Can I come round and have a cup o’ tea?’ he enquired.

  ‘Never touch it,’ said Mr Pennington. ‘It doesn’t taste right out here. But come round, by all means.’

  In the lilac-scented office Warren asked:

  ‘Who is Mr Petre Vislan, who lives at Amontadeo 4?’

  ‘Search me,’ said Mr Pennington. ‘But I’ll find out for you.’

  ‘How long would that take?’

  The Secretary looked at his watch. ‘Couple of hours, perhaps. Let you know all we can find out about him by then.’ He hesitated. ‘I could ring up the Chief of the Civic Guard, of course, and probably tell you at once. But perhaps you’d rather not do that?’

  ‘It might be better not to worry them,’ said Warren considerately.

  ‘All right. Is he an official?’

  ‘I know literally nothing about him.’

  Mr Pennington nodded. ‘I’ll do what I can. You’re in the Hotel des Nations? I’ll look in there at cocktail time — about seven, and tell you what I can.’

  At seven-fifteen they were seated in an alcove with cigarettes and glasses of hulse, which is the same as the Greek ouzo. Warren poured the water into the clear liquid and watched the white precipitate.

  ‘Here’s luck,’ said Pennington. He drank. ‘I got a little on your man through the Embassy servants. He’s a nephew of Deleben — the son of a brother of Deleben’s wife.’

  Warren nodded slowly.

  ‘He’s quite a young man — twenty-two or twenty-three. He’s supposed to be an artist. He spent a year in Paris about three years ago. Does nothing in particular. Rather a pansy, from what I can gather. Keeps a mistress on the other side of the river, but I don’t suppose that interests you. Yes, he’s unmarried. Lives alone in a flat — unless you count the girl.’

  ‘That’s all?’

  ‘That’s all I can easily find out. We don’t keep any sort of secret service, or anything of that sort, you know. It wouldn’t do. At the same time — we aim to please.’

  Warren smiled. ‘That’s given me enough to be going on with.’

  Mr Pennington cocked an experienced eye at him. ‘I must say, you don’t waste a lot of time. This is going to be a pleasure to watch.’

  Warren spent the evening in infinite boredom, the first of several. He dined alone, and sat for a little time alone in the lounge. Then, the night being fi
ne, he strolled out into the main streets of the city. At eleven o’clock the city was just beginning to wake up; theatre and cinema crowds were going to their seats; the shops were all open and ablaze with lights. He paused for a moment outside a wide portal, all chromium and glass; from within came a sound of a dance band. It was a night club of some sort. Over his head a neon sign blazoned the one word, Gonea.

  ‘γυνη,’ he said. ‘It’s half Greek, this language. Woman. Not bad for a title. Says what it means. A trifle crude?’

  He went back to his hotel to bed.

  Next day he made contact on the telephone with M. Petre Vislan, and went to see him at his flat. M. Vislan came swaying to meet him, a willowy, dark-haired young man, with a pale, fleshy face, heavily scented. He was refreshingly direct.

  ‘My uncle has told me,’ he said in French, ‘that you must pay twenty thousand dinars, net — you understand? Without deduction for any other parties.’

  Warren made a rapid mental calculation. ‘If the entire business is completed,’ he said, ‘that would be possible. But it would be necessary that the order for the ships should be placed with my group. Apart from that — nothing. The business would not then be interesting to me.’

  The other waved a languid handkerchief, flooding the air with scent. ‘It is a difficulty, so my uncle says. M. Theopoulos is very angry, and he will not wish to disappoint his friends in Germany.’

  ‘It is a difficulty which we must get over,’ said Warren. ‘I shall expect your uncle to assist in persuading M. Theopoulos to place the order with my group.’

  The other sighed. ‘I will tell my uncle. But it is a great difficulty.’

  ‘Are you able to arrange a meeting for me with M. Theopoulos?’

  ‘I do not know. I will try if I can arrange a meeting. I will talk with my uncle. It is a great difficulty.’

  ‘When will you know if you can arrange a meeting?’

  ‘I do not know. Perhaps I can talk with my uncle today. He may telephone to M. Theopoulos — I do not know. Perhaps, this evening, we meet again — in the bar of the Hotel des Nations?’

  ‘That will be a great pleasure,’ said Warren formally.

  He spent the remainder of the day walking round Visgrad, infinitely bored. In the evening he sat for half an hour in the bar before M. Vislan put in an appearance.

  ‘M. Theopoulos, he is a very busy man,’ he said. ‘Two days — three days — perhaps then you will have an interview with him. My uncle has spoken to him by telephone. But it is a great difficulty.’

  Warren wrinkled his brows. ‘I will write formally to ask him for an interview,’ he said. ‘Your uncle will then be able to remind him.’

  ‘That you may do,’ said M. Vislan mournfully. ‘But M. Theopoulos is very busy.’

  Warren dined alone, wrote his formal letter, and went for another walk.

  Nothing whatever happened on the following day; he got no answer to his letter. In the afternoon he took a car to the summit of Monte Turcu, and sat for an hour over a glass of hulse, looking out over the city. He returned to the hotel, read a novel in his bedroom for a couple of hours, and dined alone.

  All day he had not spoken to a soul except the hotel servants and the driver of his taxicab. He was most paralytically bored.

  He went out to the Gonea.

  The tables rose in tiers and little boxes, separated by waist-high partitions, above the oval dancing floor. The place was only scantily filled; it was early. Over by the floor the band were twanging at their instruments, moving restlessly about, and shuffling their music. Warren settled into a small box at the back of the hall, ordered a coffee and a cognac, and waited upon events.

  He had not long to wait. Within ten minutes a slim, dark girl was leaning over the back of his box. ‘You look so sad,’ she said in French, with a mocking tone. ‘It is a great pity. But no doubt you would prefer to be alone?’

  He smiled. ‘It would be very kind of you to join me. I have spoken to nobody all day.’

  She slipped into a seat beside him. ‘It is the business,’ she said. ‘All of you Americans are the same. The business makes you grow so sad.’

  ‘That may be. But I’m English.’

  She rippled into laughter. ‘The English, they are the worst of all.’

  Spangles covered the black stuff of her corsage and her dress; her lips and fingernails were very red, her eyebrows pencilled black. ‘And you,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘must be Sicilian.’

  She pouted. ‘I declare — it is an insult.’

  ‘A thousand pardons, Mademoiselle.’ She threw him a swift, brilliant smile. ‘I am entirely deceived. From what country do you come?’

  ‘From Corsica. There is my home. In Sulina. You have perhaps travelled in Corsica?’

  He shook his head. ‘Mademoiselle,’ he said. ‘It would be a great pleasure to me if you would drink a glass of wine.’

  ‘Of a certainty. What wine would you prefer?’ She fingered the list.

  He smiled. ‘Mademoiselle, I would prefer that wine which carries the most generous commission with the cork, for this first meeting. Later, on future evenings, we drink lemonade.’

  She threw her head back and laughed merrily. ‘You are droll, Monsieur,’ she said. ‘The most droll Englishman that I have ever met. It would amuse me to drink lemonade with you. But for this first evening, we will drink French champagne.’

  A waiter appeared behind them swiftly with a bottle and the glasses. She stopped him as he was retiring. ‘Give me the cork,’ she said. He left it on the table with a smile; presently it was joined by another.

  She told Warren that her name was Pepita. In a little while they went and danced, talked for a little, and then danced again. Once in the course of the evening she left him for a quarter of an hour to do her turn in cabaret, a Spanish song and dance with castanets; then she came back to him, and they danced again.

  At midnight he went back to his hotel. She pouted as he left her. ‘It is too early,’ she said. ‘I declare — the English are so sleepy. This place is not yet alive.’

  ‘What time do you get home?’ he asked.

  ‘Five o’clock, usually.’

  ‘And then you get up in the middle of the afternoon?’

  ‘But no. At twelve o’clock. That is sufficient sleep for anybody but an Englishman.’

  She smiled at him, and he went back to his hotel to bed.

  He saw M. Vislan again next morning. ‘I do not think it is possible to do anything,’ he said, waving a scented handkerchief in languid manner. ‘M. Theopoulos is very busy. I think he will see you before long.’

  ‘I trust so,’ said Warren equably. ‘But I have other business to attend to; it will not be possible for me to wait in Visgrad unless it is possible for the business to progress. Tell your uncle that.’

  The other sighed. ‘It is very difficult. I will talk with my uncle, and I will tell you what he has said.’

  Warren went and had a cocktail in the English Club. ‘Not so good, today,’ he said in answer to a question from the Consul. ‘I’m trying to get in to see Theopoulos — without any very great success.’

  The Air Attaché smiled. ‘I thought you knew this town,’ he said. ‘This is Heartbreak House.’

  ‘I guessed as much,’ said Warren.

  He spent the afternoon asleep upon his bed, in common with the remainder of Visgrad. That night he went again to the Gonea and danced with Pepita.

  She told him, as the evening progressed, something about her life. She rarely spent more than six weeks in one cabaret. She had come to Visgrad a fortnight previously from Athens; before that she had been in Belgrade. She knew Istanbul and Cairo, Bucharest and Tripoli. She spent her life, in fact, in journeying from cabaret to cabaret around the Mediterranean.

  He asked, ‘Do you ever take a holiday?’

  She said, ‘I go to Sulina once a year, to be with my little one. I stay one week — two weeks. But you understand, it is necessary to work.’

  He n
odded. ‘Is your little one a boy or a girl?’

  She smiled. ‘A girl, of five years. I go in the spring or early in the summer. Then I can take her out on to the hillside, where the flowers are. We make little crowns of the flowers ...’ She broke off. ‘M’sieur no doubt would like to dance again?’

  Later in the evening he said, ‘You are perhaps engaged tomorrow afternoon, Mademoiselle? I find,’ he explained, ‘that one does not do business in Visgrad in the afternoon. I have the intention to take an automobile into the mountains for two or three hours — beyond Monte Turcu. It would give me great pleasure if you would accompany me.’

  She smiled. ‘To the high mountains? M’sieur, I would be enchanted. But it will be necessary that I return to Visgrad by six o’clock precisely, for my meal and for my rest. You understand, one must think of one’s profession....’

  She came to the hotel next day, dressed a little extravagantly in black and white; he took her in and gave her lunch. He found that she was known to many of the people lunching in the dining-room; from time to time somebody would catch her eye, and she would smile.

  ‘You know more people than I do, Mademoiselle,’ he said.

  She shrugged her shoulders. ‘It is the same everywhere. In Visgrad all the world visits the Gonea — the men, that is to say. It is so in Athens also, in Sofia, in Aleppo — everywhere.’ She turned to him. ‘M’sieur, I have said that I must return by six o’clock. But now, I have things that I must buy in the shops. Would it be possible that we should return by half-past five?’

  ‘But certainly,’ he said.

  She threw him one of her swift, brilliant smiles. ‘M’sieur, you are too kind.’

  They left the hotel after coffee, and went out to the car he had engaged. From Visgrad the road ran for ten kilometres across the plain, then rose swiftly into the mountains, first through the grey olive woods and then through pine forest. Warren sat chatting with the girl in the warm sun, content and at rest; the chauffeur drove them at an easy pace.

  In the middle of the afternoon they came to a small lake, bordered by a meadow of white flowers, the pine trees dark behind. The girl caught at his arm.

  ‘M’sieur,’ she said, ‘the flowers! They are marvellous! M’sieur, stop the car, and let me walk here for a little.’