He became quite emotional, more so than I’d ever seen him. And he shall reign for ever and ever, I thought, looking at him. ‘Loyalty,’ he said, suddenly calm, ‘there’s nothing to better it, Michael.’ Loyalty to whom? I wondered, as if I didn’t know, but I grew shakier by the minute, as he went on: ‘I’ve been familiar with the Jack Leningrad Organization for a long time. In fact I was a founder member, you might say, but I got pushed out by a little piece of chicanery just after the war — when I wasn’t as strong as I am now — by that bastard in his iron lung, who at the time was all hale and hearty. The organization, you see, began early in the war, and I was the lynchpin and mainstay of it, because in those days the danger was great — we had the Germans to put up with as well as the British. In spite of the occupation of France and everywhere else, we had couriers travelling all over Europe, and sometimes to Soviet Russia. Our offices were in Lisbon, London, Gibraltar, Zurich, and Madrid, and how we got gold from one place to another is just nobody’s bloody business. And at times it was a very bloody business indeed, with our chaps getting picked off by British or German officers who considered that they hadn’t been paid enough to leave well alone. There was near damn-all profit in it at times. Still, business picked up after the war when we booted Churchill out — the only trouble being that I got booted out as well. Not that it was a bad thing, because it put more strength in my elbow to push other affairs along, and I made more money than if I’d stayed with the Leningrad gang. That’s years ago, and I’ll tell you Michael that in the last year I’ve had a mind to get the organization back into my fold.’
I was about to reach for another cigar when the canny bastard pushed them over. ‘The obvious way to begin, without using too much push, was to get a man in who could reconnoitre the situation. And this I did.’
I nearly choked on smoke: ‘William Hay?’
‘Right. You’re too sharp already. But he got nabbed in the Lebanon. At first I thought the Lung had got him picked up so as to get rid of him. But that wasn’t the case, because if they’d got him pulled in for that reason, they’d have had you in the same black hole of Beirut because he was the one who got you into the set-up. See what I mean?’
‘You’ve got me sweating,’ I said. ‘Internally. Blood.’
‘But they haven’t tumbled to a thing. You’re in the clear, my boy! So I can go on with my campaign.’
‘Why are you going back into their organization? Is there that much profit in it for you?’
He gave a great laugh. ‘Not a bit of it. I’ve got so much I can’t want any more and keep my self-respect. I’m doing it because I’m bored for an hour every day, and I’ve got to put my brains and talent to something, otherwise the capital investment will run down.’
‘And now you’re proposing that I take William Hay’s place.’
‘Oh, Michael! If only I’d had a son like you! As well as a daughter, of course! And now my fondest hopes may come true, because you might be my son-in-law. What more can I want?’
‘Things are looking up,’ I said.
‘They’ll look up even more if you tell me you’ll do it.’
‘What, exactly?’
‘Just keep me informed on who does what, and what they take where, and when. I’m sure that’s not too much for you. You’ve got the talent for it.’
‘If you don’t mind,’ I said, ‘I’d like a couple of days to think it over.’
‘Better and better. If there’s a thing that’ll ruin a man quicker than a loose mouth it’s hurry. But you realize that this conversation is so secret that to mention it anywhere would be a personal disaster for you?’
‘It’s engraved on my heart,’ I said. ‘But how would you break up such an organization as Jack Leningrad’s? It’s very tough and extensive, I might tell you.’
‘That’s my worry. I’ve got it all worked out. Say you’ll come in with me, and when I take over you’ll be my operations chief. You’ll have a house, an American car, a boat — and Polly as your wife — and I’ll tell you that you won’t get a better wife, or a better father-in-law come to that.’ His face grew hard: ‘With someone like you working on the inside of Jack Leningrad’s lousy set-up I’ll have his couriers disappear so fast into the nets of the law that he’ll wonder why God’s, turned against him. Then I’ll pay that paralytic a personal visit, I’ll smash his lung to pieces and watch him die like a fish on his own floor. So think it over, Michael. We’ll do great business together.’
‘Promise me one thing,’ I said, ‘and I’ll think very seriously about it.’
‘Anything,’ he said.
‘Find out where William Hay is, and help him.’
‘Done. Expect him back in a week or two. Don’t ask any questions, but welcome him like a brother and a hero.’
He offered his chauffeur to drive me home, but I wanted to walk, to stop the crazy spinning in my head by pitching my eyes against the night air. I hadn’t the least intention of working for Moggerhanger, even though it seemed against my own best interests not to do so. I not only didn’t trust him but I disliked him intensely. True, I was caught up with Polly, but the idea had been to go off and live with her at Upper Mayhem, where I hoped he wouldn’t track us down. I’d never had a father and I didn’t want one now. The idea of it made me sick. How could any self-respecting man want to laden himself with a father? Not me, certainly, I told myself as I walked along, rattling two silver forks together in my pocket, and smoking another of the half-dozen cigars I’d lifted from the box unbeknown to the all-seeing Moggerhanger. Even if I decided to give up my cushy job with Jack Leningrad, it wouldn’t be to get entangled with Moggerhanger, because his promise of an eminent career for me as a racketeer didn’t bode well for my head staying on my shoulders. And I knew for certain and for sure that even if I helped him to get Jack Leningrad back into his grip, he’d never in a million years agree to me marrying Polly. All his rhetoric about loyalty and standing by people who’d done him a good turn was nothing more than wind and piss. He’d kick me aside when he got what he wanted, and then make Polly forget me by having her marry somebody else.
I sweated at the thought of what she had told him. It seemed to have been quite enough for him to be going on with for a while. I wondered why she had done it, because such a thing wasn’t necessary in order to explain that we were in love and wanted to get married. My suspicions took me home through a series of nightmares, one being that Claud was already on the board of Jack Leningrad Limited, and was playing this bit of theatre only to find out whether or not I was loyal to the organization. Also, it had probably started months ago when he’d seen to it that Polly and I were on the same plane to Geneva, knowing we’d get acquainted on board like any two young people would. Even my socks were sweat-soaked. Maybe she wasn’t his daughter, but someone he’d taken from the club to work for him in this way. One minute I felt unborn, the next I was going crazy, and though I knew that these fantasies were mostly unjustified, the one about Polly being specially set on to me in order to get information for her father lingered and bothered me.
It was a relief, once I was back at the flat, to get a call saying I was to take a consignment to Zurich on the next morning’s plane. I was so locked in with thoughts about Moggerhanger’s proposition that I walked through the airport customs as if in a dream. Lines of weary people at the beginning of their holidays straggled from each counter, and I joined them patiently, obviously not one of them, almost expecting a smile of recognition and commiseration from the officials when I went through the eggtimer into the crowded departure lounge. As always, I looked for friendly recognition from some old acquaintance, for though in a risky situation, I felt exposed without friends, one fly among many but unlike any of them. There was a smell of sweat, tea, coffee, mildewed fag smoke, make-up, booze, boot-polish, and nondescript dust, and a scattering of displaced faces staring dreamily in all directions, tourist-agency labels fastened on their lapels. In spite of my nonchalant air and familiarity with the procedure of separation, I knew that in my heart I felt the same as they did. It only seemed in all truth that my heart was buried a bit deeper than theirs, that’s all, as I stood looking at them like an experienced traveller — though I wasn’t at that time to know by how much.