After that, nothing seemed to happen until, suddenly, Harper and Miss Lipp came out onto the terrace from a window much farther away and walked down the marble steps. There was nothing purposeful about their movements-they were obviously just going for a stroll-but I thought it as well to get out of the way. If they were going to admire the view from the balustrade, I would be in an awkward spot.
I got down from the plinth and moved back into the shelter of the fig trees. Sure enough, they made their way round to the balustrade. When they turned to go back I was only twenty-five feet away from them. I heard a snatch of conversation.
“… if I took over?” That was Miss Lipp.
“He was Leo’s idea,” he answered. “Let Leo take care of him. After tomorrow, he doesn’t matter too much anyway. Even Arthur could do the rest of that job.”
She laughed. “The indignant sheep? With his breath you wouldn’t even need the grenades, I guess. You’d get a mass surrender.”
He laughed.
She said: “When does Giulio’s man arrive?”
“Sometime today. I didn’t wait. Giulio knows…”
I heard no more.
As soon as they were well clear, I went back through the orchard to the yard, and then up to my room. I locked the door. Geven would be free of the kitchen at any moment, and I did not want to be bothered with him.
I had to think about what they had said and it was hard to do so, because all I could think about was her laugh and the words she had used about me. I felt sick. There was another time when it had been like that, too. Jones iv and I had gone up to Hilly Fields to meet a couple of girls we knew. One of them was named Muriel, the other was Madge. Madge didn’t turn up because, so Muriel said, she had a cold. So there were just the three of us. Muriel was really Jones’ girl, so I was more or less out of it. I tried to pick up another girl, but that was more difficult when you were alone and I didn’t have any luck. After a while, I gave up and went back to where I had left the other two necking on a seat under the trees. I thought I’d come up quietly and give them a surprise. That is how I overheard it. She was saying that she had to get home early, for some reason or other, and he was asking her about Saturday night.
“With Arthur, too?” she said.
“I suppose so.”
“Well, Madge won’t come.”
“She’ll be over her cold by then.”
“She hasn’t got a cold. She just didn’t want to come. She says Arthur’s a little twerp and gives her the creeps.”
I went away and they didn’t know that I’d heard. Then I was sick behind the bushes. I hated that girl Madge so much that it was like a pain.
Geven came up and I heard him go into the bathroom. A little while afterwards he came out and knocked on my door. I had taken the precaution of switching off the light so that it wouldn’t show under the door and he would think that I was asleep. He knocked again. After a few moments I heard him muttering to himself. Then he went away.
I nearly changed my mind and called him in. I could have done with a drink just then, and someone to talk to. But then I thought of how dirty he was and how the stink of his body would stay in the room-the “perfume of the great unwashed,” as my father would have said. Besides, I couldn’t be sure of getting rid of him when I wanted to, and I had the eleven o’clock radio call to take.
It came at last.
Attention period report. Attention period report. Passenger for yacht Bulut arrived Pendik seventeen hundred hours today. Name Enrico, other names unknown so far. Description: short, stocky, black hair, brown eyes, age about thirty-five. Casual observation of subject and hand luggage suggests workman rather than guest of charterer Corzo. Are you able to identify this man? Important that written notes of all conversations, with particular care as to political content, should be made. Essential you report progress. Repeat. Essential.
The outside of the body can be washed of sweat and grease; but inside there are processes which produce other substances. Some of these smell. How do you wash away the smells of the inside of the body?
8
The morning call was a repetition of that of the previous night, and made no more sense at 7 a.m. than it had at 11. I got up and went to the bathroom. Luckily, I had had the sense to remove my towel to my bedroom; but Geven had left a filthy mess. There was gray scum in the bath and shaving soap in the basin. Patience was necessary in order to flush the toilet successfully, and he had given up too soon.
Shaved, he looked more bleary-eyed than he had with the three-day growth, but his mood was one of jovial aggression. Fischer’s complaints about the shish kebab, it seemed, had been loud and insolent. But the reprisal had already been planned-the spies’ dinner that night would be boiled mutton in yoghurt a la Turque. Fischer would learn to his cost who was master in the kitchen; and if he didn’t like the knowledge, well then, the spies could go on eating pig swill or find themselves another chef.
I had breakfast, got the car out, and drove to the garage for petrol.
Tufan answered promptly. I made my report about the overheard conversation first, editing only slightly. “If I took over. He was Leo’s idea, let Leo take care of him. After tomorrow he doesn’t matter too much anyway. Grenades… mass surrender.”
He made me repeat it slowly. When he started to complain that there wasn’t more of it, I told him about the map. I had guessed that this would excite his interest, and it did.
“You say it looked like a map of an island?”
“I thought so. The shape was roughly triangular.”
“Was it a colored map?”
“No, black and white.”
“Then it could have been a marine chart?”
“I suppose so.”
He said thoughtfully: “A boat, the chart of an island, grenades, respirators, guns, surrender…”
“And something that Fischer is to do today,” I reminded him.
He ignored the interruption. “You are sure this island had a triangular shape?”
“I thought so, but the map wasn’t absolutely flat. It was hard to see. It could have been a design for a swimming pool.”
He ignored the frivolity. “Could it have been kidney-shaped?”
“Perhaps. Would that mean something?”
“That is the shape of the island of Yassiada, where certain political prisoners are held awaiting trial. It is only fifteen kilometers from Pendik. Have you heard the name Yassiada mentioned?”
“No.”
“Or Imrali?”
“No. Is that an island, too?”
“It is a town on an island sixty kilometers from Pendik. It is also the place where Menderes was hanged.”
“How is that island shaped?”
“Like the head of a dog. I must have another report from you this evening without fail, even if it is only negative.”
“I will do what I can.”
“Above all, you must search for this chart.”
“How can I?”
“You can search at night. In any case you must obtain a closer look at it.”
“I don’t see how I can do that. Even if they bring it out again, I won’t be able to get any closer.”
“With binoculars you could.”
“I have no binoculars.”
“On the way back to the villa, stop on the road. The Opel is on surveillance duty today. An agent from the car will give you binoculars.”
“Supposing Harper sees them. How do I explain them?”
“Do not let him see them. I expect a report tonight. If necessary you will make direct contact with the surveillance personnel. Is that clear?” He hung up.
I drove back towards the villa. Just outside Sariyer on the coast road I pulled up. The Opel stopped a hundred yards behind me. After a minute or two, a man got out of it and walked towards the Lincoln. He was carrying a leather binocular case. He handed it to me without a word and went back to the Opel.
I put the binoculars on the seat and drove on. They were too big to put in my pocket. I would either have to smuggle them up to my room somehow, or hide them in the garage. I was annoyed with myself. I should have known better. Any sort of map is catnip to intelligence people. I should have kept quiet about it.