made it alone from then on. You also helped people escape after the Wall went up. I know all this, and itâs very admirable. But it doesnât give you the right to involve me on a personal basis, just because youâve done Humphrey a favour.â
âWhy not? Why do I have to play some silly charade with you about marketing results, when what I want is to talk to you as a human being?â
âBecause I canât,â she said. She felt suddenly awkward, rather than annoyed. âI canât talk to you,â she went on. âItâs not the way things are done now.â
âYouâre saying Iâm old-fashioned because I expect to be trusted? Not with information,â he leaped in before she could reply, âbut with ordinary contact â an interval between clients, telephone calls â a lunch when I am not on duty being convincing or funny or selling the agency to someone. No, I donât understand why you canât afford that.â
She didnât answer. There was an answer, Davina was certain, but at that moment she just couldnât think of one.
âYou make me feel rather mean and ungrateful,â she said at last. âBut you donât really need me for any of those things. You have a wife; probably girlfriends too. You should get what you want from them.â
âI do,â he said, and the smile was wide and mischievous. âWhat I lack is a little mental stimulation. And youâre a stimulating person. You challenge me; thatâs what I like about you. I donât want to know what youâre doing or what your work is. I want to talk to you sometimes, not behave like a dummy when youâre sitting next door. Is that so impossible for you?â
âMr Walden,â she said, âyou are being bloody. What on earth can I say to all that sob stuff except, âYes of courseâ? Well, Iâm not going to. Iâm going to go and spend twice as long as anybody else and get you the marketing results!â She didnât look behind her as she left the room, but she could hear him quietly laughing.
Harrington spent the Sunday rest day studying the duplicate of Colin Lomaxâs confidential report. He read it straight through once, absorbing an overall picture, refreshing a memory gone stale, with events in which he had played a major part. He didnât pause or bother about anything that seemed at variance with his experience. The details and the conflicts in the sheaf of typed papers could come later, and would take a long time to analyse. His mind darted along the pages like a ferret in pursuit of a wildly jinxing rabbit. His early contact with Davina â the clever bugger was wrong there. He had just tried to pick her up, that was all. Nice looking in a prim way, might be worth a quick screw â two lunches, a few drinks, a withdrawal when he realized she wasnât going to meet expenses, so to speak. Wise chap, heâd never tried it on. His Washington posting â he began to grin, remembering faster than he read. Heâd begun blotting his copybook, soaking up the martinis and the scotch at every official party, publicly lurching out into the night when everyone could see him. Those had been his orders. Get yourself recalled, and not to a foreign posting. He courted disgrace, and here the man who wrote the report had seen a glimmer through the murk of lies and counter-lies. That recall and demotion to a humble backwater in the London office brought him right into Davina Grahamâs path.
His orders had been to make contact. He laid the papers down. Heâd thought it was masterminded from Dzerzhinsky Square; he thought his own cunning act had brought him to Davina and through her near to the defector Sasanov. But now he realized it was two hands, not one, that had placed him in position. Who had ordered his recall, and who had sent him down to Personnel? His file would hold that answer.â¦
He went
âWhy not? Why do I have to play some silly charade with you about marketing results, when what I want is to talk to you as a human being?â
âBecause I canât,â she said. She felt suddenly awkward, rather than annoyed. âI canât talk to you,â she went on. âItâs not the way things are done now.â
âYouâre saying Iâm old-fashioned because I expect to be trusted? Not with information,â he leaped in before she could reply, âbut with ordinary contact â an interval between clients, telephone calls â a lunch when I am not on duty being convincing or funny or selling the agency to someone. No, I donât understand why you canât afford that.â
She didnât answer. There was an answer, Davina was certain, but at that moment she just couldnât think of one.
âYou make me feel rather mean and ungrateful,â she said at last. âBut you donât really need me for any of those things. You have a wife; probably girlfriends too. You should get what you want from them.â
âI do,â he said, and the smile was wide and mischievous. âWhat I lack is a little mental stimulation. And youâre a stimulating person. You challenge me; thatâs what I like about you. I donât want to know what youâre doing or what your work is. I want to talk to you sometimes, not behave like a dummy when youâre sitting next door. Is that so impossible for you?â
âMr Walden,â she said, âyou are being bloody. What on earth can I say to all that sob stuff except, âYes of courseâ? Well, Iâm not going to. Iâm going to go and spend twice as long as anybody else and get you the marketing results!â She didnât look behind her as she left the room, but she could hear him quietly laughing.
Harrington spent the Sunday rest day studying the duplicate of Colin Lomaxâs confidential report. He read it straight through once, absorbing an overall picture, refreshing a memory gone stale, with events in which he had played a major part. He didnât pause or bother about anything that seemed at variance with his experience. The details and the conflicts in the sheaf of typed papers could come later, and would take a long time to analyse. His mind darted along the pages like a ferret in pursuit of a wildly jinxing rabbit. His early contact with Davina â the clever bugger was wrong there. He had just tried to pick her up, that was all. Nice looking in a prim way, might be worth a quick screw â two lunches, a few drinks, a withdrawal when he realized she wasnât going to meet expenses, so to speak. Wise chap, heâd never tried it on. His Washington posting â he began to grin, remembering faster than he read. Heâd begun blotting his copybook, soaking up the martinis and the scotch at every official party, publicly lurching out into the night when everyone could see him. Those had been his orders. Get yourself recalled, and not to a foreign posting. He courted disgrace, and here the man who wrote the report had seen a glimmer through the murk of lies and counter-lies. That recall and demotion to a humble backwater in the London office brought him right into Davina Grahamâs path.
His orders had been to make contact. He laid the papers down. Heâd thought it was masterminded from Dzerzhinsky Square; he thought his own cunning act had brought him to Davina and through her near to the defector Sasanov. But now he realized it was two hands, not one, that had placed him in position. Who had ordered his recall, and who had sent him down to Personnel? His file would hold that answer.â¦
He went
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