Read Online The Human Factor by Graham Greene - Free Book Online

that’s all,’ Hargreaves said and rang off.
    â€˜This is Maurice Castle, sir,’ Watson said. ‘He’s in charge of 6A.’
    â€˜In charge sounds a little too important,’ Castle said. ‘There are only two of us.’
    â€˜You deal with Top Secret sources, don’t you? You – and Davis under your direction?’
    â€˜And Watson’s.’
    â€˜Yes, of course. But Watson has the whole of 6 in his care. You delegate, I suppose, a good deal, Watson?’
    â€˜I find 6C the only section which needs my full attention. Wilkins hasn’t been with us long. He has to work himself in.’
    â€˜Well, I won’t keep you any longer, Watson. Thanks for bringing Castle down.’
    Hargreaves stroked the feathers of one of the dead birds. He said, ‘Like Wilkins I’m working myself in. As I see it things are a bit like they were when I was a young man in West Africa. Watson is a sort of Provincial Commissioner and you are a District Commissioner left pretty well to yourself in your own territory. Of course, you know Africa too, don’t you?’
    â€˜Only South Africa,’ Castle said.
    â€˜Yes, I was forgetting. South Africa never seems quite like the real Africa to me. Nor the north either. That’s dealt with by 6C, isn’t it? Daintry has been explaining things to me. Over the weekend.’
    â€˜Did you have a good shoot, sir?’ Castle asked.
    â€˜Medium. I don’t think Daintry was quite satisfied. You must come and have a go yourself next autumn.’
    â€˜I wouldn’t be any good, sir. I’ve never shot anything in my life, not even a human being.’
    â€˜Ah, yes, they are the best target. To tell you the truth, birds bore me too.’
    C looked at a paper on his desk. ‘You did very good work in Pretoria. You are described as a first-class administrator. You reduced the expenses of the station considerably.’
    â€˜I took over from a man who was brilliant at recruiting agents, but he hadn’t much idea of finance. It came easily to me. I was in a bank for a while before the war.’
    â€˜Daintry writes here that you had some private trouble in Pretoria.’
    â€˜I wouldn’t call it trouble. I fell in love.’
    â€˜Yes. So I see. With an African girl. What those fellows call Bantu without distinction. You broke their race laws.’
    â€˜We’re safely married now. But we did have a difficult time out there.’
    â€˜Yes. So you reported to us. I wish all our people when they are in a bit of trouble would behave as correctly. You were afraid the South African police were getting on to you and would try to tear you in pieces.’
    â€˜It didn’t seem right to leave you with a vulnerable representative.’
    â€˜You can see I’ve been looking pretty closely through your file. We told you to get out at once, though we never thought that you’d bring the girl with you.’
    â€˜HQ had had her vetted. They found nothing wrong with her. Wasn’t I right from your point of view to get her out too? I had used her as a contact with my African agents. My cover story was that I was planning a serious critical study of apartheid in my spare time, but the police might have broken her. So I got her away through Swaziland to Lourenço Marques.’
    â€˜Oh, you did quite right, Castle. And now you’re married with a child. All well, I hope?’
    â€˜Well, at the moment my son has measles.’
    â€˜Ah, then you must pay attention to his eyes. The eyes are the weak spot. The thing I really wished to see you about, Castle, was a visit we are going to have in a few weeks’ time from a certain Mr Cornelius Muller, one of the head boys in BOSS. I think you knew him when you were in Pretoria.’
    â€˜I did indeed.’
    â€˜We are going to let him see some of the material you deal with. Of course, only enough to establish the fact that we are