Read Online The Light of Day by Eric Ambler - Free Book Online Page B

the door again.
    Tufan rested the file on his knees and poured himself a glass of raki. The flight from Istanbul was anything but smooth,' he said: 'we are still using piston-engined planes on these short runs.' He swallowed the drink as if he were washing down a pill, and pushed the bottle an inch or two in my direction. 'You'd better have a drink, Simpson. It may make you feel better.’
    'And also make me more talkative, sir?' I thought the light touch might show that I was not afraid.
    He looked up and his grey eyes met mine. 'I hope not,' he said coldly; 'I have no time to waste.' He shut the file with a snap and put it on the table in front of him.
    'Now then,' he went on, 'let us examine your position. Fürst, the offences with which you are charged render you liable upon conviction to terms of imprisonment of at least twenty years. Depending on the degree of your involvement in the political aspects of this affair, we might even consider pressing for a death sentence.'
    'But I am not involved at all, Major, I assure you. I am a victim of circumstances—an innocent victim.' Of course he could have been bluffing about the death sentence, but I could not be sure. There was that phrase 'political aspects' again. I had read that they had been hanging members of   the former government for political crimes. I wished now that I had taken the drink when he had offered it. Now my hands were shaking, and I knew that, if I reached for bottle and glass, he would see that they were. Apparently, however, he did not have to see them; he knew what he was doing to me, and wanted me to know that he knew. Quite casually, he picked up the bottle, poured me half a glass of raki and pushed it across to me.
    'We will talk about the extent of your involvement in a minute,' he said. 'First, let us consider the matter of your passport.'
    'It is out of date. I admit that. But it was a mere oversight. If the post Commandant had behaved correctly I would have been sent back to the Greek post.'
    He shrugged impatiently. 'Let us be clear about this. You had already committed serious criminal offences on Turkish soil. Would you expect to escape the consequences because your papers were not in order? You know better. You also know that your passport was not invalid through any oversight The Egyptian Government had refused to renew it. In fact they revoked your citizenship two years ago on the grounds that you made false statements on your naturalization papers.' He glanced in the file. 'You stated that you had never been convicted of a criminal offence and that you had never served a prison sentence. Both statements were lies.'
    This was such an unfair distortion of the facts that I could only assume that he had got it from the Egyptians. I said: 'I have been fighting that decision.'
    'And also using a passport to which you were not entitled and had failed to surrender,'
    'My case was still sub judice. Anyway, I have already applied for restoration of my British citizenship, to which I am entitled as the son of a serving British officer. In fact, I am British.'                                                                   ‘ The British don't take that view. After what happened you can scarcely blame them.'
    ‘U nder the provisions of the British Nationality Act of nineteen-forty-eight I remain British unless I have specifically renounced that nationality. I have never formally renounced it.'                                                                      'That is unimportant. We are talking about your case j here and the extent of your involvement. The point I wish to make is that our action in your case is not going to be governed in any way by the fact that you are a foreigner. No consul is going to intercede on your behalf. You have none. You are stateless. The only person who can help you is my