World War Two Will Not Take Place (6 page)

‘I'll mention that.'

‘Do these interest
you
?'

‘What?'

‘Accessories.'

‘Thanks, but I'm going to be very taken up with business.'

She rose to go. They had been sitting in the birch and metal armchairs. She looked around. ‘A beautiful room,' she said. ‘The four chairs – this number is exactly suitable.'

‘I think so.'

‘Three was not right. The room lacked . . . lacked spirit. But now, a delightful wholeness.'

‘Yes.' What about five?

‘Great care should be taken when it is a matter of chairs in a room.'

‘
Great
care.' He walked with her to the apartment door. ‘I think it would be best if you and Inge let me do all the searching for him.'

‘Oh, why is that?'

Because if something bad had happened to Toulmin they shouldn't risk showing they'd known him well and often. There might be a search out for his acquaintances. Something bad could happen to them, too. Some of those ‘events' could happen. That's how the system worked in her country at present. Did she understand that dangerous concept, ‘guilt by association'? ‘Yes,' he said, ‘it would be best if I looked for him solo.'

‘Is there something unusual about your kind of business, and his?' she said.

‘Unusual in which way?'

‘Yes, unusual.'

‘Businesses do have some unusual aspects, certainly,' Mount said. ‘All kinds of businesses.'

‘Which kind of business is yours?'

‘Every business is ultimately about buying and selling.'

‘I'm a business,' she said. ‘Men come to buy, and if the price they offer is a fair one, I sell. I sell some of my time, and so on.'

‘That isn't how Sam Toulmin and I think of you. Or Inge.'

‘You have some of that quality I mentioned – tact. And
your
business? What is it you buy or sell?'

‘Some travel is often involved in commerce,' Mount replied.

‘Is it strange to have lights on so early? Is this meant to say you are here, or will soon be here, as it said that to me? Also for him? Perhaps it is not so easy for you to be in touch, after all.'

‘And I know where to find you – the Toledo bar,' Mount said. ‘I'll come and report anything I discover. But, of course, he might have returned to see you or Inge himself before then, on account of his congestion, and, because, more than that, I'm sure he enjoys seeing you very much.'

‘You don't like me visiting here, for fear of your neighbours forming an opinion? Yet, this call might be only to do with simple business details. I
am
a business, as we've just found out. Nothing has been bought or sold today, it's true, but I always have with me what can be sold, always, so this could have been a simple business matter.' She pulled the big coat around her, concealing the other clothes, as if to indicate that a business woman should be ready for all conditions, all weathers. A coat like this would be good for concealing some of Inge's accessories when visiting as a pair to cope with special tastes.

Olga left. Mount heard the lift come up and then descend. Almost as soon as the noise of it stopped, he found he wanted to go after her and repeat that neither she nor Inge should try to find Toulmin. Olga had seemed casual about his advice. ‘Oh, why is that?' she'd said in reply, as if he'd need to prove it would be dangerous, and hadn't proved it so far. Mount felt a duty to emphasize this warning. If he ran after her now in the street she would realize how anxious he must be. Although she knew something of what her country was like at present, she might not know thoroughly enough what her country was like at present. On the other hand,
he
, the professional, was paid to know what her country was like at present, and he had been expertly trained to discover what this and other countries were like at present and to record fully how they were.

The girls should not make themselves noticeable by seeking information on Toulmin, in case his absence did result from . . . from something dark. As her country was at present, it had become easy to make one's self noticeable in it. He felt protective, just as Olga seemed protective of Toulmin. People were drawn together for reciprocal help when a country was like her country was at present. And he believed his attitude to be simple, genuine worry about her and Inge's safety. It was, wasn't it? Was it? Of course, if they started getting attention themselves from the authorities because, connected with Toulmin, they might also supply a link to this apartment and to Mount, as Stanley Charles Naughton . . .

Despite Olga's queries just now on the lights as signals, and the nature of the business, she and Inge would have no real cause to think the apartment secret, nor Stanley Charles Naughton secret. Hadn't he told them his name was not confidential? Even without pressure they might talk about it and him, though; if they were pulled in as suspicious, there probably
would
be pressure.

But this concern for the apartment and himself came only second to his concern for the girls personally, didn't it? Didn't it? Did it? He hoped so. His thinking would be dismally selfish – dismally and ruthlessly job-based – otherwise. And damn cowardly.

By the time he had chewed all this over, he realized she might have gone out of sight in the street, or one of the side streets. He went down, anyway, and stood outside the apartment block looking for her. He could spot no long, dark, quarterdeck-style overcoat below dark hair. He realized he might appear a bit frantic, and therefore conspicuous. It was not wise to get himself or the apartment block noticed. Stephen Bilson would have roasted him for this kind of panicky, flagrant behaviour. Mount wondered whether his attempt to spot Olga and talk to her again was not much more than a token, anyway: he'd known he'd be too late.

This pathetic mental shiftiness made him think back to his earliest days in the spy trade. At the end of training, officers were entitled to see their assessment reports. These contained three areas of appraisal: Physical, Intellectual, Psychological. He could recall some of the phrases word-perfect. His ‘Psychological Silhouette' had said Mount liked sometimes to ‘make a show of moral concerns' as they affected his work, but luckily this was
only
a show and probably wouldn't mess up ‘his effectiveness in the Service'.

Did they have this right – disgustingly, blazingly right?

The silhouette had gone on to state that Mount probably was not cut out for the higher ranks in the Service because of his ‘excessive, unwise, compulsive self-questioning and enfeebling doubts', but might be OK ‘when rigorously supervised' at a middle or lower level. Without much relevance that Mount could see, the profile had added that he seemed ‘predominantly hetero at present (see, Physical Silhouette)'.

Was his concern for Olga and Inge only a show? Mount recognized that too much human sympathy could be a weakness in this career; could even have a touch of absurdity about it. You didn't join to help old ladies cross the street. And you couldn't put the welfare of a couple of Jerry tarts before the interests of the Service, even if the present interests of the Service did seem to him woolly and too hastily picked. The Service had its eye on what was comfortingly known as ‘the greater good'. That is, the safety and continuance of the nation. These did not come as the natural, God-given state of things. They needed looking after. Only if that safety and continuance were properly guarded could pleasant qualities like human sympathy have any chance. Put more starkly, ‘the greater good' meant the end might justify the means, and ends often did in this occupation. Only the ends came to be known about. The means usually stayed secret, especially if they were dubious or worse, and frequently they were.

On his way back up the stairs he met a hefty middle-aged, anxious looking woman coming down, most likely from a third-floor apartment. ‘You are another one who does not trust lifts,' she said.

‘I try to avoid them.'

‘May I ask you something?'

‘Certainly.'

‘It is of a personal nature. That is how it could be regarded.'

‘Very well.'

‘Pieces of a broken chair have been put in my bin and the bins of several others. Have pieces of a broken chair been put in
your
bin?'

‘I haven't looked.'

‘You should look, in case pieces of a broken chair have been placed there.'

‘Well, I will,' Mount said.

‘This is the second time pieces of a broken chair have been placed in my bin. On each occasion they are pieces from the same kind of chair. What is happening in these apartments if chairs of this type are being constantly broken and put into residents' bins? I do not want those who empty the bins to think I am always breaking chairs of a certain type.'

‘Which type are they?'

‘Birch and metal. Laminated.'

‘One would have expected chairs of that sort to be strong.'

‘The question to be asked is, are the pieces of chair put into the bins by somebody who lives in these apartments, or does an outsider bring them?'

‘I should think almost certainly an outsider,' Mount said. ‘It would be disturbing to think anyone in the building might do it. A resident should surely put the pieces in their own bin if a chair became broken.'

‘Or chairs. You believe someone, or more than one, would carry pieces of chair in the street and bring them to this apartment building?'

‘Perhaps not obviously pieces of chair. They could be wrapped. Other people carry parcels in the street after shopping, or on their way to someone with a gift, so that a wrapped piece of chair brought to the bins should not be noticeable. The bins are very accessible.'

‘But may I say what I believe?'

‘Please.'

‘There is a furniture shop not far from here.'

‘Yes, I know it.'

‘This shop has been closed down.'

‘Yes.'

‘For a long time. The reason is plain.' She glanced about, up and down the stairs.

‘Yes, plain,' Mount said.

‘Perhaps someone who bought chairs from that shop before it was closed down is now ashamed, even frightened, about that, and wishes to get rid of them in a gradual, secretive manner, so as not to be discovered owning chairs from such a tainted shop. It is said the shop will reopen, but this has not happened. Therefore someone who bought chairs from the shop as it was previously could not claim to have bought the chairs from the reopened shop. Dismembering the chair or the chairs would be a final solution. But, by putting these pieces in other people's bins, whoever does it might bring blame on those other people, such as myself, and perhaps you, as if
we
had bought the chairs. This is a disgraceful slur.'

‘There will be many theories about the pieces in the bins, I expect,' Mount replied.

‘Soon, there might be more pieces of chair in bins. Usually, people have more than one or two chairs in their apartment, either here or elsewhere, because of visitors sometimes wishing to sit, at least one chair being required by the host or hosts.'

‘An apartment without enough armchairs always seems to me to lack spirit,' Mount replied. ‘Great care should be taken in choosing the right number of chairs for an apartment.'

‘I don't think it is a matter for the police – not so far,' she said.

‘No.'

‘It might not be an offence to put chair pieces into bins. It is not theft. In a way, it is the opposite of theft.' She laughed a while at the contrariness of this. She had a large, oval face. Talking about her worries seemed to have calmed her.

‘I agree with your views about legal points,' Mount said. He could have done without a mention of the police – even a negative mention ‘so far' – but on the whole he enjoyed the conversation. It was neighbourly. It lit up the bit of staircase landing, otherwise dour, though carpeted hotel-quality in crimson. Spontaneously, she treated him as like-minded, part of a community. She had thick fingered boxer's fists and wide feet that would have given solid purchase on the canvas when leading with a punch, left or right. She wore pink rimmed spectacles and watched Mount's face carefully for changes of expression as they spoke. Some of her views reeked, yes, but she willingly discussed them with Mount, as if certain he would go along. From the job point of view, the content of what she said didn't matter, only that she chose to say it, and to him, in full, confiding style. He kept his amiable look on, occasionally increasing it to extremely amiable. There'd been no training on management of one's features, but Mount considered he had an inborn gift. It seemed to work now. For a few minutes they became friends. Acceptance. Everybody in his kind of work longed and schemed for this: integration, a spy's grail. During an utterly fortuitous meeting, she had at once shown him the ins and outs of her thinking: some of it obnoxious, some of it fairly sane. For instance, people
did
generally have more than one or two armchairs in their apartment in case more than one or two people wanted to sit down at the same time, the host or hosts requiring at least one chair for himself or herself or themselves. The logic of this was unassailable.

Back in his own apartment he sat alone in an armchair, though, and tried to do some planning. Of course, Olga had it hopelessly wrong when she said Mount should find it easy to check at Toulmin's office or home that he was all right. The girls couldn't ask at these places for fear of embarrassing Toulmin. Ditto. Mount couldn't ask about Toulmin at these places, either, for fear of embarrassing him, and embarrassing him far more severely than the girls: embarrassing him possibly to death.