almost as if he had blacked-up, like Jolson, but of course this disparity in colour was a souvenir of his recent skiing holiday.
'I hate that tune,' he said, 'but FrSulein Hartmann is always humming it and I couldn't think of anything else. Herr Gunther?'
I nodded, circumspectly, as if I had come there only reluctantly.
'Permit me to introduce myself. My name is K/nig.' We shook hands and I sat down beside him.
He was a well-built man, with thick dark eyebrows and a large, flourishing moustache: it looked like some rare species of marten that had escaped on to his lip from some colder, more northerly clime. Drooping over K/nig's mouth, this small sable completed a generally lugubrious expression which started with his melancholy brown eyes. He was much as Becker had described him but for the absence of the small dog.
'I hope you like a Turkish bath, Herr Gunther?'
'Yes, when they're clean.'
'Then it's lucky I chose this one,' he said, 'instead of the Dianabad. Of course the Diana's war-damaged, but the place does seem to attract rather more than its fair share of incurables and other assorted lower humans. They go for the thermal pools they have there. You take a dip at your peril. You could go in with eczema and come out with syphilis.'
'It doesn't sound very healthy.'
'I dare say that I'm exaggerating a little,' K/nig smiled. 'You're not from Vienna, are you?'
'No, I'm from Berlin,' I said. 'I come and go from Vienna.'
'How is Berlin these days? From what one hears the situation there is getting worse. The Soviet delegation walked out of the Control Commission, did it not?'
'Yes,' I said, 'soon the only way in or out will be by military air transport.'
K/nig made a tutting noise and rubbed his big hairy chest wearily. 'Communists,' he sighed, 'that's what happens when you make deals with them. It was terrible what happened at Potsdam and Yalta. The Amis just let the Ivans take what they wanted. A great mistake, which makes another war a virtual certainty.'
'I doubt if anyone's got the stomach for another one,' I said, repeating the same line I had used on Neumann in Berlin. This was a fairly automatic reaction with me, but I genuinely believed it to be true.
'Not yet, maybe. But people forget, and in time ' he shrugged, ' who knows what may happen? Until then, we carry on with our lives and our businesses, doing the best that we can.' For a moment he rubbed his scalp furiously. Then he said: 'What business are you in? The only reason I ask is that I hoped that there might be some way in which I could repay you for helping FrSulein Hartmann. Such as putting a little business your way, perhaps.'
I shook my head. 'It's not necessary. If you really want to know, I'm in imports and exports. But to be frank with you, Herr K/nig, I helped her because I liked the smell of her scent.'
He nodded appreciatively. 'That's natural enough. She is very lovely.' But slowly, rapture gave way to perplexity. 'Strange though, don't you think? The way you were both picked up like that.'
'I can't answer for your friend, Herr K/nig, but in my line of work there are always business rivals who would be glad to see me out of the way. An occupational hazard, you might say.'
'By FrSulein Hartmann's account, it's a hazard to which you seem more than equal. I heard that you handled that Russian captain quite expertly. And she was most impressed that you could speak Russian.'
'I was a plenny,' I said, 'a POW in Russia.'
'That would certainly explain it. But tell me, do you believe that this Russian can be serious? That there were charges made against FrSulein Hartmann?'
'I'm afraid he was very serious.'
'Have you any idea where he could have got his information?'
'No more than I have about how he came to have my name. Perhaps the lady has someone with a tooth against her.'
'Maybe you could find out who. I'd be prepared to pay you.'
'Not my line,' I said, shaking my head. 'The chances are that it was an anonymous tip-off. Probably done out of spite. You'd be wasting your money. If you'll take my advice you'll just give the Ivan what he wants and pay up. Two hundred is not a lot of coal to get a name off a file. And when the Ivans decide to keep a dog away from a bitch it's best to settle the account without any trouble.'
K/nig smiled and then nodded. 'Perhaps you are right,' he said. 'But you know, it has occurred to me that you and this Ivan are in it together. It would after all be a nice way of raising money, wouldn't it? The Russian puts the squeeze on innocent people, and you offer to act as intermediary.' He kept on nodding as he surveyed the subtlety of his own scheme. 'Yes, it could be very profitable for someone with the right kind of background.'
'Keep going,' I laughed. 'Maybe you can make an ox out of an egg.'
'Surely you admit that it's possible.'
'Anything is possible in Vienna. But if you think I'm trying to give you some chocolate for a lousy two hundred, that's your affair. It may have escaped your attention, K/nig, but it was your ladyfriend who asked me to walk her home, and you who asked me to come here. Frankly, I've got better things to polish.' I stood up and made as if to leave.
'Please, Herr Gunther,' he said, 'accept my apologies. Perhaps I was allowing my imagination to run away with me. But I must confess that this whole affair has me intrigued. And even at the best of times, I find myself suspicious with regard to so many things that happen today.'
'Well, that sounds like a recipe for a long life,' I said, sitting down again.
'In my own particular line of work, it pays to be a little sceptical.'
'What line of work is that?'
'I used to be in advertising. But that is an odious, unrewarding business, full of very small minds with no real vision. I dissolved the company I owned and moved into business research. The flow of accurate information is essential in all walks of commerce. But it is something that one must treat with a degree of caution. Those who wish to be well-informed must first equip themselves with doubt. Doubt breeds questions, and questions beg answers. These things are essential to the growth of any new enterprise. And new enterprise is essential to the growth of a new Germany.'
'You sound like a politician.'
'Politics.' He smiled wearily, as if the subject was too childish for him to contemplate. 'A mere sideshow to the main event.'
'Which is?'
'Communism against the free world. Capitalism is our only hope of withstanding the Soviet tyranny, wouldn't you agree?'
'I'm no friend of the Ivans,' I said, 'but capitalism comes with its own particular faults.'
But K/nig was hardly listening. 'We fought the wrong war,' he said, 'the wrong enemy. We should have fought the Soviets, and only the Soviets. The Amis know that now. They know the mistake they made in letting Russia have a free hand in Eastern Europe. And they're not about to let Germany or Austria go the same way.'
I stretched my muscles in the heat and yawned wearily. K/nig was beginning to bore me.
'You know,' he said, 'my company could use a man with your special talents. A man with your background. Which part of the SS was it that you were in?' Noting the surprise that must have appeared on my face, he added: 'The scar under your arm. Doubtless you too were keen to remove your SS tattoo before being captured by the Russians.' He lifted his own arm to reveal an almost identical scar in his armpit.
'I was with Military Intelligence the Abwehr when the war ended,' I explained, 'not the SS. That was much earlier.'
But he had been right about the scar, the result of an obliterating and excrutiatingly painful burn sustained from the muzzle flash of an automatic pistol I had fired underneath my upper arm. It had been that or risk discovery and death at the hands of the NKVD.
K/nig himself offered no explanation for the removal of his own tattoo. Instead he proceeded to expand on his offer of employment.
This was all much more than I had hoped for. But I still had to be careful: it was only a few minutes since he had all but accused me of working in consort with Captain Rustaveli.
'It's not that working for someone else gives me the livers or anything,' I said, 'but right now I've got another bottle to finish.' I shrugged. 'Maybe when that's empty who knows? But thanks anyway.'
