October Men

'Not directly, perhaps,' said Audley.

'Nor indirectly, professore.'

'You don't think the late Richard von Hotzendorff qualifies as a middleman, then?'

It was the opening move, and an attacking one even though it was mildly executed. Almost imperceptibly the big Englishman had come forward until he stood beside Boselli, while Richardson had drifted to the left.

'Richard—' Narva paused, '—von Hotzendorff.'

'Your little bird from East Berlin, Signor Narva.'

'And our little bird, too,' murmured Richardson lazily. 'Our busy little bird flying from tree to tree!'

Narva regarded Audley steadily. 'I was acquainted with Richard von Hotzendorff, that is true.'

'Acquainted?'

'He once advised me on certain business matters.'

'Her Majesty's Government is very interested in those business matters.'

Narva's lips tightened. 'They were private transactions, professore —transactions made in Italy between an Italian subject and an East German citizen.'

'Who happened to be one of our agents in the Soviet Union.'

This time Richardson's voice was curt.

'That was of no concern to me, signore.'

'But the information he gave you is of very great concern to dummy2

us, Signor Narva,' said Audley heavily.

'I find that surprising—in view of the fact that I last saw von Hotzendorff in ... 1968, it was. More than three years ago, in fact.'

'Nevertheless it still concerns us.'

'And it concerns the Russians too, signore,' added Richardson. 'Which is why Boselli's merry men are in your shrubbery. You should be grateful we got here ahead of the KGB, you know. They seem to be in a rather disinheriting mood.'

Narva stared at Richardson coldly. 'Whereas you intend to say 'please' before you ask the same questions?'

Richardson shrugged. 'We like to think there is a slight difference, you know. But if you're in doubt I suggest you ask Signor Boselli.'

'I shall do better than that.' The cold eye settled on Boselli.

'Under which of our innumerable ministries do you come, Signor Boselli?'

Boselli quailed at the thought of the Minister on the telephone to the General. Anything was preferable to that, even the most shameless falsehoods.

'This—mission has been cleared at the very highest level.'

'I don't doubt it.'

'We have promised the British Government our fullest cooperation.'

dummy2

'You have, perhaps. But I haven't.'

Boselli cleared his throat. 'Signor Narva, I assure you—I will take full responsibility—'

Full responsibility! The very words stopped him in his tracks. He had heard them before—the General happily bulldozed through his subordinates' doubts with them—but never, never from his own lips. Indeed, he had risen from nowhere to what had been until this awful day a comfortable and satisfying position by the judicious avoidance of those dangerous words, against which his instinct had always warned him—the same instinct which now groaned in anguish.

'Responsibility for the discretion of two foreign agents?'

Narva dismissed the grand gesture with contempt. 'My dear Boselli, oblige me by not treating me as a fool!'

'But I assure you—'

'No! It is I who will assure you, signore! It is of no consequence that you will not tell me to whom you are responsible—of no consequence to me that is. I know the man I want well enough.'

Boselli stared helplessly as Narva hooked the ivory and gold receiver from the telephone on the table beside him. Of course he knew the man he wanted; someone like Narva would be on more than nodding terms with half the government. What was surprising was not that he knew exactly where to bring pressure to bear, only that he had not dummy2

acted the moment the security men had invaded his privacy.

But then he had the reputation for being a careful man never given to precipitate actions, a man who waited until he had the exact measure of every danger, every opportunity. It had been an assessment which hadn't fitted Boselli's conception of an industrialist—one more appropriate to a peasant than a man of great affairs. But looking at this granite personality now he understood it at last, and despaired.

'Salvatore—' Narva commanded the receiver, '—get me—'

'It won't do,' exclaimed Audley.