He glanced at the door. The shadow had returned.
They were playing a game of nerves out there.
Glass shattered in the kitchen. A door slammed. There was a shout, sounds of a scuffle.
Cash sweated, fearing he would have to carry bad news to Le Quyen, too.
Within a minute Tran steered a groggy, linebacker-sized gentleman into the room. He hit the man again, smiled Cash's way, started back.
And stopped, stared down the bore of an assault rifle.
Cash was tempted. Hitting the interloper wouldn't be difficult.
A cat yowled upstairs. A pair of the beasts hurtled downstairs, disappeared.
And Norm spotted a second man beyond the head of the stairs.
No point in gunplay, now. Too many automatic weapons around.
The shadow still stretched across the porch.
Where were the others? What were they up to?
Miss Groloch's shakes and moans took on the violence of a seizure. Fial's efforts calmed her not at all.
The man's emotional agony was so obvious, so deep, that Cash couldn't help feeling compassion. Compassion tainted by anger. The old witch was going to get off on an insanity plea.
There would be another feint before the real move, Cash decided. Something to distract them for one critical instant.
Neighbors who had known the man better than he had described Dr. Smiley as an excellent, unorthodox chess player.
He did the unexpected now.
He walked in the front door. Unarmed. With just one bodyguard.
Cash was beyond surprise. 'Good morning, Doctor. I've been waiting.'
If having been beaten to his prey had disappointed Smiley, he hid it welt.
'Norman. You're more efficient than I anticipated.' He was no longer the quiet, retiring, bookish neighbor. He had gained a commanding, frightening presence. His clothing, too, had changed. No longer was he the little old man in secondhand. His suit must have set him back four hundred dollars. He turned slightly. 'Stefan. And little Marda. It's been an interesting chase. Let me savor the moment. There was no chance with Otho and Dunajcik.'
Fial nodded slightly. 'Colonel. You, too, are more efficient than anticipated.' His hatred was palpable.
'Norman, we could get to butting heads here,' Smiley observed. 'But you should know that I'm invoking a prior claim. If you accept it we can work this out.' He glanced at his watch. 'Our goals are nearly the same anyway.'
'Afraid not.'
'Excuse me?'
'I could never want somebody so bad that I'd get a couple thousand people killed just to nail them. Like you did when you were Josef Gabiek. So I don't recognize your claim. Not here. You should have caught them over there.'
Smiley's face flashed several successive reactions.
'Yeah, we know, Dr. Hodzв. You just caught us with our pants down.' Cash was stalling, hoping reinforcements would arrive. That paddy wagon showing now would be like the cavalry charging over the hill. 'Now I have to arrest you, too. Suspicion of arson and murder. You have the right to remain silent…'
Smiley glanced at his watch, shook his head. 'You do amaze me, Norman. I never would have thought it. You seemed such an unimaginative fellow. But we're wasting time. These people are enemies of the State.'
Cash caught the odd intensity of the remark. 'So are you. Of my state. By the way, what did they do? I've read about some of the off-the-wall crimes you clowns nail people for over there. Conspiracy to defame the State. Jesus!'
'Who speaks for the State?' Fiala demanded suddenly, strangely calm. 'Agency Colonel Neulist? The man who destroyed his State's future out of wounded vanity? The man who is poisoning its past? The man who will, without doubt, be remembered as its greatest villain? Colonel, do you know
Smiley raised an eyebrow. Cash stared.
'He is Michael Cash's father.'
Norm's heart leaped into his throat.
'Yes. I know. Does that make him a saint? I'm no simple-minded peasant…'
'Michael is still in China, Colonel. Certain key events can still be aborted.'
Cash's mind was collapsing into utter chaos.
'You wouldn't.'
'You destroyed my future. What use to me, then, your past?'
'That great a treason… you wouldn't dare… would you?'
