Дональд Уэстлейк - Forever and a Death

“What risks you’re taking,” Manville said.

“At first, it was because I was angry,” Curtis explained. “That last year in Hong Kong, the bastards were squeezing and squeezing, they wanted me out, but they wanted everything I owned to stay behind. I fought the best way I could, I moved the operation to Singapore, I kept the business going with borrowed money while trying to salvage what I could from Hong Kong, and my anger at those fucking thieves got in the way of my caution. I overextended myself, and the only cure was to overextend myself even more.”

Manville shook his head. “Mr. Curtis, why tell me this? I’m sorry for the fix you’re in, I had no idea—”

“No one has any idea,” Curtis said, his face grim. “I’m risking a lot, telling you this.”

“You could deny it, if I tried to say anything,” Manville said. “But you know I won’t. I can sympathize with you. I know the Chinese broke a lot of promises when they took over Hong Kong—”

“As everybody in the world except for a few brainless British politicians knew they would.”

“But what does that have to do with that girl, down in cabin seven?”

Curtis thought about his answer, then said, “All right. The fact is, I have a way out of this mess. I am going to be rich again, very rich, a lot richer than I ever was before. But I have to be extremely careful, George. What I’m going to do is dangerous, and it’s illegal, and I have to admit it’s going to be destructive.”

“With the soliton,” Manville said.

“I was going to do it without you,” Curtis told him, “and I still can. I’m not asking you to be at risk, not for a second. But you could share in the profit.”

“Because of the work I did over on Kanowit? Or because of the girl?”

Curtis shook his head. “To do what I’m going to do I have to be able to move without being observed, without being tracked and trailed every goddam place I go. You saw how Jerry Diedrich showed up out there yesterday, as I knew he would, even though this was far from being a publicly known event. It didn’t have to be, it wasn’t illegal, and despite Diedrich and his simple-minded friends, it wasn’t harmful to the reef. But the point is, he was here . He has friends in my own company, clerks, who knows who they are, they keep him informed, let him know what I’m doing, where I am.”

Manville asked, “What does Diedrich have against you?”

“I have no idea!” Curtis was so obviously exasperated that Manville had to believe him. Curtis said, “He’s been after me since just around the time I left Hong Kong, and it’s me he wants, not polluters or environmental criminals or any of that, it’s me. Most of that Planetwatch crowd is off doing something about the ozone layer or some fucking thing, but he’s got this one bunch to fixate on me, he’s got them convinced it’s a crusade and I’m the evil tycoon that has to be brought down.”

“And you need to get away from him,” Manville said, “to do what you want to do next.”

“It’s ridiculous,” Curtis said. “I should be able to bury him under lawyers, clog him with money, but every move I make to protect myself just inflames them all the worse and brings another dozen volunteers out of the colleges and onto my tail. I need him off my tail, George.”

“Then why not have Diedrich killed?”

“Because I don’t know how.” Curtis grinned, with not much humor. “I’ve thought of it,” he said, “of course I have, but that’s not the business I’m in, George. I wouldn’t know how to go about it. I don’t have people killed.”

“What about here? What about now?”

“Death through neglect, death through... ignorance.”

“It’ll take more than that,” Manville said.

“I hope not,” Curtis said. “But in any case, it will give me the leverage I need to get Diedrich and his little friends off my back just until I get this done. A few months, maybe less.” Curtis leaned forward again. “George,” he said, “you’re a good man. You’re also a brilliant engineer. You could have your own business, accomplish... I’m not going to tell you what I have planned, but I will include you in the profit.” Then he leaned back and considered Manville, and didn’t quite smile. “I’ve mentioned your profit twice now,” he said, “and you still haven’t asked me how much.”

“It didn’t occur to me.”

“Ten million dollars,” Curtis told him. “That’s your share. You can have it right away, in gold, if you like, right after it’s done. Or you can wait a week or two and it will become nothing but a number in a bank account.”

“Gold?” Manville said.

“I’ve told you enough,” Curtis decided, but smiled to show they were partners now. “George,” he said, “I have to go up and talk to Captain Zhang. What do you think I should say to him?”

Manville thought. He knew that Curtis was telling the truth about it all; his current financial mess, the existence of a risky and illegal scheme to get himself out of the mess, and the ten million dollars that would be his own if he merely went away and didn’t say anything and didn’t make trouble.

The money didn’t tempt him, which surprised him a bit. His hesitation was caused instead by his fellow feeling for Curtis. The man had truly been mistreated and was truly in a bind. But a poor dumb well-meaning girl shouldn’t be murdered to help Curtis get out of his troubles, and that’s what they were talking about, after all. It was an escalation too far.

Manville sighed. “I’m sorry, Mr. Curtis,” he said, “but I think you have to tell the captain to take very good care of that girl, because if she doesn’t survive the trip to Brisbane there will be too many questions.”

Curtis said, “You’re sure about this.”

“I’m sorry.”

Curtis looked out the window toward the sea. “Well,” he said, “if she has to be kept alive, it might be better to get her to the mainland right away. We could strap her to a mattress, carry her along in the helicopter this afternoon.”

“Then I’d come along, too.”

Curtis frowned at him, showing some of his anger, and stayed silent for a long moment. Then he said, “You’re making an enemy, George. Not a good enemy to have.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Manville spread his hands. “It just isn’t something I can do.”

Another long thoughtful pause. He’s trying to figure out, Manville thought, how to kill me, too. Then Curtis nodded, briskly, in agreement or farewell, and got to his feet, and went off without another word for his talk with Zhang.

Manville sat on, looking out the window, seeing nothing. What a rotten position to be in. Well; what a rotten position they were all in.

He never did eat breakfast that morning.

A mistake had been made. Curtis understood that, now; he’d made a second mistake, while trying to adjust for the first. And both mistakes came down to the same error of judgment. He had gauged George Manville too poorly, dismissing him as just an engineer, which was certainly true, but without stopping to think what that meant.

Yes, Manville was just an engineer, and what that meant was, he had too much integrity and too little imagination. Dangle ten million in front of him — in gold, George, in gold! — and he hasn’t the wit to be seduced by it. First he has to take responsibility for the accident to the diver, a responsibility that was never for a second his, but which he assumed for himself simply because he was the project’s engineer. That unbidden, unasked-for scrupulousness leads him to learn the truth about the diver, which makes him a threat to Richard Curtis, to which Curtis responds by making mistake number two. Not taking time to judge his man, he tries to enlist Manville on his side, and tells him too much.