Agatha Christie - Passenger to Frankfurt

'Miss Neumann will take care of you,' the Scotch woman said.

'Thank you, Janet,' said Miss Neumann. 'Take care that the fireplaces are lighted in all the rooms.'

'I will.'

Lord Altamount shook her hand.

'Good evening, Miss Neumann.'

'Good evening, Lord Altamount. I hope the jourey wasn't too tiring.'

'The flight was very good. This is Colonel Munro, Miss Neumann. This is Mr Robinson, Sir James Kleek and Mr Horsham, from Security.'

'I remember Mr Horsham from many years ago.'

'I haven't forgotten either,' said Henry Horsham. 'It was at the Leveson Foundation. At the time you were, I believe, already Proffesor Shoreham's secretary?'

'I was first his assistant in the laboratory, and afterwards his secretary. I am still, as far as he needs one, his secretary. He also has to have a hospital nurse living here more or less permanently. There have to be changes from time to time — Miss Ellis who is here now took over from Miss Bude only two days ago. I have suggested that she should stay near at hand to the room in which we ourselves shall be. I thought you would prefer privacy, but that she ought not to be out of call in case she was needed.'

'Is he in very bad health?' asked Colonel Munro.

'He doesn't actually suffer,' said Miss Neumann, 'but you must prepare yourself, if you have not seen him, that is, for a long time. He is only what is left of a man.'

'Just one moment before you take us to him. His mental processes are not too badly depleted? He can understand what one says to him?'

'Oh, yes, he can understand perfectly, but as he is semi-paralysed, he is unable to speak with much clarity, though that varies, and is unable to walk without help. His brain, in my opinion, is as good as ever it was. The only difference is that he tires very easily now. Now, would you like some refreshment first?'

'No,' said Lord Altamount. 'No, I don't want to wait. This is a rather urgent matter on which we have come, so if you will take us to him now — he expects us, I understand?'

'He expects you, yes,' said Lisa Neumann.

She led the way up some stairs, along a corridor and opened a room of medium size. It had tapestries on the wall, the heads of stags looked down on them, the place had been a one-time shooting-box. It had been little changed in its furnishing or arrangements. There was a big record-player on one side of the room.

The tall man sat in a chair by the fire. His head trembled a little, so did his left hand. The skin of his face was pulled down one side. Without beating about the bush, one could only describe him one way, as a wreck of a man. A man who had once been tall, sturdy, strong. He had a fine forehead, deep-set eyes, and a rugged, determined-looking chin. The eyes, below the heavy eyebrows, were intelligent. He said something. His voice was not weak, it made fairly clear sounds but not always recognizable ones. The faculty of speech had only partly gone from him, he was still understandable.

Lisa Neumann went to stand by him, watching his lips, so that she could interpret what he said if necessary.

'Professor Shoreham welcomes you. He is very pleased to see you here. Lord Altamount, Colonel Munro, Sir James Kleek, Mr Robinson and Mr Horsham. He would like me to tell you that his hearing is reasonably good. Anything you say to him he will be able to hear. If there is any difficulty I can assist. What he wants to say to you he will be able to transmit through me. If he gets too tired to articulate, I can lip-read and we also converse in a perfected sign language if there is any difficulty.'

'I shall try,' said Colonel Munro, 'not to waste your time and to tire you as little as possible, Professor Shoreham.'

The man in the chair bent his head in recognition of the words.

'Some questions I can ask of Miss Neumann.'

Shoreham's hand went out in a faint gesture towards the woman standing by his side. Sounds came from his lips, again not quite recognizable to them, but she translated quickly.

'He says he can depend on me to transcribe anything you wish to say to him or I to you.'

'You have, I think, already received a letter from me,' said Colonel Munro.

'That is so,' said Miss Neumann. 'Professor Shoreham received your letter and knows its contents.'

A hospital nurse opened the door just a crack — but she did not come in. She spoke in a low whisper:

'Is there anything I can get or do, Miss Neumann? For any of the guests or for Professor Shoreham?'

'I don't think there is anything, thank you, Miss Ellis. I should be glad, though, if you could stay in your sitting-room just along the passage, in case we should need anything.'

'Certainly — I quite understand.' She went away, closing the door softly. 'We don't want to lose time,' said Colonel Munro, 'No doubt Professor Shoreham is in tune with current issues.'

'Entirely so,' said Miss Neumann, 'as far as he is interested.'

'Does he keep in touch with scientific advancements and such things?'

Robert Shoreham's head shook slightly from side to side.

He himself answered.

'I have finished with all that.'

'But you know roughly the state the world is in? The success of what is called the Revolution of Youth. The seizing of power by youthful fully-equipped forces.'

Miss Neumann said, 'He is in touch entirely with everything that is going on — in a political sense, that is.'

'The world is now given over to violence, pain, revolutionary tenets, a strange and incredible philosophy of rule by an anarchic minority.'

A faint look of impatience went across the gaunt face.

'He knows all that,' said Mr Robinson, speaking unexpectedly. 'No need to go over a lot of things again. He's a man who knows everything.'

He said:

'Do you remember Admiral Blunt?'

Again the head bowed. Something like a smile showed on the twisted lips.

'Admiral Blunt remembered some scientific work you had done on a certain project — I think project is what you call these things? Project Benvo.'

They saw the alert look which came into the eyes.

'Project Benvo,' said Miss Neumann. 'You are going back quite a long time, Mr Robinson, to recall that.'

'It was your project, wasn't it?' said Mr Robinson.

'Yes, it was his project.' Miss Neumann now spoke more easily for him, as a matter of course.

'We cannot use nuclear weapons, we cannot use explosives or gas or chemistry, but your project, Project Benvo, we could use.'

There was silence and nobody spoke. And then again the queer distorted sounds came from Professor Shoreham's lips.

'He says, of course,' said Miss Neumann, 'Benvo could be used successfully in the circumstances in which we find ourselves –'

The man in the chair had turned to her and was saying something to her.

'He wants me to explain it to you,' said Miss Neumann. 'Project B, later called Project Benvo, was something that he worked upon for many years but which at last he laid aside for reasons of his own.'

'Because he had failed to make his project materialize?'

'No, he had not failed,' said Lisa Neumann. 'We had not failed. I worked with him on this project. He laid it aside for certain reasons, but he did not fail. He succeeded. He was on the right track, he developed it, he tested it in various laboratory experiments, and it worked.' She turned to Professor Shoreham again, made a few gestures with her hand, touching her lips, ear, mouth in a strange kind of code signal.

'I am asking if he wants me to explain just what Benvo does.'

'We do want you to explain.'

'And he wants to know how you learnt about it.'

'We learnt about it,' said Colonel Munro, 'through an old friend of yours, Professor Shoreham. Not Admiral Blunt, he could not remember very much, but the other person to whom you had once spoken about it, Lady Matilda Cleckheaton.'