Brian Freemantle - The Run Around

Behind the chairs at which the delegates would sit were arranged the accommodation for the support staff, serried rows of small tables already set out with notepads and blotters and a tub of pencils. The Palestinian negotiators were placed at the further end of the chamber, at one of the smaller cross-tables, and the Israelis as far away as possible, along the shorter section at the top of the room.

Sulafeh walked down to their area and again found a place already assigned to her. It was on the second bank of tables, directly behind the secretaries at the delegates’ shoulder, positioned for immediate consultation. Sulafeh found the device upon which the translation would be made, a plastic cone fashioned actually to fit over her ear. Experimentally she tried it, surprised at its comfort, and twisted the selector dial clearly marked in the various languages. None, of course, was operating. She looked about and located the translation booth, a smoked-glass box impossible to see into, deciding it would be wise to make herself known in the translator’s section.

In fact, it was important to make herself known to a lot of people, she realized. She went back out into the corridor, at once encountering a group of Swiss security men: two, she thought, had been on duty at the entrance that morning but she was not absolutely sure.

She said hello in English and they replied in English, too. She stopped and so did they and she said she was a member of the Palestinian delegation, needlessly indicating her identification wallet. She said she guessed security was always a problem and one of the men, blond and apparently in charge, agreed it was but of particular concern for this specific gathering.

‘Nothing can be allowed to cause any difficulty, now that negotiations have progressed this far,’ insisted Sulafeh, enjoying the sound of her apparent sincerity.

‘We don’t intend it to,’ said the man, furthering her amusement.

He asked if this were her first visit to Geneva and she admitted it was and flirtatiously the man said it was an interesting city with a lot to see and Sulafeh responded just as flirtatiously, saying she hoped to do just that and maybe find someone to show her. Dajani appeared from the door of their offices, further up the corridor, beckoning her forward and Sulafeh walked away, satisfied she had established herself in their minds just as she intended establishing recognition among as many security staff and permanent officials as possible in the lead-up to the conference, to reduce the risk of any spot-check challenge.

Dajani’s summons had been for her to attend the first briefing session from the secretariat Director, a man named Zeidan who had been with Arafat from the halcyon days of the PLO presence in Jordan. It was a pointless lecture, delivered only to bolster Zeidan’s self-importance. He told them to orientate themselves completely with the conference facilities and to minimize contact with the secretariat of any of the other delegations, to avoid the slightest risk of indiscretion or compromise. He concluded by assuring them that they were present at an important moment in Palestinian history and there was a mumble of agreement from the people assembled in offices which proved to be cramped when they were all together at the same time. Sulafeh’s lack of response was undetected in the murmur of general acceptance.

‘I guess we’d better discover where everything is,’ said Dajani.

‘I’ve already done that,’ refused Sulafeh.

‘Why not show me then?’

‘I’ve other things to do.’ From now on she slept with whom she wanted, not with whom she had to.

She’d noticed the kiosk in the secretariat building and returned to it, studying the available street maps of Geneva and finally buying the most detailed. She ignored the waiting delegation bus, walking by it in the car park and twice made a point of engaging in passing conversation with groups of security guards, to extend her automatic acceptance. At the check-point exit she went to the main guardhouse and pretended to need help understanding her map to ensure that the people on duty there would remember her.

Sulafeh used the pedestrian underpass of the Ferney highway which Vasili Zenin had already isolated as a barrier to his advantage and walked back into the city along the Rue de Montbrilliant which the Russian had also explored, earlier. She located the post office she was seeking on the obviously named Quai de la Poste, just across the Coulouvreniere bridge, but did not go into it because the planning decreed there were still three more days before she could expect the instructions to be delivered at the poste restante facility and it would have been wrong to present herself prematurely, remote though the risk was of her later being remembered by any of the counter staff. Instead she found a pavement cafe and ordered coffee, sitting relaxed with her legs stretched out before her, staring over the lake. Was the man with whom she was going to work already here in Switzerland? Or still to arrive? And what would he be like, physically? Different, she hoped, from Dajani, with his sagging belly and sour, uncleaned breath. Would it ultimately be necessary to sleep with Dajani, to placate the man? She did not want to but she would if it were necessary: she could always close her mind and her sensations to the act, like she had so often in the past.

Barbara Giles chose for a lawyer a man named Henry Harris because they’d attended high school together and even dated once or twice but halfway through the meeting she wished she had gone instead to a stranger to handle the divorce because although she supposed it was unavoidable she found the probing questioning embarrassing. Hot with difficulty she said her sex life with Roger was satisfactory and that she did not believe he had a mistress and that financially he provided everything she asked for, did not drink excessively and had never, ever, hit her. They rarely even rowed.

Harris, a ginger-haired, freckle-faced man whose college muscle had turned into indulged fat looked up finally and said: ‘So what the hell’s the problem!’

‘I wish I knew,’ said the woman, inadequately.

‘Barbara,’ said the lawyer, encouragingly. ‘You’ve got to do better than this. So far I haven’t got grounds for a divorce petition: I’ve got a nomination for marriage of the year!’

‘We’re just not interested in each other any more.’

‘You sure that’s true?’

‘Roger doesn’t appear to be, at least.’

‘You didn’t tell me his job.’

‘He works for the government,’ said the woman, producing the familiar cliche.

‘The CIA?’ recognized Harris, at once.

‘I guess that’s the problem,’ she said. ‘We’ve lived in all sorts of exciting places and now we’re back here and he’s got a senior grading and it should all be wonderful and it isn’t. We can never talk about anything, like all the other husbands and wives in the country talk about things. It’s actually like he does have a mistress.’

‘Thought about getting guidance?’

‘What can a counsellor tell me that I haven’t already told myself?’

‘I would have thought it was worth a try: it’s certainly a better idea than thinking of a divorce,’ said the lawyer. ‘Like I said, there aren’t proper grounds at the moment.’

‘What about disinterest?’

‘From what you’ve said, Roger isn’t disinterested,’ disputed Harris. ‘What exactly does he say about dissolving the marriage.’

‘That he’s willing to do whatever will make me happy.’

‘And will a divorce make you happy?’

Barbara Giles looked down into her lap, lower lip between her teeth. ‘No,’ she admitted.

‘You’ve got to work it out between the two of you and at the moment I’m not the one to help,’ decided Harris, positively.