Len Deighton - Mexico Set

'She's become protective about him. She thinks London Central are out to swindle everyone. And frankly, Bernard, you don't do very much to lessen her suspicions.'

'And what about you?' I asked. 'Do you share the suspicions?'

'If you were promising Stinnes the money, I'd be sure he was going to get it. But they're keeping you out of all that, aren't they?'

'They'll have to send me the money soon. They'll have to have it here by Friday or they can't expect me to get him on to the plane.'

Werner pinched his nose with his finger and thumb. 'Well, I'm not sure London will send you the money,' he said.

'What do you mean, Werner?'

'Your friend Henry Tiptree arrived here in the city. What would you bet me that he's not arranging the cash payment. They'll keep you out of it, Bernard.'

'Tiptree? How do you know?'

'I know,' said Werner. 'Perhaps it's just as well. Let him play his secret games if that's what London wants him to do. It's right what you said, Bernie. It's dangerous to carry a bagful of cash across this town. There are plenty of people here who'll knife you for fifty centavos. Plenty of them.'

'But I still don't understand why Zena is so keen to prevent me meeting Stinnes,' I said. 'We can't go on with this absurd business of me talking to you and Zena, and then you bringing messages back from Stinnes. It was all right at the beginning but now time is tight.'

'What difference does it make?' said Werner. 'You talking to him; me talking to him; Zena talking to him. What's the difference?'

'If Stinnes pulls out at the last moment. Or if there is some other kind of cock-up… and it's quite possible that something will go wrong… then I'd like to think it was my fault rather than yours.'

'It will be all right,' said Werner. 'But Erich is very nervous. He has enemies there in the office with him; it's dangerous for him.'

He was 'Erich' now to both the Volkmanns. I didn't like that; it was too personal. Better to keep a doctor-patient relationship in this sort of operation just in case it got very rough. 'He should have thought of that when he was vacillating,' I said.

'It's a big step, Bernie.'

'Yes, it is.' I went over to the air-conditioner. I held my hand in front of the outlet but the air was still not much cooled.

'It makes a lot of noise but doesn't work very well,' explained Werner. 'The Mexicans call them "politicians".'

'And if I have to finally submit to London a report about a cock-up, they are immediately going to ask me why the hell I didn't insist on seeing Stinnes for myself.'

'Erich knows what's at stake,' said Werner. 'He's an experienced agent. It will be just as if we were doing it. We'd make sure we got it right, wouldn't we?'

'He'd better get it right,' I said. 'He won't be able to go back to his embassy and say he's had a change of mind.'

'Why won't he?' said Werner. 'We've known that to happen before, haven't we? I thought that's why London were so keen to load him on to the plane and get him away.'

'London have thought of that one,' I said. 'As soon as they get the telex to say that we have Stinnes, they'll leak a story to one of the news agencies. It will say that we have a high-grade KGB defector who has been supplying information for some years. And the chosen reporter will even have some details of the intelligence that good old Stinnes is said to have provided to them.'

Now Werner pinched the cloth of his undershirt between finger and thumb and pulled it away from his body to let some air get to him. 'Erich Stinnes has never passed anything back to London, has he?'

'What do you think?'

'I'd think that's just London Central dropping him into the dirt so he doesn't dare think about going back again ever.'

'Fantastic, Werner,' I said with mock admiration. 'You got it at first guess. But for God's sake don't let Stinnes get wind of it.'

'Who came up with that nasty little idea? Bret Rensselaer?'

'Well, we both know it couldn't be Dicky,' I said. 'Dicky never had an idea.'

'Where do you want to meet Erich?' Werner asked.

'I'll have to see him,' I said. 'Face to face, and well before Friday. Today if possible. If he wants to confide in Zena, or anyone else for that matter, that's up to him. That's a decision I can't take for him. The information about Friday's rendezvous is for him alone, Werner.'

'You're going to keep Zena out of it, are you? Are you going to keep me out of it too?'

'You've done your bit, and so has Zena. Let's get it over with. I want to get out of this city. The rain and the heat… and the smell. It's not my idea of a holiday.'

'Zena's uncle and aunt are due back from their vacation at the weekend, so we'll also be leaving. But I won't be sorry,' said Werner. 'I'll never complain about Berlin weather again after this damned humidity. Three times I've had someone in to look at that air-conditioner and they keep telling me it's working fine. They say it's too hot outside for the machine to cope with it.'

I looked at him and nodded.

'Okay,' said Werner. 'I'll get you together with Erich Stinnes. He's going to phone about six. I'll bring him anywhere you want him.'

'I'll need to talk to him. Somewhere safe. Angel's body shop; that car repair place out near the Shrine of Guadalupe. Remember? It's painted in very bright red and yellow.'

'What time?'

'Drive straight in, through the workshop and out the back. There's a yard. I'll be parked there. Oh, say seven o'clock.'

'I'll be there.'

'No Zena,' I said.

Werner drank some lemonade. 'I've never seen her like this before,' he said sadly. 'She really likes Erich. She's worrying about him.'

'Keep her out of it, Werner.'

'Bernie. You don't think Zena could be infatuated with Erich Stinnes, do you?'

'You know her better than I do,' I said, to avoid the question. Or rather to avoid the answer, which was simply that I knew only one thing that Zena was infatuated with. And Erich Stinnes was about to take delivery of a quarter of a million of them.

'But do I?' said Werner, as if he doubted it. 'You never see the person you love, except through tinted spectacles. Sometimes I expect too much of her. I love her. I'd give her the crown jewels.'

'She'd like the crown jewels, Werner.'

He smiled without putting much effort into it. 'I love her too much, I know that. You're a friend; you can see it better than I can.'

'It's no good asking me about Zena,' I said. 'It's no good expecting me to understand anything about any woman. Whatever Zena feels about Erich Stinnes, there's not much chance that either of us will ever discover what it is. I thought she hated Russians.'

'She talks about him a lot. She kept one of those passport photos he sent to you. She keeps it in the pages of her own passport. I noticed her remove it when we went through immigration at the airport.'

'That's not very significant,' I said.

'If she ran off with Stinnes I'd die,' said Werner.

'She's not going to run off with Stinnes,' I said. 'And, even in the unlikely event that she did, you wouldn't die, Werner. You'd feel miserable but you wouldn't die.' I felt like grabbing him and shaking him out of his despondent mood but I knew it wouldn't work. I'd tried such measures before.

'When we left Berlin this time, she took all her jewellery across to her sister.'

Shit, I thought, don't say there's another Zena. But I smiled and said, 'Has she got much jewellery?'

'Quite a bit; some diamond rings, a three-strand necklace of pearls and a platinum bracelet set with large diamonds. And there's a heavy gold necklace that cost me nearly ten thousand marks. Then there are things from her mother; pendants, a watch set with diamonds and pearls. She likes jewellery. You must have seen her wearing it.'