Part 2 (1/2)
”We've a bit of live action for you, son,” Mr. Anderson announced, with great portent, as he tucked his cellphone back into his handkerchief pocket. ”No more sitting in a nice comfortable cubicle and listening to the world from a safe distance, I'm afraid. You're about to meet some of those ruffians in the flesh, and do a bit of good for your country while you're about it. You're not averse to changing your ident.i.ty, I take it? Everybody wants to be somebody else at some point in their lives, they tell me.”
”Not averse at all, Mr. Anderson. Not if you say it's necessary. Very willing indeed.” I'd already changed it once in the last twenty-four hours, so twice wasn't going to make a lot of difference. ”Who are we saving the world from this time?” I enquired, careful to conceal my excitement beneath a breezy manner. But to my surprise, Mr. Anderson took my question to heart, mulling it over before putting one of his own.
”Salvo.”
”Mr. Anderson?”
”How squeamish are you about getting your hands dirty in a good cause?”
”I thought I was doing that already well, only in a way,” I corrected myself hastily.
I was too late. Mr. Anderson's brow had clouded. He set great store by the moral integrity of the Chat Room, and did not care to have it impugned, least of all by me.
”Until now, Salvo, you have performed an entirely essential, but defensive role on behalf of our beleaguered nation. As of tonight, however, you will be taking the struggle to the enemy. You will cease to be defensive, and you will become' he was hunting for the mot juste 'proactive. Do I sense a reluctance on your part to go that extra mile?”
”None at all, Mr. Anderson. Not if it's a good cause, which you say it is. I'd be happy to. As long as it's just the two days,” I added, mindful of my life-decision regarding Hannah, which I was anxious to implement with all speed. ”Or three at the outside.”
”I do, however, have to warn you that from the moment you leave this building you will be deniable as far as HMG is concerned. If for any reason you are rumbled blown, as we say you will be abandoned without scruple to your fate. Did you hoist that aboard, son? You're looking somewhat other-worldly, if I may say so.”
With slender, well-groomed fingers, Bridget was coaxing my dinner jacket off me, unaware that, just a skull's width away from her, Hannah and I were nearly falling off her sofa-bed while we tore the remaining clothes off each other and made love a second time.
”Hoisted aboard and accepted, Mr. Anderson,” I quipped gaily, if a little late. ”What languages do they need? Are we talking a specialised vocabulary here? Maybe I should pop back to Battersea while the coast is clear and grab some works of reference.”
My offer was clearly not to his liking, for he pursed his lips. ”That will be a matter for your temporary employers to determine, thank you, Salvo. We are not privy to their detailed plans, neither do we wish to be.”
Bridget marched me to a dingy bedroom but did not come in. Laid out on the unmade bed were two pairs of used grey flannels, three hand-me-down s.h.i.+rts, a selection of Prisoners' Aid underwear, socks and a leather belt with the chrome peeling off the buckle. And beneath them on the floor three pairs of shoes, part worn. A mangy sports coat dangled from a wire hanger on the door. Divesting myself of my evening wear, I was again rewarded with a waft of Hannah's body odour. Her tiny room had contained no washbasin. The bathrooms across the corridor were occupied by nurses about to go on duty.
Of the shoes, the least offensive were the worst fitting. In a mistaken victory of vanity over common sense, I nonetheless selected them. The sports jacket was of industrial-strength Harris Tweed with iron armpits: push my shoulders forwards and the collar sawed my neck. Backwards, it locked me in a citizen's arrest. An olive-green tie of knitted nylon completed the dismal ensemble.
And here, if only for a minute, my spirits plummeted, for I must own straight out to my love of sartorial finery, my relish for impact, colour and display that no doubt springs direct from my Congolese mother's genes. Peek into my briefcase any working day and what will you find tucked among the written depositions, briefings, background papers and deportation orders? Glossy give-away magazines of the world's most pricey menswear, items I could never in half a dozen lifetimes afford to buy. And now look at me.
Returning to the living room I found Bridget writing out an inventory of my possessions on a legal pad: one state-of-the-art cellphone slimline brushed steel with flip camera one bunch of house keys, one driving licence, one British pa.s.sport which for reasons of pride or insecurity I always carry on my person, and one slender wallet of genuine calf containing forty-five pounds in notes plus credit cards. Obedient to my sense of duty, I handed her the last vestiges of my former glory: my dinner jacket trousers not yet run in, my Turnbull & a.s.ser bow tie to match, my pleated dress s.h.i.+rt of best sea-island cotton, my onyx dress studs and cufflinks, silk socks, patent leather shoes. I was still undergoing this painful ordeal when Mr. Anderson came back to life.
”Are you familiar with one Brian Sinclair by any chance, Salvo?” he demanded accusingly. ”Think hard, please. Sinclair? Brian? Yes or no?”
I a.s.sured him that, bar hearing him speak the name on his cellphone a few moments previously, I was not.
”Very well. From now on, and for the next two days and nights, Brian Sinclair is who you are. Note please the felicitous similarity of initials B.S. In matters of cover, the golden rule is to remain as close to the reality as operational requirements permit. You are no longer Bruno Salvador, you are Brian Sinclair, a freelance interpreter raised in Central Africa, the son of a mining engineer, and you are temporarily employed by an internationally based syndicate registered in the Channel Islands and dedicated to bringing the latest agricultural techniques to the Third and Fourth Worlds. Kindly advise me whether you have any problems with that, of whatever nature.”
My heart didn't sink, but it didn't exactly rise either. His anxiety was getting to me. I was beginning to wonder whether I should be anxious too.
”Do I know them, Mr. Anderson?”
”Know who, son?”
”The agricultural syndicate. If I'm Sinclair, who are they? Perhaps I've worked for them before.”
It was hard for me to see Mr. Anderson's expression because he had his back to the light.
”We are talking, Salvo, of an anonymous syndicate. It would be illogical indeed for such a syndicate to have a name.”
”The directors have names, don't they?”
”Your temporary employer as such has no name, any more than the Syndicate does,” Mr. Anderson rebuffed me. Then he appeared to relent. ”You will, however and I suspect I am speaking out of turn be given into the charge of one Maxie. Please do not on any account, at any future date, indicate that you have heard that name from me.”
”Mr. Maxie?” I demanded. ”Maxie Someone? If I'm putting my head into a noose, Mr. Anderson '
”Maxie will be quite sufficient on its own, thank you, Salvo. In all matters of command and control you will, for the purposes of this exceptional operation, report to Maxie unless otherwise directed.”
”Should I trust him, Mr. Anderson?”
His chin came up sharply and his first reaction, I am sure, was that anyone named by himself was by definition a person to be trusted. Then, seeing me, he softened.
”On the strength of such information as has reached me, you would indeed be justified in placing your confidence in Maxie. He is, I am told, a genius in his field. As you are, Salvo. As you are.”
”Thank you, Mr. Anderson.” But the sound-thief in me had caught the note of reservation in his voice, which was why I pressed him further. ”Who does Maxie report to? For the purposes of this exceptional operation? Unless otherwise directed?” Daunted by the severity of his glare, I hastened to modify my question in a manner more acceptable to him. ”I mean, we all report to someone, don't we, Mr. Anderson? Even you.”
Pressed beyond bearing, Mr. Anderson has a habit of breathing in deeply and lowering his head like a large animal on the point of charging.
”I understand there is a Philip,” he conceded with reluctance, 'or, I am told, when it serves him' - a sniff ”Philippe, in the French manner.” Despite his polyglot calling, Mr. Anderson has always considered English enough for anybody. ”As you are in Maxie's hands, so Maxie is in Philip's. Does that satisfy you?”
”Does Philip have a rank, Mr. Anderson?”
Given his previous hesitation, his answer came fast and hard: ”No, Philip does not. Philip is a consultant. He has no rank, he is a member of no official service. Bridget. Mr. Sinclair's visiting cards, if you please, hot off the presses.”
With a facetious bob Bridget presented me with a plastic purse. Prising it open, I extracted a flimsy card introducing Brian S. Sinclair, Accredited Interpreter, resident at a post-office box in Brixton. The telephone, fax and e-mail numbers were unfamiliar to me. None of my diplomas was mentioned, none of my degrees.
”What does the S stand for?”
”Whatever you wish,” Mr. Anderson replied magnanimously. ”You have only to select a name and stick to it.”
”What happens if someone tries to ring me?” I asked, as my thoughts went racing back to Hannah.
A courteous recorded announcement will advise them that you will be back at your desk in a few days. Should somebody elect to e-mail you, which we consider improbable, that message will be received and dealt with in the appropriate manner.”
”But otherwise I'm the same person?”
My persistence was putting a strain on the last of Mr. Anderson's patience.
”You are the same person, Salvo, recast in circ.u.mstances parallel to your own. If you are married, remain married. If you have a dear grandmother in Bournemouth, you may retain her with our blessing. Mr. Sinclair himself will be untraceable, and when this operation is over, he will not have existed. I can't make myself plainer than that, can I?” And in a more emollient tone: ”It's a very normal type of situation in the world you are about to enter, son. Your only problem is, you're new to it.”
”What about my money? Why do you have to keep my money?”
”My instructions are that '