The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carre

Author:John le Carre
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781101528754
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-05-12T10:00:00+00:00

Martello’s manner became both grave and confiding, a family solicitor reading a will to the heirs. “George, ah, at our request Enforcement here took a kind of a second look at the background and the record of the missing pilot Ricardo, and as we half surmised, they’ve dug up a fair quantity of material which till now has not come to light as it should have done, owing to various factors. There’s no profit, in my view, to pointing the finger at anyone, and besides Ed Ristow is a sick man. Let’s just agree that, however it happened, the Ricardo thing fell into a small gap between Enforcement and ourselves. That gap has since closed and we’d like to rectify the information for you.”

“Thank you, Marty,” said Smiley patiently.

“Seems Ricardo’s alive, after all,” Sol declared. “Seems like it’s a prime snafu.”

“A what?” Smiley asked sharply, perhaps before the full significance of Sol’s statement had sunk in.

Martello was quick to translate: “Error, George. Human error. Happens to all of us. Snafu. Even you, okay?”

Guillam was studying Cy’s shoes, which had a rubbery gloss and thick welts. Smiley’s eyes had lifted to the side wall, where the benevolent features of President Nixon gazed down encouragingly on the triangular union. Nixon had resigned a good six months ago, but Martello seemed touchingly determined to tend his lamp. Murphy and his mute companion sat as still as confirmands in the presence of the bishop. Only Sol was forever on the move, alternately scratching at his crimped scalp or sucking on his cigarette, like an athletic version of di Salis. He never smiles, thought Guillam extraneously; he’s forgotten how.

Martello continued: “Ricardo’s death is formally recorded in our files as on or around August twenty-first, nineteen seventy-three, George, correct?”

“Correct,” said Smiley.

Martello drew a breath and tilted his head the other way as he read his notes. “However, on September second—couple of weeks after his death, right?—it, ah, seems Ricardo made personal contact with one of the narcotics bureaus in the Asian theatre, then known as B.N.D.D. but primarily the same house, okay? Sol would, ah, prefer not to mention which bureau, and I respect that.”

The mannerism “ah,” Guillam decided, was Martello’s way of continuing to talk while he thought.

Martello went on: “Ricardo offered the bureau his services on a sell-and-tell basis regarding an, ah, opium mission he claimed to have received to fly right over the border into, ah, Red China.”

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