The Care of Time (39 page)
Authors: Eric Ambler
‘These days, Mr Halliday, everyone looks like a currency smuggler. You’d be surprised.’
‘What would you have done if I’d had a can of exposed film?’
‘Held it for examination. As you’d denied having it, we’d obviously have a right to be suspicious. We’d have figured that the tip-off had been given out of spite. If you’d been carrying film we’d have been pretty sure it was porn.’
The following day, Barbara called me to say that the air freight package from Frankfurt had arrived safely in her office with the can of film unopened and quite safe. I asked her to tell the producer so that he could have it picked up and processed.
He called me the following morning. ‘It’s great stuff, Bob,’ he said; ‘even better than the first part, but we have a problem.’
‘What kind? Legal?’
‘Not exactly. Have you heard from our friend Rainer since you’ve been back?’
‘No.’
‘Well, an edited version of the first part went out over Austrian network television yesterday. The impact was sensational.’
‘Good. Any reactions?’
‘Unfortunately, Bob, those people in the Gulf, the UAE, aren’t as pleased as you are. They’ve lodged a formal diplomatic protest in Vienna claiming that an honoured member of their federal council, your Ruler, was tricked into the interview and libelled.’
‘No one tricked him into anything. You’ve seen it. I just asked him a few questions.’
‘That’s what the Austrians are saying. However, it’s not the Austrians we’re worried about. They can look after themselves. Did you know that Syncom-Sentinel is one of
our biggest and staunchest subscribers?’
‘No, I didn’t. I thought you depended on the public’s generosity.’
‘We depend on what we can get. Syncom is generous in a big way. Which makes things difficult. They know of the existence of the second part of the interview, the one you kept back from the Austrians.’
‘And they don’t want it shown.’
‘That’s right.’
‘So, my bold producer, you’re going to come right out and tell them that no multi-national giant can censor you, that you have a duty to the public and that they can keep their lousy subscriptions? Yes.’
‘It’s not that simple, Bob. They’ve drawn our attention to an Agence France Presse report that came in last night. It says that His Highness The Ruler has entered a Swiss sanitarium. We’ve checked it out and apparently it’s not one of those places where they dry out rich junkies and drunks and then turn them loose again. It’s a private maximum-security hospital for the mentally sick, an expensive but very serious institution we’re told. It must have been the silver-mine hassle with the Austrians that tripped alarms in the Gulf. There’s also a report in from Abu Dhabi saying that a cousin of his has been appointed to stand in for this particular Ruler during what they’re calling his “indisposition”. If he’d been a king, I guess they’d have said that the cousin had been appointed to be a regent. But you see the problem?’
‘By showing this film now, we’d be persecuting a sick man who couldn’t defend himself. We’d be exposing a manic-depressive who’s not responsible for his actions and utterances, and is, in fact, hospitalized, to public ridicule and hatred. Is that it?’
‘Yes, and I’m sorry, Bob. You did a great job there. Too bad he turned out to be a nut-case.’
‘Yes.’
Barbara also thought it too bad. The show might have been
good for me, good for business that is. She was consoled, though, by Pacioli’s release from escrow of the second instalment of twenty-five thousand.
I heard nothing more from Schelm. That attempt to use his American contacts and the United States Customs Service to kill the Petrucher mine interview by seizing the film had been his farewell gesture to me. About three months later, however, one of the news magazines carried a story about Abra Bay. It was the kind of story intended exclusively for those who can read between the lines. Reports, it said, that discussions had been taking place in Rome between UAE defence officials and representatives of Nato concerning the possible preparation of Abra Bay for use as an emergency naval supply base had been categorically denied in Abu Dhabi.
At the end of that same month I received a picture postcard. The picture on the front was of the Gasthaus Dr Wohak. The message on the other side was brief.
The patron says that I may let you know that we are well. Perhaps, fairly soon, I will be able to write asking you frankly if such news of us is of any further interest to you. S.
The postmark said that it had been mailed in New York City.
It seems likely that, if Zander Pharmaceuticals are still in business, the next communication will be mailed in Miami. It should be here any day now.
Time is taking care of Zander, as it is taking care of me, steadily and, presumably, without much more fuss. His family, however, still has a long way to go. I am really not sure how I shall reply.
Eric Ambler
Eric Ambler was born in London in 1909. Before turning to writing full-time, he worked at an engineering firm, and wrote copy for an advertising agency. His first novel was published in 1936. During the course of his career, Ambler was awarded two Gold Daggers, a Silver Dagger, and a Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain, named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers Association of America, and made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. In addition to his novels, Ambler wrote a number of screenplays, including
A Night to Remember
and
The Cruel Sea
, which won him an Oscar nomination. Eric Ambler died in 1998.
Books by Eric Ambler
The Dark Frontier
Background to Danger
Epitaph for a Spy
Cause for Alarm
A Coffin for Dimitrios
Journey Into Fear
Judgment on Deltchev
The Schirmer Inheritance
State of Siege
Passage of Arms
The Light of Day
The Ability to Kill and Other Pieces
(Essays)
A Kind of Anger
To Catch a Spy
(Editor)
The Intercom Conspiracy
The Levanter
Doctor Frigo
The Siege of the Villa Lipp
The Care of Time
Here Lies Eric Ambler
(Autobiography)
The Story So Far
E
RIC
A
MBLER
BACKGROUND TO DANGER
Kenton’s career as a journalist depended on his exceptional facility with languages, his knowledge of European politics, and his quick judgment. Where his judgment sometimes failed him was in his personal life. When he finds himself on a train bound for Austria after a bad night of gambling, he eagerly takes an opportunity to earn money helping a refugee smuggle securities across the border. He soon discovers that the documents he holds have more than monetary value, and that European politics has more twists and turns than the most convoluted newspaper account.
Fiction/Suspense
CAUSE FOR ALARM
Nicky Marlow needs a job. He’s engaged to be married and the employment market is pretty slim in Britain in 1937. So when his fiancée points out the Italian Spartacus Machine Tool notice, he jumps at the chance. After all, he speaks Italian and can endure Milan long enough to save some money. Soon after he arrives, though, he learns the sinister truth of his predecessor’s death and finds himself courted by two agents with dangerously different agendas. In the process, Marlow realizes it’s not so simple just to do the job he’s paid to do in fascist Italy on the brink of war.
Fiction/Suspense
A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS
A chance encounter with a Turkish colonel who has a penchant for British crime novels leads mystery writer Charles Latimer into a world of menacing political and criminal maneuvers throughout the Balkans in the years between the world wars. Hoping that the career of the notorious Dimitrios, whose body has been identified in an Istanbul morgue, will inspire a story line for his next book, Latimer soon finds himself caught up in a shadowy web of murder, espionage, drugs, and treachery.
Fiction/Suspense
JOURNEY INTO FEAR
Returning to his hotel room after a late-night flirtation with a cabaret dancer at an Istanbul nightspot, Graham is surprised by an intruder with a gun. What follows is a nightmare of intrigue for the English armaments engineer as he makes his way home aboard an Italian freighter. Among the passengers are a couple of Nazi assassins intent on preventing his returning to England with plans for a Turkish defense system, the seductive cabaret dancer and her manager husband, and a number of surprising allies.
Fiction/Suspense
JUDGMENT ON DELTCHEV
Foster is hired by an American newspaper to cover the trial of Yordan Deltchev, who faces charges of treason. Accused of masterminding a plot to assassinate his country’s leader, Deltchev may in fact be a pawn and his trial all show. But when Foster meets Deltchev’s powerful wife, he becomes enmeshed in a conspiracy that is more life-threatening than he could have imagined.
Fiction/Suspense
THE LIGHT OF DAY
When Arthur Abdel Simpson first spots Harper in the Athens airport, he recognizes him as a tourist unfamiliar with the city and in need of a private driver. In other words, the perfect mark for Simpson’s brand of entrepreneurship. But Harper proves to be more the spider than the fly when he catches Simpson riffling through his wallet for traveler’s checks. Soon Simpson finds himself blackmailed into driving a suspicious car across the Turkish border. Then, when he is caught again, this time by the police, he faces a choice: cooperate with the Turks and spy on his erstwhile colleagues or end up in one of Turkey’s notorious prisons. The authorities suspect an attempted coup, but Harper has something much bigger planned.
Fiction/Suspense
PASSAGE OF ARMS
Greg and Dorothy Nilsen had wanted to go on an adventurous trip, but their cruise is turning out to be a bore. So when the gracious Mr. Tan asks Greg to go to Singapore to resolve a bureaucratic detail involving a consignment of small arms, Greg is surprisingly receptive. All he has to do is sign some papers, he’s told, and he’ll be paid a handsome fee. And everything does go smoothly, until it comes to getting a check cosigned by the rebel leader.…
Fiction/Suspense
THE SCHIRMER INHERITANCE
George Carey, former WWII bomber pilot and newly minted lawyer, was given the ignoble task of going through the tons of files on the Schneider Johnson case, just to make sure nothing had been overlooked. But as luck would have it, Carey discovered something among the false claims and dead-end leads that made this into more than just another missing-heir-to-a-vast-fortune case. And what he found would connect a deserter from Napoleon’s defeated army to a guerrilla fighter in postwar Greece, and lead Carey into a dangerous situation where his survival would depend more on what he learned in the army than anything he learned in law school.
Fiction/Suspense
STATE OF SIEGE
After a three-year stint in the former Dutch Southeast Asian colony of Sunda, Steve Fraser is looking forward to going home. But Sunda is newly independent, and a fundamentalist Islamic faction is set on overthrowing the provisional government. So instead of enjoying his last weekend in the capital, Fraser finds himself dodging bullets as well as the shifting loyalties of the coup’s lieutenants.
Fiction/Suspense
FORTHCOMING FROM VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD
The Ability to Kill
The Care of Time
The Dark Frontier
Doctor Frigo
Here Lies Eric Ambler: An Autobiography
The Intercom Conspiracy
A Kind of Anger
The Levanter
The Siege of Villa Lipp
This Gun for Hire
Waiting for Orders
VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD
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