Our Man in Havana Page #3

Give Capt. Montez another drink

and bring me the bill now.

You're right, engineer.

This is the best place for a talk.

Oh, keep the water running.

It's safer that way.

You make yourself comfortable in there,

and I'll tell you what we're going to do.

Keep your hands off me!

You are making a great mistake!

Now, if you touch me again,

I shall complain to the committee.

Am I interrupting you, engineer?

You are interrupting nobody,

Professor Sanchez.

Lopez.

You've been with me

a great many years now.

- We trust each other.

- Sure.

How would you like

to earn a bit more money each month?

Nothing to do with the firm.

Personal services.

I understand. I am discreet.

I'm not sure you do understand.

- I know a girl, she's just...

- I don't mean that at all.

I want you to keep your eyes open

and report to me on...

Well, on...

On what then, seor?

Forget it.

But there's no need to be embarrassed

in speaking to me.

How goes the experiment, Hasselbacher?

- Is the cheese still blue?

- I dream all goes well.

Reality in our century

is not something to be faced.

You've never felt the need for money.

But then you have no child.

Soon, my dear Mr. Wormold,

you will have no child, either.

The other day,

I was offered money to get information.

What sort of information?

Secret information.

You are a very lucky man, Mr. Wormold.

That sort of information

is always easy to give.

If it is secret enough, you alone know it.

All you need is a little imagination.

Have you never read advertisements

of secret remedies?

A hair tonic confided by the dying chief

of a Red Indian tribe?

There's something about a secret

that makes people believe.

But they want me to recruit agents.

How does one recruit an agent?

You invent them, too, Mr. Wormold.

- Have you ever heard of a book code?

- Don't tell me too much.

Do you think I should invent

and take their money?

They have no money except what they take

in taxes from men like you and me.

As long as you invent, you do no harm.

- And they don't deserve the truth.

- They?

Kingdoms, republics, principalities, powers.

Today at the country club,

I made contact with a Mr. Cifuentes...

an engineer who has wide knowledge

of harbour installations...

and all naval activities.

He will be expensive to recruit,

but should prove most useful.

Unfortunately,

my approaches were observed...

by Prof. Sanchez of the university.

And I felt therefore, for security reasons,

I should recruit him, too.

Teresa is a popular actress...

and extremely close

to the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs.

I kept the operation in my own hands...

as considerable tact was required.

My idea worked splendidly.

You've got it all wrong, Lopez.

- Good night, Father.

- Night, Milly.

What are you drawing this time?

You've made it look

like a mysterious new weapon.

I've started a new career.

Science fiction writer.

- And I'm illustrating my own works.

- What's the story about?

- Over the snow-covered mountains of Cuba.

- But there's no snow in Cuba.

They won't know that.

Lost over the snow-covered mountains

of Cuba...

a dashing pilot of the Cubana Airlines...

He'd better have a name.

What shall we call him?

- I knew a Saveedra once.

- Too fancy.

Perez. Pilot Perez.

Too alliterative.

Montez. That's what we'll call him.

Pilot Montez.

Just recruited

into the British Secret Service.

Montez looked down. What did he see?

Concrete platforms,

unidentifiable pieces of gigantic machinery.

Is it a rocket to the moon?

- May I borrow this?

- No, you can't.

I want it.

- Will you be a successful author?

- I hope so.

Could I have a pair of spurs

for my birthday?

Certainly.

What happened?

All the time we were drinking,

there was this.

- Have you called the police?

- For all I know, it was the police.

Three days ago, a man called on me

and asked me to work for him.

I refused. But he threatened.

What did he want you to do?

It was not a doctor's job.

- Do you know if they've taken anything?

- Some papers.

- Important?

- Nobody's life is quite clean.

You and I are different from the people here.

We do not have a confessional box

in which to bury the past.

But it's not all of this that matters so much.

A dream, I know that.

Fleming discovered penicillin

by an inspired accident.

But an old second-rate doctor

would never have such an accident.

I'm finished with the blueness of cheese.

They strike at you through what you love.

- Couldn't you start again, Hasselbacher?

- I suppose so.

But you see, I never really believed in it.

It was a dream. This is reality.

Just the same...

it was none of their business, was it...

if I wanted to dream?

- You've all seen these drawings?

- Pretty horrifying.

- Shown them to the boffins?

- The Prime Minister just asked me.

You know what these fellows are like.

They criticise points of detail.

You can't expect an agent to memorise

everything at a moment of danger.

- Hawthorne. Good flight?

- A bit bumpy over the Azores, sir.

I've been seeing the Prime Minister.

Our man in Havana's done a good job.

He deserves a bonus.

Those drawings have already cost a lot.

- Stroke Five gave a great deal for them.

- I never mind paying for results.

Take another look at them.

Do you know what the Prime Minister said

when I showed him copies?

What's that odd flower you're wearing?

It might have been an orchid once.

- Pan American gave it with dinner last night.

- What an odd thing to do.

What did the Prime Minister say, sir?

He said some of these drawings

reminded him of a gigantic vacuum cleaner.

I'm no scientist,

but this thing looks pretty big.

Makes you shiver, doesn't it?

It's not that, sir.

It was 92 degrees in Jamaica yesterday.

Your blood's getting thin.

It couldn't be a vacuum cleaner, sir.

Not a vacuum cleaner.

Fiendish, isn't it? The simplicity.

The devilish imagination.

See this one here?

Like a gigantic spray

six times the height of a man.

Why the umbrella?

Do look at essentials, Hawthorne.

Gentlemen, I think

we may be onto something so big...

that the H-bomb

will become a conventional weapon.

- Is that desirable, sir?

- Of course.

Nobody worries

about conventional weapons.

- The War House will want photographs, sir.

- They shall have them.

It's a very difficult area, sir.

I can't see how this new man, Montez,

got the drawings in the first place.

Government planes patrol all that area,

spotting for rebels.

Maybe I should go to Havana first

and talk to Stroke Five?

Bad security.

We can't risk compromising him now.

He's an untrained man, sir.

Then we should consider

sending him a trained staff.

You know, Hawthorne,

we owe a great deal of this to you.

I was told once you were no judge of men,

but I backed my private judgment.

- Well done, Hawthorne.

- Thank you, sir.

That one seems to interest you specially.

What's your idea on that one?

It looks like a...

snap-action coupling, sir.

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