Our Man in Havana Page #6

A man with a stammer.

It is very distinctive.

- Hello.

- Did you get hold of Wormold?

I shall accept your word for the time being.

Let us see how it holds up

at the next meeting.

Do you play chequers, Mr. Wormold?

Not very well.

In chequers one must move more carefully

than you have tonight.

You needn't have given your word

of honour. You didn't have to go that far.

It was professional of you.

I know I'm being unreasonable...

but you're more professional

than I even believed you were.

And Dr. Hasselbacher,

he's professional too.

- The best friend you ever had.

- I don't condemn a friend unheard.

Have you been to a fancy dress dance,

Hasselbacher?

I suppose

this uniform does need an explanation.

Other things need one more.

I want to know who Montez was.

- You know already.

- I have no idea.

How long have you

been reading Shakespeare in that form...

without the poetry?

Only since Milly's birthday party.

You remember how she talked?

They gave me copies of your cables.

- You've been very careless, Mr. Wormold.

- There was nothing in them that mattered.

So I believed.

I would not have agreed

to cooperate with them otherwise.

- Who are they?

- They do not introduce themselves.

The people who tore up my laboratory

and stole my papers.

Had they reported me to the police,

they could have deported me.

How was I to know

that what I decoded for them was true?

You advised me to invent and I invented.

So far as I'm concerned,

Montez was an invention.

Then you invented him too well.

He was no more real to me

than a character in a novel.

His name was real enough,

and his profession.

He denied working for you.

They offered him a great deal of money

if he would work for them instead.

They, too, wanted photographs

of the constructions in the mountains.

- There are no constructions.

- So I thought.

But the British Secret Service

would not be so easily deceived.

Neither will other people here.

Why didn't you stick to invention?

I don't even know...

why I picked on the name of Montez.

I would have loaned you money.

I offered to.

- I needed more than you could lend.

- It needs no skill to kill a man.

But to save a man,

that takes six years of training...

and then one cannot be sure.

There is not one patient

that I know for certain that I have saved.

But the man I killed, I know him.

Why dress up as a soldier?

I was not dressed this way

when I killed a man.

I was dressed as a doctor

and I was reading Charles Lamb.

Mr. Wormold, I just want you identified.

Hello, Teresa.

That's him. I recognise him perfectly.

A disgraceful scene.

There was no need

for you to send your men to fetch us.

Mr. Wormold,

you're playing the wrong character.

It is I who am the injured party.

Yesterday you gave me your word of honour

that you did not know Capt. Montez.

I repeat it.

I've never set eyes on him in my life.

It's a lie! He drank with Capt. Montez and

myself on the terrace of the country club.

He pressed his attentions on us.

He wanted to speak to me privately

and he followed me to the washroom.

He left the pilot sitting at the table

on the terrace.

That will be all.

As long as you remain indoors,

you'll be safe. Take her with you.

The country club?

There was a man in uniform.

How did you make the engineer talk?

Thumbscrews?

The engineer does not belong

to the torturable class.

Are there class distinctions in torture?

Some people expect to be tortured.

Others are outraged by it.

One never tortures

except by mutual agreement.

- Who agrees?

- Usually the poor.

In your welfare state

you have social security...

therefore you have no poor.

Consequently there you are untorturable.

- I may have said something to him.

- What did you say, Mr. Wormold?

I said I might have spoken to him.

What does that prove?

I do not have to prove anything,

Mr. Wormold.

It is my job

to know what goes on in Havana.

This is a deportation order, Mr. Wormold.

The names are not filled in yet.

Because you have no evidence.

Because Havana would be poorer

without your daughter.

But if I'm to do something to protect you,

you must do something in return.

- What?

- You must be my agent.

- But you're crazy!

- I'm not interested in your employers.

But the information you supply to them,

you will also supply to me.

But this is all rubbish.

There will, of course, be adequate funds

deposited to your bank account.

What?

She's a good shot,

our lady of the soda water.

I don't want to leave Havana,

Captain Segura.

Perhaps you can persuade Mr. Wormold.

One day I'll beat you at that damn game.

I doubt it, Mr. Wormold.

Mr. Wormold. A cable.

I'll take it. Mr. Wormold's busy.

A cable from Hawthorne in Jamaica.

"Report here immediately to 59200

on grave personal matter."

- Had a good trip?

- Not very.

I asked you to come over

because there's a spot of bother.

- About those constructions.

- I tried to get the photographs...

I was rather suspicious.

Frankly, they reminded me

of parts of a vacuum cleaner.

That struck me, too.

Because, I remembered

all those thingummies in your shop.

Midget Make-easy, snap-action coupling

and all that Atomic nonsense.

I knew it seems fantastic now.

You mean you thought that I had tried

to pull the leg of the Secret Service?

That did occur to me...

until I found the others

had made up their minds to murder you.

Have a planter's punch,

they're very good here.

Did you say murder me?

That really proves the drawings are genuine.

- Who is going to murder me?

- We'll come to that.

Next to having photographs...

one couldn't possibly

have a better confirmation of your reports.

I think you'll like that.

Would you mind telling me

who is going to murder me and how?

It interests me personally.

Well, actually, they plan to poison you

at a business lunch.

European Traders,

or something of the sort.

How do you know all this?

We penetrated their organisation here.

In a way, you know, it's a compliment.

You're dangerous now.

- I suppose I'd better not go.

- Of course you must go.

If you don't, you put my source in danger.

You needn't eat anything.

Couldn't you give the impression

of somebody who only drinks?

- You know, an alcoholic.

- Thanks very much.

- Very good for business.

- You're not afraid, are you?

This is a dangerous job.

You shouldn't have taken it on

unless you were prepared to see it through.

There's no need for you to worry.

When they serve you,

never take the nearest portion.

It's like a conjuror

trying to force a card on you.

He usually succeeds.

Anyway, you've got the hotel well tied up.

- What on earth are you talking about?

- Don't you know your own agents?

All you have to do is to pass the word

to the head waiter Louis, your chap.

Yes, of course.

- Stroke Five, Stroke Eight.

- Stroke Nine.

Nine.

Can't you give me some idea

of who the man at the lunch will be?

I mean the man who plans...

to do it.

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