The Quiet American Page #9

Perhaps to talk.

All right, I think we should.

The Vieux Moulin restaurant

between 9:
00 and 9:30?

Wherever you like. I think we should

try once more to understand each other.

We'll try at dinner.

What do you hear from General The?

- I haven't seen him lately.

- No?

I should have thought he'd have come

to Saigon to see how his bomb worked.

What makes you so sure it was his bomb?

Wasn't it?

He's an unpredictable man. I don't know.

I don't think so.

I shouldn't trust him too much.

Believe me, international democracy

is something that comes out of a book.

That one?

No, I was trying

to recall a favorite passage.

General The is nothing but a bandit

with a few thousand men.

He's not the leader for your third force.

It's not my third force.

And whoever said he was the leader?

Your country mustn't trust men like The.

Promise me, you won't help him anymore.

Help him? My country? Promise you?

You're talking cloak-and-dagger nonsense.

Oh, I had forgotten, you're a student.

A private citizen

saving the east with powdered milk,

DDT and the fireman's lift.

Does General The conduct a seminar

in self-administration or...

Or does he specialize in plastics?

Plastics again?

This is gonna be a long dinner.

We've got a lot to straighten out.

No. I'd better cancel dinner tonight.

Perhaps another time.

- Another time might be the wrong time.

- Well, stay here and talk now.

Afterward...

Later we can go out to dinner, anywhere.

I'll grab a cyclo-pousse

and meet you at the restaurant.

Come on, Duke.

My car went on the blink

again this afternoon.

Couldn't get it to start.

Do you carry a gun now, after that night

on the road from Tay Ninh?

That's an odd question.

Why should I?

You know, I was gonna keep it all for dinner,

but you've really got a weird picture of me.

To begin with, it's quite true that I have

been in touch with General The.

- A cigarette?

- No.

But for once our concept

of the truth coincides.

After I was graduated from college, I took

some post-graduate work up at Princeton.

One of your universities that give degrees

in public relations and theater craft?

Einstein thought more of it.

While I was there,

I met a very prominent Vietnamese

living in exile in New Jersey.

Who was he?

You know or should know as well as I.

Because if all goes well, if Vietnam

becomes an independent republic,

this man will be its leader.

And this future leader sent you

to General The?

What makes you believe

any sane government

or sane man would send me

on a mission like that?

Then who did send you to General The?

- I did.

- What was your business with him?

I happen to believe very deeply

in that third force.

So I wanted to find out

where the General's loyalties would lie,

if and when this man returned home

to Vietnam.

And did you?

Too bad you won't be here.

It'll be quite a show.

You seriously expect me to believe that?

No.

I think you believe

whatever you need to believe emotionally.

What right has your government

to send you on an idiotic mission like this?

To meddle with the lives of other people.

I have told you and told you,

my government has nothing to do with it.

Idiotic or not it was my own idea.

- Well, why haven't they stopped you?

- They have.

They weren't very pleasant about it.

That's why I've got to finish up in a hurry.

I'm being sent home next week.

Phuong's going with me.

We're going to be married at home.

Then, for the first time,

he spoke of Phuong.

Of taking Phuong away with him.

And leaving me behind alone.

Now, it looks as though we'll be able

to bring her sister over for the wedding.

The house will be packed.

I can see my mother now, stewing about

where she's going to put everybody.

You still looking for that favorite passage?

I just remembered...

"Though I perchance,

am vicious in my guess,

"as, I confess, it is my nature's plague."

Othello, isn't it? Don't stop.

"To spy into abuses,

"and oft my jealousy.

"Shapes faults that are not..."

There will never be another

like him, will there?

Think thoughts about human beings

that have never been thought before.

He went on remembering

his classroom notes

from An Introduction to Elizabethan Drama.

Suddenly, I was very tired.

I wanted him to go away quickly and die.

So that Phuong and I,

and the world, would be as we were.

Before he came in.

And I imagine that the ability

to express the unique thought

or the unique word is what's called genius.

I imagine so.

- You've got a great talent for words.

- Thank you.

You depend on them.

As if saying a thing in an effective way

made it true.

Shall we save the truth for dinner?

Come on, Duke.

What are you afraid of anyway?

Like an adolescent boy

who keeps on using dirty words

all the time because

he doesn't want anyone to think,

he doesn't know what it's all about.

You're going to hate this.

But I think you're one of the most

truly innocent men I'll ever know.

See you at dinner.

We can make it another time.

What's that?

If your work takes you

longer than you think.

Don't bother about meeting me for dinner.

- I can make it.

- But if you can't comfortably,

look in here later.

I'll come back at 10:00,

if you don't meet me, and wait for you.

There was no harm in giving him

that one chance.

But what was I hoping for?

Did I, of all people, hope for some

kind of miracle?

A method of discussion

arranged by Mr. Heng

which would not be...

Simply death.

It was no longer my decision.

I had handed it over to that somebody

in whom I didn't believe.

You can intervene if you want to.

In so many ways,

a telegram on his desk,

his dog can become ill.

The minister can want to see him.

His work, whatever it is,

can take up the time.

You cannot exist unless you have

the power to alter the future.

It was exactly 5:47 this afternoon.

At 6:
00, I would be having a drink

at the Continental.

The waiters would remember.

Open the door. Open this door! (BANGING)

Inexcusable negligence.

I had no idea you were still there.

You must be chilled to the bone, Mr. Fowler.

Would you have a cognac?

I'll go home now, if you're finished with me.

Well, of course. I have a driver standing by.

Cannot have been pleasant to see a friend

for the last time in such a condition.

No.

Oh, this is perhaps not entirely legal, but

you might want to have this as a keepsake.

A more agreeable memory of him.

It was found near his empty wallet

in the mud of the river bank.

An indication that the motive

of the murder was robbery.

Well, that's kind of you,

but I have other memories.

By the way what happened to the dog,

you looking for it?

No.

Well, it will probably... Thank you.

Turn up in the American's flat

when it's hungry.

If it hasn't been eaten by now.

If it does, you might analyze

the earth in its paws.

Perhaps, you will immortalize me in a...

In a detective romance, Mr. Fowler.

Inspector Lecoq. Inspector McRae.

Inspector Vigot. (CHUCKLES)

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