The World at Night ns-4

by Alan Furst

  Altmann and Schepper left.

  “Friend of yours?” Millau said.

  “Acquaintance.”

  “Some more champagne?”

  “Thank you. How do you come to speak French like that, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  “No, I don’t mind. As a youngster I lived in Alsace-you know, un, deux, trois, vier, funf.”

  Casson laughed politely.

  “That’s the way to learn a language, as a child,” Millau said.

  “That’s what they say.”

  “What about you, Sprechen Sie Deutsch?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “Maybe some English, then?”

  “A little. I can get along in a commercial situation if everybody slows down.”

  Millau took a heavy black cigar from his pocket, stripped off the band and the cellophane. “Perhaps you’d care to join me.”

  “No, thank you.”

  Millau took his time lighting up, made the match flame jump up and down, at last blew out a stream of smoke, strong, but not unpleasant. He shook his head. “I like these things too much.”

  Casson lit a Gauloise.

  Millau leaned on the table, spoke in a confidential tone. “Let me begin by telling you that I’m an intelligence officer,” he said. “Reasonably senior, here in Paris.”

  “I see,” Casson said.

  “Yes. I work for the Sicherheitsdienst, the SD, in the counterespionage office up on the avenue Foch. We started out as the SS foreign service, and in a sense we still are that, though success has brought us some broader responsibility.”

  Millau paused, Casson indicated he understood what had been said.

  “We’ve been getting to know you for a few months, Monsieur Casson, keeping an eye on you, and so forth, to see who we were dealing with.”

  Casson laughed nervously.

  “Ach, the way people are! I assure you, we can’t be surprised or offended by all these little sins, the same thing, over and over. We’re like priests, or doctors.”

  He stopped for a moment to inhale on the cigar, making the tip glow red, to see if it was still lit. “We got on to you down in Spain-the British were interested in you, and that was of interest to us. We were … nearby, when you met with a woman who calls herself Marie-Noelle, Lady Marensohn, a representative of the British Secret Intelligence Service who we believe attempted to recruit you for clandestine operations. She is, by the way, residing with us at the moment.”

  Casson felt the blood leave his face. Millau waited to see if he might want to comment, but he said nothing.

  “Our view, Monsieur Casson, is that you did not accept recruitment.”

  Casson waited a beat but there was nowhere he could hide. “No,” he said, “I didn’t.”

  Millau nodded, confirming a position held in some earlier discussion. “And why not?”

  There wasn’t any time to think. “I don’t know.”

  “No?”

  Casson shrugged. “I’m French-not British, not German. I simply want to live my life, and be left in peace.”

  From Millau’s reaction Casson could tell he’d given the right answer. “And who would blame you for that, eh?” Millau said with feeling. “What got us into this situation in the first place was all these people meddling in politics. All we ever wanted in Germany was to be left alone, to get on with our lives. But, sadly, that was not to be, and you see what happened next. And, more to come.”

  Casson’s expression was sympathetic. He realized that Millau possessed a very dangerous quality: he was likeable.

  “We have no business fighting with England, I’ll tell you that,” Millau said. “Every week-I’m sure I’m not saying something you find surprising-there’s some kind of initiative; diplomatic, private, what have you. At the Vatican or in Stockholm. It’s just a matter of time and we’ll settle things between us. Our real business is in the east, with the Bolsheviks, and so is Britain’s business, and we’re just sorry that certain individuals in London are doing everything they can to keep us apart.”

  “Hmm,” Casson said.

  “So, that’s where you come in. My section, that is, AMT IV, is particularly concerned with terrorist operations, sabotage, bombing, assassination. We fear that elements within the British government plan to initiate such acts in France, a carefully organized campaign-and if a number of people die it is of no particular concern to them, they tend to be very liberal with French life.”

  Millau made sure this had sunk in, then he said, “This isn’t a fantasy. We know it’s going to happen, and we believe they will contact you again. This time, we want you to accept. Do what they ask of you. And let us know about it.”

  The brasserie was noisy, people talking and laughing, somebody was singing. The air was thick with cigarette smoke and the aroma of grilled beef. Casson took his time, stubbing out the Gauloise in an ashtray. “Well,” he said.

  “How about it?”

  “Well, I don’t think they’ll actually approach me again,” Casson said. If Marie-Noelle talked to them, he realized, he was finished. Would she? Considering what they did to people, would she? “I made it clear to them it wasn’t something I was going to do.”

  “Yes,” Millau said softly, meaning that he understood. “But I’ll tell you what.” He smiled, conspiratorial and knowing. “I’ll bet you anything you care to name that they come back to you.”

  3:20 A.M.

  The music on his radio faded in and out-if he held the aerial he could hear it. Adagio for Strings, Samuel Barber. Coming in from far away. Outside it rained on and off, distant thunder muttering up in Normandy somewhere. The worst of the storm had come through earlier- on the way home from the Brasserie Heininger he’d had to take shelter in the Metro to avoid getting soaked, standing next to a woman in a sweater and skirt. “Just made it,” he’d said as the rain poured down.

  “A little luck anyhow,” she’d agreed. “I have to go see somebody about a job tomorrow and this is what I have to wear.”

  Oh, what kind of job-but he didn’t.

  They stood quietly, side by side, then the rain stopped and she left, swinging her hips as she climbed the staircase just so he would know what he’d missed. He knew. He lay on top of the covers in the darkness and listened to the violin. It would have been nice to have her with him; big, pale body rising and falling. But Citrine, I didn’t.

  Good times they’d had in the Hotel du Parc. He’d been leaning against a wall, a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. She told him he looked like a place Pigalle tough guy and he’d given her back the classic line, “Tiens, montrez-moi ton cul.” Show me your ass. In lycee, they used to wonder if M. Lepic, the Latin teacher, said that to Mme. Lepic on Saturday night.

  Casson peered at his watch on the table beside the bed. A few minutes after three. What if he went out somewhere and called the hotel in Lyons-let it ring and ring until an infuriated manager answered. This is the police. I want to speak with the woman in Room 28. Now!

  Sirens. Air-raid sirens. Now what? Antiaircraft fire-to the north of the city, he thought. Like a drum, in deliberate time. Then he heard airplanes. He swung his legs off the bed, made certain the apartment was dark, went out on the terrace.

  Searchlights, north of him, across the river. The AA guns working away, four or five beats to the measure, little yellow lights climbing to heaven. And, then, planes overhead, a lot of them, flying low, the drone hammering off the walls in the narrow rue Chardin. Across the street and down a little way, a couple in nightshirts out on their balcony, the woman with a fur stole thrown around her shoulders, gazing up at the sky. Then he saw others, the whole neighborhood was out.

  To the north, bombs, close enough to hear the articulated explosions. Orange light stuttered against the sky-he could see clearly the dark undersides of rain clouds, like frozen smoke, lit by fires. The British are at work, he thought. Among the factories on the outskirts of the city. When the bombing faded to a rumble, fire sirens joined the air-raid si
rens. Then the all-clear sounded, and the fire engines were joined by ambulances.

  Casson got tired of standing on the terrace, sat against the wall just inside his living room. First edge of false dawn in the spring, the sky not so dark as it was, a few birds singing on the rooftops. The sirens had stopped, now there remained only a certain smell on the morning air. The smell of burning. He was falling asleep. Now that it was dawn, he could sleep, since whatever might come in the night would have to wait another day.

  Then, Monday morning, when he got to the office at ten, Mireille had a message for him. “A woman telephoned, a Madame Detweiler.”

  “Who?”

  “The secretary of an officer called Guske. From the rue des Saussaies.”

  “And?”

  “She said to tell you that your Ausweis to go to the Vichy zone is under consideration, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a problem, and they will have a determination for you by May fifteenth. If you have any questions, you are encouraged to call Obersturmbannfuhrer Guske.”

  “Thank you, Mireille,” he said, and went into his office.

  Was that good news, he wondered, or bad? After a moment he realized it wasn’t good or bad, it wasn’t anything. It was simply their way of talking to him. It was simply their way of telling him that they owned him.

  THE SECRET AGENT

  Casson stood on the balcony, just after midnight, and stared out over the jagged line of rooftops. The city was ghostly in blue lamplight, and very quiet. He could hear distant footsteps, and night birds singing in the parks. The preparation of an escape, he thought, whatever else it did, showed you your life from an angle of profound reality. Where to go. How to get there. Friends and money must be counted up, but then, which friends-who will really help? How much money? And, if you can’t get that, how much? And then, most of all, when? Because these doors, once you went through them, closed behind you.

  There’s no question when, he told himself, the time is now. If it isn’t already too late.

  A few things had to be settled before he left. He started Tuesday morning, getting in touch with Fischfang. This lately was not easy- messages left with shopkeepers, calls returned from public telephones-but by the end of the week they met at a vacant apartment out in the 19th, that looked out on the railyards.

  The apartment was for rent, the landlord’s agent a plump little gentleman wearing an alpine hat with a brush. “Look around all you like, boys,” he said as he opened the door. “And as to the rent, they say I’m a reasonable man.” He winked, then trotted off down the staircase.

  Fischfang was tense, shadows like bruises beneath his eyes, but very calm. Different. It was, Casson thought, the revolver. No longer kept in a drawer, perhaps worn under the arm, or in the belt-it had a certain logic of its own and changed the person who carried it.

  And Fischfang hadn’t come alone, he had a friend-a helper or a bodyguard, something like that. Not French, from somewhere east of the Oder, somewhere out in Comintern land. Ivanic, he called himself. In his twenties, he was dark-eyed and pale, with two days’ growth of beard, wore a cap tilted down over sleepy eyes. He waited in the kitchen while Casson and Fischfang talked, hands clasped behind his head as he sat against a wall.

  Casson gave Fischfang a lot of money, all he could. But, he thought, maybe it didn’t matter any more. Now that it was time to meet in vacant apartments, now that Ivanic had showed up, maybe the days of worrying about something as simple as money were over. Fischfang put the packet of francs away, reached inside his jacket, handed Casson a school notebook with a soft cover.

  “New draft,” Fischfang said. “Though I somehow get the feeling,” he added ruefully, “that our little movie is slipping away into its own fog.”

  Casson paged through the notebook. The scenes had been written in cafes, on park benches, or at kitchen tables late at night-spidery script densely packed on the lined paper, coffee-stained, blotted, and, Casson sensed, finely made. He could feel it as he skimmed the lines. It was autumn, a train pulled into a little station, the guests got off, their Paris clothes out of place in the seaside village. They went to the hotel, to their rooms, did what people did, said what they said-Casson looked up at Fischfang. “Pretty good?”

  Fischfang thought a moment. “Maybe it is. I didn’t have too much time to think about it.”

  “Not always the worst thing.”

  “No, that’s true.”

  Casson paced around the room. The apartment was filthy-it smelled like train soot, the floor was littered with old newspaper. On the wall by the door somebody had written in pencil, E. We’ve gone to Montreuil. In the railyard below the window, the switching engines were hard at work, couplings crashed as boxcars were shunted from track to track, then made up into long trains, Casson peered through the cloudy glass. Fischfang came and stood by his side. One freight train seemed just about ready to go, Casson counted a hundred and twenty cars, with tanks and artillery pieces under canvas, cattle wagons for the horses, and three locomotives. “Looks like somebody’s in for it,” he said.

  “Russia, maybe. That’s the local wisdom. But, wherever it’s going, they won’t like it.”

  “No.” Directly below them, a switching engine vented white steam with a loud hiss. “Who’s your friend?” Casson said quietly.

  “Ivanic? I think he comes from the NKVD. He’s just waiting for the fighting to start, then he can go to work.”

  “And you?”

  “I’m his helper.”

  Casson stared out at the railyard, clouds of gray smoke, the railwaymen in faded blue jackets and trousers.

  “We all thought,” Fischfang said slowly, his voice almost a whisper, “that life would go on. But it won’t. Tell me, so much money, what does it mean, Jean-Claude?”

  “I have to go away.”

  Fischfang nodded slowly, he understood. “It’s best.”

  “They’re after me,” Casson said.

  Fischfang turned and stared at him for a moment. “After you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you do something?”

  “Yes,” Casson said, after a moment. “Nothing much-and it didn’t work.”

  Fischfang smiled. “Well then, good luck.”

  They shook hands. “And to you.”

  There was nothing else to say, Casson left the apartment, Ivanic watched him go.

  That afternoon he went up to the Galeries Lafayette, the huge department store just north of Opera. He found the buyers’ offices on the top floor and knocked on Veronique’s door. “Jean-Claude!” she said, pleased to see him. A tiny space, costume jewelry everywhere; spread across a desk, crowded on shelves that rose to the ceiling- wooden bracelets painted lustrous gold, shimmering glass diamonds in rings and earrings, ropes of glowing pearls. “The sultan’s treasure,” she said.

  For herself she had great honesty of style-wore a black shirt with a green scarf tied at the neck. Short hair, clear eyes, a great deal of intelligence and a little bit of expensive perfume. “Let’s take a walk around the store,” she said.

  They walked from room to room, past bridal gowns and evening gowns, floral housedresses and pink bathrobes. “Have you heard about Arnaud and his wife?” she said.

  “No. What’s happened?”

  “I had lunch with Marie-Claire yesterday, she told me they weren’t living together. He moved out.”

  “Why is that? They always seemed to have, a good arrangement.”

  Veronique shrugged. “Who knows,” she said gloomily. “I think it’s the Occupation. Lately the smallest thing, and everything comes apart.”

  It was busy in the luggage department-fine leather and brass fittings from the ancient saddlery ateliers of Paris. A crowd of German soldiers, businessmen with their wives, a few Japanese naval officers.

  “Veronique,” he said. “I need to go south again.”

  “Right now the moon is full, Jean-Claude.”

  “So it would be, what, fourteen days?”

 
“Well, yes, at least. Then there are people who have to be talked to, and, all the various complications.”

  A woman in traditional Breton costume-black dress, white hat with wings-was demonstrating a waffle iron, pouring yellow batter from a cup into the iron, then heating it over a small gas burner.

  “All right,” he said. “There’s a chance I’ll get an Ausweis. In a few weeks. Maybe.”

  “Can you wait?”

  “I’m not sure. Things, things are going on.”

  “What things, Jean-Claude? It’s important to tell me.”

  “I’m under pressure to work for them. I mean, really work for them.”

  “Can you refuse?”

  “Perhaps, I’m not sure. I’ve been over it and over it, probably the best thing for me is to slip quietly into the ZNO, pick up Citrine, then go out-to Spain or Portugal. Once we’re there, we’ll find some country that will take us. I can remember May of last year-then it mattered where you went. Now it doesn’t.”

  They stood together at a railing, looking out from the dress department over the center of the store. Two floors below, the crowds shifted slowly through a maze of counters packed with gloves, belts, and handbags. Silk scarves were draped on racks, and womens’ hats, with veils and bows and clusters of cherries or grapes, were hung on the branches of wooden trees. “If you leave before the Ausweis comes,” Veronique said, “and there’s some way you can arrange to have it sent over to your office, it would be very important for us to have it. For somebody, it could mean everything.”

  “I will try,” he said.

  “About the other, situation, I’ll be in touch with you. Soon as I can.”

  They kissed each other good-bye, one cheek then the other, and Casson walked away. Looking back over his shoulder he saw her smile, then she waved to him and mouthed the little phrase that meant have courage.

  It rained. Thirty-three Wehrmacht divisions advanced in Yugoslavia. Others crossed the border into Greece. Stuka bombers destroyed the city of Belgrade. An interzonal card from Lyons arrived at a Paris cafe, addressed to J. Casson. “Waiting, waiting and thinking about you. Please come soon.” Signed with the initial X. A dinner party at the house of Philippe and Francoise Pichard. His brother, wounded a year earlier in the fighting in Belgium, had never returned home, but they had word of him, a prisoner of war, doing forced labor in an underground armaments factory in Aachen. Bruno was trying to pull strings in order to get him out.