around the cabin feverishly. He wet his lips and smoothed his hair with the flat of his hand. He flicked through a bundle of papers, stuffed two of them in his pocket, and gathered up a few possessions.
They were strange things that Datt took with him: an engraved paperweight, a half-bottle of brandy, a cheap notebook and finally an old fountain pen which he inspected, wiped and carefully capped before pushing it into his waistcoat pocket. ‘I’ll take you back,’ he said. ‘Do you think Loiseau will let me just look through my stuff?’
‘I can’t answer for Loiseau,’ I said. ‘But I know he fought for months to get permission to raid your house on the Avenue Foch. He submitted report after report proving beyond all normal need that you were a threat to the security of France. Do you know what answer he got? They told him that you were an X., an ancien X. You were a Polytechnic man, one of the ruling class, the elite of France. You could tutoyer his Minister, call half the Cabinet cher camarade. You were a privileged person, inviolate and arrogant with him and his men. But he persisted, he showed them finally what you were, Monsieur Datt. And now perhaps he’ll want them to pay their bill. I’d say Loiseau might see the advantage in letting a little of your poison into their bloodstream. He might decide to give them something to remember the next time they are about to obstruct him and lecture him, and ask him for the fiftieth time if he isn’t mistaken. Permit you to retain the dossiers and tapes?’ I smiled. ‘He might well insist upon it.’
Datt nodded, cranked the handle of an ancient wall phone and spoke some rapid Chinese dialect into it. I noticed his large white fingers, like the roots of some plant that had never been exposed to sunlight.
He said, ‘You are right, no doubt about it. I must be where my research is. I should never have parted company from it.’
He pottered about absent-mindedly. He picked up his Monopoly board. ‘You must reassure me on one thing,’ he said. He put the board down, again. ‘The girl. You’ll see that the girl’s all right?’
‘She’ll be all right.’
‘You’ll attend to it? I’ve treated her badly.’
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘I threatened her, you know. I threatened her about her file. About her pictures. I shouldn’t have done that really but I cared for my work. It’s not a crime, is it, caring about your work?’
‘Depends upon the work.’
‘Mind you,’ said Datt, ‘I have given her money. I gave her the car too.’
‘It’s easy to give away things you don’t need,’ I said. ‘And rich people who give away money need to be quite sure they’re not trying to buy something.’
‘I’ve treated her badly.’ He nodded to himself. ‘And there’s the boy, my grandson.’
I hurried down the iron steps. I wanted to get away from the boat before Kuang saw what was happening, and yet I doubt if Kuang would have stopped us; with Datt out of the way the only report going back would be Kuang’s.
‘You’ve done me a favour,’ Datt pronounced as he started up the outboard motor.
‘That’s right,’ I said.
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