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It was ten thirty in the morning when Mr.Verloc left his home. He felt better than usual on this day. He was clean and well dressed.The sun was shining down on him and lighting up the world around him, making everything a soft golden color. He watched as people passed him on the street, as carriages speeded by. He noticed the beauty of the old buildings, and he felt that all of these people and things needed to be kept safe. He did not want his country falling under the influence of a government that pushed hard labor upon its people. He, himself, was very lazy and felt that hard work was a useless waste of time. As a result , Mr.Verloc was a rather fat man. He did not have the look of a proper gentleman. He looked more like an owner of a very small business. There was also something about him that somehow made it obvious he was involved in activities that were against the law. But he was still a friendly-looking fellow.
He turned down a very small street that was so clean and well kept that it seemed like he had entered another world in which things never get dirty, grow old, or die. And the quiet made it seem that he was far away from the craziness of London.On his left was the building he had been looking for,10 Chesham Square. It was an embassy.
The doorman allowed Mr. Verloc to enter without any trouble. Inside the entrance hall was a man reading a newspaper in front of a fireplace.The man looked up from the paper with a very serious face, briefly looked to see who had entered,and then returned his eyes to the paper, as if no one were in the room at all. Then a servant asked for Mr. Verloc’s name, and after hearing it, led him down the hall and into a small room.
He was left alone, with the door shut for a few moments, until another door opened behind him. A small, bald man with a gray beard quietly entered holding some papers in his hands. He wore a pair of small glasses on his serious face. His name was Wurmt and he served as one of the counselors for the ambassador.
Neither he nor Mr. Verloc said “hello”. Instead, Wurmt went straight to business. He threw the papers he was holding onto the table and, pointing his finger at them, said, “These are the reports you have given us.”
Verloc did not respond.
“We have found that the police are quite unsa tisfactory here,” Wurmt continued, “It is important that they wake up and do their jobs. It seems that they feel they’ve nothing to do. Well... we want to give them something to do.”
Again, Mr. Verloc had nothing to say.
“This country needs more control over its people. It’s embarrassing to see the government act so weakly. There must be a dangerous criminal population among the people somewhere.”
“Of course there is,” Verloc now spoke, “It’s obvious from my reports that...”
“Your reports are useless,” Wurmt interrupted him. “We need action from you now. No more writing.”
“At your service, sir,” Mr. Verloc said, trying to show his sincerity by standing up straight, sticking out his chest and making a fist with his right hand. The counselor simply looked at him for a short while.
“You’re very fat,” he finally said.
Mr. Verloc took one step back and lifted his eyebrows, “What?”
“Yes, well... I’ve nothing more to say. I’ll take you to see Mr. Vladimir. Come with me, won’t you?”
Mr. Vladimir’s office was on the second floor of the embassy. When Wurmt and Verloc arrived there, they found him seated in a leather chair behind a very long desk. He appeared to be rather young. He spoke in French to Wurmt, “Yes, he is very fat.”
Mr. Vladimir was a well-liked man among the rich and powerful people of London. He was considered quite good at pointing out the strange things about society in a funny, light-hearted way,and was quite a favorite at parties. However, at this moment, he showed a different side to his character,a much less friendly one.
“You speak French?” he asked Verloc.
“Yes. I learned it when I was in the military,”he answered.
“Right. How long did the French government put you in prison for stealing their new gun designs?”
“Five years.”
“Well, you deserved it for letting them catch you. Anyway, why are you here?”
“I received a letter asking me to come,” Verloc answered, trying to find the paper in his pocket. “I don’t believe that there should be any government,actually. Because of this, your embassy finds me useful.”
“Ah, so you’re a rebel. Well you’re not a very intelligent rebel, are you? Getting caught like that by the French! I suppose that it was a girl that got you caught, wasn’t it?”
Mr. Verloc chose not to say anything and simply looked at the floor.
“It was. But, by looking at you, I would say that you were caught because you are also very lazy. How long have you been working for this embassy?”
“I’ve been working for eleven years. I was asked to move to London by the former ambassador so that I could perform my job better.”
“Yes, well, let me be the first to inform you that the new ambassador will not allow laziness among his workers. We want action from our secret agents.We need results!” he shouted.
Mr. Verloc explained that he was an active rebel,who always attended revolutionary meetings and even was encouraged to speak at them, especially when an important point was trying to be made.
“I have a very huge voice. Watch, I’ll show you.”
He walked over to the window and, without much effort, called to a policeman who was standing a long distance from the embassy. The officer on the street immediately turned around and looked for who had called him. Mr. Vladimir, however, did not seem impressed. He said something in Latin, but Mr. Verloc obviously did not understand.
“I see that you don’t speak Latin,” he said,clearly meaning that he thought Mr. Verloc quite stupid. “You fool! We don’t need your voice. We need action!”
“Don’t think that you can talk down to me like that,” Verloc answered him angrily, “I won’t allow it.”
Mr. Vladimir smiled and then began to speak in French, “You’ve not been useful to us in quite a long time.”
“Why... I’ve done all...”
“Have a look at these papers we found on the street,” he interrupted Mr. Verloc, pointing to several revolutionary letters. The symbol at the top of all of the pages had a pen and a torch crossed over each other.
“I’m one of the leaders of this organization,”Mr. Verloc said proudly. “We call it F. P., ‘The Future of the People’.”
“Well, why doesn’t your organization do something more important than just make these stupid letters to the public? I’ve got something for you to do, and it’s going to require a lot of hard work. If you don’t succeed then you won’t get paid. We’re not a charity organization here.”
Mr. Vladimir looked up and down at the man standing before him. He could not believe that this was the same man that the former ambassador, Baron Stott-Wartenheim, had praised as his best secret agent. This was the man whose information influenced the decisions of some of the most powerful people in Europe? What a joke! But then he remembered how crazy the Baron had really been.Everyone in Europe had laughed at his lack of trust of others. He would probably have believed anything these secret agents told him.
“We’ve called you here because an important international meeting is being held in Italy. In this meeting, leaders from all over Europe will come together to decide about how to fight crime in their country. We want them to use very strong methods of control over the people, but we know that they will not do this unless they feel it is necessary. We want to make it necessary. Do you understand?”
Mr. Verloc did understand and he waited silently for Mr. Vladimir to tell him how he wanted it made necessary.
“We want something big to happen. And it needs to be important to the people. Now... what is everyone so interested in these days?” he asked.
Mr. Verloc had no idea.
“My God, man. Science! It’s science that people are so interested in. Not religion or the King and Queen. Too many leaders have been killed in the past for that to be an effective way of communicating to the people. Churches are also bad to destroy, because then people think you did it for religious reasons. Market places and theatres are no good because there’s no political message being sent when such places are bombed. No, in order to get everyone’s attention ,you need to attack something that they would never expect. And the importance of science these days is very obvious. The people to whom we are trying to communicate the most, the middle class, feel that their wealth actually depends on science. And that’s where you should aim your bombs!”
Then a sudden proud smile appeared on Vladimir’s face, seeming to indicate that he was about to reach the best part of his little speech.
“You’re going to bomb the Greenwich Astronomical Center, the place that the whole world looks to when they set their clocks. That will get everyone’s attention, won’t it?”
Mr. Verloc stood silently for a moment, thinking to himself. Then, without looking up at Mr. Vladimir,he said, “That won’t be easy. And it will require a lot of money.”
“Ha! You’ll get nothing more unless you successfully do the job. What else do you do for money?”
“My wife and I have a store. We sell paper and pens...”
“Are you joking, man? You’re married? Rebels aren’t supposed to be married! I’m seriously beginning to wonder if you’re really the right man for this job.”
Mr. Verloc, who had been trying not to get angry, was beginning to lose control of himself. He pressed his lips together and made his eyes small.
“You have one month to do what I have told you. If nothing happens within that time, we will no longer consider you useful. That is all, now go.”
Mr. Verloc then returned home feeling troubled and quite unhappy. When he arrived he found Stevie cleaning the house and his wife busy in the kitchen.He sat down on a chair in the room behind the store and pushed his hat toward the back of his head. Mrs. Verloc noticed this, but, being so busy, did not think it was very important. An hour and a half later, when she had prepared the table for a meal, she saw that he was still sitting in the same position.
“Adolf,” she called to him, “it’s time to eat.”
He slowly got up and joined his family at the dinner table. He did not say a word, and everyone noticed that he seemed more troubled than usual.Still, no one said anything to him. The two women worried that Stevie might upset Mr. Verloc at any moment by beginning to talk nonsense . They had been so used to doing their best to control Stevie’s behavior, years ago, in order to avoid his father’s terrible anger. They still found themselves feeling nervous at such moments, even though Mr. Verloc was not likely to get angry.
Mr. Verloc did not love the boy, however. He looked at Stevie in the same way that other men,who don’t like animals, look at their girlfriend’s pet cat. Both Mrs. Verloc and her mother could see this.They knew it must be hard for people to accept Stevie and they were just grateful that Mr. Verloc continued to allow him to live in his home.