Agent Running in the Field - John le Carre Page 0,2
right? Which one? Choose one. Your call. I’m easy.’
‘Probably a Monday would suit me best,’ I suggest, Monday evenings being when Prue conducts her weekly pro bono law surgery.
‘Monday fortnight, then. Six o’clock? Seven? When?’
‘Well, tell me what suits you best,’ I suggest. ‘My plans are a bit up in the air’ – like, I’ll probably be out on the street by then.
‘Sometimes they keep me in Mondays,’ he says, making it sound like a complaint. ‘How about eight? Eight suit you all right?’
‘Eight suits me fine.’
‘Court one all right by you if I can get it? Alice says they don’t like giving courts to singles, but you’re different.’
‘Any court is fine by me, Ed,’ I assure him to more laughter and a smattering of applause from the bar, presumably for persistence.
We trade mobile phone numbers, always a small dilemma. I give him the family one and suggest he text me if there’s any problem. He makes the same request of me.
‘And hey, Nat?’ – with a sudden softening of the overcharged voice.
‘What?’
‘Mind you have a really good family holiday, okay?’ And in case I’ve forgotten: ‘Two weeks Monday then. Eight p.m. Here.’
By now everyone’s laughing or clapping as Ed, with a lank, insouciant departing wave of the whole right arm, lopes off for the men’s changing room.
‘Anyone know him?’ I ask, discovering that I have unconsciously turned to observe his departure.
Shakes of the head. Sorry, mate.
‘Anyone seen him play?’
Sorry again.
I escort my visiting opponent to the lobby and on my way back to the changing room pop my head round the office door. Alice is bowed over her computer.
‘Ed who?’ I ask her.
‘Shannon,’ she intones, not lifting her head. ‘Edward Stanley. Single membership. Paid by standing order, town member.’
‘Occupation?’
‘Mr Shannon, he is a researcher by occupation. Who he research, he don’t say. What he research, he don’t say.’
‘Address?’
‘Hoxton, in the Borough of Hackney. Same as where my two sisters live and my cousin Amy.’
‘Age?’
‘Mr Shannon is not eligible for junior membership. How much he is not eligible, he don’t say. All I know is, that’s some hungry boy for you, bicycling all across London just to challenge the Champ of the South. He’s heard about you, now he’s come to get you, sure as David did Goliath.’
‘Did he say that?’
‘What he didn’t say I have divined in my own head. You’ve been singles champion too long for your age, Nat, same as Goliath. You want his mummy and daddy? How big his mortgage is? How much jail time he done?’
‘Goodnight, Alice. And thanks.’
‘I wish you goodnight too, Nat. And be sure to give my love to your Prue. And don’t you go feeling insecure about that young man, now. You’ll put him away, same as you do all them whippersnappers.’
2
If this were an official case history, I would kick off with Ed’s full name, parents, date and place of birth, occupation, religion, racial origin, sexual orientation and all the other vital statistics missing from Alice’s computer. As it is, I will begin with my own.
I was christened Anatoly, later anglicized to Nathaniel, Nat for short. I am five feet ten inches tall, clean-shaven, tufty hair running to grey, married to Prudence, partner for general legal matters of a compassionate nature at an old-established firm of City of London solicitors, but primarily pro bono cases.
In build I am slim, Prue prefers wiry. I love all sport. In addition to badminton I jog, run and work out once a week in a gymnasium not open to the general public. I possess a rugged charm and the accessible personality of a man of the world. I am in appearance and manner a British archetype, capable of fluent and persuasive argument in the short term. I adapt to circumstance and have no insuperable moral scruples. I can be irascible and am not by any means immune to female charms. I am not naturally suited to deskwork or the sedentary life, which is the understatement of all time. I can be headstrong and do not respond naturally to discipline. This can be both a defect and a virtue.
I am quoting from my late employers’ confidential reports on my performance and general allure over the last twenty-five years. You will also wish to know that in need I can be relied upon to exhibit the required callousness, though required by whom, and in what degree, is not stated. By contrast I have a light touch and a welcoming nature that invites trust.