'Yes, darling,' said Werner.

'Goodbye, Mrs Volkmann,' I said. 'It was nice to talk with you.' She glared at me. She knew I'd come back to the apartment with Werner only because I knew she had an appointment.

'I wish you and Zena got along better,' said Werner after she had gone.

'You mean you wish I'd be more polite to her.'

'She's not the easiest of people to get along with,' said Werner. 'But you always seem to say the wrong things.'

'Did you get the gun for me, Werner?'

I did my best. I followed him over to the big bookcase in which chinaware was displayed. He opened a locked drawer. Reaching into it, and groping about behind the cloth-wrapped silver cutlery, he got a Colt.38 Detective Special. He handed it to me. I took it from the fancy tooled-leather holster and examined it. Its nickel finish had almost all worn off; it must have been a quarter of a century old. At some recent time it had been fitted with a hammer shroud to reduce the chance of its discharging accidentally and shooting a hole in someone's foot. 'I know you wanted a small automatic with a silencer but this is all I could get at such short notice,' said Werner apologetically.

'It's fine,' I said. I tried to say something nice about it other than it might be a valuable antique. 'These steel-frame guns are easier to hold against the recoil the short barrel gives. I just want it to wave about, in case Stinnes suddenly has a change of mind.'

'Only one box of bullets, but they are not too ancient.'

'It's Stinnes. I just don't like the feel of it, Werner,' I said. I stuck the gun in the waist of my trousers and almost fell to the floor with the weight of it. I needed the box of bullets in my pocket to balance me. 'It's almost as if Zena doesn't want me to see Stinnes.'

'She's become protective about him. She thinks London Central are out to swindle everyone. And frankly, Bernard, you don't do very much to lessen her suspicions.'

'And what about you?' I asked. 'Do you share the suspicions?'

'If you were promising Stinnes the money, I'd be sure he was going to get it. But they're keeping you out of all that, aren't they?'

'They'll have to send me the money soon. They'll have to have it here by Friday or they can't expect me to get him on to the plane.'

Werner pinched his nose with his finger and thumb. 'Well, I'm not sure London will send you the money,' he said.

'What do you mean, Werner?'

'Your friend Henry Tiptree arrived here in the city. What would you bet me that he's not arranging the cash payment. They'll keep you out of it, Bernard.'

'Tiptree? How do you know?'

'I know,' said Werner. 'Perhaps it's just as well. Let him play his secret games if that's what London wants him to do. It's right what you said, Bernie. It's dangerous to carry a bagful of cash across this town. There are plenty of people here who'll knife you for fifty centavos. Plenty of them.'

'But I still don't understand why Zena is so keen to prevent me meeting Stinnes,' I said. 'We can't go on with this absurd business of me talking to you and Zena, and then you bringing messages back from Stinnes. It was all right at the beginning but now time is tight.'

'What difference does it make?' said Werner. 'You talking to him; me talking to him; Zena talking to him. What's the difference?'

'If Stinnes pulls out at the last moment. Or if there is some other kind of cock-up… and it's quite possible that something will go wrong… then I'd like to think it was my fault rather than yours.'

'It will be all right,' said Werner. 'But Erich is very nervous. He has enemies there in the office with him; it's dangerous for him.'

He was 'Erich' now to both the Volkmanns. I didn't like that; it was too personal. Better to keep a doctor-patient relationship in this sort of operation just in case it got very rough. 'He should have thought of that when he was vacillating,' I said.

'It's a big step, Bernie.'

'Yes, it is.' I went over to the air-conditioner. I held my hand in front of the outlet but the air was still not much cooled.

'It makes a lot of noise but doesn't work very well,' explained Werner. 'The Mexicans call them "politicians".'

'And if I have to finally submit to London a report about a cock-up, they are immediately going to ask me why the hell I didn't insist on seeing Stinnes for myself.'

'Erich knows what's at stake,' said Werner. 'He's an experienced agent. It will be just as if we were doing it. We'd make sure we got it right, wouldn't we?'

'He'd better get it right,' I said. 'He won't be able to go back to his embassy and say he's had a change of mind.'

'Why won't he?' said Werner. 'We've known that to happen before, haven't we? I thought that's why London were so keen to load him on to the plane and get him away.'

'London have thought of that one,' I said. 'As soon as they get the telex to say that we have Stinnes, they'll leak a story to one of the news agencies. It will say that we have a high-grade KGB defector who has been supplying information for some years. And the chosen reporter will even have some details of the intelligence that good old Stinnes is said to have provided to them.'

Now Werner pinched the cloth of his undershirt between finger and thumb and pulled it away from his body to let some air get to him. 'Erich Stinnes has never passed anything back to London, has he?'

'What do you think?'

'I'd think that's just London Central dropping him into the dirt so he doesn't dare think about going back again ever.'

'Fantastic, Werner,' I said with mock admiration. 'You got it at first guess. But for God's sake don't let Stinnes get wind of it.'

'Who came up with that nasty little idea? Bret Rensselaer?'

'Well, we both know it couldn't be Dicky,' I said. 'Dicky never had an idea.'

'Where do you want to meet Erich?' Werner asked.

'I'll have to see him,' I said. 'Face to face, and well before Friday. Today if possible. If he wants to confide in Zena, or anyone else for that matter, that's up to him. That's a decision I can't take for him. The information about Friday's rendezvous is for him alone, Werner.'

'You're going to keep Zena out of it, are you? Are you going to keep me out of it too?'

'You've done your bit, and so has Zena. Let's get it over with. I want to get out of this city. The rain and the heat… and the smell. It's not my idea of a holiday.'

'Zena's uncle and aunt are due back from their vacation at the weekend, so we'll also be leaving. But I won't be sorry,' said Werner. 'I'll never complain about Berlin weather again after this damned humidity. Three times I've had someone in to look at that air-conditioner and they keep telling me it's working fine. They say it's too hot outside for the machine to cope with it.'

I looked at him and nodded.

'Okay,' said Werner. 'I'll get you together with Erich Stinnes. He's going to phone about six. I'll bring him anywhere you want him.'

'I'll need to talk to him. Somewhere safe. Angel's body shop; that car repair place out near the Shrine of Guadalupe. Remember? It's painted in very bright red and yellow.'

'What time?'

'Drive straight in, through the workshop and out the back. There's a yard. I'll be parked there. Oh, say seven o'clock.'

'I'll be there.'

'No Zena,' I said.

Werner drank some lemonade. 'I've never seen her like this before,' he said sadly. 'She really likes Erich. She's worrying about him.'

'Keep her out of it, Werner.'

'Bernie. You don't think Zena could be infatuated with Erich Stinnes, do you?'

'You know her better than I do,' I said, to avoid the question. Or rather to avoid the answer, which was simply that I knew only one thing that Zena was infatuated with. And Erich Stinnes was about to take delivery of a quarter of a million of them.