Operation Pax by Michael Innes Read Free Book Online

again. I’m completely held up.’
    A low whistle conveyed the invisible Squire’s first reaction to this announcement. ‘That’s bad,’ he said – and Routh thought that he heard malice in his former captor’s voice. ‘The Director won’t like it at all.’
    ‘It’s not in the least out of the way, and the Director understands perfectly. I have command of almost nothing, you know, in a pure form. The position is just as it is with those growth-inhibiting stuffs they play about with. You, Squire, wouldn’t make head nor tail of it in technical terms. But put it like this. Put it that you have a host of human beings, some tiny percentage of which constitutes a superbly efficient military force that you are concerned to cherish. All the rest are tiresome and irrelevant camp-followers who can never be the slightest use to you. And you don’t yourself know which are which .’
    A snort from Squire interrupted this exposition. ‘It sounds damned nonsense to me.’
    ‘It is damned nonsense, Squire. Unfortunately it is Nature’s damned nonsense, not mine. Well, now – every now and then one of the camp followers does something quite idiotic – stands on his head, say, or turns a somersault. And at that the morale of your unknown army mysteriously collapses and nearly all your work has to be done over again. My particular sort of chemistry has some very grand names, you know. But that is what you might call the low-down on it. And the present upshot of it is that tomorrow I go back to Formula Ten.’
    There was a moment’s silence during which it occurred to Routh to substitute an eye for an ear. What immediately became visible through the keyhole was not difficult to interpret. Near at hand a blurred but familiar form represented one of the oddly high and square shoulders of the man Squire. In the background was a green baize door in a wall lined with books. And in the middle distance was part of the polished surface of a table or desk. On this there was nothing to be seen except a pair of hands issuing from the sleeves of a white coat – fine hands, powerful and with long square fingers exquisitely cared for.
    ‘So you see that I have singularly little use for your tramp, my dear Squire. Formula Ten, I assure you, will occupy me very sufficiently for the next few weeks… By the way, here it is.’
    For a moment one of the hands on the desk flicked out of Routh’s field of vision. Then it was back again, immobile as before. But now between the two hands there lay what looked like a single folded sheet of quarto paper. The effect of this appearance was startling. Squire’s shoulder disappeared. Squire’s voice rose in something like a surprised and horrified yelp. The owner of the hands answered this with a low laugh. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Here it is.’
    ‘But you’ve no business to have it out like that. It’s outrageous! If the Director…’
    ‘The Director has some very odd ways, I admit. This, I really believe, is the only existing copy of Formula Ten. It is unique – and the basis of the whole effort. How lucky we are to have it! It was got out of Hendrik, I have been told, just before be succumbed to the persuasions that were unfortunately found necessary in his case. Am I right?’
    ‘I know nothing about it.’ Squire’s voice was suddenly husky.
    ‘Don’t you? Then how much you must regret not having been present, my dear Squire, on an occasion so much in your line. But – as I say – we were lucky to get what we did. One knows people here and there about the world who would give millions for this, does one not? Or even – come to think of it – a kingdom? No wonder the Director will have it out only under circumstances of the most portentous security. I enter into your horror and dismay, my dear chap. But when I need Formula Ten I fetch it out and mention the fact afterwards.’
    ‘I don’t like it.’
    ‘That reminds me. No more do I like your friend the tramp. I don’t like his