The Ipcress File by Len Deighton Read Free Book Online Page B

almost as powerful as anyone gets in this business. People posted to him ceased to be in the Army for all practical purposes and they were removed from almost all War Office records. In the few rare cases of men going back to normal duty from W.O.O.C.(p) they were enlisted all over afresh and given a new serial number from the batch that is reserved for Civil Servants seconded to military duties. Pay was made by an entirely different scale, and I wondered just how long I would have to make the remnants of this month's pay last before the new scale began.

After a search for his small metal-rimmed army spectacles, Ross went through the discharge rigmarole with loving attention to detail. We began by destroying the secret compensation contract that Ross and I had signed in this very room almost three years ago and ended by his checking that I had no mess charges unpaid. It had been a pleasure to work with me, Provisional was clever to get me, he was sorry to lose me and Mr. Dalby was lucky to have me and would I leave this package in Room 225 on the way out - the messenger seemed to have missed him this morning.

Dalby's place is in one of those sleazy long streets in the district that would be Soho, if Soho had the strength to cross Oxford Street. There is a new likely-looking office conversion wherein the unwinking blue neon glows even at summer midday, but this isn't Dalby's place. Dalby's department is next door. His is dirtier than average with a genteel profusion of well-worn brass work, telling of the existence of 'The Ex-Officers' Employment Bureau. Est. 1917'; 'Acme Films Cutting Rooms'; 'B. Isaacs. Tailor - Theatricals a Speciality'; 'Dalby Inquiry Bureau - staffed by ex-Scotland Yard detectives.' A piece of headed note-paper bore the same banner and the biro'd message, 'Inquiries third floor, please ring.' Each morning at 9.30 I rang, and avoiding the larger cracks in the lino, began the ascent. Each floor had its own character - ageing paint varying from dark brown to dark green. The third floor was dark white. I passed the scaly old dragon that guarded the entrance to Dalby's cavern.

I'll always associate Charlotte Street with the music of the colliery brass bands that I remember from my childhood. The duty drivers and cipher clerks had a little fraternity that sat around in the despatch office on the second floor. They had a very loud gramophone and they were all brass band fanatics;

that's a pretty esoteric failing in London. Up through the warped and broken floorboards came the gleaming polished music. Fairey Aviation had won the Open Championship again that year and the sound of the test piece reached through to every room in the building. It made Dalby feel he was overlooking Horse Guards Parade; it made me feel I was back in Burnley.

I said, 'Hello, Alice,' and she nodded, and busied herself with a Nescafe tin and a ruinous cup of warm water. I went through to the back office, saw Chico - he'd got a step beyond Alice, his Nescafe was almost dissolved. Chico always looked glad to see me, it made my day; it was his training, I suppose. He'd been to one of those very good schools where you meet kids with influential uncles. I imagine that's how he got into the Horse Guards and now into w.o.o.c.(p) too, it must have been like being at school again. His profusion of long lank yellow hair hung heavily across his head like a Shrove Tuesday mishap. He stood 5 ft. 11 in. in his Argyll socks, and had an irritating physical stance, in which his thumbs rested high behind his red braces while he rocked on his hand-lasted Oxfords. He had the advantage of both a good brain and a family rich enough to save him using it.

I walked right through the Dalby Inquiry Bureau and down the back stairs. For this whole house belonged to w.o.o.c.(p) even though each business on each floor had its own 'front' for our convenience. By 9.40 a.m. each morning I was in the small ramshackle projection room of Acme Films.

The sickly