The Partridge Kite by Michael Nicholson Read Free Book Online Page B

might well be apolitical - has begun infiltrating their companies and associated companies right here in Britain. As far as we know - and I must tell you, it really is only an intelligent guess at this stage - it is the intention of this organisation to create distrust, envy, confusion, militancy among the work force, and - and this is what distresses us most - they have been successful in infiltrating the higher levels of management.’
    ‘So it must be the Russians,’ said Tom. ‘Who else? Unless it’s some nutters from the CIA out on a limb. Do you have another Scotch?’
    Fry gave the bottle of expensive Malt to Tom and walked to the globe, pulling New Zealand apart for the icebox.
    ‘Could be, Tom: could well be the Russians, or maybe some kind of Fascist group.’
    Tom asked, ‘Why should Fascists want to upset what is still pretty much a Right-of-Centre society here?’
    ‘I’m not a politician, Tom. It’s well outside my usual brief, but the way it’s been explained to me, by those who are paying the piper as it were, is that just as a Left-Wing organisation might well want to disrupt a society it considers not Left enough - as in Portugal some time ago - so any Right-Wing group might seek by any means to upset the status quo if it considers it not Right enough. There’s some logic there, you’ll admit. Especially if the Right felt itself also under direct threat from a Socialist Government, it might feel time was running out and its chances of survival diminishing.’
    ‘Yes,’ said Tom. He followed the logic. Politics at this level he could understand.
    ‘If such an organisation does exist,’ he asked, ‘Left or Right, why not go straight to the police? You must have some proof or you wouldn’t be so convinced they exist. And you are convinced, aren’t you?’
    Oh yes! thought Fry - and why not go to the police indeed? Christ, he thought, if CORDON exists let everyone know. If we’re going to kill it that’s the only quick way to do it. Why this bloody silly charade?
    ‘Because, Tom,’ he said aloud, following the line of argument Kellick had given him that morning, ‘because my clients - always sensitive as you can well appreciate to the complexity of international politics and the - well, “hand in gloveness” of international finance - think it wise to establish first the identity of this group, its motives and its influence, by which I mean success so far, before going as you suggest directly to the British authorities. In Sweden, of course, this could all be dealt with in very much a different way without fears of repercussion. But you. . . we. . . have in Britain a Press with a very loose tongue. A sense of responsibility is not a harness it ever wishes to wear. Give them a snippet of this story, just a whiff of our suspicions, and they’d make what is probably just a collection of troublesome cranks into a national disaster! And anyway, Tom, you’ll understand that a complaint by Swedish bankers about subversive infiltration of British industry would do irreparable damage. My clients are trying to protect their money here, not lose it for good!’
    ‘I’m not certain I do see,’ Tom said, ‘but I’m willing to believe you. You are paying the bill. . . I assume you know your own business best.’
    ‘And I’m told you know yours better than most, Tom,’ said Fry, ‘which is why I’m asking you to be my agent for as long as it takes you to find out the identity of this organisation. Quite a brief, I know, especially as we can offer you very little help. But I and the resources of my company will give you all the assistance we can. Any information you supply will be fed into my computers which can take a great deal of the backache and legwork out of your researches. You will find, Tom, that I can make a great many shortcuts in many ways. My clients are not short in influence - assuming, of course, that is the way you’ll want to work.’
    ‘Assuming, of course, that I’ll