Passenger to Frankfurt - Agatha Christie [36]
James Kleek brought Nye his drink and set it on the table near Mr Robinson. Stafford Nye was not going to speak first. The dark eyes behind the desk lost their melancholy for a moment. They had quite suddenly a twinkle in them.
‘Any questions?’ he said.
‘Too many,’ said Sir Stafford Nye. ‘Wouldn’t it be better to have explanations first, questions later?’
‘Is that what you’d like?’
‘It might simplify matters.’
‘Well, we start with a few plain statements of facts. You may or you may not have been asked to come here. If not, that fact may rankle slightly.’
‘He prefers to be asked always,’ said the Countess. ‘He said as much to me.’
‘Naturally,’ said Mr Robinson.
‘I was hi-jacked,’ said Stafford Nye. ‘Very fashionable, I know. One of our more modern methods.’
He kept his tone one of light amusement.
‘Which invites, surely, a question from you,’ said Mr Robinson.
‘Just one small word of three letters. Why?’
‘Quite so. Why? I admire your economy of speech. This is a private committee–a committee of inquiry. An inquiry of world-wide significance.’
‘Sounds interesting,’ said Sir Stafford Nye.
‘It is more than interesting. It is poignant and immediate. Four different ways of life are represented in this room tonight,’ said Lord Altamount. ‘We represent different branches. I have retired from active participation in the affairs of this country, but I am still a consulting authority. I have been consulted and asked to preside over this particular inquiry as to what is going on in the world in this particular year of our Lord, because something is going on. James, here, has his own special task. He is my right-hand man. He is also our spokesman. Explain the general set-out, if you will, Jamie, to Sir Stafford here.’
It seemed to Stafford Nye that the gun dog quivered. At last! At last I can speak and get on with it! He leaned forward a little in his chair.
‘If things happen in the world, you have to look for a cause for them. The outward signs are always easy to see but they’re not, or so the Chairman–’ he bowed to Lord Altamount–‘and Mr Robinson and Mr Horsham believe, important. It’s always been the same way. You take a natural force, a great fall of water that will give you turbine power. You take the discovery of uranium from pitchblende, and that will give you in due course nuclear power that had not been dreamt of or known. When you found coal and minerals, they gave you transport, power, energy. There are forces at work always that give you certain things. But behind each of them there is someone who controls it. You’ve got to find who’s controlling the powers that are slowly gaining ascendancy in practically every country in Europe, further afield still in parts of Asia. Less, possibly, in Africa, but again in the American continents both north and south. You’ve got to get behind the things that are happening and find out the motive force that’s making them happen. One thing that makes things happen is money.’
He nodded towards Mr Robinson.
‘Mr Robinson, there, knows as much about money as anybody in the world, I suppose.’
‘It’s quite simple,’ said Mr Robinson. ‘There are big movements afoot. There has to be money behind them. We’ve got to find out where that money’s coming from. Who’s operating with it? Where do they get it from? Where are they sending it to? Why? It’s quite true what James says: I know a lot about money! As much as any man alive knows today. Then there are what you might call trends. It’s a word we use a good deal nowadays! Trends or tendencies–there are innumerable words one uses. They mean not quite the same thing, but they’re in relationship with each other. A tendency, shall we say, to rebellion shows up. Look back through history. You’ll find it coming again and again, repeating itself like a periodic table, repeating a pattern. A desire for rebellion, the means of rebellion, the form the rebellion takes. It’s not a thing particular to any particular country. If it arises in one country, it will arise in other countries in less or more degrees.