Smiley's People汉译53

agent124

第5章



Mostyn sat with a quite particular stillness. He spoke softly. To hear him, Lacon had withdrawn to a corner and bunched his hands judicially under his nose. But Strickland had sat himself bolt upright and seemed, like Mostyn himself, to be patrolling the boy’s words for lapses.
“Vladimir telephoned the Circus at lunch-time today, sir,” Mostyn began, leaving some unclarity as to which “sir” he was addressing. “I happened to be Oddbins duty officer and took the call.”
Strickland corrected him with unpleasant haste: “You mean yesterday. Be precise, can’t you?”
“I’m sorry, sir. Yesterday,” said Mostyn.
“Well, get it right,” Strickland warned.
莫斯廷的坐姿很特别，一动不动。他说话的声音很轻。为了听清他的话，雷肯退到了角落里，双手合十放在鼻子下面，显得很严肃的样子。斯屈克兰却坐得笔直，似乎在密切关注这个男孩说的话，看有什么错误，莫斯廷自己似乎也在注意有没有说错。
"今天中午，弗拉基米尔给圆场打了电话，长官，"莫斯廷说，“长官”指谁，则不清楚。"我正好是打折酒科的值班员，就接了电话。"
斯屈克兰不悦地急忙纠正他： "你说的是昨天。准确点，行吗？"
"对不起，长官。昨天，"莫斯廷说。
"好，讲准确！"斯屈克兰警告道。

To be Oddbins duty officer, Mostyn explained, meant little more than covering the lunch-hour gap and checking desks and wastebins at closing time. Oddbins personnel were too junior for night duty, so there was just this roster for lunch-times and evenings.
And Vladimir, he repeated, came through in the lunch-hour, using the lifeline.
“Lifeline?” Smiley repeated in bewilderment. “I don’t think I quite know what you mean.”
“It’s the system we have for keeping in touch with dead agents, sir,” said Mostyn, then put his fingers to his temple and muttered, “Oh, my Lord.” He started again: “I mean agents who have run their course but are still on the welfare roll, sir,” said Mostyn unhappily.
“So he rang and you took the call,” said Smiley kindly. “What time was that?”
“One-fifteen exactly, sir. Oddbins is like a sort of Fleet Street news-room, you see. There are these twelve desks and there’s the section head’s hen-coop at the end, with a glass partition between us and him. The lifeline’s in a locked box and normally it’s the section head who keeps the key. But in the lunch-hour he gives it to the duty dog. I unlocked the box and heard this foreign voice saying ‘Hullo.’ ”
“Get on with it, Mostyn,” Strickland growled.
“I said ‘Hullo’ back, Mr. Smiley. That’s all we do. We don’t give the number. He said, ‘This is Gregory calling for Max. I have something very urgent for him. Please get me Max immediately.’ I asked him where he was calling from, which is routine, but he just said he had plenty of change. We have no brief to trace incoming calls and anyway it takes too long. There’s an electric card selector by the lifeline, it’s got all the worknames on it. I told him to hold on and typed out ‘Gregory.’ That’s the next thing we do after asking where they’re calling from. Up it came on the selector. ‘Gregory equals Vladimir, ex-agent, ex–Soviet General, ex-leader of the Riga Group.’ Then the file reference. I typed out ‘Max’ and found you, sir.” Smiley gave a small nod. “ ‘Max equals Smiley.’ Then I typed out ‘Riga Group’ and realised you were their last vicar, sir.”
莫斯廷解释说，打折酒科的值班员只是负责午餐时间的工作，以及在别人下班时检查桌子和垃圾桶。打折酒科的职员资历太浅，不适合值夜班，所以只有午餐时间和傍晚的排班。
他又说了一遍，弗拉基米尔是在午餐时间通过生命线打过来的电话。
"生命线？”斯迈利困惑地说。"我不太明白你的意思。"
"这是我们用来与死特务保持联系的系统，长官。"莫斯廷说，然后用手指着太阳穴（将手指放在太阳穴上这个动作通常用来表达不相信、震惊或不知所措——译注），喃喃自语道："哦，我的上帝。" 他接着说： "死特务是指那些已经离职但还在领福利的名册上的特务，长官。"莫斯廷不高兴地说。
"所以他打来电话，你接了，"斯迈利和蔼地说。"那是几点钟？"
"下午三点整，长官。我跟您说，打折酒科就像舰队街（伦敦一条街，报业所在地——译注）的新闻编辑室。有十二张桌子，最后面是科长的‘鸡窝’，我们和他之间用玻璃隔开。生命线在一个上锁的盒子里。通常是科长保管钥匙。但午餐时间，他把钥匙交给值班员。我打开箱子，听到一个外国口音的人说 "你好"。"
"继续，莫斯廷，"斯屈克兰吼了一声。
"我回了个'你好'，斯迈利先生。我们就是这样做的。不给他电话号码。他说，‘我是格里高利，找马克斯。我有急事找他。请马上帮我接麦克斯。’我按例问他从哪里打的电话，但他只说他有很多零钱（表示是从公用电话打来的——译注）。没有命令让我们追踪来电号码，而且这样做也太费时间。生命线旁边有一个电动卡片选择器，上面有所有的工作名字。我让他等一下，然后打出了'格里高利'。问完从哪里打来的电话后，我们就做这件事。选择器显示"格里高利=弗拉基米尔，前特工，前苏联将军，里加小组前领导人。’然后是档案材料。我输入'马克斯'，就找到了您，长官。" 斯迈利微微点了点头。"'马克斯=斯迈利'。然后我输入'里加小组'，才知道您是他们最后一任牧师，长官。"

“Their vicar?” said Lacon, as if he had detected heresy. “Smiley their last vicar, Mostyn? What on earth—”
“I thought you had heard all this, Oliver,” Smiley said, to cut him off.
“Only the essence,” Lacon retorted. “In a crisis one deals only with essentials.”
In his pressed-down Scottish, without letting Mostyn from his sight, Strickland provided Lacon with the required explanation: “Organisations such as the Group had by tradition two case officers. The postman, who did the nuts and bolts for them, and the vicar, who stood above the fight. Their father figure,” he said, and nodded perfunctorily towards Smiley.
“And who was carded as his most recent postman, Mostyn?” Smiley asked, ignoring Strickland entirely.
“Esterhase, sir. Workname Hector.”
“And he didn’t ask for him?” said Smiley to Mostyn, speaking straight past Strickland yet again.
"他们的牧师？"雷肯说，仿佛发现了异端邪说。"斯迈利是他们的上一任牧师，莫斯廷？这到底是怎么回事......"
"我以为这些你都已经听过一遍了，奥利弗，"斯迈利打断他的话说。
"只听了基本要点，"雷肯反驳道。"危机出现时，我们只能处理基本要点。"
斯屈克兰压低声音，用他的苏格兰口音向雷肯做了必要的解释。说话的时候，他的视线始终没有离开莫斯廷。 "像里加小组这样的组织，通行的做法是有两名主管。一个是邮递员，为他们处理一些日常事务；另一个是牧师，高高在上，站在战线上方。一个类似父亲的角色，"他说，一边敷衍似地朝斯迈利点点头。
"那么卡片上说谁是他最新的邮递员，莫斯廷？" 斯迈利完全没有理睬斯屈克兰，问道。
"埃斯特哈斯，先生。工作名字是赫克托。"
"他没找他？"斯迈利又一次跳过了斯屈克兰，直接问莫斯廷。