John le Carré - A Small Town in Germany

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

A SMALL TOWN

IN GERMANY

John le Carre

Published 1968.

PROLOGUE

The Hunter and

the Hunted

Ten minutes to midnight: a pious

Friday in May and a fine river

mist lying in the market square.

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

Bonn was a Balkan city, stained

and secret, drawn over with

tramwire. Bonn was a dark house

where someone had died, a house

draped in Catholic black and

guarded by policemen. Their

leather coats glistened in the

lamplight, the black flags hung

over them like birds. It was as

if all but they had heard the

alarm and fled. Now a car, nowa

pedestrian hurried past, and the

silence followed like a wake. A

tram sounded, but far away. In

the grocer's shop, from a pyramid

of tins, the handwritten notice

advertised the emergency: 'Lay in

your store now!' Among the

crumbs, marzipan pigs like

hairless mice proclaimed the

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

forgotten Saint's Day.

Only the posters spoke. From

trees and lanterns they fought

their futile war, each at the

same height as if that were the

regulation; they were printed in

radiant paint, mounted on

hardboard, and draped in thin

streamers of black bunting, and

they rose at him vividly as he

hastened past. 'Send the Foreign

Workers Home!' 'Rid us of the

Whore Bonn!' 'Unite Germany

First, Europe Second!' And the

largest was set above them, in a

tall streamer right across the

street: 'Open the road East, the

road West has failed.' His dark

eyes paid them no attention. A

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

policeman stamped his boots and

grimaced at him, making a hard

joke of the weather; another

challenged him but without

conviction; and one called 'Guten

Abend' but he offered no reply;

for he had no mind for any but

the plumper figure a hundred

paces ahead of him who trotted

hurriedly down the wide avenue,

entering the shadow of a black

flag, emerging as the tallow

lamplight took him back.

The dark had made no ceremony of

coming nor the grey day of

leaving, but the night was crisp

for once and smelt of winter. For

most months, Bonn is not a place

of seasons; the climate is all

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

indoors, a climate of headaches,

warm and flat like bottled water,

a climate of waiting, of bitter

tastes taken from the slow river,

of fatigue and reluctant growth,

and the air is an exhausted wind

fallen on the plain, and the dusk

when it comes is nothing but a

darkening of the day's mist, a

lighting of tube lamps in the

howling streets. But on that

spring night the winter had come

back to visit, slipping up the

Rhine valley under cover of the

predatory darkness, and it

quickened them as they went, hurt

them with its unexpected chill.

The eyes of the smaller man,

straining ahead of him, shed

tears of cold.

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

The avenue curved, taking them

past the yellow walls of the

University. 'Democrats! Hang the

Press Baron!' 'The World belongs

to the Young!' 'Let the English

Lordlings beg!' 'Axel Springer to

the gallows!' 'Long Live Axel

Springer!' 'Protest is Freedom'.

These posters were done in

woodcut on a student press.

Overhead the young foliage

glittered in a fragmented canopy

of green glass. The lights were

brighter here, the police fewer.

The men strode on, neither faster

nor slower; the first busily,

with a beadle's flurry. His

stride though swift was stagy and

awkward, as if he had stepped

down from somewhere grander; a

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

walk replete with a German

burgher's dignity. His arms swung

shortly at his sides and his back

was straight. Did he know he was

being followed? His head was held

stiff in authority, but authority

became him poorly. A man drawn

forward by what he saw? Or driven

by what lay behind? Was it fear

that prevented him from turning?

A man of substance does not move

his head. The second man stepped

lightly in his wake. A sprite,

weightless as the dark, slipping

through the shadows as if they

were a net: a clown stalking a

courtier.

They entered a narrow alley; the

air was filled with the smells of

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

sour food. Once more the walls

cried to them, now in the tell-

tale liturgy of German

advertising: 'Strong Men Drink

Beer!' 'Knowledge is Power, Read

Molden Books!' Here for the first

time the echo of their footsteps

mingled in unmis-takable

challenge; here for the first

time the man of substance seemed

to waken, sensing the danger

behind. It was no more than a

slur, a tiny imperfection in the

determined rhythm of his portly

march; but it took him to the

edge of the pavement, away from

the darkness of the walls, and he

seemed to find comfort in the

brighter places, where the

lamplight and the policemen could

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

protect him. Yet his pursuer did

not relent. 'Meet us in Hanover!'

the poster cried. 'Karfeld speaks

in Hanover!' 'Meet us in Hanover

on Sunday!'

An empty tram rolled past, its

windows protected with adhesive

mesh. A single church bell began

its monotonous chime, a dirge for

Christian virtue in an empty

city. They were walking again,

closer together, but still the

man in front did not look back.

They rounded another corner;

ahead of them, the great spire of

the Minster was cut like thin

metal against the empty sky.

Reluctantly the first chimes were

answered by others, until all

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John le Carre - A Small Town in Germany

over the town there rose a slow

cacophony of uncertain peals. An

Angelus? An air raid? A young

policeman, standing in the

doorway of a sports shop, bared

his head. In the Cathedral porch,

a candle burned in a bowl of red

glass; to one side stood a

religious bookshop. The plump man

paused, leaned forward as if to

examine something in the window;

glanced down the road; and in

that moment the light from the

window shone full upon his

features. The smaller mall ran

forward: stopped; ran forward

again; and was too late.

The limousine had drawn up, an

Opel Rekord driven by a pale man

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