XVI Niche
THE HOTEL was new and rather soulless, but it stood near Old Town, with a fine tenth-floor view of roofs and narrow streets climbing to the stones of the Citadel. That mass stood darkling athwart stars dimmed by lamps and lightful panes. On the west side, the comer suite overlooked modem Ankara, Ulus Square, the boulevard, radiance glaring and flashing, opulent storefronts, crowded sidewalks, hasty automobiles. Heat.of a day in late summer lingered, and the windows stood open to catch whatever coolness crept in off the river and hinterland. Height muffled traffic noise, even car horns, to an undertone hardly more loud than the large fan whining on its stand.
For the American patron and his dinner guest, room service had set an elegant table and carried up an excellent meal. Through most of it they had sparred with small talk. The language in which they could most readily converse turned out to be Greek. Now they were at the stage of cheese, coffee, and liqueurs.
Oktay Saygun leaned back, held his Drambuie to the light before he sipped, creased his jowls with a smile. He was a stocky, paunchy man, his nose the single impressive thing about him. While not shabby, his business suit had clearly been years in use and inexpensive when bought. “Ah,” he murmured, “delicious. You are a most knowledgeable gentleman, Kyrie McCready.”
“I am glad you enjoyed this,” replied the other. “I hope you feel more at ease with me.”
Saygun cocked his head in birdlike fashion, if the bird be a well-fed owl or parrot. David McCready was two or three centimeters taller than he, lean and timber. Though the dark hawk visage showed only geniality, the eyes—oddly Levantine for the name he bore—met his own and searched. “Did I give you the opposite impression?” Saygun asked. “I’m sorry. What a poor return for your hospitality. Not my intention at all, I assure you.”
“Oh, I don’t blame you. A telephone call, an invitation from a perfect stranger. I might want to lure you into some criminal scheme. Or I might be a foreign agent, a spy. These days they must swarm in every capital.”
Saygun chuckled. “Who would bother to subvert a little bureaucrat in the purely civilian archives? If anything, you would be the endangered one. Think. You have had your dealings with our bureaucracy. It is impossible not to, especially if one is a foreigner. Believe me, when we set our minds to it we can tangle, obstruct, and bring to a dead halt a herd of stampeding elephants.”
“Still, this is an uneasy time.”
Saygun turned grave. His look wandered out the window, nightward. “Indeed,” he said low. “An evil time. Herr Hitler was not content with engulfing Austria, was he? I fear Mister Chamberlain and Monsieur Daladier will let him work his will on Czechoslovakia too. And nearer home, the ambitions.of the Tsars live on in Red Russia.” He turned his attention back, took forth a handkerchief, wiped his narrow brow and sleeked down his black hair. “Pardon me. You Americans prefer optimism always, not so? Well, whatever happens, civilization will survive. It has thus far, no matter what changing guises it wears.”
“You are quite well-informed, Kyrie Saygun,” McCready said slowly. “And something of a philosopher, it seems.”
The Turk shrugged. “One reads the newspapers. One listens to the radio. The coffee shops have become a Babel of politics. I seek occasional relief hi old books. They help me tell the transient from the enduring.”
He drained his glass. McCready refilled it and asked, “Cigar?”
“Why, yes, thank you very much. That humidor of yours appears to hold promise.”
McCready fetched two Havanas, a clipper which he offered first to his guest, and a lighter. As he settled himself again, his voice shivered the least bit. “May I get to my business now?”
“Certainly. You would have been welcome to do so earlier. I assumed you, wished to become acquainted. Or, if I may put it thus, to feel me out.”
McCready’s grin was wry. “You did the better job of that, on me.”
“Oh? I simply enjoyed a pleasant conversation with an interesting person. Everybody is fascinated by your wonderful country, and your career as a businessman has been remarkable.”