Isvik by Hammond; Innes

voice seemed to have lost almost all trace of an accent. ‘Windmill Street,’ he added, ‘is just to the north of Piccadilly Circus, a turning off Shaftesbury Avenue. Ye’ll find Jonnie’s office on the third floor. Don’t forget, will ye? Ah need to be on the plane to Madrid with everythin’ sorted out and Ah’ve still a lot to dae. Hold on a minute now and Ah’ll give ye the flight number.’
    â€˜Look, this is crazy,’ I said. ‘Nobody planning an expedition leaves it to the last minute like this, certainly not an expedition to the Antarctic. You haven’t even got the boat yet.’
    â€˜Ye’re wrong there, laddie. Ah bought Isvik last week, two days after we met at Greenwich. What shall we call her, the Iain Ward ?’ The way he said it, the fact that he was considering changing her name, the whole precipitate business of rushing off to the Antarctic made me suddenly feel I was dealing with a megalomaniac. Yet he had seemed sensible enough. Maybe it was the telephone. The telephone does accentuate inflexions in the voice, nuances of personality that are not perceptible when overlaid by the visual impact of the individual. But I was thinking of Iris Sunderby’s words – an ego a mile high – and her view that his accent was phoney.
    â€˜Are ye there?’
    â€˜Yes, I’m still here.’ What the hell did I say to him?
    â€˜Luke, d’ye want the job or not?’
    â€˜I didn’t know you were offering me a job.’ I said it without thinking, to gain time while I tried to find a few answers to the questions racing through my mind. If his travel agent could produce visas for two or three of the more difficult South American countries at such short notice there must either be something wrong with them or … ‘How much are these visas going to cost you?’ I asked him.
    â€˜That’s none of yer business. But they’ll be the real thin’, not forgeries.’ I could almost hear him smiling at the other end of the line. ‘They’ll cost a bit more, of course, but everythin’ costs more if ye’re in a hurry. Aye, and if it’s money that’s worryin’ ye, Ah’m no’ expectin’ ye to come along just fur the ride. Ye’ll be there to dae a job so Ah’ll pay ye a salary. No’ a very big one, mind ye, but still enough to provide fur yer funeral if we get into trouble and lose our lives. Now, is there anythin’ else, otherwise … Och, the flight number.’ He gave it to me. ‘Terminal One.’
    â€˜I’m not going to be rushed into this,’ I said. ‘I need time to think.’
    â€˜We don’t have time.’
    â€˜Why ever not?’ I demanded. ‘It’s still winter down there. There’s lots of time before the spring –’
    â€˜The time of year doesn’t concern me.’
    â€˜What does then? Why are you in such a hurry?’
    â€˜Ah’ll tell ye when we reach Madrid, no’ before. Now, dae ye want the job or not? Ah need a wood preservative expert, somebody whose technical opinion will be accepted, but it doesn’t have to be ye.’ His voice hardened as he added, ‘Ah’ll be frank with ye. Ye’re not by any means the best qualified expert available. Inside of a week Ah could have somebody with more qualifications flown out to join me. So ye think it over, okay?’ The smile was back in his voice. ‘See ye at the BA check-in desk 13.00 hours Sunday. And don’t forget to pick up the passports from Jonnie.’
    There was a click and the line went dead. I was left standing there staring blankly at the saltings, my mind in a turmoil. Slowly I put the receiver back on its rest. The sun was setting, the salt marsh illuminated in a golden glow. Glimmers of light picked out the dark ribbons of water, the hides used by the wardens and the bird-watching members of the NNT