The Light of Day by Eric Ambler

Athens otherwise. You see the difficulty?'
    I did. What I didn't see was the way out of it.
    He lit another cigarette. 'Come now, Simpson, you were emerging very sensibly from the darkness a few minutes ago. Why not continue? Either your whole story is a lie, or you have left something of importance out. Which is it? I am going to find out anyway. It will be easier for both of us if you just tell me now.'
    I know when I am beaten. I drank some more raki. 'All right. I had no more choice with him than I have with you. He was blackmailing me.'
    'How?'
    'Have you got an extradition treaty with Greece?'
    'Never mind about that. I am not the police.'
    So I had to tell him about the traveller's cheques after all.
    When I had finished, he nodded. 'I see,' was all he said. After a moment, he got up and went to the door. It opened the instant he knocked on it. He began to give orders.
    I was quite sure that he had finished with me and was telling the guards to take me away to a cell, so I swallowed the rest of the raki in my glass and put the matches in my pocket on the off-chance that I might get away with them.
    I was wrong about the cell. When he had finished speaking, he shut the door and came back.
    ‘I have sent for some eatable food,' he said.
    He did not stop at the table, but went across to the telephone. I lighted a cigarette and returned the matches to the table. I don't think he noticed. He was asking for an Istanbul number and making a lot of important-sounding noises about it. Then he hung up and came back to the table.
    'Now tell me everything you remember about this man Harper,' he said.
    I started to tell him the whole story from the beginning, but he wanted details now.
    'You say that he spoke like a German who has lived in America for some years. When did you reach that eon-elusion? After you heard him speak German to the man at the garage?'
    'No. Hearing him speak German only confirmed the impression I had had.'
    'If you were to hear me speak German fluently could you tell whether it was my mother tongue or not?'
    'No.'
    'How did he pronounce the English word "later", for example?'
    I tried to tell him.
    'You know the German "1" is more frontal than that,' he said; 'but in Turkish, before certain vowels, the "1" is like the English consonant you were pronouncing. If you were told that this man had a Turkish background, would you disbelieve it?'
    'Not if I were told it was true perhaps. But is Harper a Turkish name?'
    ‘Is it a German one?'
    'It could be an anglicization of Hipper.'
    'It could also be an anglicization of Harbak.' He shrugged. 'It could also be an alias. It most probably is. All I am trying to discover is if the man could be Turkish.'
    'Because of the political aspects you mentioned?'
    'Obviously. Tear-gas grenades, concussion grenades, smoke grenades, six pistols, six times twenty rounds of ammunition. Six determined men, equipped with that material, making a surprise attack on some important person or group of persons could accomplish a great deal. There are still many supporters of the former regime. They do not like the Army's firm hands.’
    I refrained from telling him that I wasn't so very fond of those firm hands myself.
    'But, of course,' he went on; 'we keep our eyes on them. If they wished to attempt anything they would need help from outside. You say he had Swiss francs and West German marks as well as dollars?'
    ‘Yes.'
    'Naturally it is possible that what we have here is only one small corner of a much larger plan. If so, there is a lot of money behind it. This man Harper went to a great deal of trouble and expense to get that material through. Perhaps ...'
    The telephone rang and he broke off to answer it. His call to Istanbul had come through. I understood about one word in ten of his side of the conversation. He was reporting to his boss; that much was easily gathered. My name was mentioned several times. After that he mostly listened, just putting in an occasional evet to show