"Good taste might be rare, but it does in fact grow everywhere."
Says the man who hasn't bothered to change into a fresh shirt for the evening. His collar is rumpled. Not that it's very visible given the low light and how deep the shadow is there where he's sat practically tucked behind the box's curtain. Still, Ralston has a particular way of slouching in his seat which has miraculously transformed it from slightly uncomfortable little thing with too little padding to a lounging club chair. He has one foot idly kicked up over a knee and his cane with it's snarling dog handle hooked across his ankle. Were it shaded by a more pleasing disposition and the whole effect might be charmingly rougish.
It is not.
"Merovic plans to meet his French connection at some point during this little cultural tour. My guess is they mean to pass along their great packet of allied secrets under the pretense of this dressing room congratulations, or that little after party, or so on."
They could simply wait of course, he'd remarked earlier, either an unwitting or oddly apt echo of MI6's own debrief. They might waylay Merovic as he is leaving the city when he was sure to have the NATO intelligence on him. Indeed here, moving about the quartered city, is when he would be most vulnerable and so most on guard. But it's not a long trip to the Czechoslovakian border and it's stunningly easy for a Soviet to disappear behind the curtain. Besides, it would leave Merovic's French friend unmasked.
'Just think of how fun it will be to kill two birds with one stone.'
no subject
Says the man who hasn't bothered to change into a fresh shirt for the evening. His collar is rumpled. Not that it's very visible given the low light and how deep the shadow is there where he's sat practically tucked behind the box's curtain. Still, Ralston has a particular way of slouching in his seat which has miraculously transformed it from slightly uncomfortable little thing with too little padding to a lounging club chair. He has one foot idly kicked up over a knee and his cane with it's snarling dog handle hooked across his ankle. Were it shaded by a more pleasing disposition and the whole effect might be charmingly rougish.
It is not.
"Merovic plans to meet his French connection at some point during this little cultural tour. My guess is they mean to pass along their great packet of allied secrets under the pretense of this dressing room congratulations, or that little after party, or so on."
They could simply wait of course, he'd remarked earlier, either an unwitting or oddly apt echo of MI6's own debrief. They might waylay Merovic as he is leaving the city when he was sure to have the NATO intelligence on him. Indeed here, moving about the quartered city, is when he would be most vulnerable and so most on guard. But it's not a long trip to the Czechoslovakian border and it's stunningly easy for a Soviet to disappear behind the curtain. Besides, it would leave Merovic's French friend unmasked.
'Just think of how fun it will be to kill two birds with one stone.'