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“Like what?”
“Something unique. You know the situation at your employer. You’re best qualified to suggest something that I would really need. Aren’t you?”
Hans Reuter looked worried. “But how am I to guess?”
Curtis shrugged. “Let me guess for you. How many Krieg company executives and directors are former Army officers?”
“Very few.”
“Do you know any?”
“Not personally. I mean, there are none in the Berlin office.”
“Can you find their names?”
“I would have to think about that.”
“While you’re thinking,” Curtis shot back, “think which of those company directors might travel abroad.”
Reuter looked uncomfortable, and Curtis thought he was touching some sort of a nerve here, as if the man had thought of a name he feared.
“One of your responsibilities is to dispense funds overseas, correct?”
“How do you know?”
Curtis’s casual, “I asked around” did not make Reuter look any more comfortable.
Curtis went for broke. “I need a name.”
“A name?”
“The name of the recipient.” Push! Arthur Curtis thought. Push him hard. Don’t give him time to change his mind. “Two days,” he said. “Meet me here. Seven o’clock.”
“It is risky.”
“Don’t worry, it will be the last time I ask.”
“No more?” Hans asked, partly with relief, partly with disappointment that the money would stop. Curtis said, “In addition to triple, I will seek authorization for a separation bonus. A thank-you.”
Greed was Reuter’s middle name. Suddenly he was brave. “But for the name you ask I will have to pay someone else.”
He was lying, bless him, Curtis thought. Reuter was high enough up in Krieg to know the name himself. Curtis said, “O.K. If I must, I will pay your ‘someone else,’ too.” Maybe Reuter was lying. But maybe he wasn’t. Hopefully, he was so grasping he would take a big risk.
On his way back to the office, Art Curtis stopped at the all-night telegraph in a railroad station to cable Isaac Bell.
WIRE AUTHORIZED FUNDS.
NAME POSSIBLE TWO DAYS.
* * *
Andrew Rubenoff reported back to Isaac Bell that he was very impressed by Irina Viorets.
“I’m surprised,” Bell admitted. “I thought there was something fishy about how fast she got the job running such a big outfit.”
“The woman displays a keen understanding of the moving picture business. Not only the taking of the pictures, but the distribution and exhibition — which are absolutely vital to making a profit. Equally important, she understands that more must be done than introducing a couple of new shows with each change. The customers won’t stand much longer for furbishing up of the exhibition with a few new features. The exhibitors must be able to declare that the entire show is new. ‘Keep your show fresh and up-to-the-minute,’ she told me, ‘and you will draw full houses.’”
“Sounds like she was selling you.”
