Bruno Crane
The Friend
I’m woken from bad dreams by the hammering on my door.
‘You were right,’ Narracott says, as he pushes his way into the room. He’s dressed for a day on the mountain, coffee flask in one hand, skiing gloves in the other.
‘What?’ I’d been readying myself for some sort of confrontation. Now I’m wrong-footed.
‘You were right. I think there is one of them here. I didn’t think it possible. I thought you were being paranoid.’
He sets down his gloves and coffee cup, stalks to the windows and throws open the curtains. I see the flag straight away. A rush of blood to the head. But also a kind of triumph. Believe me now?
‘What do we do?’ I say, urgently. ‘Have they come for the gold? Do we leave it where it is? Have they come for us?’
‘Calm yourself,’ he says, seeming to gain composure with my apparent lack of it. ‘Just leave the next steps to me. We’ll simply do the transaction more rapidly. My banker is ready to do the exchange.’
My banker. ‘Is that where you’re going now? To meet him?’ I watch him, thinking: he’s going to try and cut me out. I knew it. And again, that little voice: 100 per cent is a damn sight better than 35.
‘I’m going skiing,’ he says. But he doesn’t say he isn’t seeing this mysterious banker, I notice. ‘Best cure for a late night and a troubled mind that I know. I’ve gone out every morning at nine o’clock so far, and it’s best I stick to it.’
‘But … but what should we do with the gold?’ I cry. ‘Surely we should move it?’
‘Shh! Keep it down, old man. Business as usual – that’s the thing!
Act as normal as possible. So, I suppose for you that means drinking yourself half to death or moping around here in your own squalor.
’ He can’t resist any opportunity to twist the knife, can he?
‘Let’s not lose our heads and do anything rash.
Especially not if they’re watching. Keep calm and carry on.
’ He checks his watch. ‘Now, can’t keep those mountains waiting.
’ He walks back towards me and picks up his flask.
‘I have a pressing appointment with the piste. Later we will reconvene. But in the meantime: be on your guard. Do you understand? And leave the rest to me.’