"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 07" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

Friday, 11.15-14.20




While the archives section presented a slightly more
animated appearance during office hours than on Zen's
previous visit, it could by no means have been described
as a hive of activity. True, there were now about a dozen
clerks on duty, but this manning level had evidently been
dictated by some notional bureaucratic quota rather than
the actual demands of the job, which wa:i being carried on
almost entirely by one man. He had a neurotically intense
expression, compulsive, jerky movements, arid the guilty
air of someone concealing a shameful secret.
Unlike the others, he couldn't just sit back and read the
paper or chat all morning. If there was work to be done, he
just couldn't help doing it. It was this that made him a
figure of fun in his colleagues' eyes. They watched him
scurry about, collecting and dispatching the files which
had been ordered, sorting and reshelving those which had
been returned, cataloguir.g and indexing new material,
typing replies to demands and queries. Their looks were
derisory, openly contemptuous. They despised him for his
weakness, as he did himself for that matter. Poor fellow!
What could you do with people like that? Still, he had his
uses.
As on his previous visit, Zen asked to consult the file on
the Vasco Spadola case. While it was being fetched, he
called to the clerk who had been on duty the last time be
had been there.
The man looked up from the crossword puzzle he was
completing.
'You want to speak to me?' he demanded, with the
incredulous tone of a surgeon interrupted while perform-
ing an open-heart operation.
Zen shook his head. 'You want to speak to me. At least,
so I've been told. Something about a video tape.'
An anticipatory smile dawned on the clerk's lips.
'Ah, so it was you, was it? Yes, I remember now!'
The other clerks had all fallen silent and were watching
with curiosity. Their colleague strode languidly over to the
counter where Zen was standing.
'Yes, I'm afraid there's been a slight problem with that
tape, dottore.'
'Really?'
'Yes, really.'
'And what might it be?'
'Well it might be almost anything,' the clerk returned