Call for the Dead

by John Le Carré

‘The technique is based on the theory that the interviewer, loving no one as well as himself, will be attracted by his own image. You therefore assume the exact social, temperamental, political and intellectual colour of your inquisitor.’ ‘Pompous toad. But intelligent lover.’ ‘Silence. Sometimes this method founders against the idiocy or ill-disposition of the inquisitor. If so, become an armadillo.’ ‘And wear linear belts, toad?’ ‘No, place him in a position so incongruous that you are superior to him. I was prepared for confirmation by a retired bishop. I was his whole flock, and received on one half holiday sufficient guidance for a diocese. But by contemplating the bishop’s face, and imagining that under my gaze it became covered in thick fur, I maintained the ascendancy. From then on the skill grew. I could turn him into an ape, get him stuck in sash windows, send him naked to Masonic banquets, condemn him, like the serpent, to go about on his belly …’