The Ipcress File

Here you are, Professor, your favourite,

just like every other day.

Don't say much, do you?

Hope you'll be a bit chattier when you get there.

Whenever that is.

Paid a lot of money for you.

Half of it, anyway.

They must reckon you're worth it.

I just hope no one changes their mind, otherwise it'll be...

Boom!

Six months ago, Dawson began treatment for stress...

Perhaps because he was planning to defect to the Soviet Union.

...with a psychiatrist who advocated experimental techniques,

the effects of which are unknown.

Dawson was abducted by a British mercenary,

the psychiatrist is dead, and the mercenary,

presumably with his valuable captive, has gone to ground.

In Beirut?

Randall and another man flew to France

the night of the entry to Radley's clinic.

A man resembling him, again with companion,

was sighted boarding a freighter in Marseille, bound for Beirut.

And Beirut, where he was stationed for four years,

is where he has relationships, contacts,

and where he is most likely to be.

Unless he's somewhere else.

There is that possibility.

It's not going outstandingly, is it?

No, sir.

When Mr Dalby told me I was going back to that clinic

to read every last page of Radley's research,

I thought he was joking. It's amazing what you can learn.

A PhD wasn't the only thing he brought back from Stanford.

"There is a relationship between freedom of behaviour

and psychic liberation.

The human subconscious can be stripped of its protective shell

and rendered amenable to therapeutic remodelling."

Glad that's cleared things up.

Before we meet the man from the embassy,

I thought I might visit the Roman baths later.

Beirut has one of the largest outside Rome, apparently.

Jean, is there something wrong?

My fiancé has broken off our engagement.

I'm sorry.

Did he give a reason?

Because I was lying to him.

I see.

Do you know, Dalby's wife thinks he works for the Board of Trade.

Has for 20 years, never questioned it.

Not that she could do anything, even if she did.

See, it's so much easier for men to lie.

Everything is easier for men.

Nice view.

You're late.

Yeah, sorry about that.

You're here with Jean Courtney.

Am I?

I thought she might be with you.

As you can see, I'm on my own.

I'm an old friend of James's, the man she pledged to marry.

You people all know each other, don't you?

Was he at the embassy, too?

James and I were at school together.

Of course.

He was pretty cut up about it all.

Finds out that she's been working for the funnies,

spinning some yarn about the BBC.

I didn't come up here to talk about any of this,

but employees in certain fields do have obligations of confidentiality.

Still, it's not very pleasant, is it, lying?

Let's change the subject.

Mr Randall's contacts.

Right, here's the list.

Contacts registered while he was here under diplomatic cover.

Yousef Fattal, deputy commissioner of the Beirut Police.

Connected. So for God's sake, try not to upset him.

We think this woman might have been his girlfriend.

And this one's Adem, drug trafficker, moneylender.

Runs a nightclub, Hamra.

Just be careful. He's unpredictable.

Don't go anywhere with anyone.

Don't tell anyone except Adem who it is you're looking for.

There's an exit at the back of the building, should you need it.

I know.

And I brought you this.

I'm all right, thanks.

It could save your life.

I'll take my chances.

Lager, please.

I'm looking for Adem.

Looking for Adem?

Yes.

This way.

Lift up your arms.

US dollars.

I'm not American.

What do you want with Adem?

I'm hoping he can help me find someone.

Wait.

You come with us.

- Where? - We take you in the car.

No, thanks. But if I could just have my wallet back.

You will come with us.

This way.

Don't move! Drop the gun.

Harry, pick up the gun.

Back inside. Shut the door.

Forgot to get my wallet back.

Identification, please.

Your very own command centre.

In the event of everything going to hell, this is where you'll find me.

From here, I'm in communication with the Pentagon,

the president, or whoever has survived,

with each and every nuclear armed missile silo and B52 squadron in Europe.

You can hardly wait.

Preparation is deterrence.

Indeed.

And your man Dawson was very important to us

in pursuit of that goal.

But you lost him.

And then, as I understand it,

you lost the man closely connected to the disappearance.

For the time being.

Incompetence or infiltration?

Incompetence, I can assure you.

Four weeks from today, we're due to hold our first neutron bomb test

- since the collapse of the moratorium. - So I hear.

The moratorium on testing was a mistake.

Our political masters had allowed themselves

to be duped into a state of sentimental weakness.

You're not the sort to tolerate weakness.

No. Because I have known it in myself.

Ninth of March, 1945, I piloted a B-29 over Tokyo.

One of about 300 bombers,

dropping incendiary bombs onto a city made of wood.

We killed about 100,000 people that day, and I did my share.

In the weeks that followed, I was haunted

by visions of burning children.

I took to drink. I became estranged from my family.

One day, I set out to destroy myself.

I drove till I ran out of gas. Middle of nowhere.

I was gonna bring it all to an end.

But in that place,

faced with the grandeur of His creation...

You were sent a message.

I was.

All that I had done was but preparation for what is to come.

My ordeal was a challenge from which I must emerge stronger,

more determined, more pitiless,

in the defence of our Christian values.

I was at Nagasaki.

What I saw were shadows on the street

where human beings had been vaporised.

Mmm. I know him. I have not seen him for two, maybe three years.

If he was back, do you know where we might find him?

Uh, he's not back.

I have made enquiries of all the people who might see him

and all the places he might stay. He is not here.

Of course, Beirut at this time of the year is a wonderful place

and I hope you will stay longer to enjoy the sights

and our hospitality.

I'm very much enjoying them both,

but I wonder if you're able to tell us where he might be found,

so that we could look for ourselves.

Places where he could gamble or borrow money to gamble.

- And did he borrow money from you? - Not me.

No, no, no, no. I was never foolish enough to lend to him.

In that case, I wonder how you knew him.

Socially.

Did he pay you?

You mean, did he bribe me?

This woman, she is really quite spirited.

Well what did he pay you for?

I don't know what you're talking about,

so maybe you should stop talking.

Two-and-a-half thousand in sterling?

- I can have you thrown out of this city. - We have diplomatic passports.

You may have diplomatic passports,

but, uh, you are not diplomats.

All high on the happy end in Cuba,

our president wants it to be a stepping stone

into a new era of dialogue and cooperation

with our peace-loving brothers on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

Well, maybe one day we'll all be good communists.

Forgive me if I don't share your droll amusement

in that prospect, Mr Maddox.

You know me by now, General.

I'm a godless heathen for whom hell holds no fear.

And sure enough, you'll be acquainted with it.

That's for the future.

Meantime, what can I do for you?

Our friend, survivor of Nagasaki.

- Yes? - I find him... interesting.

- How interesting? - Enough to want to know more.

Well...

from an agency point of view,

that seems to be a legitimate act of intelligence gathering,

even though we're on the same side.

Same side?

It's a long time since I ever thought of it that way.