Our Man in Havana

1

It is time for Wormold to make his annual visit to retailers in Cuban towns outside of Havana. He cables Hawthorne telling him that the visit is for the purpose of carrying out spy activities.

2

Staying in the town of Cienfuegos, Wormold writes to his relatives back in England, as he does every year on this occasion. He feels lonely, melancholy, and nostalgic and looks forward to a time when he and Milly may leave Cuba and return to England.

3

In the town of Santa Clara, Wormold’s car breaks down. He leaves it with a repairman and continues on by coach to Santiago. He deems this safer anyway, because of the political unrest caused by rebels and the police.

That evening Wormold checks into his hotel, which ironically is occupied by real government spies and rebels. He eats a small dinner and writes a picture postcard to Dr. Hasselbacher, marking a cross on his window in the picture of the hotel.

Later in the evening Wormold meets with his retailer and they discuss how poor business is. On his way back to the hotel, Wormold is stopped by two policemen. They treat him roughly, bring him to the police station, and demand to see his papers. When he says they are in his suitcase at the hotel, the policemen empty his pockets and find the postcard and a bottle of whiskey. The officers ask why there is an X marked on the window of his hotel, and Wormold makes up a wild story about Dr. Hasselbacher being a woman he is in love with. When he mentions that he knows Captain Segura, the policemen suddenly change their mood and decide to accompany him back to his hotel and examine his passport there.

Three days later, Wormold returns to Santa Clara, picks up his car, and sets back for Havana.

When Wormold arrives back home in Havana, he receives an urgent phone call from Dr. Hasselbacher. Wormold arrives at Hasselbacher’s apartment to find it in shambles; Hasselbacher explains that he took a sick call and returned to find his home violently sacked. Hasselbacher is greatly shaken by the experience and particularly by the fact that a culture experiment he has been working on has “gone down the drain” (72). Wormold feels a strong sense of guilt for what happened.

In his next report, Wormold decides to give the officials at the Secret Service “something they would enjoy for their money” (73-74). He makes up a story about finding a stash of weapons in Santiago. Wormold includes a drawing supposedly of one of the weapons, but it is actually a drawing of the Atomic Pile vacuum cleaner.

That evening, when Milly asks her father what he is doing, he replies that he is pursuing a new career as “an imaginative writer” (75). Milly rejoices at the new income that will flow from her father’s new career, which will allow her to buy more riding equipment.

Hawthorne arrives in London from Kingston, Jamaica to see the Chief. The Chief shows him the new report from agent 59200/5 and remarks that his drawing looks remarkably like a vacuum cleaner: “Fiendish, isn’t it? The ingenuity, the simplicity, the devilish imagination of the thing” (81). Pleased with 59200/5’s good work, he tells Hawthorne to send Beatrice over as the agent’s new secretary.