Our Man in Havana

1

Wormold receives an invitation to make a speech at the annual lunch of the European Traders’ Association. He is reluctant to accept, but Milly asks him to do it for her sake and he agrees: “For your sake I’d turn cartwheels” (165).

Just then, an urgent cable arrives from Hawthorne: Wormold is to meet him at once in Kingston, Jamaica. Wormold guesses that the authorities must at last know the truth about him.

2

Wormold arrives at the Myrtle Bank Hotel in Kingston to meet with Hawthorne. Hawthorne says that for a while he vaguely suspected Wormold was playing jokes on the Secret Service—especially since his weapon drawings resembled vacuum cleaners—but the fact that the enemies of the Secret Service now plan to murder Wormold proves that he is legitimate: “In a way, you know, it’s a compliment. You are dangerous now” (167).

Shocked, Wormold presses Hawthorne for details of the plot against him. Some attendees plan to poison Wormold at the business lunch of the European Traders’ Association. Hawthorne tells Wormold to go to the luncheon but refuse to eat or drink anything.

3

On the plane back to Havana, Wormold meets a fellow English vacuum cleaner salesman named William Carter who works for a rival company, Nucleaners. Carter says he is also attending the European Traders Association lunch.

Beatrice meets Wormold at the airport on his arrival. He tells her about the lunch and that people are planning to poison him there. Beatrice tells him not to go, but Wormold says that he must; if he doesn’t go, then his enemies will plan an even worse attack, perhaps aimed at Beatrice or Milly: “They like to strike at what you love” (172).

1

Milly urges Wormold to eat something for breakfast, but he says he doesn’t feel like it; he is nervous about the lunch later that day. Milly goes to school. Beatrice tells Wormold once again not to go to the lunch, but Wormold says he must go out of pride and to prove himself to her.

2

Wormold arrives at the Nacional Hotel, where the lunch is to be held. Dr. Hasselbacher meets him outside the banquet room and warns him that some people are going to poison him. Wormold tells him not to worry: “I’m going to come out on my feet” (175).

Going into the banquet hall, Wormold meets Carter and feels secure with a fellow countryman.

Sitting down at the banquet table with Carter and a Scotsman named MacDougall, Wormold refuses all drinks that are offered to him. However, MacDougall shares from his flask of whiskey with both Carter and Wormold; Wormold takes this as a sign that the drink must be safe, since no one would want to poison Carter. Wormold drinks the whisky and, slightly drunk, makes his speech to the guests.

Now Carter offers Wormold a drink, but his nervous speech mannerism makes Wormold suspicious. Wormold deliberately knocks over the glass, and the headwaiter’s dog laps it up. A few moments later the dog dies, proving that the drink offered by Carter was poisoned. The head waiter and kitchen staff mourn for the dog and Wormold leaves, reflecting that “my death […] would have been more unobtrusive than that” (185).

3

Wormold tells Beatrice that he survived the banquet.

1

Captain Segura pays a visit to Wormold with two pieces of business. The first is to ask for Milly’s hand in marriage. Wormold replies that Milly is too young to get married. Segura says that marriage would provide Milly a secure future in the face of all the trouble that Wormold seems to carry with him. Segura says that Wormold has been accused of poisoning the headwaiter’s dog and of breaking into Professor Sanchez’ house and threatening him. Segura says that he is drawing up a list of secret agents to give the President. He implies that if Wormold allows him to marry Milly, he will keep Wormold off the list.

Segura then brings Wormold to the Wonder Bar, where police are gathered and a man lies dead on the floor. Segura asks Wormold to identify the man. It is Dr. Hasselbacher. Wormold surmises that Hasselbacher “warned me not to go to the lunch, Carter heard him, everybody heard him, so they killed him” (190). Segura, however, plans to blame the killing on political rebels.

2

Wormold returns home and thinks about how to take revenge for Hasselbacher’s death. While he silently plans how to kill Carter, Beatrice and Milly carry on a mundane conversation in the next room about makeup.

Wormold tells the women about Hasselbacher’s death. He finally admits to Beatrice that he has never had any agents, that all his reports have all been fake, and that “it’s the end of a job for both of us” (197). However, he tells her not to report this to London yet, because he may have a genuine report soon: Captain Segura’s list of secret agents.

1

Captain Segura comes to Wormold’s home for a game of checkers. Wormold decides to play a drinking game; instead of checkers pieces they will use bottles of liquor, and “when you take a piece you drink it” (198). By the end of the game Segura has fallen over drunk. Wormold, who is drunk himself but still has some wits about him, takes Segura’s gun and leaves.

2

Wormold calls up Carter at his hotel. He apologizes for his behavior at the lunch, says that the headwaiter poisoned his own dog, and offers to show him the night spots in Havana.

The two men go to a striptease house, and an embarrassed Carter fumbles when called upon to undo a stripper’s corset. Wormold sees Carter becoming more human and sympathetic in his eyes and decides that he had better kill him quickly. They go to the front door of a house of prostitution and Wormold draws his gun. Carter explains that he killed Hasselbacher and tried to poison Wormold because he was under orders.

Carter’s hand goes to his pocket and Wormold fires. Carter pulls out his pipe, which has been smashed by the bullet, while Carter is unharmed. Wormold turns to go away, happy that “he had no vocation for violence” (210). Then Carter fires.

1

Wormold tells Beatrice of the ensuing “duel” that he and Carter had, and how he fired the third shot that killed Carter. He recounts how he returned to the sleeping Captain Segura, took the list of secret agents from his pocket, microphotographed it, and sent it to London.

2

The next day, as Wormold writes his last report detailing Carter’s death and his resignation, a clerk from the consulate comes to tell him to report at once to the British Ambassador. The ambassador tells Wormold that because of all the trouble he has been causing in Havana, he must go back to England as soon as possible.

3

Wormold has closed his shop and left it in the hands of Lopez. At the airport, Wormold and Milly say goodbye to Beatrice. Beatrice hopes that she will not be reassigned to Basra and that she will instead be able to stay as a typist at the Secret Service in London and see Wormold again.

4

Captain Segura sees Wormold and Milly off at the airport, telling Wormold that “you drove me to this” (217). Wormold assures Segura that Milly would not have married him. Segura reveals that his cigarette case made of human skin contained the skin of a police officer who tortured his father to death. He entrusts some symbolic gifts to Wormold and Milly: a bottle of liquor and a bullet for Wormold and a small silver horseshoe for Milly.

1

Back at headquarters, Wormold is given a court-martial for his deceptive conduct. He sits outside the room where the trial is taking place, wondering what they will charge him with and what his future will be. He is confident that “as a target for Carter’s poison and Carter’s bullet” he has truly earned his pay as a spy (222).

Wormold meets with the Chief, who tells him that “we’ve decided to shut down your post, and the question arises—what are we to do with you?” (223). The answer: Wormold will be placed on the Secret Service’s training staff, giving lectures on how to run a spy station abroad. He will also receive a decoration: O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire).

2

In the lobby of his hotel, Wormold and Beatrice discuss the surprising turn of events. Beatrice recounts that the M16 staff were embarrassed by how they would look if Wormold’s deceptions became public, so they decided to move him to a different position in the agency. Beatrice defended Wormold to the Secret Service staff because, unlike them, he was working for “something important”—his daughter’s future—instead of “someone’s notion of a global war that may never happen” (225).

Wormold wants to pursue Beatrice; yet he is concerned about the age difference between them and the fact that Milly, as a Catholic, would not approve of his remarrying after a divorce. He is also worried that “it may not be very easy to stay with me after a few years” (226). However, Beatrice dispels his doubts on this score: “My darling, don’t worry about that any longer. You won’t be left twice” (226). Beatrice and Wormold kiss, and Milly arrives. To her father’s relief, she approves of their union, since “pagans can do almost anything” (227).

Alone again with Beatrice, Wormold asks her how his microphotographs turned out. She says that he overexposed the film or used the wrong end of the microscope, so the pictures were worthless. Wormold is amazed that the Secret Service promoted him despite his ineptitude. Wormold wonders about their future livelihood, but Beatrice assures him that “you and I can find a way” (228). The only problem, from her perspective, is that Wormold “would never be quite mad enough” (228).