Our Man in Havana

Wormold meets Captain Segura at the Havana Club to play checkers. While playing, they discuss Wormold’s spy work and the fate of his agents. Segura says that he interrogated Cifuentes but did not torture him; this leads to a discussion of what sorts of people belong to the “torturable class.” Segura also says that he is compiling a list of foreign agents working in Havana. Wormold meets Beatrice outside and tells her of the news from Segura, his new “double agent.”

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.