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That Blanchaille should have been welcomed by an elderly military man who promised him a selection of tales not without historical interest to be told by a collection of ‘rather special’ ladies, might have surprised Blanchaille had his experience in the holding cells not destroyed his remaining reserves of surprise.
Visser talked to Blanchaille of the old co
The hotel was huge and empty, built of steel and glass and filled with the hiss of the air-conditioning. The tinted windows did not open. Brown chocolate carpet climbed the walls. Visser stood behind the bar, a great polished bank of teak surrounded by a brass rail, and I saw in my dream how he summoned the first of the four girls whom he described as hostesses dedicated to the refreshment of guests at the Palace ‘with a selection of stories and even an exhibition or two’, he said. The first of the storytellers was Freia.
Freia was blonde, she wore denim shorts, Visser described her as ‘our conductor’. She did not look like it. Her hair was scraped back and held in place by a blue Alice-band, she was crumpled and yawning and had obviously been sleeping. Across the front of her tee-shirt was the map of Switzerland cu
‘I used to be a tour conductor. I worked in the townships in the days when we still ran tours. I was in Gus Kuiker’s department — you know Gus Kuiker? Augustus Kuiker, the Minister? My job was to show tourists around, the official tourists who get invited out here, ageing film stars, American senators, elderly prima do