The Judas Code [antikvár]

My advertisement in the personal columns of The Times read:'Would anyone with the key to the Judas Code please contactme.' The response was prompt: at nine a.m. on the day ofpublication a man called at my London home and threatened tokill me.The threat wasn't immediate but as soon as I saw him on thedoorstep smiling and tapping a copy of the newspaper with onefinger I sensed menace.He was in his sixties with wings of silver hair just touchinghis ears and what looked like the scar from a bullet wound onhis right cheek; he wore a light navy blue topcoat with a velvetcollar and carried a furled umbrella; the elegance and thelegacy of violence combined to give the impression of acommando who had retired to the City.'Your request interested me', he said. 'May I come in?'Wishing that I hadn't unlocked the ground-floor door byremote control and allowed him to reach my apartment on thetop floor of the old block near Broadcasting House, I said: 'It israther early. Perhaps''Nine o'clock? You look pretty wide awake, Mr. Lamont,and I won't take up much of your time.' He took a stepforward.'Before we go any further, Mr.'Chambers.''Do you mind telling me how you found out where I live? Ionly gave a telephone number ''It's not so difficult to obtain an address from a telephonenumber. If you know how to go about it, that is.''And my name?''The same source. Now if you would be good enough ''To step aside? I don't think I would, Mr. Chambers.Perhaps you would be good enough to telephone me to makean appointment.''Aren't you being a little formal for someone as obviouslyenterprising as yourself?' He tucked The Times beneath his armon his umbrella side.'I've always been a stickler for protocol.''Really? You surprise me. I had heard quite the opposite.'His voice frosted. 'Let me in, Mr. Lamont.'