International Criminal Police Organization

The International Criminal Police Organization serves as a discreet information network in the novel’s account of how authorities monitor mercenaries. Its records help George Zammit assess Creasy before allowing him to join a local security squad, and later become a possible route for reporting Creasy’s intentions. The distinction between keeping a record and treating its subject as a criminal is central: the information about Creasy explicitly carries no criminal implication, while George ultimately declines to pass on what he suspects Creasy intends to do.

Purpose and Scope

George explains that, since the fiasco in Angola, many countries have been keeping tabs on known mercenaries. The International Criminal Police Organization provides a convenient place to centralize that information. The novel presents this as practical coordination among countries, rather than as evidence that mercenary status itself constitutes a crime or that every person in the records is under criminal investigation.

The organization’s role is conveyed through a specific exchange of information rather than through a formal account of its structure. George sends a telex to Paris and receives a reply about Creasy. The terse coded suffix summarizes the limits of what the record establishes: “Not politically motivated. No known criminal affiliations. No group affiliations. More details available on request.” It identifies Creasy as a person whose past has been checked, but does not label him a criminal or associate him with a political or group organization.

George Zammit’s Check on Creasy

George’s contact with the organization arises from his own responsibilities. He is in charge of security for the islands and has let Creasy join the squad on Thursday because Creasy is a friend of George’s uncle. George says that if Creasy’s participation is to become regular, he has a duty to check whether there are any problems. He has already learned something about Creasy and explains that his telex to Paris was part of that precaution.

The exchange makes the check personal as well as procedural. George gives Creasy the reply, although he acknowledges that he should not show it to him. Creasy reads it, asks what the coded ending means, and then asks whether the report is basically correct. The document offers a compact institutional view of him: a mercenary known to international monitoring systems, but with no known criminal or group affiliations. The scene does not describe a judgment by the organization about Creasy’s character or fitness; it shows George using a centralized record to inform a local decision about security work.

A Channel, Not an Autonomous Investigator

The International Criminal Police Organization is also present in the investigation that follows Creasy’s return to Italy. Mario Satta and Massimo Bellu reconstruct the links behind the crimes and pursue information about the bodyguard. Their inquiries include calls to a hospital and an agency, a check with immigration authorities in Rome, and contact with George in Malta. Satta also sends an urgent Grade One inquiry by telex to Paris. The earlier reference to Paris as the location of the centralized mercenary records makes this a further use of the same international information channel, though the account does not give the reply to Satta’s inquiry.

The distinction between international records and investigative action matters. Satta and Bellu conduct the casework: they connect the crimes to the bodyguard, trace Creasy’s departure from Italy on a ferry to Malta, and seek information through their own professional contacts. The organization is presented as a means of centralizing or requesting information, not as the force directing the Italian investigation. Satta’s inquiries also show how international channels sit alongside domestic police procedures and personal contacts rather than replacing them.

George’s Refusal to Report Creasy’s Plans

Later, George acknowledges that he has understood enough from Guido Arrellio to guess what Creasy is preparing to do. He recognizes the risks but says he cannot help. Creasy then asks whether George, as head of an intelligence organization, will feel obliged to report his plans to the Central Bureau at the International Criminal Police Organization. George answers as if he has no knowledge of any plans and urges Creasy to hurry so they can reach Gleneagles on time.

That response marks a limit to the institution’s reach in the story. The organization supplies information that can support scrutiny, and George has already used its channel to check Creasy’s background. But the possibility of reporting Creasy’s intentions is left to George’s choice in the moment; he does not disclose what he has inferred. His parting reminder that Creasy has made friends on Gozo places personal loyalty beside the official world of records and security checks. The organization therefore functions less as a visible actor in the plot than as a quiet infrastructure of knowledge: useful for identifying what is known about a person, but not a substitute for the judgment of those who possess that information.