The Last Express (1997 Video Game)

Chris Murray: George Abbot

Quotes 

• George Abbot : The world is changing and one does need to choose sides, and sometimes things change so fast that its hard to tell one side from the other.

• George Abbot : [to Alexei in the smoking parlor]  Good afternoon. Mind if I join you? So dreadfully dull, those long journeys. George Abbot. Nobel Industries, London. I couldn't help noticing your accent as you were talking to the conductor. The Ukraine perhaps? Your English is impeccable, if I may say so. You must have spent quite some time in England. I live just outside London myself, when I'm home. The city is just too active for me. Dangerous too. I don't suppose you were there last week when that bomb went off? Awful business really. Very messy. Bits of bodies strewn about and so on. Did you say you were going on to Odessa? The reason I ask is we happen to be looking for a representative in that part of the world. Preferably a bright young fellow with fluent English and Russian, such as yourself. Of course I realize with your family background you have probably never considered a career in business and of course there's no question you'd be doing it for money. But after all, you are a member of the new generation. It'd be a shame to bury yourself in the countryside, fiddling with agriculture and so on. Why, with your abilities you could literally help build a modern Russia. Surely you'll agree that Russia must make a connection with modern Europe in order to flourish and develop...

  Alexei Dolnikov : [His response to each question is silence]  Excuse me.

  George Abbot : Must you go already? Oh well, do think about it.

• George Abbot : [in the salon]  Excuse me, I couldn't help noticing you are by yourself. Mind if I join you?

  August Schmidt : Please.

  George Abbot : Normally, one doesn't go about introducing oneself to complete strangers, but we lone travelers are a sort of fellowship, aren't we? George Abbot, Empire Chemicals.

  August Schmidt : My name is August Schmidt.

  George Abbot : Not the August Schmidt? The rising young industrialist? A. B. Schmidt and Co, munitions, transport, artillery? One of the stars of the new German industry? Ha, ha. I must say, I'm very pleased to meet you.

  August Schmidt : You embarrass me, sir. It is true we do quite a bit of business in England.

  George Abbot : Yes, wasn't it your firm that just shipped I-I believe it was forty thousand rifles and a million cartridges into Ulster?

  August Schmidt : No, that was not us.

  George Abbot : Oh well, I must be thinking of a different German firm. One of your competitors perhaps. Whoever it is, they must be feeling rather disappointed. It doesn't look like we're in for a civil war after all. Not this week anyway.

  August Schmidt : All these troubles in Ireland, it is unfortunate.

  George Abbot : Yes, yes, it's awful. But really sir, I must congratulate you. The recent industrial growth in Germany, most impressive.

  August Schmidt : Really?

  George Abbot : Oh, yes. Our English businessmen could stand to learn a few things from, uh, entrepreneurs like yourself. All this political posturing aside, I really feel we're witnessing the birth of a new Europe, where business is the true international language. And the Orient Express... really quite remarkable if you stop to think about it. Here we are, we've just crossed from Germany into Austria and not so much as a customs check to let you know we've crossed the border. Now that's the new Europe. Another year or two and frontiers will be a mere formality, a relic of the past. We'll be able to travel from England to Germany as easily as going from one end of London to the other.

  [chuckles] 

  August Schmidt : You would not believe sometime the troubles I sometimes have to explain to people. I have to keep up with what is happening abroad. To act quickly when the opportunity presents.

  George Abbot : Oh, I assure you half the time home office thinks I'm just travelling on a lark. Old-fashioned attitude of course.

  August Schmidt : Yes, still I do find myself sometimes quite tired in the evening. Mein Vater... my father had a small factory, he never left his little town. He was perhaps not much of a business man, but in the end of the day he would sleep in his own bed and he would be at peace. I sometimes wonder if we have really gained so much.

  George Abbot : I couldn't help noticing you with Miss Wolf at lunch. You made quite a striking pair. May I ask if you've known her long?

  August Schmidt : Long? He, he... Well, you know, I am a great admirer of her music. Ha, ha, ha.

  George Abbot : Aren't we all. But you seem to have a special connection with her. Am I wrong? Come on! You can speak freely, we're all gentlemen here.

  August Schmidt : In-in that case, I will admit that travelling has its compensations.

  George Abbot : [they laugh]  You can trust me, I won't breathe a word. The souls of discretion. By the way, what do you make of this Austrian-Hungarian ultimatum? It looks like a rather nasty business.

  August Schmidt : The note is harsh, but I believe necessary. These Balkan regions have always needed a strong hand to bring stability.

  George Abbot : Stability, yes. That's just where we must stand together. Of course we all have our little differences, but I can't help feeling that on some fundamental level the goals of England and Germany are not so very far apart.

  August Schmidt : I'm glad to hear you say it.

  George Abbot : But do tell me, I'd be quite fascinated to know: How did you begin your career?

• George Abbot : Oh, excuse me. We seem to be sharing a compartment. No, no... please don't get up. I'll just sit here and read the paper. Don't mind me at all. It appears the train is quite full. Awful nuisance when you think you've got a compartment to yourself and then they stick a complete stranger in with you at the last minute. Happened to me any number of times. George Abbot.

  Monsieur Boutarel : Claude Boutarel.

  George Abbot : French then, are you? Are you going all the way to Constantinople?

  Monsieur Boutarel : I'm travelling to a small town on the Gulf coast of Persia. With my wife and son.

  George Abbot : Oh, lovely! Then it must be your family I saw next door.

  Monsieur Boutarel : It is most probable.

  George Abbot : By the way, I was wondering... you haven't seen a red cravat anywhere, have you? I was just unpacking and it seems to have disappeared.

  Monsieur Boutarel : I believe my son has taken it.

  George Abbot : Really. What was the name of the town you mentioned?

  Monsieur Boutarel : Masjid-e Suleiman.

  George Abbot : Of course! The new oil refinery they are building in Abadan. I say, you're not working for Anglo-Persian, are you?

  Monsieur Boutarel : Why not?

  George Abbot : Oh well, I suppose you being a Frenchman... I just assumed...

  Monsieur Boutarel : I am an engineer, monsieur. The Anglo-Persian company is doing the most innovative research in oil exploration.

  George Abbot : Yes, well... wouldn't want the Royal Navy be caught short on fuel oil, would we. Tell me, are the reserves in that little town, what's it called again, really as big as they say?

  Monsieur Boutarel : I can not offer an opinion, monsieur.

  George Abbot : No, of course you wouldn't. Quite brave of your wife to go all that way and live in the desert.

  Monsieur Boutarel : She would not wish to be without me. And it would be a good opportunity for Francois. He has a fine scientific mind.

  George Abbot : Seems like a very active little boy. I don't suppose you could ask him for my cravat?

  Monsieur Boutarel : I think... eh, I remember him using it as a kind of sieve. To test salinity in water. Most remarkable in a boy of seven, don't you agree?

  George Abbot : Quite remarkable.

  Monsieur Boutarel : It is a natural curiosity of the scientific mind, monsieur.

  George Abbot : Yes. All that trapped in the body of a little boy.

• George Abbot : Oh Good Lord! Not this silly business with Madame Caillaux again! So typical. To devote weeks on end on the front page to this preposterous murder trial. One would think nothing else was happening in the whole of Europe.

  Monsieur Boutarel : Hm?

  George Abbot : Tell me, you're a Frenchman, what's your opinion of the affair? Why do the gory details of a murder trial exert such a fascination on the public mind? Not to say it only happens in France of course. The English papers aren't much better. But still, the French do push it rather far. Six columns across the front page of Le Figaro, with complete transcripts of the trial on page 12... it is a bit much, don't you agree?

  Monsieur Boutarel : Excuse me, it is time I took my family to lunch.

  George Abbot : Is it noon already? So it is. Perhaps I'll see you in the restaurant car.