declared Halliday.
“Good for you,” encouraged Charlie. “What’s happening with my support team?”
“Probably nothing more than professional curiosity,” said Halliday. “But I’ve already had two separate visits from your guys, asking me what’s going on.”
The first glint of light, gauged Charlie. “What did you tell them?”
“That I didn’t know: I told you I’d been ordered against sharing with them.”
Could he trick Halliday unsuspectingly into the answer he wanted? wondered Charlie. “Not even now it’s all over with Radtsic safely away? They’re your guys, not officially mine.”
“Briddle was my second unexpected visitor. The first was your man, Wilkinson. He was waiting when I got here this morning.”
Why would two men supposedly working together make separate approaches? The most obvious answer, confirming Charlie’s double-cross suspicion, was that they
“Difficult to say,” hedged Halliday. “Probably wondering if it might be something more interesting than sitting around on their asses.”
Had London made Wilkinson supervisor of the MI5 backup team during the time he’d been out of contact? Charlie said: “What else is happening at the embassy?”
“A lot, indicated by its total, ostracizing silence,” said Halliday. “As always, when something goes wrong at our end, we cease to exist, remember?”
Charlie decided he probably didn’t need Halliday to tell him anything more, but it was important to retain the man as a potential source, which required avoiding frightening the man away. “I’m thinking of making a move.”
“Doing what?” demanded Halliday, instantly alarmed.
“At the moment it’s you I’m considering,” lied Charlie. “It was wise of you to stick to London’s edict with Wilkinson. Keep doing that, if you hear anything involving me. I don’t want your being linked to me: no hint we might have been in contact.”
“Neither do I!” said Halliday, sincerity obvious in his voice for the first time.
“Just listen to everything,” urged Charlie.
“You’ll tell me what’s going on, though, won’t you?”
“That’s our deal, isn’t it: mutual self-protection?”
Wilkinson’s cell phone was answered on its fourth ring without any identifying acknowledgment, and from the total silence beyond and the response delay Charlie guessed Wilkinson had quieted those around him. Charlie said: “You know who this is, Patrick. Don’t let the others waste their time trying to isolate where I am. It’s a public kiosk. You’ve probably discovered our technicians fitted trackers into the ones issued to us in London.”
“It’s good to hear from you at last.” Wilkinson’s voice sounded more computer generated than human.
Despite the pointlessness they’d still attempt to locate him, Charlie knew. “The reason for your being here hasn’t changed but I’m only working with you, Warren, and Preston. Tell London that. Tell them also that the four of us were part of a setup, me most of all. I want you to make sure that gets through to the Director-General.”
“I need-”
“The need is for the two of us to meet.”
“That’s what I want.”
It was going to be foot aching and tiresome, Charlie accepted, but there was no other way. “Are you familiar with the Moscow Metro system?”
“No.”
“It has a circle line, just like London. Here it’s called Kol’cevaja. Ride it, tomorrow, between ten and noon.”
“What else?”
“Just that.”
“Where will we meet?”
“Where-and when-I decide,” said Charlie.
“I don’t follow what you’re saying.….”
“The scanners haven’t picked up where I’m speaking from, have they?”
“I don’t follow that, either.”
“Everyone around you have been scanning ever since we started talking, trying to locate me, haven’t they?”
“We’re not all together.”
“What you’ve got to understand is that none of you will be able to find me now and none of you will be able to pick me up tomorrow, irrespective of how closely they stay with you. I’m telling you-and I want you to tell the Director-General this as well-that we were decoys and that I know Monsford’s operation has gone bad.”
“You expect me to go around and around in circles, until you decide to make contact?” demanded Wilkinson.
“That’s precisely what I expect. I also expect all of the others to go around and around with you, although pretending
“What about the reason for our being here.”
“It’s still active but without MI6. Make that very clear to London, And tell the Director-General that the other extraction has hugely increased the value of ours.”
“Thanks for meeting me,” said Jane Ambersom.
“What meeting?” said James Straughan, pointedly. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed being able to talk to her.
She smiled. “There isn’t one. You know you can trust me as I know I can trust you.”
“We committed ourselves when you called last night and by my being here,” said Straughan. She’d concealed her car among a line of other anonymous vehicles close to the Oval underground station at which she’d been waiting for him, fifteen minutes earlier.
“Smith told me all that happened at the Foreign Office yesterday.”
“Told only you?”
“Passmore was with me.”
“I’m not sure whether what I was told is the truth.”
“It probably was not.”
Straughan didn’t answer as spontaneously as Jane had hoped, staring directly ahead at the empty cars. At last he said: “More than probably not.”
It was a chance she had to take, Jane decided. “Monsford set us up, didn’t he, with Charlie and his family?”
“He intended to sabotage it.”
“Is he still trying?”
“I don’t know. It’s a repeat of what happened to you, Monsford protecting himself.”
“Is Charlie in physical danger?”
Straughan didn’t reply.
“James?”
“He should be careful.”
Jane felt nothing, neither surprise nor anger. “Aubrey Smith thinks Monsford could still get away with it, bringing us down in the process.”
Straughan frowned across the car. “The French have so far refused to see anyone from the Paris embassy, not until we respond to their demand for an explanation. They’re seeing the Russian
