“Why don’t…” started Charlie but stopped, his voice cracking. He cleared it. “Why don’t you take your pick?”
“Charlie, I think. That’s what the two we’ve got in custody call you.”
Sasha didn’t know his name, snatched Charlie. Natalia and Sasha had got away! It had to be Briddle and Halliday. “Charlie’s fine.”
“You’re right, you are fine,” agreed the Russian. “The bullet, a bullet from your own side we think, went straight through your lower shoulder, didn’t even hit a bone. You were knocked unconscious from the impact shock: that’s still affecting you now, according to the doctors. But they say you’ll be up and about in a week, able to tell me all I want to know.”
Now wasn’t the moment to argue: finding out about Natalia and Sasha was the only thing that mattered. “What about the others?”
“Not so fine. The two colleagues coming for you, Briddle and Halliday according to the identification they were carrying, are both dead. So’s a Russian militia officer: another one’s badly wounded. So is an Arab who was in the line behind you.”
Who were the two colleagues who’d been arrested? “I’m surprised those you’ve got are talking so readily. What did you do to them?”
“Nothing.” Guzov smiled. “It’s amazing how fear affects some people. What about you, Charlie. Are you going to tell me so readily all I want to know?”
“I don’t know anything there is to tell you.”
“I do, Charlie. I’ve got a very long list.”
“What happened? The truth: you must tell me the truth, not lie.”
“There was an incident, a mistake. Caused by our own people,” said Aubrey Smith.
“What sort of incident?” persisted Natalia.
The Director-General hesitated.
“The truth,” she demanded.
“Some shooting.”
“Was Charlie shot?”
“Yes.”
Now it was Natalia who hesitated, lips tightly together. “Is he dead?”
“We don’t think so.”
“I know a lot about Stepan Lvov. It’s not right, what you think you know. You’ll make mistakes; are already making mistakes.”
“We want you to tell us about that, Natalia: to tell us all you know.”
Natalia shook her head. “Get Charlie out. I’ll tell you nothing until you get Charlie out. Then you’ll get everything. Save everything. But Charlie’s got to be saved first.”
