For the Good of the State

‘He could have told the sniper to kill Tom, surely.’

This time Garrod Harvey forgot not to shrug, and paid the price for shrugging. ‘If you want a thing done properly… And what Tom Arkenshaw also thinks is that the Major liked his work. And in his own line of work he’s met one or two of the breed, I shouldn’t wonder.’

Jaggard remembered his duty belatedly. ‘He’s all right, is he—

Tom?’

‘All right?’ A shadow crossed Garrod Harvey’s face. ‘Sir Thomas Arkenshaw has a badly-broken ankle and a heavy cold—for both of which David Audley is more or less responsible. But he thinks Audley’s quite a man, nevertheless.’

‘Yes?’ That had always been a danger, on the debit side of the special connection Arkenshaw had with Audley which had made him the man for the job. ‘But you haven’t any doubts about his report, Garry?’

‘Oh, no.’ Harvey managed a carefully-controlled nod. ‘It’ll be as full and honest as you could wish for, Henry— right down to Audley’s continued insistence on going it alone whenever Tom advised him against it.’ Another controlled nod. ‘Audley behaved exactly as I predicted, in fact.’

‘Well, that’s all right, then—’ But Jaggard saw that it wasn’t ‘—

isn’t it?’

‘He also told Audley everything that happened, after he’d gone after Major Sadowski.’ Garrod Harvey’s lips compressed. ‘And he admits that he also told Audley that he was reporting back to you, Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State Henry.’

‘He—?’ In that instant Sir Thomas Arkenshaw’s name moved from the black to the red side of the tablet in Henry Jaggard’s mind, marked now for No further promotion. But then he knew that he wanted to know more about the fatal admission. ‘How did he come to admit that? You pressed him—?’

‘He volunteered it of his own accord.’ Something close to approval was in Garrod Harvey’s voice. ‘Sir Thomas Arkenshaw is a medievalist, like David Audley. And I may be wrong, but… it was almost like a formal act of defiance—or whatever the old medieval Arkenshaws did, when they renounced their feudal allegiance, and moved from one side to the other, in the old days.’ Garrod Harvey didn’t shrug, but rather twisted himself uncomfortably for a moment. ‘You also have to remember that he’s half-Polish, Henry.

They’re an unpredictable lot, in my experience.’ Harvey raised an eyebrow. ‘Eh?’

There was something damnably not right with Garrod Harvey this afternoon. And, as Jaggard trusted Harvey more than he trusted most men, that was much more worrying than Sir Thomas Arkenshaw’s medieval Polish practices. ‘What are you trying to tell me, Garry?’

The eyebrow came down. ‘Tom Arkenshaw isn’t very pleased with us, for having done what we did to him. And he’s also deeply humiliated—professionally humiliated—by what happened… “I ran like a rabbit” , is how he put it.’ Another controlled nod, ‘And he has been trying to protect people like Audley—and Zarubin—

from people like Panin and Sadowski… maybe for too long.’

Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State Another nod. ‘We worry about all the killers there are loose in the world, who can pick and choose their killing-grounds at leisure.

But we don’t give much thought for the poor bastards who are expected to out-think the killers—or put themselves in the way of the bullet when they don’t.’

That simplified the message. ‘It’s called “battle-fatigue”, Garry.’

Jaggard nodded wisely, without pain. ‘We’ve just got to rest him up, that’s all.’

‘It’s too late for that.’

‘How is it too late? Has he resigned?’ That, at least, would simplify this problem. Though Garrod Harvey was right, of course, in his general thesis; and that would bear further inquiry in the future. ‘He’s resigned—?’

The same shadow which had crossed Garrod Harvey’s face before now recrossed it. ‘He’s asked for a transfer to Research and Development, Henry.’

‘He’s what—?’

Another controlled nod. ‘Colonel Butler knows about it. And he says that he’s very ready to give Sir Thomas Arkenshaw a try.

Because he’s one down on his establishment, since last year.’ Then Garrod Harvey held his head very steady. ‘He already has the necessary endorsement from his Selection and Recruitment Adviser. And I don’t need to tell you who he is.’

In a perverse way Henry Jaggard felt himself warming to David Audley, and not for the first time: it would have been disappointing if the man had let himself be beaten too easily, with no unexpected Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State tricks in his bag. Yet also he was glad because such tricks made what had to be done that much easier—because before there had always been a nuance of regret, that he had to break someone useful and loyal because cruel necessity had overtaken him. But now, by his actions, Audley had not only deprived him of any real certainty about Viking, but had also ruined Sir Thomas Arkenshaw, who had been marked for promotion. ‘Well, if Audley thinks that’ll save him he’s about to learn otherwise, Garry!’

Garrod Harvey’s face was suddenly a picture. ‘Henry—’

‘No!’ He had all that he needed now. ‘There are five men dead—

five dead men to account for. Which is a bloody massacre, by any standards. Or six… if you count the man Cole—’

Harvey shook his head, forgetting his back. ‘You can’t count Basil Cole, Henry. That was Panin making sure Audley didn’t get whatever advice Cole might have given him—’ His mouth twisted

‘—or maybe it was even Panin making sure that Audley would never let go—I don’t know… But Panin would have known that Audley would go to Cole first, in any case. And—’