For the Good of the State

again, one of these days…

But from there, anyway, all the bloody way to Berlin, in ’45—and bloody is right; across twenty-five million Russian dead. And I wouldn’t defect after that —not even if I was commanding the Devil’s Armed Forces, with the Hounds of Hell ready to slip!‘ The dark head shook again. ’I remember first checking him in ‘69—

Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State staff officer in Khalturin’s division, in Chuikov’s army, all the way to Khrushchev’s Twentieth Congress, and afterwards… It took us one hell of a long time to pin down Nikolai Panin—in fact, I’m not sure that we ever did… But I only studied him because he happened to cross my path, anyway. It was purely accidental—or incidental, if you like. He’s never really been our meat. And we haven’t been his either, so far as I’m aware.’

The slaughterhouse image reminded Tom too vividly of Beirut realities, the blood and entrails of which were far removed from metaphor. But also it hardly fitted what Jaggard had said. ‘Not your… meat?’

‘He’s not a bloody First Directorate man, is what I mean. He doesn’t run networks—doesn’t control illegals, or recruit traitors, or anything like that…’ Audley trailed off. But then his face came round again. ‘What’s the biggest thing the KGB does—you tell me, Tom? What is it?’

Answering trick questions was a mug’s game. ‘You tell me, David.

I’m just a promoted minder.’

‘It’s internal security first.’ Audley hadn’t even wanted an answer.

“Then it’s disinformation—fucking up our foreign policy—when we have one… And now it’s also probably pinching our higher technology.‘ The old man sniffed in the darkness. ’I’ve got a cold coming on, damn it!‘ He sniffed again. ’Panin has always been disinformation or internal security—none of your vulgar spying for him!‘ Another sniff. ’The first time I met him, he wasn’t trying to screw us— he was quietly and murderously engaged in making sure that the great Red Army didn’t step out of line. We weren’t worth a Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State damn—we were just there to be deceived and used… Or bribed and used —huh!‘ Grunt-chuckle. ’I did him a favour. So, a few years later, he did me a favour. Which makes us quits, in his book.‘

And in yours, thought Tom. ‘But he wants to talk to you now.’

No reply. Which made Tom glance at the dashboard. But he had switched off the lights, so he could only guess how far they were falling behind schedule.

‘And he’s an expert on you, David.’

No reply again, for a moment. ‘Yes. And that’s another thing that worries me.’ Another grunt-chuckle—but this time more grunt than chuckle. “The first time, I studied him and he repaid the compliment. Which is fair enough.‘ Another long breath. ’And we also have some reason to believe that he’s taken a certain non-specialist extra-mural interest in Research and Development ever afterwards. Which is really none of his business.‘

‘Yes?’ Audley hadn’t really stopped there, Tom sensed.

‘Oh… I rather thought he tried to damage me last year.’ Audley shrugged.

Tom waited. ‘Yes?’

‘Oh… we lost a man…’ Audley bridled ‘… here in England, too.’

‘Yes?’ Tom remembered what Jaggard had hinted at.

‘Actually, it wasn’t my fault.’

He would have given good money to see the old man’s face. ‘No?’

‘No. Not that it matters whose fault it was.’ Audley was silent for another brief moment. ‘But we did a bit of research afterwards, just Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State to find out who we owed one to, for the future.’

‘It wasn’t a suitable case for… reciprocal action?’

‘No.’ Audley took up his moment of silence again. ‘He didn’t have red tabs on his lapels. He was just a poor bloody field officer.’ He looked at Tom in the darkness again. ‘If you catch a bullet in the line of duty they won’t avenge you, Tom. If I do… then they will.

You better bear that in mind for the next few hours.’

‘There’s no justice in this world.’ But it did make horrible sense, thought Tom sadly: in Lebanon, the biblical eye-for-an-eye payment had reduced local life to a murderous all-comers chaos.

‘Never was, and never will be,’ agreed Audley. ‘But we’ve got long memories in Research and Development— like old Fred Clinton used to say, “the baked meats of revenge are best eaten cold”. So… we’ve got a name: or two on the red side of our tablet now, anyway. And we’ll dish the buggers one day, you can depend on it.’ He sniffed. ‘Killing isn’t our style, we don’t have the resources for it, never mind the permission. But there are others we can use who think quite differently—the French, for example—’

He stopped abruptly. ‘But you’re making me digress. Because, the point is that I got Old King Cole to check up on Panin then, because he’s the resident Panin-watcher—right?’

‘“M to R”, you mean?’

‘Just so—M to R, right!’ Audley nodded in the darkness. ‘And he said that so far old Nikolai was still busy keeping an eye on his own side… That he might have given the First Directorate a bit of advice, as a consultant, but nothing more.’ He sniffed. ‘Actually, to Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State be heart-breakingly honest, he rather put me in my place, did Basil Cole. Huh!’

‘Oh?’ It took an effort to imagine such an occurrence. But the lightly self-mocking admission both established Cole as someone to be reckoned with and accounted for Audley’s present action satisfactorily. ‘How?’

‘He said that Panin had bigger fish to fry than me, in his own home frying-pan. And he also said that I wasn’t part of the man’s job—

just his hobby.’ Another sniff.