For the Good of the State

Audley was watching from the car. ‘Yes, sir.’

Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State

‘How does he know?’

Fair question. ‘He’s not saying. Presumably they’ve got someone inside the Sons of the Eagle.’

‘And how do they know—the Poles—about Zarubin?’

Another fair question. ‘He wouldn’t say that, either. He just stated it as a fact, and stuck to it. But…’

‘But what?’

Tom nodded gratefully to Audley. ‘Dr Audley thinks, if Panin’s got someone on the inside, then maybe he’s set the thing up himself.’

‘What?’ Jaggard sounded irritated. ‘Set up Zarubin as a target?

Why the blazes should he do that?’

‘Zarubin is a target already. The Poles have already killed his deputy—a man named Marchuk. Leonid Marchuk —’

‘Spell it.’ Tom’s pronunciation invariably floored native Englishmen,

‘M-A-R-C-H-U-K. L-E—’

‘I’ve got that. Go on.’

‘That was in Poland.’ It wouldn’t take long for the computer to confirm that. ‘Zarubin was posted back to Moscow after that. But now he’s in England, and Panin probably reckons he can’t be protected properly here. So he’s taking the initiative instead.’

“The initiative—‘ That rocked Jaggard somewhat. ’What initiative?‘

‘He says he doesn’t want any trouble—not with what Zarubin’s Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State doing over here at the moment, especially. He says that’ll be bad for both sides.’

‘He does? Well, he’s going about it in a damn funny way! What does he propose to do, for heaven’s sake?’

‘He wants to make a deal.’

‘A deal—?’ Jaggard stopped suddenly. ‘Hold on.’

Tom waited, focusing on Audley again. He mustn’t forget to ask about Audley’s bullet and Basil Cole’s death to give himself some sort of cover story for all this chat.

‘Arkenshaw?’ Jaggard came on the line again. ‘I have confirmation on Marchuk. A suspicious road accident… Not a nice man, Marchuk. But then neither is Zarubin, by all accounts. But we haven’t got one damn thing on your “Sons of the Eagle”.’ Pause.

‘But you knew about them, did you? But… never mind. What deal? With us?’

‘No, sir. With the Sons of the Eagle.’ Put that in your pipe! But he could improve on that. ‘With a man named Szymiac.’

‘With—? Shimshe… ack?’

‘That’s right. S-Z-Y-M-I-A-C—one of their top men. Szymiac.

Panin knows exactly where to find him. He’s rented a house at East Lyn, just outside Lynmouth, In preparation for welcoming Zarubin to Exmoor.’ Tom wondered what the computer would make of that. But then, if it had fluffed the Sons of the Eagle it was unlikely to throw up Szymiac from its electronic stomach.

Jaggard growled unintelligibly. ‘What sort of deal can Panin possibly make with Sh… Ssshhim-shak?’ Are you—is he serious?‘

Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State

‘A very obvious deal.’ For an instant Tom heard the wind whistle round his cosy phone-kiosk. It was a cold east wind, which had freshened in the last hour, possibly blowing all the way from the Urals to Exmoor, across the prostrate body of his mother’s country.

‘It isn’t obvious to me, I said,’ said Jaggard sharply. ‘Are you there?’

‘Yes.’ Tom saw that Audley was holding up his wrist and tapping his wristwatch meaningfully. ‘Jaruzelski’s got a whole lot of Solidarity activists under lock-and-key. All he has to do is throw away the key—or worse. And that gives Panin pretty good bargaining power.’

Pause. Then pause-into-silence. And now Audley was shrugging at him. ‘I’m running out of time, sir.’ If Jaggard had forgotten Exmoor realities it was time to remind him. ‘Dr Audley is waiting for me. So I also need to know what you’ve got about everything that happened yesterday… sir.’

‘Yes.’ Was that an intake of breath? ‘What does Audley say about all this? Does he accept it?’ Only half-a- second. ‘But you want to abort—?’

‘I do.’ This was where the truth became too complicated. ‘He doesn’t.’

‘Why not?’ Jaggard ignored what he wanted for the second time.

‘He wants to find out what Panin is really up to.’ Even as he answered, Tom knew that he was on a loser; because Jaggard could no more resist that challenge than Audley could; and also because Jaggard was sitting safe and comfortably, while they were up at the Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State sharp end.

‘Panin’s up to something else?’ Jaggard’s question was hedged with caution.

‘Yes, sir. I think he is.’

‘The hell with what you think! What does Audley say?’