When there was no response she repeated the question to each child, forcing each to admit it.
The woman said, ‘Which requires a custodial sentence…’ and stopped again, for an unspoken reaction from them this time.
Blair felt Ruth stiffen at his side. She reached out for his arm and he covered her hand. A positive attitude wouldn’t form in his mind. He’d wanted Paul frightened into not doing it – any of it – again and he wanted some sort of day-to-day control that he couldn’t personally provide but he hadn’t actually considered imprisonment, although it had been discussed during his second meeting with the counsellors. Would it be imprisonment at Paul’s age? Reformatory then. He didn’t know if they were officially called that – he had a recollection of something cosmetic like corrective farms – but that’s what they were, reformatories. Would a period in a reformatory mean a permanent record, when he tried to get a job? And what about his schooling, before that? There couldn’t be the natural progression to high school if he were in a reformatory. The questions crowded in and he couldn’t answer them. The awareness angered him. The counsellors could have told him if he’d had the commonsense to ask the questions.
‘Do you know what a custodial sentence is? What it would mean?’ demanded the woman.
Again they were forced to reply. They were scared, Blair knew. He felt the beginning of pity and then he thought of the old guy who’d been robbed of his welfare payments. OK, so maybe Paul hadn’t been involved, but Blair didn’t think that mattered. He bet the old guy had been pretty scared, as well.
‘It means going somewhere where you’re not free any more,’ lectured the judge. ‘Free to steal or to frighten other people or sell drugs. Somewhere where people – other kids and other, decent people – can be protected from you. Which I think is necessary.’
Blair felt Ruth’s hand tighten. Further along the line of parents he heard the sound of another mother – he didn’t know who – starting to cry and in front of him the shoulders of Cohn were beginning to heave, too.
‘But I want to achieve more than that,’ said Judge Bateson. ‘I want to protect other people and I want to reform you and I want to ensure that you make proper, fitting restitution for what you’ve done, so that you’ll be reminded just what you’ve done and tried to do not just today but for a long time afterwards. I am going to sentence you all to a custodial sentence. A period of two years each. Upon David Hoover, who pulled a knife during the attempted pharmacy robbery, there will be a further term of six months. And upon you, Paul Blair, who emerged during the evidence I have heard to be the ringleader of that attempt, there will also be an additional period of six months…’
Beside Blair, Ruth began to shake and he pressed against her hand, trying to comfort her but knowing there was no way he could.
‘But I am going to suspend it,’ announced the judge. ‘Which means that you can continue living with your families and going to your schools. Getting a chance that many would argue you don’t deserve, for the things you’ve done. But you’re not going to get that chance easily. You will enter a drug rehabilitation and reeducation programme, to which you will be directed by your counsellors. Another condition is that you will, during the period of your sentence, enter some voluntary assistance scheme, again directed by your counsellors, for old people or for disabled or for the less fortunate than yourselves. I will have both those conditions devised by your counsellors in such a way that there is absolutely no interference with your school work, so don’t think I’m giving you any excuse whatsoever for dropping out. I’ll require your counsellors to monitor your grades and if those grades drop for any reason that isn’t entirely satisfactory to either of them then I’ll have them back to discuss it with me…’
Judge Bateson paused, sipping from the water glass in front of her on the bench. ‘And understand one thing,’ she resumed. ‘ The most important thing. If, at any time during the period of your sentence, you fail to meet any of these conditions, or if you involve yourselves again with drugs or get into any sort of trouble whatsoever you’ll return to this court and whatever custodial sentence remains will be custodial. And added to whatever new sentence is imposed upon you.’
A lot had been taken out of his hands, Blair realised. Perhaps deservedly so. It didn’t alter the resolve, though: his own intentions could be adjusted to coordinate with those of the court. It was a harsh and fitting sentence: and could be the making – and saving – of the kid. Providing Paul didn’t screw it up.
The last thought was uppermost in his mind as they emerged from the court and Ruth, who hadn’t properly assimilated all that was said, asked him, ‘What does it mean?’
‘That he can’t make another mistake,’ said Blair. ‘Not one.’
Hubble’s greeting at Langley was as effusive as before. Maybe even more so, thought Blair; this time it was Hubble seeking concessions. Hubble politely entered into a discussion about the court hearing but Blair sensed the other man’s impatience to get to the point of the second meeting, his decision over Moscow.
Hubble delayed the demand to the absolute point at which he could not be suspected of a lack of interest about Blair’s personal problems and then reminded, ‘You said you’d let me know.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Blair.
‘So what’s it to be?’
Blair refused his superior’s anxiousness. He went carefully – actually irritatingly – through the court sentence and conditions and after that listed his own decisions involving Paul. He said he wanted further time in Washington, completely to set everything up with the counsellors and that then – if he agreed to stay on – he needed an absolute guarantee that he would be allowed out of the Russian capital to fit in wherever and as often as the counsellors – and Paul – considered it necessary. He also said that although he knew the American State Department had no control or pressure they could bring against the Soviet immigration authorities, he wanted a further absolute guarantee that whenever he needed the boys to visit him in Moscow, State would make sure there was no hitch in the arrangements. Coming finally to Ann, whom circumstances had thrust into the background but whom he didn’t consider deserved second place or second consideration, he said if he agreed he wouldn’t accept a completely unlimited period, spending the rest of his operational life in Moscow but required an undertaking that someone else would be appointed whom he could introduce and train up.
‘That’s a bunch of reservations,’ said Hubble at once.
‘They’re not reservations,’ argued Blair. ‘They’re reasonable concessions to which I consider I’m entitled, in exchange for what you’re asking me to do.’
‘If we agree, you’ll stay?’
‘If you agree to every one, in every respect, I’ll stay,’ said Blair.
‘I should discuss this with the Director,’ hedged Hubble.
‘Then do so,’ agreed Blair. ‘I told you I want to stay for a few more days yet, to make the final arrangements. There’s time enough.’
Hubble smiled, shaking his head. ‘I was told to negotiate and try to reach agreement. So I’ve negotiated and we’ve reached an agreement.’
Crap, thought Blair. They’d been prepared to let him have this from the start; he wished he could have thought of something else to his advantage. ‘Every point?’ he said. This was the time it had to be set out, without any misunderstandings or caveats.
‘Every point,’ assured Hubble. ‘Guaranteed.’
‘Then OK,’ said Blair. ‘It’s a deal. I’ll stay.’
Because he owed it to her – because he owed her far more – Blair told Ruth, of course, as soon as he got back to Rosslyn.
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘Is that all? Just yes?’
‘What else is there?’
‘It won’t affect whatever I arranged with Paul,’ assured Blair. ‘That’s inviolable.’
‘Sure,’ she said, sounding unconvinced.
‘They won’t renege on me: I know they won’t renege.’
‘Good.’
‘You think I made the wrong decision?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘I don’t think you have to.’
‘My only consideration – my only worry now – is Paul. As long as Paul’s all right, then nothing else is my business, is it?’
‘I just thought you might have had something else to say about it.’
