to do with what we’re discussing …’
‘He’s got
Cuthbertson winced, but said nothing; a court martial offence, judged Charlie.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Wilberforce, trying to buffer the feeling between the two men.
Ignoring Edith’s warning of the previous night, Charlie burst on, ‘I’m astonished you can’t see what’s happening …’
The outburst had gained him the attention of both men, he saw. Cuthbertson would be worried he’d made the wrong assessment, like all the others.
‘We destroyed their system … a system that had cost them time and money and which we now know was enormously important to them,’ elaborated Charlie. ‘Suddenly, from the shadows, appears General Kalenin, the genius of the K.G.B., a man no one has seen for two decades, asserting he wants to defect. With the same remarkable timing, there are stories in all the major communist publications that he’s under pressure, giving the defection credence.’
He stopped, looking to both men. Neither spoke.
‘Like a rabbit coming out of a hat, he appears at Leipzig, exactly as he’s indicated to Colonel Wilcox …’
Cuthbertson was doodling flowers on to his blotter and Wilberforce had begun mining his pipe: as a child, the second-in-command would have had a comfort blanket, Charlie decided.
‘… and, like simple innocents, we grab at it,’ took up Charlie. ‘We expose an operative, get fed a load of defection bullshit and then our man, who has identified himself, gets shot. As if this weren’t warning enough, we go through the same procedure a month later in Russia and lose a second man.’
They weren’t accepting his arguments, Charlie realised.
‘It’s the oldest intelligence trick there is,’ Charlie insisted. ‘Make the bait big enough and so many fish will swarm you can catch them by hand.’
Cuthbertson shook his head. ‘I can’t agree … we’ve been unlucky, that’s all. Others agree with me.’
‘Others?’ jumped Charlie, immediately.
‘The analysis section, upon which you place such reliance,’ said Cuthbertson, quickly.
There was more, Charlie knew, remaining silent.
‘The initial approach was made at the American embassy,’ reminded Cuthbertson, reluctantly. ‘The C.I.A. assessed the media attacks on Kalenin and made the same decision as we did.’
Charlie threw back his head, theatrically, braying his laughter.
‘Oh Jesus!’ he said. ‘This is too much. Don’t tell me the Americans are riding shotgun on the whole operation.’
‘They’ve sought involvement,’ conceded the Director. ‘But I’m keeping the whole project British; they can have access to the debriefing in the course of time.’
Charlie made much of walking back around the chair and seating himself. Washington would be furious at being kept out, he knew.
‘I am aware,’ he began, speaking very quietly and with control, ‘that I am badly regarded in this department, a reminder of a British intelligence system that made some very bad mistakes … mistakes that meant changes were almost inevitable …’
He hesitated. They were back with him now, he saw.
‘But I have proved myself, if proof were needed, with the Berenkov debriefing,’ he continued. ‘I know espionage intimately … I’m an expert at it. You are a soldier, used to a different environment … a different set of rules …’
‘What is the point you are trying to make,’ broke in Cuthbertson, testily.
‘That we’re being set up,’ said Charlie, urgently. ‘A trap is being created and you are walking blindly into it …’
Again, Cuthbertson shook his head in refusal.
‘… Cut off now, before it’s too late,’ pleaded Charlie. ‘A committed man like Kalenin wouldn’t defect in a million years.’
‘You’re scared,’ accused the Director, suddenly.
‘You’re damned right I’m scared,’ agreed Charlie, open in his irritation. ‘Two agents plucked off within days of encountering Kalenin! We should all be terrified. If he has his way, he’ll wreck the whole bloody department.’
‘I want Kalenin,’ declared Cuthbertson, pedantically.
‘But he isn’t
‘He is,’ said the Director.
‘Then tell me why Harrison and Snare have been hit,’ demanded Charlie.
‘Because Kalenin is frightened.’
Charlie frowned, genuinely confused. ‘What the hell does that mean?’
Cuthbertson paused at the impertinence, then dismissed it.
‘On each occasion,’ enlarged the Director, ‘sufficient time elapsed for both men to dispatch full reports to London. Kalenin has allowed that, wanting the meetings to be relayed here. Both meetings were in public places … they would have been noted. And Kalenin would have known that. So he protected his back by going for them, once they’d served their purpose …’
He groped among the papers that leafed his desk.
‘… Snare refers several times to Kalenin’s ill-concealed fear …’
‘… bloody right,’ said Charlie. ‘And I might concede your point if Snare had been killed too. But he’s alive. By now, scientifically and without any pain, they will have taken apart the man’s mind, right back to the age of two. Kalenin wouldn’t have risked the inevitable exposure of his defection by letting Snare live, if the defection were genuine.’
‘They’ve promised us consular access in three weeks,’ rejected Cuthbertson, triumphantly. ‘They wouldn’t do that if Snare wasn’t perfectly fit and had been subjected to any torture, physical or mental …’
Charlie sat, waiting, opening and closing his hands.
‘Rubbish,’ he said, at last. ‘They will have stripped him to the bone.’
‘The terms of your employment with the department do not allow you to refuse an assignment,’ reminded the Director.
‘I know,’ said Charlie quietly.
‘And I am ordering you to go.’
Charlie knuckled his eyes, then looked up at the men who despised him. He sighed openly. He’d given them the chance to avoid making fools of themselves, he decided. Now it was entirely their fault.
‘Did American intelligence know how Harrison and Snare were making contact?’
‘Not that we know of,’ said Wilberforce.
Charlie sat, unconvinced. ‘Both meetings were at public functions,’ he said, talking almost to himself. ‘Washington would have known.’
He looked up to Cuthbertson.
‘They want involvement?’ he queried.
‘Desperately,’ agreed the Director.
‘Give it to them,’ advised Charlie. ‘The payment stipulates dollars. Let the money be their entry.’
‘Why?’ demanded Cuthbertson.
‘To give me the opportunity for contact,’ said Charlie. ‘I don’t want the Americans to have any idea that anyone is trying to pick up from Harrison or Snare. String them along by discussing money for a week, to give me time …’
‘That won’t work,’ warned Wilberforce, happy to have found a flaw. ‘Our embassy cover for you to go to Moscow doesn’t come into operation for another three weeks.’
‘I’m not going to Moscow under your cover,’ lectured Charlie. Again he was reminded of Edith’s warning about conceit, but discarded it.
‘… In the last three months you’ve arranged the crossing into Eastern Europe of two men whom you regarded highly,’ he said. ‘One is dead, the other is in Lubyanka. I’ll get to Moscow myself.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Charles,’ rebuffed Cuthbertson. ‘No one can enter Russia like that.’
