Snow there is someone at the embassy who wishes to see him at once. Where’s the danger? The exposure?’
‘It’s too much,’ insisted the political officer.
‘Compared to a diplomatic disaster? The expulsion of an ambassador?’
‘That’s …’
‘… the choice.’
The unusually tall man came reflectively forward on his desk, a bend at a time, like a tower building collapsing from a controlled explosion. ‘It’s too … I can’t …’
‘Why don’t we ask the doctor?’ If he spread even the limited awareness much further he might as well take out newspaper advertisements and make radio announcements from the roof, thought Charlie. He loathed being this dependent on other people: loathed being anything but entirely self-contained, entirely self-dependent, having to trust and rely upon no one except himself. This really was a shitty job: the shittiest.
‘You’ll accept his refusal?’
‘If you’ll accept his agreement.’
Samuels hesitated, for several moments. ‘Which of us will explain it?’
‘You,’ said Charlie. ‘Or me, if you’d prefer.’
‘Me,’ decided the diplomat.
Charlie at once recognized the man introduced to him as George Pickering to be the sort of doctor who made patients feel guilty for being ill. The man’s suit strained around his bulging body, and the moment Samuels began a limited explanation Pickering turned to fix Charlie with a disconcertingly unblinking stare through oddly large spectacles. Charlie thought the man looked like the grandfather to all the owls. He stayed with his eyes on Charlie after Samuels finished, initially not speaking. Then he said: ‘This arrest business?’
‘Yes,’ admitted Charlie.
‘Bugger off.’
‘Where’s the risk?’
‘I’m a doctor. Nothing else.’
‘Can you imagine the physical condition Gower’s in by now?’
‘A risk with your sort of job.’
‘Whose medical philosophy is that?’
‘Mine.’
‘Don’t you talk to Snow, when you go to the mission?’
‘Of course I do!’
‘“Someone at the embassy wants to see you.” Eight words.’
‘Do it yourself.’
‘You’ve heard why I can’t.’
‘I said bugger off.’
But he hadn’t left the room in offended indignation, realized Charlie. ‘Eight words.’
‘Why should I?’
‘To prevent a diplomantic debacle. And stop the suffering of a man in prison.’
‘Neither is my concern.’
‘I would have thought both were,’ insisted Charlie.
‘We want to get it over as quickly as possible, George,’ intruded Samuels. ‘And as best we can.’
‘You asking me to do it?’ demanded Pickering.
Samuels shook his head. ‘It’s got to be your decision.’
Sensing the weakening, Charlie reiterated: ‘Eight words.’
Pickering was silent again for several moments. Then he said: ‘Bloody lot of nonsense, all of it: kids’ stuff.’
‘You’ll do it?’ asked Charlie.
‘Only pass on that exact message. Nothing else.’
Charlie guessed Pickering had been quite prepared to do it from the beginning but had put up the token rejection to see them plead. People played all sorts of games, he reflected. He had a lot of his own to play. He managed the airport conversations himself but needed Samuels’ Chinese for the rail enquiries and reservations. It took two hours. As he thanked the political officer, Charlie said: ‘From what I’ve read in his personal file, you and Snow must be about the same height. Coincidence, that, isn’t it?’
‘Whatever it is you’re thinking of, don’t even bother to ask,’ said Samuels.
The request from the State-appointed defender for Natalia to appear as a character witness for Eduard was made through Agency channels, which surprised her: if it had come at all she would have expected it to have been sent direct to Leninskaya. She used the same Agency route to reply, refusing the request.
Forty-five
The problem of Jeremy Snow took on a whole new and deeper significance as soon as the priest entered the room at the embassy that Samuels had made available. After the meeting with the liaison man in London and from much of what he had read in the files, Charlie had expected a bombastic, self-opinionated man. But there was no arrogance at all. The asthmatic priest was wheezing with apprehension. Almost as soon as he came in he said: ‘Thank God you’re here: I’ve been terribly wrong,’ and Charlie guessed Snow would collapse and make a full confession within minutes of being seized.
‘It can still be sorted out,’ said Charlie, seeing the priest’s need for reassurance. Although he knew the personal statistics from the file, Snow’s height still surprised him.
‘What about the man who’s been arrested? He came for me, didn’t he?’
‘Your safety is his safety.’
‘Are you sure?’
He wasn’t, realized Charlie. ‘Positive,’ he said. ‘But there can’t be the slightest mistake. We’ll only get one chance. So I want to know everything from the beginning. And from the beginning I mean from the moment you were approached to work for London. In as much detail as you can recall.’
It took a very long time, because Charlie frequently interrupted, pressing constantly for every possible thing, refusing even to accept a generality he could have filled in for himself from the dossiers he had studied in London. Several times Snow had to stop completely, until his breathing improved, and when he finally finished he was slumped, drained, in his chair. Still Charlie wanted more.
‘This problem of contact only began with Foster?’
Snow nodded. ‘In the last six months. With Bowley and Street everything was fine. Foster said we had to be far more careful: that the times I could legitimately come here were sufficient and that we should keep the outside visits to the barest minimum.’
‘How long was this man, Zhang Su Lin, a source?’
‘Just under a year, I suppose. He started at the classes very soon after Tiananmen, but I had no idea he was a dissident at first, of course. He was
‘How good was he? As a source, I mean?’
‘He seemed very well in with people in Beijing. He told me once that he expected to get arrested after Tiananmen because all the others rounded up knew him and he thought they would name him during questioning. But he wasn’t. He gave me some Shanghai leads, too.’
‘Why did he cease coming to the classes?’
‘I never knew. He just didn’t turn up one day: there was no warning. I wondered if he had been arrested, after all: he was very much into writing and issuing the protest wall posters and bulletins. But he obviously wasn’t. Not until last month.’
‘Did he know you were passing the information on?’
‘Not in the way you mean. As far as he was concerned, we were just talking, but of course he expected me to tell others, outside China. That’s the whole point, getting the information out that there is protest, within the country.’
‘So he’ll name you?’
