The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Leamas shrugged. 'I'd feel uneasy,' he said. 'It's happened before. You get an indication, several perhaps, that there's a spy in some department or at a certain level. So what? You can't arrest the whole government service. You can't lay traps for a whole department. You just sit tight and hope for more. You bear it in mind. In Rolling Stone you can't even tell what country he's working in.'

'You are an operator, Leamas,' Fiedler observed with a laugh, 'not an evaluator. That is clear. Let me ask you some elementary questions.'

Leamas said nothing.

'The file—the actual file on operation Rolling Stone. What color was it?'

'Gray with a red cross on it—that means limited subscription.'

'Was anything attached to the outside?'

'Yes, the Caveat. That's the subscription label. With a legend saying that any unauthorized person not named on this label finding the file in his possession must at once return it unopened to Banking Section.'

'Who was on the subscription list?'

'For Rolling Stone?'

'Yes.'

* * *

'P.A. to Control, Control, Control's secretary; Banking Section, Miss Bream of Special Registry and Satellites Four. That's all, I think. And Special Dispatch, I suppose—I'm not sure about them.'

'Satellites Four? What do they do?'

'Iron Curtain countries excluding the Soviet Union and China. The Zone.'

'You mean the GDR?'

'I mean the Zone.'

'Isn't it unusual for a whole section to be on a subscription list?'

'Yes, it probably is. I wouldn't know—I’ve never handled limited subscription stuff before. Except in Berlin, of course; it was all different there.'

'Who was in Satellites Four at that time?'

'Oh, God. Guillam, Haverlake, de Jong, I think. De Jong was just back from Berlin.'

'Were they all allowed to see this file?'

'I don't know, Fiedler,' Leamas retorted irritably, 'and if I were you...'

'Then isn't it odd that a whole section was on the subscription list while all the rest of the subscribers are individuals?'

'I tell you I don't know—how could I know? I was just a clerk in all this.'

'Who carried the file from one subscriber to another?'

'Secretaries, I suppose—I can't remember. It's bloody months since...'

'Then why weren't the secretaries on the list? Control's secretary was.' There was a moment's silence.

'No, you're right; I remember now,' Leamas said, a note of surprise in his voice. 'We passed it by hand.'

'Who else in Banking dealt with that file?'

'No one. It was my pigeon when I joined the Section. One of the women had done it before, but when I came I took it over and they were taken off the list.'

'Then you alone passed the file by hand to the next reader?'

'Yes...yes, I suppose I did.'

'To whom did you pass it?'

'I...I can't remember.'

'Think!' Fiedler had not raised his voice, but it contained a sudden urgency which took Leamas by surprise.

'To Control's P.A., I think, to show what action we had taken or recommended.'

'Who brought the file?'

'What do you mean?' Leamas sounded off balance.

'Who brought you the file to read? Somebody on the list must have brought it to you.'

Leamas' fingers touched his cheek for a moment in an involuntary nervous gesture.

'Yes, they must. It's difficult, you see, Fiedler; I was putting back a lot of drink in those days.' His tone was oddly conciliatory. 'You don't realize how hard it is to...'

'I ask you again. Think. Who brought you the file?'

Leamas sat down at the table and shook his head.

'I can't remember. It may come back to me. At the moment I just can't remember, really I can't. It's no good chasing it.'

'It can't have been Control's girl, can it? You always handed the file back to Control P.A. You said so. So those on the list must all have seen it before Control.'

'Yes, that's it, I suppose.'

'Then there is Special Registry, Miss Bream.'

'She was just the woman who ran the strong room for subscription list files. That's where the file was kept when it wasn't in action.'

'Then,' said Fiedler silkily, 'it must have been Satellites Four who brought it, mustn't it?'

'Yes, I suppose it must,' said Leamas helplessly, as if he were not quite up to Fiedler's brilliance.

'Which floor did Satellites Four work on?'

'The second.'

'And Banking?'

'The fourth. Next to Special Registry.'

'Do you remember who brought it up? Or do you remember, for instance, going downstairs ever to collect the file from them?'

In despair, Leamas shook his head. Then suddenly he turned to Fiedler and cried: 'Yes, yes I do! Of course I do! I got it from Peter!' Leamas seemed to have waked up: his face was flushed, excited. 'That's it: I once collected the file from Peter in his room. We chatted together about Norway. We'd served there together, you see.'  

'Peter Guillam?'

'Yes, Peter—I'd forgotten about him. He'd come back from Ankara a few months before. He was on the list! Peter was—of course! That's it. It was Satellites Four and PG in brackets, Peter's initials. Someone else had done it before and Special Registry had glued a bit of white paper over the old name and put in Peter's initials.'

'What territory did Guillam cover?'

'The Zone. East Germany. Economic stuff; ran a small section, sort of backwater. He was the chap. He brought the file up to me once too, I remember that now. He didn't run agents though. I don't quite know how he came into it—Peter and a couple of others were doing some research job on food shortages. Evaluation really.'

'Did you not discuss it with him?'

'No, that's taboo. It isn't done with subscription files, I got a homily from the woman in Special Registry about it—Bream—no discussion, no questions.'

'But taking into account the elaborate security precautions surrounding Rolling Stone, it is possible, is it not, that Guillam's so-called research job might have involved the partial running of this agent, Rolling Stone?'

'I've told Peters,' Leamas almost shouted, banging his fist on the desk, 'it's just bloody silly to imagine that any operation could have been run against East Germany without my knowledge—without the knowledge of the Berlin organization. I would have known, don't you see? How many times do I have to say that? I would have known!'

'Quite so,' said Fiedler softly, 'of course you would.' He stood up and went to the window.

'You should see it in the autumn,' he said, looking out. 'It's magnificent when the beeches are on the turn.'