The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

'No. I haven't the least idea what you're trying to say, Karden, but the answer's no. If you'd ever met Smiley you wouldn't ask. We're about as different as we could be.'

Karden seemed rather pleased with this, smiling and nodding to himself as he adjusted his spectacles and referred elaborately to his file.

'Oh yes,' he said, as if he had forgotten something, 'when you asked the grocer for credit, how much money had you?'

'Nothing,' said Leamas carelessly. 'I'd been broke for a week. Longer, I should think.'

'What had you lived on?'

'Bits and pieces. I'd been ill—some fever. I'd hardly eaten anything for a week. I suppose that made me nervous too—tipped the scales.'

'You were, of course, still owed money at the library, weren't you?'

'How did you know that?' asked Leamas sharply. 'Have you been—'

'Why didn't you go and collect it? Then you wouldn't have had to ask for credit, would you, Leamas?'

He shrugged.

'I forget. Probably because the library was closed on Saturday mornings.'

'I see. Are you sure it was closed on Saturday mornings?'

'No. It's just a guess.'

'Quite. Thank you, that is all I have to ask.'

Leamas was sitting down as the door opened and a woman came in. She was large and ugly, wearing a gray overall with chevrons on one sleeve. Behind her stood Liz.

22 The President

She entered the court slowly, looking around her, wide-eyed, like a half-awakened child entering a brightly lit room. Leamas had forgotten how young she was. When she saw him sitting between two guards, she stopped.

'Alec.'

The guard beside her put his hand on her arm and guided her forward to the spot where Leamas had stood. It was very quiet in the courtroom.

'What is your name, child?' the President asked abruptly. Liz's long hands hung at her sides, the fingers straight.

'What is your name?' she repeated, loudly this time.

'Elizabeth Gold.'

'You are a member of the British Communist Party?'

'Yes.'

'And you have been staying in Leipzig?'

'Yes.'

'When did you join the Party?'

'Nineteen fifty-five. No—fifty-four, I think it was—'

She was interrupted by the sound of movement; the screech of furniture forced aside, and Leamas' voice, hoarse, high-pitched, ugly, filling the room.

'You bastards! Leave her alone!'

Liz turned in terror and saw him standing, his white face bleeding and his clothes awry, saw a guard hit him with his fist, so that he half fell; then they were both upon him, had lifted him up, thrusting his arms high behind his back. His head fell forward on his chest, then jerked sideways in pain.

'If he moves again, take him out,' the President ordered, and she nodded to Leamas in warning, adding: 'You can speak again later if you want. Wait.' Turning to Liz she said sharply, 'Surely you know when you joined the Party?'

Liz said nothing, and after waiting a moment the President shrugged. Then leaning forward and staring at Liz intently she asked:

'Elizabeth, have you ever been told in your Party about the need for secrecy?' Liz nodded.

'And you have been told never, never to ask questions of another Comrade on the organization dispositions of the Party?'

Liz nodded again. 'Yes,' she said, 'of course.'

'Today you will be severely tested in that rule. It is better for you, far better, that you should know nothing. Nothing,' she added, with sudden emphasis. 'Let this be enough: we three at this table hold very high rank in the Party. We are acting with the knowledge of our Präsidium, in the interests of Party security. We have to ask you some questions, and your answers are of the greatest importance. By replying truthfully and bravely you will help the cause of socialism.'

'But who?' she whispered, 'who is on trial? What's Alec done?'

The President looked past her at Mundt and said, 'Perhaps no one is on trial. That is the point. Perhaps only the accusers. It can make no difference who is accused,' she added, 'it is a guarantee of your impartiality that you cannot know.'

Silence descended for a moment on the little room; and then, in a voice so quiet that the President instinctively turned her head to catch her words, she asked, 'Is it Alec? Is it Leamas?'

'I tell you,' the President insisted, 'it is better for you—far better—you should not know. You must tell the truth and go. That is the wisest thing you can do.'

Liz must have made some sign or whispered some words the others could not catch, for the President again leaned forward and said, with great intensity, 'Listen, child, do you want to go home? Do as I tell you and you shall. But if you—' She broke off, indicated Karden with her hand and added cryptically, 'This Comrade wants to ask you some questions, not many. Then you shall go. Tell the truth.'

Karden stood again, and smiled his kindly, churchwarden smile.

'Elizabeth,' he inquired, 'Alec Leamas was your lover, wasn't he?' She nodded.

'You met at the library in Bayswater, where you work.'

'Yes.'

'You had not met him before?'

She shook her head. 'We met at the library,' she said.

'Have you had many lovers, Elizabeth?'

Whatever she said was lost as Leamas shouted again, 'Karden, you swine,' but as she heard him she turned and said, quite loud, 'Alec, don't. They'll take you away.'

'Yes,' observed the President drily; 'they will.'

'Tell me,' Karden resumed smoothly, 'was Alec a Communist?'

'No.'

'Did he know you were a Communist?'

'Yes. I told him.'

'What did he say when you told him that, Elizabeth?'

She didn't know whether to lie, that was the terrible thing. The questions came so quickly she had no chance to think. All the time they were listening, watching, waiting for a word, a gesture perhaps, that could do terrible harm to Alec. She couldn't lie unless she knew what was at stake; she would fumble on and Alec would die—for there was no doubt in her mind that Leamas was in danger.

'What did he say then?' Karden repeated.

'He laughed. He was above all that kind of thing.'

'Do you believe he was above it?'

'Of course.'

The young man at the Judges' table spoke for the second time. His eyes were half closed: