place.’
Just as he finished speaking the door opened abruptly and the man with the birthmark came in and walked straight across the room to where he had been sitting at table. As he moved he spoke in a monotonous voice and with a perceptible accent, Theodore thought Czech or Polish. ‘I am sorry to come bursting in on you like this, gentlemen, but I foolishly left my spectacle-case behind, at least I think I did. Ah yes, here it is under the table by my chair. What a relief. And now I apologise for this intrusion and I leave you in peace and again I wish you good night.’
‘Good night, sir.’
The door shut with some emphasis.
‘Do you think he heard anything?’ asked Theodore.
‘What if he did? Let him fuck his mother.’
‘By all means, but I’m afraid that wouldn’t be the end of him.’
‘What?’ said Alexander rather crossly.
Without answering, Theodore got to his feet, overturned the chair lately occupied by the man in question and began closely examining its legs and the underside of its seat.
‘How romantic.’ Alexander sounded amused now. ‘Enemy agents planting concealed microphones. Or is it time-bombs? It really takes me back. Admit it, Theodore: you made the last part of your journey here by parachute.’
‘It’s no joke, I’m afraid. There is a risk that Vanag’s men are taking an interest in me, a slight one, but it’s there. Well, this thing’s clean.’
‘What about the table?’
‘He didn’t touch the table, I was watching. I’d better check the floor.’ And Theodore went down on his hands and knees and peered at the rug.
Alexander sniggered. ‘I’m sorry, I just can’t take this seriously. Hidden microphones in a-’
‘Can you suggest what he was doing if he wasn’t planting something?’
‘Fetching his spectacle-case.’
‘Why do you say that?’ asked Theodore, frowning and staring.
‘It’s the only other possibility.’
‘But what could he have been fetching?’
‘I don’t know. That’s your department. Why might Vanag’s men be interested in you?’
‘Last night a girl in my section was arrested. I know her because she’s in my section. Nothing more. What she’s supposed to have done, whether she did it, even who arrested her – very likely the ordinary civilian police, not the Directorate at all – everything else: no information. But there is that possibility. Nothing more than that.’
‘I see.’
Theodore produced his pipe and looked at it without friendliness. ‘I must give this up; it’s much too expensive. Are you the junior officer here?’
‘Yes, to Victor by six weeks,’ said Alexander in a serious, literal-minded tone, one he maintained when answering subsequent questions. His manner was that of a witness intent on establishing the truth and altogether without parti pris. If he suspected that some of the information he gave was already known, he betrayed no sign.
‘But you have men under your command?’
‘Yes, so have we all except Boris. A Guards squadron is in effect a double squadron, with four troops.
‘Which is yours?’
‘8. 8 is a cannon troop; there’s one in every squadron. But what we… have isn’t exactly cannon.’
‘What, then?’ asked Theodore, pressing down the tobacco in his pipe.
‘Projectile-launchers, eight of them, designed to operate singly or in pairs. They can destroy any visible man-made object, and quite selectively too, with the improved sonar sight.’
‘My dear Alexander, should you be telling me this?’
‘Oh yes. If there were such a person as somebody wondering whether it might be a good idea to fight us or neutralise us, which I’m sure there isn’t, it would be very useful to us for him to know the fire-power he’d be facing. It’s official policy not to be excessively discreet in these matters.’
‘What if I were such a person? Mightn’t I try to steal one or more of your contrivances?’
‘If you succeeded, which would be very unlikely indeed, you would still be unable to load, aim and fire it, because you haven’t had the necessary special training, which is extremely hard to come by. You couldn’t even arm one of our projectiles.’
‘That’s a relief. The whole thing is a responsibility, though, and you the junior officer. Was it because of…?’ said Theodore, and stopped.
Alexander laughed heartily. ‘My father’s position? Well, in a way, though it’s complicated. There may be a shake-up soon, if Victor finally decides to get himself posted home.’
‘Is it as easy as that? A home posting on demand?’
‘After two years, yes, virtually. I’ll be eligible myself in a couple of months. But then I have a home posting already:
England is my home.’
‘Then you’ve no desire at all to go back.’
‘For me it wouldn’t be back, Theodore. I’ve spent no more than a quarter of my life in Russia, and most of that was either as a young child or on visits that were too short for me to settle down. You don’t settle down anywhere when you’re being trained. I’m a stranger there; I have no responsibilities there.’
‘You speak as if you have responsibilities here, or…’
‘I consider I have. All of us have, by virtue of the position we hold in this country.’
‘You consider in other words that you owe the English something. I wonder how much, and how far you’d go to see that that debt was repaid.’
‘It’s not easy to be definite about the first part; you can’t measure an obligation. But perhaps what I say about the rest of it will be enough. I’d go as far as might prove necessary.
Theodore struggled to control his breathing. A delicious excitement, compounded of joy and fear, possessed him. In one sense this was the highest point of his life so far; in another, he would have given everything good that might happen to him in the future not to be where he now was. The heat had gone; very soon it would be quite dark and, presumably, Leo and Victor would go out and start their shooting. But they were a long way from Theodore’s mind; he stared at the patched yellowish tablecloth, the wine-bottle with its would-be elegant label, his glass, empty, Alexander’s glass, still a quarter full, the purple arc where the base of Victor’s unsteadily-held glass had rested. These sights had a portentous quality, as if something – an explosion, an earthquake -were about to change them altogether, or more like the furnishings of a dream, which themselves carry such significance. It was half a minute before Theodore realised that he was waiting for some sound – a footfall, the striking of a clock – to mark the stillness. This idea seemed to him absurd, puffed-up; he started to speak at once.
‘You remember when we were talking last night and I was trying to get you to admit you’d fucked Mrs Korotchenko, and I made you swear by the honour of…’
‘Of my country and my regiment and my family. So?’
‘You swore falsely then. But over the question of being put on your honour not to tell your major about these shooting affairs – well, you haven’t. You implied that you’d like to, but couldn’t think of a way of doing it that didn’t point to you. Do you really expect me to believe that? Somebody with your low cunning, as you called it? No, you’ve kept quiet because you’d given your word of honour.’
‘What of it?’ said Alexander irritably.
‘Just, how do you resolve the contradiction? Not caring about the honour of your country and the others but very tender about your own.
‘Of course, you’re an intellectual, aren’t you, Theodore? I keep forgetting. It takes one of your sort to see a
