once,” he said quietly. “Just the one. Fine lad. Killed in the Falklands. Know how you feel.”
Surprised, Preston glanced at the man in the mirror. It had never occurred to him that this urbane and wily spymaster had once played horse-and-rider with a small boy on a sitting-room carpet.
“I’m sorry. Perhaps I’ll take you up on that.”
They arrived at the airport, turned in the rented car, and flew back to London, as anonymous as they had come.
The man in the window of the safe house watched the Britisher’s car move away. His own driver would not be there for an hour. He turned back to the room and sat down at the desk to study again the folder he had been brought and which he still held in his hands. He was pleased; it had been a good meeting, and the documents he held would secure his future.
As a professional, Lieutenant General Yevgeni Karpov was sorry about Plan Aurora. It had been good— subtle, low-profile, and effective. But as a professional he also knew that once an operation was well and truly burned there was nothing for it but to cancel and repudiate the whole thing before it was too late. To delay would have been utterly disastrous.
He recalled clearly the batch of documents that his bagman had brought from Jan Marais in London, the product of his agent Hampstead. Six had been the usual stuff, top-rate intelligence material such as only a man of the eminence of George Berenson could have acquired. The seventh had caused him to sit transfixed.
It was a personal memorandum from Berenson to Marais, for transmission to Pretoria.
In it the Defense Ministry official had told how, as Deputy Chief of Defense Procurement, with special responsibility for nuclear devices, he had been present at a very restricted briefing by the Director-General of MI5, Sir Bernard Hemmings.
The counterintelligence chief had told the small group that his agency had uncovered the existence and most of the details of a Soviet conspiracy to import in kit form, assemble, and detonate a small atomic device inside Britain. The sting was in the tail: MI5 was closing fast upon the Russian illegal in command of the operation in Britain, and was confident of catching him with all the necessary evidence on him.
Entirely because of its source, General Karpov had believed the report completely.
There was an immediate temptation to let the British go ahead; but second thoughts showed this to be disastrous. If the British succeeded alone and unaided, there would be no obligation to suppress the horrendous scandal. To create that obligation, he needed to send a message, and to a man who would understand what had to be done, someone he could deal with across the great divide.
Then there was the question of his personal self-advancement. ... It was after a long, lonely walk in the spring-green forests of Peredelkino that he had decided to take the most dangerous gamble of his life. He had decided to pay a discreet visit to the private office of Nubar Gevorkovitch Vartanyan.
He had chosen his man with care. The Politburo member from Armenia was believed to be the man who headed the covert faction inside the Politburo that privately thought it was time for a change at the top.
Vartanyan had listened to him without saying a word, secure that he was far too highly placed for his office to be bugged. He just stared at the KGB general with his black lizard’s eyes as he listened. When Karpov had finished, he had asked, “You are certain your information is correct, Comrade General?”
“I have the full narrative from Professor Krilov on tape,” said Karpov. “The machine was in my briefcase at the time.”
“And the information from London?”
“Its source is impeccable. I have run the man personally for nearly three years.”
The Armenian power broker stared at him for a long time, as if reflecting on many things, not least how this information could be used to advantage.
“If what you say is true, there has been recklessness and adventurism at the highest level in our country. If such could be proved—of course, one would need the proof—there might have to be changes at the top. Good day to you.”
Karpov had understood. When the man on the pinnacle in Soviet Russia fell, all his own men fell with him. If there were changes at the top, there would be a vacant slot as Chairman of the KGB, a slot that Karpov felt would suit him admirably. But to cobble together his alliance of Party forces, Vartanyan would need proof, more proof, solid, irrefutable, documentary proof, that the act of recklessness had almost brought disaster.
No one had ever forgotten that Mikhail Suslov had toppled Khrushchev in 1964 on charges of adventurism over the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Shortly after the meeting, Karpov had sent in Winkler, the most bumbling agent his files could unearth. His message had been read and understood. Now he held in his hands the proof his Armenian patron needed. He looked through the documents again.
The report of the mythical interrogation and the confession of Major Valeri Petrofsky to the British would need some amendment, but he had people out at Yasyenevo who could accomplish that. The interrogation report forms were absolutely authentic—that was the main thing. Even Preston’s reports on his progress, suitably amended to exclude any mention of Winkler, were photocopies of the originals.
The General Secretary would not be able or willing to save the traitor Philby; nor, later, would he be able to save himself. Vartanyan would see to that, and he would not be ungrateful.
Karpov’s car came to take him to Zurich and the Moscow plane. He rose. It had been a good meeting. And as always it had been rewarding to negotiate with Chelsea.
Epilogue
Sir Bernard Hemmings formally retired on September 1, 1987, although he had been on leave since mid- July. He died in November of that year, his pension rights assured to the benefit of his wife and stepdaughter.
Brian Harcourt-Smith did not succeed him as Director-General. The “Wise Men” took their soundings, and though it was agreed there was nothing in the least sinister in Harcourt-Smith’s attempts to pass the Preston report no further, or to discount the significance of the Glasgow intercept, one could not avoid concluding that these constituted two serious errors of judgment. There being no other discernible successor inside Five, a man was brought in from outside as Director-General. Harcourt-Smith resigned some months later and joined the board of a merchant bank in the City.
John Preston retired in early September and joined the staff of the asset-protection people. His salary was more than doubled, enabling him to seek his divorce and make a strong case for obtaining custody of his son, Tommy, whose welfare and education he could now guarantee. Julia abruptly withdrew her objection and custody was granted to Preston.
Sir Nigel Irvine retired, as scheduled, on the last day of the year, departing his office in time for Christmas. He went to live at his cottage in Langton Matravers, where he joined fully in the life of the village and told anyone who asked that, prior to retirement, he had done “something boring in Whitehall.”
Jan Marais was summoned to Pretoria in early December for consultations. As the Boeing 747 of South African Airlines lifted off from Heathrow, two burly NIS agents emerged from the flight crew rest area and put handcuffs on him. He did not enjoy his retirement, the whole of which was spent several feet below ground level assisting teams of large gentlemen with their inquiries.
The arrest of Marais having taken place in public, news of it soon leaked out, which alerted General Karpov that his sleeper had been burned. He was confident that Marais—Frikki Brandt—would not long resist the interrogators, and waited for the arrest of George Berenson and the consequent dismay in the Western Alliance.
In mid-December, Berenson took early retirement from the ministry, but there was no arrest. After the personal intervention of Sir Nigel Irvine, the man was allowed to retire to the British Virgin Islands on a small but adequate pension from his wife.
The news told General Karpov that his top agent had not only been blown, but turned as well. What he did not know was just
