still on the blotter in front of him. 'In spite of that?' 'In spite of that,' he said, but I think he really meant because of it. 'You people amaze me. You think you're James Bonds, the lot of you. Well, I don't think I'm living in the middle of a highly coloured film, even if you do.' I wasn't going to argue with him. 'May I use your telephone?' He frowned, trying to think of a good reason for denial, so I added, 'I'll pay for the call.' 'That won't be necessary,' he said shortly, and pushed his telephone across the desk. One of our boffins once asked me what was the biggest machine in the world. After several abortive answers I gave up, and he said, 'The international telephone system. There are 450 million telephones in the world, and 250 million of them are connected by direct dialling-untouched by hand in the exchanges.' We may grouse about the faults of local systems, but in under ninety seconds I was talking to Ogilvie. I said, 'We have Ashton but there's a small problem. There's only one of Henty, and I can't push in too close myself.' 'Good. Get on to the Embassy for support.
We want him watched. Don't approach him yourself.' 'I'm at the Embassy now. No support forthcoming.' 'What's the name of the obstruction?'
'Cutler-Second Secretary.' 'Wait a moment.' There was a clatt er and I heard the rustle of papers in distant London. Presently Ogilvie said, 'This will take about half an hour. I'll dynamite the obstruction. For God's sake, don't lose Ashton now.' 'I won't,' I said, and hung up. I stood up and picked my card from Cutler's blotter. 'I'm at the Grand.
You can get me there.' 'I can't think of any circumstances in which I should do so,' he said distantly. I smiled. 'You will.' Suddenly I was tired of him. 'Unless you want to spend the next ten years counting paper clips in Samoa.' Back at the hotel there was a curt note from Henty: 'Meet me at the Moderna Museet on Skeppsholmen.' I grabbed a taxi and was there in five minutes. Henty was standing outside the main entrance, his hands thrust deep into his pockets and the tip of his nose blue with cold. He jerked his head at the gallery. 'Your man is getting a bit of culture.' This had to be handled carefully. I didn't want to bump into Ashton face to face. 'Benson there too?'
'Just Ashton.' 'Right. Nip in and locate him-then come back here.'
Henty went inside, no doubt glad to be in the warm. He was back in five minutes. 'He's studying blue period Picassos.' He gave me a plan of the halls and marked the Picasso Gallery. I went into the Museum, moving carefully. There were not many people in the halls on the cold winter's afternoon, which was a pity because there was no crowd to get lost in. On the other hand there were long unobstructed views. I took out my handkerchief, ready to muffle my face in case of emergency, turned a corner and saw Ashton in the distance. He was contemplating a canvas with interest and, as he turned to move on to the next one, I had a good sight of his face. To my relief this was Ashton. There would have been a blazing row if I had goosed Cutler to no purpose.
CHAPTER NINETEEN Cutler jumped like a startled frog. An hour later, when I was unfreezing my bones in a hot bath and feeling sorry for Henty who was still tagging Ashton, the telephone rang to announce that he was waiting in the hotel foyer. 'Ask him to come up.' I dried myself quickly and put on a dressing gown. He brought two men whom he introduced as Askrigg and Debenham. He made no apologies for his previous attitude and neither of us referred to it. All the time I knew him he maintained his icily well-bred air of disapproval; that I could stand so long as he did what he was told and did it fast, and I had no complaints about that. The only trouble was that he and his people were lacking in professionalism. We got down to business immediately. I outlined the problem, and Askrigg said, 'A full-time surveillance of two men is a six-man job.' 'At least,' I agreed. 'And that's excluding me and Henty. Ashton and Benson know me, so I'm out.
As for Henty, he's done enough. He spotted Ashton for us and has been freezing his balls off ever since keeping an eye on him. I'm pulling him out for a rest and then he'll be in reserve.' 'Six men,' said Cutler doubtfully. 'Oh, well, I suppose we can find them. What are we looking for?' 'I want to know everything about them. Where they go, what they eat, who they see, do they have a routine, what happens when they break that routine, who they write to-you name it, I want to know.' 'It seems a lot of fuss over a relatively minor industrialist,' sniffed Cutler. I grinned at him, and quoted, ''Yours not to reason why, yours but to do or die.' Which could happen because they're probably armed.' That brought a moment of silence during which Cutler twitched a bit. In his book diplomacy and guns didn't go together. I said, 'Another thing: I want to have a look inside Ashton's apartment, but we'll check their routine first so we can pick the right moment.'
'Burglary!' said Cutler hollowly. 'The Embassy mustn't be involved in that.' 'It won't be,' I said shortly. 'Leave that to me. All right; let's get organized.' And so Ashton and Benson were watched, every movement noted. It was both wearisome and frustrating as most operations of this nature are. The two men led an exemplary life.
Ashton's was the life of a gentleman of leisure; he visited museums and art galleries, attended the theatre and cinemas, and spent a lot of time in bookshops where he spent heavily, purchasing fiction and non-fiction, the non- fiction being mostly biographies. The books were over a spread of languages, English, German and Russian predominating.
And all the time he did not do a stroke of what could reasonably be called work. It was baffling. Benson was the perfect manservant. He did the household shopping, attended to the laundry and dry cleaning, and did a spot of cooking on those occasions when Ashton did not eat out. He had found himself a favourite drinking hole which he attended three or four times a week, an olstuga more intellectual than most because it had a chess circle. Benson would play a couple of games and leave relatively early. Neither of them wrote or received any letters.
Neither appeared to have any associates other than the small-change encounters of everyday life. Neither did a single damned thing out of the ordinary with one large and overriding exception. Their very presence in Stockholm was out of the ordinary. At the beginning of the third week, when their routine had been established, Henry and I cracked the apartment. Ashton had gone to the cinema and Benson was doing his Bobby Fischer bit over a half-litre of Carlsberg and we would have an hour or longer. We searched that flat from top to bottom and did not find much. The main prize was Ashton's passport. It was of Israeli issue, three years old, and made out in the name of Fyodr Antonovitch Koslov who had been born in Odessa in 1914. I photographed every page, including the blank ones, and put it back where I found it. A secondary catch was the counterfoil stub of a chequebook. I photographed that thoroughly, too. Ashton was spending money quite freely, his casual expenses were running to nearly?500 a week. The telephone rang. Henty picked it up and said cautiously, 'Vilket nummer vill ni ha?' There was a pause. 'Okay.' he put down the receiver.
'Benson's left the pub; he's on his way back.' I looked around the room. 'Everything in order?' 'I reckon so.' 'Then let's go.' We left the building and sat in Henty's car until Benson arrived. We saw him safely inside, checked his escort, then went away. Early next morning I gave Cutler the spools of film and requested negatives and two sets of prints. I got them within the hour and spent quite a time checking them before my prearranged telephone call from Ogilvie. It had to be prearranged because he had to have a scrambler compatible with that at the Embassy. Briefly I summarized the position up to that point, then said, 'Any breakthrough will come by something unusual-an oddity-and there are not many of those. There's the Israeli passport-I'd like to know if that's kosher. I'll send you the photographs in the diplomatic bag.' 'Issued three years ago, you say.' 'That's right. That would be about the time a bank account was opened here in the name of Koslov.
The apartment was rented a year later, also in the name of Koslov; it was sublet until four months ago when Ashton moved in. Our friend had everything prepared. I've gone through cheque stubs covering nearly two months. Ashton isn't stinting himself.' 'How is he behaving?
Psychologically, I mean.' 'I've seen him only three times, and then at a distance.' I thought for a moment. 'My impression is that he's more relaxed than when I saw him last in England; under less of a strain.'
There didn't seem much else to say. 'What do I do now?' 'Carry on,' said Ogilvie succinctly. I sighed. 'This could go on for weeks-months.
What if I tackled him myself? There's no need to blow my cover. I can get myself accredited to an international trade conference that's coming up next week.' 'Don't do that,' said Ogilvie. 'He's sharper than anyone realizes. Just keep watching; something will turn up.'
Yes, Mr. Micawber, I thought, but didn't say it. What I said was, 'I'll put the negatives and prints into the diplomatic bag immediately.' Two more weeks went by and nothing happened. Ashton went on his way serenely, doing nothing in particular. I had another, more extended, look at him and he seemed to be enjoying himself in a left-handed fashion. This was possibly the first holiday he'd ever had free from the cares of the business he had created. Benson pottered about in the shops and markets of Gamla Stan most mornings, doing his none-too-frugal shopping, and we began to build up quite a picture of the culinary tastes of the menage Ashton. It didn't do us one damned bit of good. Henty went about his own mysterious business into which I didn't enquire too closely. I do know that he was in some form of military intelligence because he left for a week and went north to Lapland where the Swedish Army was holding winter manoeuvres. When he came back I saw him briefly and he said he'd be busy
