remotely activated microphone. The bug had worked once, successfully, when Ralph had tested it from a car parked outside Gaddis’s house, but things were always more complicated in an overseas location. Meisner’s surgery was also on the third floor; getting a clear signal down to the Audi would take a mixture of luck and finesse.
Out on the street, Gaddis had found the entrance. A plaque outside announced:
BENEDICT MEISNER ACUPUNKTUR HOMOOPATHIE WIRBELSAULEN UND GELENKTHERAPIE
It was a mystery. How did a trained medical doctor end up practising acupuncture and homeopathy in Berlin? Had Meisner been struck off? Gaddis looked at his watch and realized that he had ten minutes to kill before his appointment. It was enough time in which to call Josephine Warner.
‘He’s taking out his phone,’ Des announced.
Josephine answered the call with an enthusiasm appropriate to the circumstances.
‘Sam! Are you here?’
‘ Ja,’ Gaddis replied in cod-German, immediately regretting the joke. ‘How’s your sister?’
She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘Annoying the shit out of me. I’ve realized why I never come to visit.’
Gaddis smiled. ‘Then I can persuade you to abandon her for dinner tomorrow night?’
‘You definitely can.’ Josephine was already flirting with him and — who knows? — perhaps even toying with the prospect of a post-dinner nightcap on the third floor of the Tiergarten Novotel.
‘I know a place,’ Gaddis told her, because he had researched decent Berlin restaurants on the Internet and booked a table for two — just in case — at Cafe Jacques in Neukolln.
Before long, they had fixed a time and a place and Gaddis had hung up, ringing the bell of Meisner’s surgery. Des duly activated the bug in POLARBEAR’s mobile and, within moments, Tanya Acocella was listening to Gaddis as he introduced himself to the receptionist.
‘ Guten Tag,’ he said. ‘I apologize. I don’t speak German.’
‘This is all right, sir.’
‘I have an appointment with Doctor Meisner at four o’clock.’
To Tanya’s relief, the take quality was first class; she was listening through a set of headphones and it was as if the conversation was taking place in the next room. She heard the receptionist asking Gaddis to fill out a form — ‘just some of your personal and medical information please’ — then the sigh of Gaddis slumping into an armchair, a brief crash on the bug as he reached for a pen in the inside pocket of his jacket, and a rustle of paper as he filled out the form.
Three minutes later, a telephone rang in the waiting room. The receptionist picked it up and Gaddis was invited ‘please to go through now’ to Meisner’s surgery. He offered to return the medical form, but was told to keep it with him and to ‘please to show it to the doctor when you arrive’. Tanya tried to picture Gaddis ducking through the connecting door and shaking Meisner’s hand. She was wondering what the hell he was planning to say to him.
‘So! We are both doctors!’
Meisner had a thick German accent and sounded chirpy and easygoing.
‘That’s right.’ Gaddis’s voice was flatter, more nervous. ‘Different areas of expertise, though. I don’t tend to save lives on a daily basis.’
She liked that, the flattery. Gaddis was softening him up.
‘Oh, I don’t save lives any more, Doctor. I simply relieve the pain. And what is your area of expertise?’
‘I’m an academic, at University College, London.’
‘Ah! UCL! Sit down, please, sit down.’
Another cushioned slump as Gaddis settled into a chair. Tanya heard him explain that he was a lecturer in Russian History in the Department of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies. Meisner kept saying ‘ Ja, ja ’ and appeared to be enormously interested in everything Gaddis was saying.
‘Really? Is that right? How fascinating. I myself lived in London some time ago.’
‘You did? Whereabouts?’
‘In the Hampstead area. I worked at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington for a number of years. Do you know it?’
‘I know it.’
This, of course, was POLARBEAR’s opportunity and Tanya wondered if he would take it. Typically, in a conversation of this type, it was better to show one’s hand earlier, rather than to build up an implicit trust which was then shattered by the truth.
‘In fact, that’s sort of the reason why I’ve come today.’
He was going for it. Tanya heard Meisner say: ‘I am sorry, I don’t quite understand’ and felt her stomach kick. She pressed the headphones closer to her ears.
‘I’m afraid I’m here under false pretences, Doctor.’
‘False pretences-’
Meisner sounded confused, defensive.
Gaddis pressed on. ‘I don’t have an underlying medical condition. I’m not looking for treatment of any kind. I wanted to talk to you about your time at St Mary’s. I knew that you wouldn’t see me if I told you who I was or why I was coming here today.’
Tanya tried to imagine Meisner’s reaction. He wore tortoise-shell glasses over lively, expressive eyes, and his broad, tanned face was genial and unassuming. There was a long silence. Somebody sniffed. She could hear a tapping sound and assumed that Meisner was rapping his fingers on the surface of his desk.
‘You were in communication with a friend of mine,’ Gaddis began.
‘Charlotte Berg,’ Meisner replied immediately. All of his bedside bonhomie had evaporated. ‘I must ask you to leave immediately.’ Tanya heard the noise of a chair scraping back on a hard floor. Meisner was getting to his feet.
Gaddis said: ‘Please, just hear me out. I have come here to warn you. My visit is for your own safety.’
‘Doctor Gaddis, please do not let me lose my temper. Do you wish me to call the police? I can either ask you to leave in a civilized fashion or I will have no hesitation-’
‘Charlotte Berg is dead.’ POLARBEAR had held his nerve. ‘She was most probably killed by Russian intelligence.’
The ensuing silence was so pronounced that Tanya wondered if the microphone had failed. She was about to call Des when Meisner responded:
‘And why is this of any concern to me?’
‘You remember Calvin Somers?’
‘As I told Miss Berg, I have no recollection of an individual of that name and, if you insist on making allegations of this kind, I will have no hesitation to pursue libel actions against you in a court of law.’
‘Somers is also dead.’ Gaddis’s reply contained just the right level of threat. ‘He was murdered, again most probably by Russian intelligence.’
She heard Meisner sniff, then a hole of silence. Gaddis spoke into the void.
‘I don’t need to tell you that this only leaves you and the porter still alive.’
‘The porter?’
‘Waldemar. Lucy Forman died in a car accident in 2001.’ This piece of information pushed Meisner back into his chair. Tanya wondered if either man knew that Waldemar had died in Krakow in 1999. ‘I don’t know if the crash was an accident or if it was engineered. All I’m saying is that you need to watch your back.’
‘That is not what you are saying, Doctor.’
Gaddis conceded the point. ‘You’re right. I need your assistance as well. There are things you may know which could help to keep both of us alive.’
Another silence. Tanya scratched an itch at the end of her nose.
‘Do you still retain any links to Douglas Henderson?’ Gaddis asked. His tone of voice had become more conciliatory. ‘Are you aware that his real name is Sir John Brennan and that he is now the Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service?’
Careful, Sam, thought Tanya. Don’t be giving away too many of our secrets.
‘I did not know this,’ Meisner replied. His throat was dry and it sounded as though he took a sip of water.
