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Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State

ANTHONY PRICE

For the Good of the State

GRAFTON BOOKS

A Division of the Collins Publishing Group LONDON GLASGOW TORONTO SYDNEY AUCKLAND

Grafton Books

A Division of the Collins Publishing Group 8 Grafton Street, London W1X 3LA

Published by Grafton Books 1987

First published in Great Britain by Victor Gollancz 1986

Copyright © Anthony Price 1986 ISBN 0-586-07296-9

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Collins, Glasgow Set in Times

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State binding or cover other than that ir which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

For Fiona Barling

It is by my order and for the good of the State that the bearer of this note hits done what he has done.

3 December, 1627 Richelieu

(From The Three Musketeers by Alexandra Dumas)

PART ONE

The Gentle Art of Shibbuwichee

In the event, it was not Henry Jaggard himself but Garrod Harvey who connected the fate of the Department of Intelligence Research and Development with the projected British Museum Exhibition of the Treasures of Ancient Scythia. However, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had in some sense already pointed the way in its latest signal or the subject of the exhibition, in which the curious request of the visiting Third Deputy-Director of State in the Ministry of Culture had been passed to Jaggard for his attention; and it was Garrod Harvey’s private opinion ever Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State afterwards that Jaggard had already decided to do what he suggested should be done, and had merely been waiting for him to speak up…

‘So it was that fellow Audley who dropped the word to the Prime Minister?’ Typically, although he was far more worried about the situation in the Soviet Embassy, Jaggard embarked on the less pressing matter first. ‘Are you sure, Garry?’

‘Absolutely certain ’ In his role as ‘Creature to the Duke’, Garrod was accustomed to his master’s oblique approaches. ‘But he didn’t do it personally of course. So we’ll never be able to prove it.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because he’s no fool. He’s an interesting man, in fact —I’ve been studying his curriculum vitae for a couple of days, actually.’

Garrod was well aware of Jaggard’s view of the Research and Development Department, so this piece of anticipation had come all too easily, ‘He’s quite a distinguished scholar in his own right, did you know? Apart from his money and his connections— ’

‘Damn his money and his connections! Are you saying that I can’t go and read the riot act about him to Jack Butler?’

‘Yes, I am. Exactly that.’ The good thing about Jaggard was that he expected straight answers to straight questions. ‘It’s his connections which add up in this case, He’s got a great many of them, going back over nearly thirty years, Henry. Both sides of the Channel, and the Atlantic—the Americans think the world of him.’

‘And the Russians?’

Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State

‘And the Israelis,’ Harvey knew then that Jaggard had seen the FCO signal. ‘But in this case it was a woman named Deacon.

Laura Deacon, Henry.’

‘Laura— ’ Jaggard frowned at him. ‘Laurie Deacon’s daughter

— ?’

‘MP for North Wessex.’ He knew also that Jaggard would be making all the necessary‘ connections now. ’She inherited her father’s safe seat when he went to the Lords. And Audley’s always been very thick with the family: it provides his local MP… and one of his routes into the Commons back-benches, when he wants to have questions asked.‘ He couldn’t risk a smile with Jaggard in his present vengeful mood, so he shrugged instead. ’Perhaps we should be grateful he didn’t do that in this instance.‘

‘Oh yes?’ The mood hardened even more. ‘So it was Laura Deacon who spoke to the PM, you’re saying?’

‘They met last Friday. Laura Deacon dropped a name, and she also said that Colonel Butler would know all about it. And the PM

summoned Butler directly.’

‘And he spilled the beans directly, too. Why the hell did he do that?’

Harvey rejected the temptation to agree with him. ‘It was his duty, Henry—be fair!’

‘His duty?’

‘His duty.’ Harvey agreed whole-heartedly with his master about the Research and Development Department. But he also liked and respected Jack Butler as an honest and devoted officer. ‘The PM

Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State has the right to go direct to the head of R & D, Henry. And the Head of R & D has direct access the other way—that’s how old Fred Clinton constituted it, from way back.’

‘I know that.’ Jaggard gestured dismissively. ‘But he also has a duty to me. And there was no reason why he shouldn’t have told me first—’ He stopped suddenly as he caught the expression on Garrod Harvey’s face. ‘Or was there?’

‘He didn’t have time.’ It was one strike to Jaggard that he also respected Jack Butler. ‘Audley deposited his report on Colonel Butler’s desk about five minutes before the PM’s office rang. So my guess is that he’d planned everything to the minute, practically: that the PM would hit Butler at once, and then the Minister himself immediately after that. He knew what everyone would do—maybe he even knew that the PM would be so pleased at being able to catch the Minister on the hop, as well as being able to suppress the leak—that there wouldn’t be anything we could do against him even if we could trace it all back.’ He watched Jaggard look in vain for loopholes. ‘Because the PM is pleased. So R & D is riding high at the moment, Henry. Because they came up with the information in time, just when it was needed.’

Henry Jaggard scowled at him. ‘But the Minister isn’t pleased.’

‘Ah… yes, I can well imagine that, Henry.’ And so he could.

(Another leak in the Minister’s department—albeit plugged in time, but not plugged by the Minister’s own expertise, only by the PM’s superior intelligence.) And he could also see why Henry Jaggard was incandescent with rage, Too. (The Minister was a good friend and ally of his when cuts and economy were the order Price, Anthony - For the Good of the State of the day.) ‘It’s unfortunate.’

‘It’s more than that, Garry. He’s been made to look a fool. And so have I.’ Jaggard’s better side showed as he grinned at Harvey. ‘I can survive that, but this makes him a two-time loser at No. 10.

And now I’ve got to tell his Special Adviser in fifteen minutes that I can’t give him the scalp he wants, so this sort of thing won’t happen again.’ The grin evaporated. ‘Is there no way I can give him a scalp, Garry?’

‘Audley’s?’ Harvey knew what his master wanted. But for what he planned to propose he needed more than that. ‘Colonel Butler will never give you Audley, he’d resign first.’ He shook his head.

‘Offering hostages isn’t his style. Besides which, R & D is too busy with Gorbachev at the moment. And Audley’s too valuable—