"I didn't start the dumping."
"He's your brother-in-arms, for heaven's sake."
"He's a prig and a bore and he doesn't keep his missus happy. Sorry, Bill, no apologies."
"If I catch you round there again… "
"You going to sit on the doorstep?"
"… you're back in uniform."
"She was the unhappiest woman I've ever poked, and she's a good kid. And where is our brother-in-arms?"
"Don't know. Don't know where he is, what he's got himself into.. .. Lose yourself."
"The DG rang, Mattie, he's just back from the Joint Intelligence session. He wanted you to know that your praises were sung to the roof."
"Thank you, much appreciated."
"And I'm to tell you that you're being put up for a gong."
"I thought those sort of things were supposed to be a surprise."
"Be the Order of the British Empire, Mattie. I expect the DG wanted to cheer you a bit."
"Why, Henry, do I need cheering?"
"Your agent in Tabriz… Revolutionary Guards beat us to him."
"And what exactly are you implying?"
"Which comes on top of your man in Tehran, also not reached, also gone absent, although we don't know for certain that he was arrested. We do know it of the man in Tabriz."
"I'll tell you what I think. I think that I was compromised from the time that I landed in the Gulf. I think that I was trailed right the way across the Gulf, right the way to Ankara and on to Van. I think I was set up from the start… What's happened to my man in Bandar Abbas?"
"Making a run for it tonight. Navy are going to try and pick him up at sea. I think that's rather dodgy. He knows they are watching him."
"I told you. I gave their names. Looking back on it, on the moment that I knew, knew absolutely that my cover was a farce, was when the investigator asked me what I had been doing all round the Gulf. He practically gave me the addresses I had been at, starting in Bahrain. I wish you'd get someone on to this at once, see just who is in and out of that Service wing. But yes, what must have been two weeks later, I did give their names. But what I can't get over is the utter uselessness – it makes me sick to think of it – of day upon day of torture while the Service twiddles its thumbs and now you come moping in here and say alas, we've lost another agent.
Lost, for God's sake, Henry, not lost, thrown away."
Henry said, "I'm on your side, Mattie, and was from the very start. No professional would have let it happen. I've told you that. But I'd like to leave the gaol now, come back to it later, and we'll certainly do as you say about the Bahrain station. I want to talk this afternoon about the actual escape… "
They sat either side of the unlit fire, and Henry was mother and poured the tea.
19
Carter wriggled in his shirt. He had not brought enough shirts to last him and he had had to entrust his dirty ones to Mrs Ferguson, and the woman used too much starch. The shirt was uncomfortable against his skin. Worse, the summer had come at last and even with the lounge curtains half drawn the room still sweltered, and Henry boiled unhappily in his three-piece suit and stiff shirt.
"Your investigator, Mattie, your torturer, what was he looking for in general?"
"They wanted to know why I was in the region, what was my brief."
"And what did you tell them?"
"I told them that I was an archaeologist."
"Of course."
"You stick to your cover story, it's all you have to hang on to."
"And you're not believed?"
"Right, I'm not believed, but you have to stick to your cover, whatever the holes are in it. And I was never going to be believed. The interrogator was an old SAVAK hand and he had met me years ago in Tehran. He knew exactly who I was. Called me Furniss the first time I was sat down in front of him. They caught a BBC bulletin saying that Dr Owens was missing. He made fun of that."
"On that day you still hadn't abandoned your cover?"
"Do you understand anything? You are alone, you are beyond help. If you give up your cover story then you are finished."
"They wanted to know your mission in the region, and what else were they fishing for?"
"Names of agents."
"They knew you were in the region, and they knew your identity.. .. What did they know of the identity of the agents?"
"They didn't have the names."
"Did they have anything on them?"
"If they did they didn't give me any hint of it."
Henry said quietly, "You gave them what they wanted, but not the name of Charlie Eshraq."
He saw the head go down. He did not know how long it would take. It might take the rest of the day, and it might take the rest of the week. But Mattie had dropped his head.
"How many sessions, Mattie?"
"Plenty." "
"Torture sessions, Mattie, how many?"
"Six, seven – they were whole days."
"Whole days of torture, and in essence the questions were the same?"
"What I was doing in the region, and the names of the agents."
"I'm very admiring of you, Mattie, that you were tortured day after day, that the questions were over such a small area range, and that you held the cover story so long, very admiring.
Did you consider, Mattie, telling them a little about Charlie Eshraq?"
"Of course you consider it."
"Because the pain is so great?"
"I hoped the names of the field agents would be enough."
"You'll have to talk me through this… You are in great pain. You are the subject of the most vicious and degrading treatment. The questions are asked again and again because they don't believe you have named all the agents… What do you say?"
"You stay with your story."
"Damn difficult, Mattie."
"You have no choice."
"Through the kickings, beatings, faintings – through a mock execution?"
Henry made a note on the pad that rested on his knee. He saw that Mattie watched him. He saw the trickle of relief on the man's face. Of course he was relieved. He saw his inquisitor make a note on his pad and he would have assumed that Carter made the note because he was satisfied with the answer. And the assumption was incorrect. Henry noted on his pad that he must ring Century for more clothes for Mattie. There was always a stock of clothes held there for visitors. There was a wardrobe full of slacks and jackets and jerseys and shirts and underwear and socks, assorted styles and shapes. Even shoes.
Mattie would need more clothes because he was trapped in a lie, and the debrief would go on until the lie was disowned.
"I think you are a very gentle man, Mattie."
"What does that mean?"
"I think that you care about people over whom you exercise control."
"I hope I do."
There was a sad smile on Carter's face. He would have been deeply and sincerely upset to have had Mattie believe that he took pleasure from his work.
"Mattie, when you left the kids on the mountain, the kids who lifted you up when you were finished, shared their food with you, and so on, that must have hurt."
"Obviously."
"Super kids, weren't they? Great kids, and they helped you when you were at your weakest."
Mattie shouted, "What did you want me to do?"
"You didn't argue their case. You told me that. You walked away from them and you sorted yourself out with the officer."
"I did try. But it's true I didn't upset the applecart as far as to get pushed back up the hill myself. My first priority, my duty as I saw it, was to get myself back to London."
"That's a heavy cross, that sort of duty… "
"You weren't there, Henry bloody Carter… you weren't there, you can never know."
The sun played on the windows and the distortions of the old glass were highlighted, and the brilliance of the rare sunshine showed up the dirt dust on the panes. If George, if the handyman, were to hold his job, then it was about time the idle wretch started to get round the windows with a bucket of warm water and a pocket full of rags. Carter said, "My assessment, Mattie, and this is not meant as a criticism, is that you were looking to save yourself… Hear me out…