“Of course a record is being kept,” assured the MI5 Director-General, pricking the bombast. “I’ll be interested to hear your proof that Muffin’s allegiance is to Russia.”
“What other interpretation is possible?” demanded the MI6 counterpart.
There were shifts of uncertainty from Rebecca Street and the MI6 operations director.
“How about something as mundane as his not trusting that he’d arrive safely in Moscow?” suggested Smith, satisfied how well Monsford’s attitude suited his intentions.
“It’s his wife and child whose extraction we’re working to achieve: our entire, focused objective. Or at least what I believed it to be, until now,” Monsford said.
“Is it?” demanded Smith, shortly.
There was a moment of silence disturbed only by more discomfited chair fidgeting before Monsford, the belligerence fading, said: “I don’t understand that remark.”
“And I can’t expand it beyond saying that I’m curious at some … what…? Inconsistencies, I suppose.”
“The inconsistency is that of your officer with whom I mistakenly agreed to a combined operation.”
“My recollection, which will be confirmed by earlier records, is that the urging came more from you than me, which is one of the inconsistencies I’ve mentioned.”
“What are you suggesting?” demanded Monsford, the belligerence flaring.
“I’m not suggesting anything,” again deflated Smith.
“I’m becoming confused at the purpose of this conference,” Rebecca Street protested with strained impatience. “Are we supposed to be discussing the future of the operation in which Charlie Muffin was involved or talking in riddles?”
At Smith’s gesture, John Passmore said: “It’s a limited disappearance, which isn’t a riddle. We’ve established a potential sighting of Charlie returning to Heathrow airport on a KLM flight, four hours after he got off the Moscow plane in Amsterdam: by ‘potential’ I mean it wasn’t positive facial recognition. We’re making the surmise by forensically making the comparison from weight, height, and general stature in the CCTV image. Those physical statistics and a slightly better photographic image, although again facially insufficient, matched a differently dressed man caught on CCTV entering Manchester airport late yesterday evening. Compared against the registered timing of that Manchester CCTV photograph, there was one direct Manchester flight to Moscow and three staged at Heathrow en route to other destinations, from which connecting flights from London to Moscow could have been possible-”
“What about a confirming manifest name?” broke in James Straughan.
“I’m sure you’ve monitored the Dutch publicity about Charlie’s disappearance,” replied Passmore, his voice as calm as Smith’s. “We’d risk a publicity leak if we made a formal approach to an airline other than British. We didn’t get our checks in place in time to flag up an alert on Charlie’s legend name before the departure of the direct Manchester flight or any of the possible transit links. We’ve checked the manifests that are safe for us to access. The name Malcolm Stoat doesn’t appear, although there’s a glitch with a block visa on which a tourist group traveled from Manchester.”
“Are you reasoning that he staged the whole thing to get back to London to pick up a stashed alternative identity?” seized Straughan, professionally.
“That’s the most obvious interpretation,” agreed the other operations director.
“And a confirmation that he’s a double agent,” came in Monsford.
“Or that he didn’t trust going into Moscow by our route,” Smith argued back.
“Doesn’t that amount to the same thing?” challenged Monsford.
“No,” refused the other Director. “It could equally mean he had a facility to change the pseudonym and decided on a different route for better self-protection. Which doesn’t deviate from the agreed plan that to get Natalia and Sasha out he still has at some stage to make contact with everyone and everything we’ve established at the embassy.”
“Are you proposing we just sit back and wait for the bloody man to reappear as and when he chooses?” demanded Monsford, incredulously.
“Do you have a better suggestion?” prompted Smith.
It was Straughan, professional again, who answered. “Travel companies take block tourist bookings at hotels, as well as block group visas. It should be easy to locate the hotel in which the Manchester party are staying. Charlie might-”
“It was easy,” interrupted Passmore. “It’s the Rossiya, on the Ulitza Razina, and a man made a last-minute telephone booking so late that there wasn’t time to copy his name onto the master log that the Manchester firm holds: that’s the glitch I referred to.”
“Was there any real point in stringing everything out to get to this point!” broke in Rebecca Street, her exasperation even more obvious than before.
“None whatsoever, apart from my commitment to liaise fully and openly with you,” replied Smith, easily. “And we’d have got to it far sooner if our immediate discussion hadn’t begun the way it did. So let’s drop empty recriminations and move on. I’ve done nothing to fill in the blank on the tourist-group visa but I don’t think we should consider it as any more than a blank we’ve got to fill from surveillance on the hotel.”
“And if he’s there, ask him what the hell he’s playing at,” insisted Monsford.
“We know what the hell he’s playing at.” Smith sighed, heavily. “And if Charlie’s there it should reassure you about his loyalties: he wouldn’t be there if he’d gone over to the FSB, would he?”
“It’s also our thinking that we shouldn’t do anything more than establishing if he’s at the Rossiya,” said Passmore. “It was always the intention that Charlie remain entirely independent, our not making contact with him or his not making contact with the embassy until the very last moment he’s satisfied we can lift Natalia and the child.”
“Tell us more about your thinking,” encouraged Monsford, the belligerence easing once more. “Of course the Amsterdam episode doesn’t rank as a diplomatic incident: it’ll stay an unexplained mystery and be forgotten. But it’s made headlines. Wouldn’t that have been best avoided by Muffin protesting his entry arrangements at the briefing here?”
“The FSB know he’s coming to Russia,” reminded Smith, frowning at the question. “My interpretation about Amsterdam is that it’s a self-devised diversion, with an accompanying message that he knows what he’s confronting by openly returning”
“So he’s issuing a challenge?” persisted Monsford.
“We were doing that by responding to the Moscow calls,” Passmore pointed out.
“According to Charlie, Natalia Fedova could provide incalculable information about Russian intelligence, past and present, and much of it’s up-to-date, Putin-initiated thinking,” listed Monsford. “I am now wondering whether, in my determination to have access to such information, I didn’t overcommit my service to a joint operation.”
The movement among those around the table was different this time, more surprise than discomfort at the man’s attitude swings.
“What’s the point you’re now making?” demanded Smith, fearing a shift in his domination.
“We’re at the mercy an unpredictable officer. If he is at the Rossiya Hotel he should be confronted: told that unless he accepts superior authority everything’s off.”
“Which is what I proposed in Buckinghamshire,” recalled Smith, believing he understood Monsford’s posturing from the outset and no longer dismissing it as overriding pomposity. “We’ve moved on from that position now: my personal assessment is that it’s a ninety percent certainty that Charlie Muffin is in Moscow. We also accepted his unpredictability in Buckinghamshire. But what he’d do if we told him the extraction was canceled is entirely predictable. He’d simply continue to try to get them out, irrespective of no longer having any embassy backup or of causing diplomatic embarrassment. There’s only one way physically to eradicate that risk and that would create much greater publicity than Amsterdam, particularly as there would be the named association with Malcolm Stoat.” Smith paused, taking in a much needed breath. “Are you recommending that guaranteed prevention, with all its repercussions?”