Despite the discomfort, Charlie didn’t enter at once. He went past the building, checking intently, and returned on the opposite side, not so much looking for American observation now but Russian: it still hurt when your balls got caught in the vice, irrespective of who manufactured the pincer machine, and he was not yet sure if Kozlov were sufficiently worried.
Satisfied at last, Charlie squelched into the foyer, shaking himself like a dog to get rid of the surface dampness, aware of the puddle forming around him where he stood. Charlie’s irritation went beyond his physical discomfort: he attached a lot of importance to psychological advantage in the sort of encounter he was about to have and psychologically, arriving like someone emerging from a swamp, he was in the disadvantaged position. He took his coat and jacket off and shook them, and then used his handkerchief to dry his face and hair.
Yuri Kozlov opened the door before Charlie got his hand down from the knock and Charlie decided the swamp-look wasn’t quite the drawback he’d feared; Kozlov would have had to be waiting directly behind the door, to respond that quickly. The man was nervous, then. There was no greeting, from either of them: Kozlov simply stood back and Charlie entered.
Charlie was surprised by the Western-style appearance of the apartment and guessed the view was of the park and the port beyond: the rain was too heavy to see anything now. It was the briefest of inspections – nothing more than to establish the siting of any doors so that he could avoid making himself vulnerable to anyone or anything behind them – and Charlie was back facing Kozlov when the Russian closed the door behind him.
‘Well,’ said Kozlov. ‘I’m here.’
Which tells me a lot, thought Charlie. ‘Quick to get Filiatov, weren’t they?’ he said, confidently. The arrest had already happened for Kozlov to be frightened into keeping the appointment.
‘You know then?’ said Kozlov, in unthinking confirmation.
‘Of course I know,’ said Charlie. ‘I told you how it would be, didn’t I?’ Kozlov had to believe he was practically omnipotent.
‘What will they do to him?’
‘You can guess that better than me. It’s your country; your service.’
‘I meant what have you accused him of?’
‘I didn’t come here to talk about Boris Filiatov,’ dismissed Charlie. He thought the Russian was far smaller than the last time and then remembered he had never seen Kozlov standing, only in a car.
‘You going to tell me now what you want?’
‘It was a hell of a scheme you worked out, wasn’t it?’ said Charlie, avoiding the reply: nothing had to go as Kozlov wanted.
‘Nobody knew, only Olga and I,’ said Kozlov, in sudden urgency. ‘How did you find out?’
This time the man could be answered, because it conveyed the impression of Charlie’s complete control. Charlie said: ‘It’s a big file, Yuri. You and Olga in London, before here. You weren’t very discreet, you know; not very discreet at all.’
‘Nobody knew!’ shouted Kozlov, in desperate defiance.
Charlie didn’t reply. Instead he took from his bag the same photograph that had brought about Irena’s collapse and offered it to the man. For several moments Kozlov made no effort to take it, but at last he reached forward. Attentive, Charlie saw that the man’s hands were shaking. Kozlov held the print for a much longer time and Charlie had the impression of the man becoming visibly smaller, in front of him. Charlie said, with practised carelessness: ‘There’s a lot more.’
Kozlov’s reaction was not what Charlie expected. When the Russian looked up he appeared wet-eyed. He said: ‘I love her, you know. I love Olga.’
‘Like you loved Valentina?’ There was a gain in continuing this conversation.
Kozlov winced, as if he had been struck. ‘Irena told you everything, didn’t she?’
‘A lot,’ said Charlie, wondering what else he could learn.
‘I thought I loved Valentina, at the time. I don’t know, not now. I only know about Olga.’
This was like being a bloody Agony Aunt: Dear Charlie, I am humping three different women but can’t make up my mind which one … Charlie said: ‘What about Irena?’
‘Have you any idea what the woman’s like!’
‘Some.’
‘She’s made me live in hell, for years.’
‘Bad enough to kill for?’
‘I asked her for a divorce.’
‘She told me. For Valentina, not Olga.’
‘I don’t care what you think: what you believe,’ said Kozlov.
Charlie was thinking and believing a lot. He believed that Kozlov did love Olga Balan, and he thought that was going to make everything a lot easier than it might have been. Time to start wrapping it all up into neat little parcels. He said: ‘I made the right assessment, didn’t I?’
Kozlov looked at him, uncomprehending.
‘You are fucked, aren’t you, Yuri? Every way you look. How much longer before Moscow discovers Irena’s not around any more? Filiatov is back there now, talking his head off to stop the pain. And any moment I want I can feed the information through …’
‘All right!’ The yell this time was despair, not defiance.
‘You didn’t let me finish the option, Yuri.’
‘What do you want?’
‘To help you,’ announced Charlie, simply. He stopped, intentionally, wanting the idea to register with the other man.
‘Help me?’
‘Well, you don’t want to go back to an interrogation cell in Butyrki and then on to some gulag for the rest of your life, do you!’
‘Help me how?’
‘Get you safely out, to the West …’ Charlie made another intentional hesitation. ‘And Olga, too,’ he finished.
‘Olga!’
‘You want to be with her, don’t you?’
‘Yes, but …’
‘No buts. Both of you.’
‘Together?’
The training was emerging, through all the confusion, recognized Charlie. He said: ‘Not to begin with. You told me how the Americans wanted you and Irena, when we both thought it was a genuine defection. If I try to take you and Olga out, the same thing would happen: a pitched battle. My way you both get out and then you’re reunited, very soon.’
‘How soon?’ insisted the man.
‘I’d even arrange a date,’ said Charlie. ‘That’s part of the proposal.’