Wilson stopped, sipping the tea although it was cold now, looking questioningly across his desk at the other man.
‘Kozlov couldn’t have killed them all!’ said Harkness.
‘I’m not suggesting he did any of them,’ said Wilson. ‘I’m just recording an incident from Birmingham, where we know Kozlov was present, and five other cases when important people died in this country in questionable circumstances, also while Kozlov is known to have been here.’ He stopped, head to one side. ‘Just one would have been too many, surely?’
‘How about West Germany? And America?’ asked Harkness.
‘Too soon,’ said Wilson. ‘And Charlie’s right in not wanting us to go through any official channels, so it’s going to take a bit longer. I don’t want anyone else to get the name Gordik: that’s the key.’
‘Let’s hope it goes on unlocking doors,’ said Harkness, in an unusual entry into metaphor. ‘What about the wife, Irena?’
‘Nothing,’ said Wilson. ‘No record, under either name, while he was here.’
‘I find the technology association interesting,’ said Harkness, who had already read everything Charlie sent from Tokyo. ‘The Birmingham trade fair was technology and McFairlane was technology and the Fylingdales technician and the trade unionist could be put under the same umbrella … and now Irena Kozlov is Control for a technology routing in Tokyo.’
‘It’s the focus of most of Soviet intelligence,’ reminded Wilson.
‘To find out precisely how much of a focus, which would seem to be possible if we got them across, would be incredible,’ said Harkness, distantly.
‘I’m ahead of you,’ said the Director. ‘It was good from the moment of the American contact: to call it then potentially spectacular was really an exaggeration. Now it’s not.’
‘You going to tell the Americans?’
The Director looked surprised. ‘Of course not!’ he said. ‘Do you think they would have told us?’
‘What if they’ve made an identification of their own?’
‘Charlie wouldn’t have got the photographs,’ said the Director, positively. ‘Kozlov is supposed to be theirs, don’t forget: we get the wife. The Americans in Tokyo would have jumped backwards through blazing hoops to deny the existence of any pictures if they’d proved useful. We got them in the hope we would make a connection and a greater hope we would share. Besides which — not that it’s a factor which would affect the decision — Charlie says they aren’t properly cooperating.’
‘This is big?’ said Harkness. ‘Genuinely spectacular?’
The Director’s expression was one of curiosity at the question. ‘Yes?’ he said, doubtfully.
‘“Heavy on the ground”,’ quoted the deputy. ‘That’s what the transcript of your conversation with Charlie says about the American presence. I know the intention was to wait, until Charlie was completely sure, but don’t you think we should start sending more people in? It would be a disaster if this went wrong because we relied too much and too long on Charlie Muffin.’
‘You haven’t thought he was the right choice from the start, have you?’ challenged Wilson, openly.
‘I think there are other operatives who might have been more suitable,’ said Harkness, formally. ‘But that’s not the consideration, not now. We need numbers.’
Wilson paused, needlessly adjusting the vase of poppy-red Paprika roses on his desk to cover the hesitation. He said: ‘The timing has got to be just right. A circus could frighten Kozlov and his wife away. You’ve heard the tapes: I’ve promised Charlie help the moment he calls for it.’
‘Charlie Muffin is arrogant, always looking for a windmill to tilt at,’ said Harkness. ‘We plan to snatch. So will the Americans, obviously. Where will we be if the Americans move at the very moment of crossing, before each gets to the supposed safety of either America or England. And we’re not ready or, worse, not in place? Charlie has done well enough. I think we should move, now. Certainly not wait.’
Wilson, who was an objective man, recognized Harkness’s argument to be the right one. He said: ‘Start assembling a squad. Not proveably SAS because they’ll have to be deniable. All sorts of logistic back-up, too. Better liaise closely with the Foreign Office: we’ll be over flying God knows how many countries and intruding into all sorts of air space. The routing will have to be over the most friendly countries and of course it’s going to have to be a westerly route: I won’t risk bringing her out over or through any American territory. We wouldn’t last five minutes.’
‘The Americans have Clark Air Base and Subic Bay, in the Philippines,’ reminded Harkness. ‘That covers them in the west.’
‘And to the immediate north we have the Soviet Union,’ completed Wilson. ‘Geographically it’s a mess.’
‘We’ll need all the surprise time we can get,’ said Harkness.
‘It’s hardly necessary, but I’ll warn Charlie,’ said the Director, more a personal reminder than a remark to Harkness. ‘Tell him about the incoming squad, too …’ He smiled across at the other man. ‘He has done well, hasn’t he?’
‘It would appear so,’ said Harkness, clearly reluctant.
‘What’s it going to take, for you to trust Charlie Muffin?’
‘A lot,’ conceded Harkness, who was disappointed at how little Cartright was providing, from Tokyo.
Irena Kozlov smiled as she greeted Olga Balan, but the other woman did not respond so Irena knew the recall interview, which in itself was unusual, was being filmed as well as recorded.
‘There are still things about the Kamakura outing that I find difficult,’ announced the security officer, at once.
‘What?’ asked Irena. There was a defiance about her attitude.
‘The degree of separation from your husband.’
‘We travelled separately, for safety, and each protected the other at the various tourist spots,’ said Irena.
‘You were always aware of where and what your husband was doing? As he was with you?’
Irena hesitated. The perspiration was a problem on her upper lip and forehead but because of the unseen cameras she knew it would be wrong to be seen wiping it, indicating nervousness. ‘Not all the time,’ she said, cautiously.
‘How did you know they were going to be in one place at one time?’ The question snapped out, like the closing of a sprung trap.
‘We didn’t,’ avoided Irena, easily. ‘It began as a surveillance of Fredericks. He led us to the others: my impression was that it was some sort of cultural outing.’
Olga Balan looked doubtfully across her desk. ‘The idea of such an operation was yours?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘I thought the identification of CIA personnel had a high priority,’ said Irena, refusing to be intimidated. Playing her ace, she said: ‘Moscow agreed with me. Comrade Filiatov, too.’