— knew better that it was a matter of political will, anyway.
So then they knew that defeat was inevitable, and all their men had died for nothing.' He nodded at them. 'It was more a long corrosion of the spirit. And it happened among some of the very best and bravest of them, who had fought hardest.
One or two behaved quite irrationally, even though their dummy1
actual careers were still assured.' Now he dropped them both, turning to Henry Jaggard. 'And, in General Lukianov's case, I believe you indicated that his career-future is not assured, Henry?' Finally he embraced them all. 'We need to know a great deal more about him, I would think. Because while he may not have been the moving spirit behind whatever plot the three of them have hatched, he will be the action-man.' He even managed a thin smile for Mary Franklin. 'I do not know what the motto of the Russian Spetsnaz force is. But for our own SAS it is "Who dares, wins", I believe? And I would guess that General Lukianov is daring now. So it is up to us to see that he does not also win.'
He settled on Audley himself. 'Is it possible that, while he was working for you ... or, rather, for the late Sir Frederick Clinton . . . your Major Richardson may have encountered this man Lukianov?'
Butler cleared his throat. 'We have been through everything in the record, Mr Aston — several times. And there's nothing to indicate any connection between Richardson and any living Russian, or even any foreign or suspect contact, who isn't fully accounted for.'
'Apart from which, he wasn't with us very long.' Audley came in without hesitation. Because, when Jack Butler did a job, then it would be well done. 'And he was only a beginner.'
'All of which doesn't mean a thing nevertheless,' snapped Butler. 'It's the man himself we need. Nothing else will do.'
'But the man himself is missing,' Renshaw looked at Audley.
dummy1
'And you think he's coming home, David?'
He had to put his mouth where his money was. 'After Capri
— yes, Charlie.'
'Interpret Capri for us, Dr Audley.' Aston was also looking at him. They were all looking at him. 'We know only the bare details, remember.' The handkerchief came up again. 'Or, perhaps you may prefer to start in Berlin?'
'He wasn't there,' Jaggard put the boot in again neatly, like a Welsh forward in a loose scrum on his own line. 'More's the pity.'
'Fortunately, rather.' Aston was hiding that thin smile behind his handkerchief. 'But Berlin will have concentrated his mind, I would think.'
It was Leonard Aston who was concentrating his mind right now. With a little help from Colonel Zimin and General Voyshinski, among the others (four others: two down, but two missing — and the important two, by God!)
"Thank you for reminding me, Len.' He had made a balls-up of Capri. And he had underrated Mr Leonard Aston. So he had to get it right now. 'There are four sides to this triangle —
right, Len?'
Leonard Aston thought about his opening gambit. 'Creative geometry, would that be?'
'Us and the Russians.' Was it possible that Mr Aston was being measured for Mr Jaggard's job? 'We both want Lukianov — and Prusakov ... or, failing them, Peter dummy1
Richardson. Because he knows what Lukianov is up to — ' He had to be quick now ' — or, if what he knows is added to what I am supposed to know . . . and what the Russians already know . . . that's the jackpot.'
Charlie Renshaw grunted doubtfully. 'Are you saying the Russians don't know what he's up to, David? Lukianov, I mean — ?'
He could probably shrug to that. 'Zimin said he wanted Peter alive. And I don't think that was just window-dressing, Charlie.'
'Yes.' Aston nodded. 'With Gorbachev down to address the United Nations, and then to visit the Prime Minister . . . they don't want any scandals they can't handle, Mr Renshaw.' The handkerchief came up again. 'Remember Khrushchev and the Schwirkmann affair? If they start killing people, or trying to kill them . . . then she will have to react to that, just as Chancellor Erhard had to — remember?' He sniffed. 'It's a finely-balanced thing, I agree. And ... I don't doubt you know better than I do. But, if there's any sort of scandal, she'll be able to get much better terms on conventional arms, at the very least. And Gorbachev can't afford that yet — can he?'
'It's all bull-shit —' Charlie started to shrug high politics off.
But then pretended to be embarrassed ' — I do beg your pardon, Miss Franklin — again! But ... do go on, David: they want Major Richardson alive . . . because he will know what Lukianov and Co. are — are trading on the open market?'
Then he produced a typically silly-idiot Charlie Renshaw grin dummy1
to muddy the waters. 'Well . . . that's privatization for you: Lukianov plc are the third side — is that what you're saying, David? And they're offering shares to International Terrorism plc — in this case on the Arab splinter-groups?
Not the Mafia, anyway — ?'
The Honourable Charles Renshaw had assimilated those
"bare details" — and had quickly eliminated the accident of Peter Richardson's private life from them, quite rightly: the Mafia was prepared to tangle with anyone in the West, any time. But it wasn't prepared or willing to fight a war on two fronts when there was no profit in the East, as well as no comforting democratic legal process.
'The Mafia is irrelevant, Charlie.' Actually, the Mafia had been very useful, in frightening Peter into hiding, quite coincidentally. 'There's just Lukianov and his clients, for the other two sides.'
'So why did Kulik have to die?' Mary Franklin hit the Berlin problem on the nail. 'Are you suggesting that he was double-crossed? That he was just bait for you, D —Dr Audley?'
She'd almost said "David"! 'I don't know, Miss Franklin —
Mary?' He wasn't ashamed with himself for being pleased at attempting her Christian name. 'But Zimin didn't deny that Peter Richardson had been betrayed, before he had those two Arabs killed.' He blanked out the memory of Zimin's cold-hearted order before it could frighten him too much, with its implication of his own escape, which had been too narrow for easy recollection. 'Only he wasn't expecting two of them: he dummy1
was expecting just one, like in Berlin, not two. And that was why he lost one of his men, when things went wrong.' All the same, that might have saved the "celebrated" Dr Audley. 'At least, that's the way it looked — the way the Italians thought it was.' He shook his head honestly. 'And ... he said "Arab", in the singular — I know that.' This time he shook his head, just as honestly. 'I'm still guessing — or, as Len would put it more diplomatically, "interpreting" . . . But I think Peter Richardson agreed to see me because things were getting too hot for him, with the Italian authorities and the Mafia both on his tail. And, if the Italians had brought me into the business, he maybe thought he could make a deal with them, through me.' He shrugged. 'It could even be that Lukianov's Arab friends had also come looking for him. But he might well have mistaken them for Mafia-types, on contract —I don't know . . . Only, whatever he thought, the rendezvous was blown, both to the Arabs and — fortunately for me — to the Russians, too. It's even possible the Mafia helped out with that, with one or other of them.'
"The Mafia has links with Abu Nidal,' Mary Franklin nodded.
'The KGB isn't so keen on either of them these days, though.'
'But this was top-priority — ' Charlie Renshaw stopped himself. 'Go on, David.'