The man went and got two coffees. He started stirring his, while looking at Leena, saying nothing.
‘Now, why is it you want to sabotage our chances in the Friendship Tournament?’ Leena said.
Iain didn’t see Pia until the afternoon when she stepped out of the Lyceum building and ran to the tram stop. He was standing on the other side of the building and the girl didn’t spot him. Just as well, he didn’t want to attract attention to himself. Being accosted by the gym teacher was bad enough. The Colonel would not be pleased.
Iain had to run to catch the same tram as Pia. Luckily the group of youngsters from the Lyceum had entered the long Russian tram through the front. He could hide in the back without being spotted. He queued up behind two men talking to each other about an ice-hockey match. It seemed Finland had come very close to beating Russia last night. The Russians had won in the last minute with a penalty shot. ‘I suppose it would have been a diplomatic incident had we won,’ the younger man said, laughing bitterly as he stepped onboard the tram. Once inside the carriage, Iain tried to see Pia. The two joined carriages were fairly full, and it was difficult to see past people standing in the aisles. But when the tram climbed the hill towards Erottaja, Iain spotted Pia’s blonde hair resting against the colourful scarf. She was sitting with her back to him on a seat at the front. Next to him, the two men from the tram stop were still discussing the ice-hockey match. The younger one was convinced that the game and the winning penalty in particular, had been fixed. ‘No way was that tackle a penalty! The Russians can do what they want with us, can you ever see the Finnish officials complaining to the Big Eastern Brother? Mutual co-operation and friendship my ass!’ he said. The other man gave Iain a worried glance.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ he said, his eyes on Iain while talking to his friend. ‘You’re just being bad a loser.’ He nudged his friend and nodded towards Iain. Iain hadn’t realised he was staring at the two men. They must have thought he was a Soviet informer and would report them. He tried to smile reassuringly at them and moved slightly forward in the carriage.
But as he stood there, thinking about how this country was gripped at all levels by the necessity to keep diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union sweet, Iain suddenly thought about the Friendship Trophy.
‘She came to talk to you?’ The Colonel said.
‘Yes.’ Iain was once again standing in the urine-smelling telephone box on Kasarminkatu. Opposite, a small kiosk selling tobacco, magazines and sweets was busy with people stopping to buy the evening paper. A newspaper placard outside read, ‘Charlie’s Angel actress to visit Finland’. Iain was cold. He’d been walking around Maija’s block since four-thirty. At six o’clock he decided to make the call.
‘And our friend?’ The Colonel asked.
‘Not seen him, Sir.’ Iain had a sudden urge to say ‘all quiet on the Eastern Front’ but knew the Colonel wouldn’t appreciate the joke. Instead he stamped his feet while he listened to the Colonel’s breathing.
‘And she knew who you were?’
‘No, Sir, she thought I was from the International Gymnastic Committee.’
‘Hmm. The civilians all there?’
‘Yes, the daughter came home at four and the mother five-thirty-six.’
‘Ok. But the situation with the gym teacher is not good. She is heavily involved with our friend. They were seen in the city together. Go home and I’ll let you know tomorrow how to proceed.’
‘Sir, there’s something else.’
As Iain made his way from Ullanlinna to the harbour, he pondered on a feeling that Kovtun was playing a game with MI6. It had been too easy to get rid of him last night at the Linnonmaa apartment. And why had he held both Pia and the Linnonmaa family hostage for so long? As some kind of a warning to them? It didn’t seem as though he’d planned to take Pia, but then told the girl to listen to Miss Joutila and even mentioned the Tournament.
As Iain saw the outline of the Geordie Gunboat, a dull grey bulky shape against the white frozen sea behind it, he knew he shouldn’t visit the ship again, the Colonel had been quite clear about that. But this was urgent. He hoped the old man would see it that way too. He’d have to convince the Colonel that his theory on what Kovtun was planning was feasible. He’d use what he had found out from Miss Joutila as an indication that Pia was in grave danger during the Friendship Tournament. After listening to the two men in the tram, Iain was convinced his theory was right. At Monday’s competition the cat and mouse game Kovtun had them in would come to a close.
The Colonel was puzzled, Iain could tell that much. But he didn’t want Iain to see that he had no idea what Kovtun was planning. He muttered something about, ‘Helsinki and Moscow, eh.’ The Colonel told Iain Kovtun used the Tournament as decoy to keep his comrades at the Soviet Embassy off the scent, but Iain wasn’t convinced. Neither was he convinced by the assurances from their Finnish contact that the Linnonmaas were now safe.
‘It isn’t for us to question our host country’s word.’ the Colonel said dryly.
If only Iain could talk to the Finnish contact directly. But naturally the Finns weren’t able to have any detectable links to the disappearance of such a high-ranking KGB officer from Helsinki. Iain understood that. The Colonel assured him, ‘There is no resistance, nor effort to stop the defection from the Finnish side. Seems they’re glad to get rid of the chap.’
‘How do we know Heikki and Sasha are KGB informants? From our Finnish contact?’ Iain asked
The Colonel looked at Iain over his glasses, but said nothing. They were sitting in his cabin. The Colonel’s supper tray stood on the table between them. The bastard, Iain thought. He knew absolutely nothing about Heikki or Sasha! ‘Need to know, is it?’ Iain said sarcastically. Too sarcastically.
‘Look here, Collins. Sometimes we have to take a whisper, or a hint, seriously. It is quite possible…’
Iain got up. ‘And what about Pia’s involvement in the Tournament? Kovtun is keeping an eye on her, we know that. There must be a connection. Only a fool would not see it!’ Iain shouted. He was fed up with the pretence he now saw from the Colonel. As if he knew everything and divulged just as much as he was willing to Iain. He suspected the Colonel knew almost as little as he did.
‘Collins, that’s enough.’ The Colonel got up and was standing close to Iain. ‘Your job is to see to it that the Russian is delivered to us safely. We’ve known about the Tournament for a while now. We know Kovtun is planning some kind of procedure during it.’ The Colonel inhaled deeply.
Iain sat down. The Colonel did the same.
‘This man is violent. As far as we know he’s killed at least once in Stockholm. And then there’s the suspicious death of his secretary at the Embassy. In Helsinki a death of a civilian, a girlfriend say, would not even be investigated, so how many has he done away with here? This is the man we want in the West?’
‘Collins. I hope I don’t have to remind you the significance of the crypto to our navy?’
‘No.’
Neither man spoke for a while. Iain calmed down a little. He’d spent a few weeks in a submarine. He hadn’t enjoyed the lack of washing facilities, the cramped conditions, nor the hot bunking. It was strange to see the man who’d slept in the same bunk only fleetingly as you changed shifts. The submariners told him it was comforting to climb into a warm space after a cold night shift on the bridge when the sub wasn’t diving. But when Iain’s ship picked him up, he knew he’d not volunteer for submarines. His time in the sub made him admire the men who did it, tour after tour, spending weeks, even months out at sea, much of it under water. They had a kind of comradeship Iain had not seen before. He knew that if Kovtun delivered the Soviet cryptographic key card to MI6 the subs would be more efficient at plotting the Soviet navy’s paths. And spend less futile time underwater.