Brian Freemantle - The Run Around

‘The precise date?’

‘I think it was 19 August.’

‘Definitely 19 August? Or approximately 19 August?’

Novikov hesitated. ‘Do you consider it that important?’

‘You did,’ reminded Charlie. ‘It was the first signal you had that they were on to you.’

‘Definitely 19 August.’

‘ How can you be so definite?’ pressed Charlie.

‘I protested to the controller. Said there must have been a circulation error, in giving me such inferior communication.’

‘Wasn’t that putting yourself at risk?’

‘When I made the protest I thought it was a mistake: it was not until I was told it was intended for me that I realized the suspicion.’

‘So from 19th August on, everything was low level?’

‘The lowest.’

‘Tell me now about the assassination cables.’

‘There were three.’

‘What was the first: the exact words?’

‘The need is understood that a political, public example has to be set, for the maximum impact,’ quoted Novikov.

‘Just that?’

‘Just that.’

‘Despatched or received?’

‘Despatched.’

‘To whom?’

‘The Politburo: that’s how I came to encode. I was cleared that high.’

‘And that was the first?’

‘Yes.’

‘The word assassination is not there: so how did you know it involved killing?’

‘The message came from Department 8 of Directorate S.’

‘Which is also responsible for sabotage and abduction.’

‘You’re very knowledgeable.’

‘It’s not my knowledge we’re questioning.’

‘There was a marker designation, on the cable.’

‘What’s a marker designation?’

‘It’s like a subject reference.’

‘What was it?’

‘ Mokrie ,’ said the Russian.

‘ Mokrie dela ,’ completed Charlie. ‘Do they still refer to assassinations as “wet affairs”?’

‘It’s a bureaucratic institution, with long time rules,’ said the Russian.

‘Aren’t they all?’ said Charlie. ‘Were there any other types of reference?’

‘The word “purple”,’ said Novikov.

‘What does that identify?’ asked Charlie, who knew.

‘The Politburo,’ replied the Russian.

‘I would have expected something else,’ said Charlie.

Novikov smiled. ‘Run Around,’ he said.

‘Numbered?’

Now a nod of admiration accompanied the smile. ‘Four,’ the Russian agreed.

‘Who handled the first three?’

‘I don’t know,’ apologized Novikov. ‘There were five others in the department with clearance that matched mine.’

‘And you could not have asked them,’ said Charlie, a comment more than a question.

‘Any discussion of messages sent or received is absolutely forbidden,’ confirmed Novikov. ‘Suspension and investigation would be automatic.’

Charlie nodded and said: ‘Tell me about the second.’

‘It said, “You will despatch the catalogue,”’ quoted Novikov, again.’

‘The same references?’

‘One addition. The number seventeen.’

‘What did that signify?’

‘The destination of the cable: the rezidentura in London.’

‘What about the other number?’

‘Five.’

‘So you were handling the messages in sequence now,’ said Charlie, excited at the disclosure but not showing it.

‘And I transmitted the cable numbered six, the last one,’ confirmed Novikov once more.

Excellent, thought Charlie. ‘To where?’

‘London again.’

‘What did it say?’

‘“You will wrap the November catalogue”.’

Charlie decided there had been sufficient intensity and that Novikov needed a respite if he were not to become exhausted. He smiled and said: ‘Wonder if we can get a drink around here?’

‘I enjoy very much your Scotch whisky,’ said Novikov.

‘So do I,’ said Charlie.

The man who answered the bell summons was stiffly upright, giving away the previous army service from which all the support staff at safe houses were recruited. He was someone Charlie had not encountered before but immediately agreed there was Islay malt and when he returned with the tray Charlie said they didn’t want to bother him again, so why didn’t he leave the bottle.

‘Here’s to the British taxpayer,’ toasted Charlie.

‘I do not understand,’ said the Russian.

‘Neither would they, if they knew,’ said Charlie.

‘We are making progress?’ asked Novikov. There seemed some concern in the question.

‘I think so,’ said Charlie.

‘You know why I want to hurt Russia?’

‘Yes,’ said Charlie.

‘I loved her so much,’ said Novikov, distantly. ‘So very much.’ He drank heavily from his glass and said: ‘You can’t imagine what it’s like to lose someone you love as completely as I loved Lydia.’

I can, thought Charlie. I lost twice, not once. He wanted Novikov relaxed but not maudlin. He added to both their glasses and said: ‘There are some more things I want you to help me with.’

Novikov’s effort to concentrate again was very obvious. He said: ‘What?’

‘More dates,’ said Charlie. ‘You were cut off on 19 August?’

‘Yes.’

‘What was the date of that last cable, the one numbered six?’

Novikov frowned for a moment, determined upon recall, and then said: ‘August 12.’

‘And the one before that, the first to mention London?’

‘August 5,’ said the Russian, quicker this time.

‘And the first one you encoded was dated 29 July?’ anticipated Charlie.

Novikov frowned, head to one side. ‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘How did you know?’

‘I guessed,’ lied Charlie. ‘Something more about that second cable, the one mentioning catalogue? Had you ever before encoded messages from Department 8 of Directorate S?’

‘Twice, both times before Lydia was killed.’

‘With mokrie as a reference?’

‘Yes.’

‘Was the word “catalogue” used?’

‘Yes,’ confirmed Novikov.

Thank God and the fairies for bureaucratic rigidity, thought Charlie. He said: ‘Do you know what it signifies?’

‘I don’t know ,’ said the Russian, in careful qualification.

‘What do you guess it to signify?’

‘The operative,’ said Novikov.

Charlie nodded. ‘That’s what I think, too,’ he said. ‘One last thing: you worked from Dzerzhinsky Square?’

‘Yes,’ agreed Novikov.

‘But the cipher division is not general, is it?’

‘I’ve never suggested it was.’

‘I think other people made wrong assumptions,’ said Charlie. ‘It’s compartmented?’

‘Of course. Everything is. That is the system.’

Charlie nodded again, in agreement. ‘So for which department of the First Chief Directorate did you work?’

‘The Third,’ agreed Novikov.

Charlie sat back, satisfied, refilling both their glasses. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘It had to be that, didn’t it?’

‘Is it significant?’

‘Who knows?’ said Charlie.

‘Do you play chess?’

‘No,’ said Charlie.

‘I’m surprised,’ said the Russian. ‘I would have thought with a mind like yours that you would have done. I was going to suggest a game, if we met again.’

‘Maybe darts,’ said Charlie.

‘Darts?’

‘It’s an English game. Played in pubs.’

‘Maybe I could learn.’

‘Be quicker than me trying to learn chess,’ said Charlie.

‘I don’t think that is necessarily so,’ said Novikov.

Charlie encountered Hubert Witherspoon in the entrance hall, a cavernous place of wood-panelled walls around a black and white marbled floor. The man’s face was flushed with his recent exertion and for once his hair was stuck down, still wet from the shower.