ADAM HALL: The Scorpion Signal

The rdv was for the road bridge over the Jauza where Stromynka ulica crosses it from east to west and Croder was waiting for me when I got there, Bracken and another man with him, a black Mercedes 220 parked in the cover of shadow.

'This is Fenshaw.'

'Good evening.'

They made room for me in the car and Fenshaw stayed behind the wheel looking edgy. The 220 was facing south but there was enough room to make a one-point turn and get out north if we had to. The river flowed past us under the street lamps; I could see the glint of broken ice drifting.

On the radio I'd asked Bracken why we had to meet in the open and he said Croder wanted to keep within short-distance radio range of three points: the safe-house, the warehouse and Area 2 where they were watching for Schrenk at the Pavilion apartment block.

'Where is Ignatov?' Croder asked me now.

'Shortlidge took him to his base, blindfolded. Did you contact Logan?'

'Yes. He and Marshal are guarding the Zil.'

'All right.' I had to make a lot of effort to sort out what I had for him because sleep was trying to black me out. 'They're setting up a high explosive action timed for six o'clock tonight inside the walls of the Kremlin. I checked the Zil as far as I could without dismantling anything and when I left there it was dean, superficially. This could tie in with what Ignatov told me — that the explosive hadn't arrived yet.'

'Do you think he was lying?'

'No.' I'd had to work on Ignatov's nervous system again but I don't think that would have been enough without additional persuasion so I'd reminded him what his wife and children would feel like when they heard he'd been found dead.

'Is he to drive the Zil?'

'No, a man named Morosov, also a Central Committee chauffeur. I don't think Schrenk would trust Ignatov with the end phase: he's not a professional. Schrenk plans to radio-detonate the charge himself, two minutes after Brezhnev goes aboard the Zil at the steps of the Grand Palace, where the Presidium will meet. The car is to be handed over to Brezhnev's personal chauffeur ten minutes beforehand, ostensibly following a maintenance-check road test. The chauffeur's not in the act, and is down for sacrifice.'

I was trying to get the whole report into order but there were memory gaps and I was aware of them and knew they'd have to be bridged.

'This man Morosov,' Croder said. 'What's his motivation?'

'He's a dissident. They all are, except Ignatov. I think Schrenk is blackmailing him into co-operating, judging by his subservience.'

'Blackmailing him?'

'He's a trusted functionary. He'd only have to steal a tankful of petrol for his own car to get ten years in the camps. I'd say Schrenk caught him out in something.'

'The rest of them are dissidents, you think.'

'Yes. The Borodinski trial's created a lot of anger and they're coming out into the open now.' I shut my eyes and tried to remember other things, but the dark came tiding over me and I jerked my head up.

'Take your time,' I heard Croder's voice.

Bracken opened a door to let the cold night air come in. I could hear the river now, and the discordant ringing of the ice floes as they touched together on the surface.

'There's a four-car motorcade when Brezhnev travels. He always goes in one of four Zils, with two motorized units of the Guards Directorate leading and following.' My mind switched. 'Have you got any closer to Schrenk?'

'A little. We have a contact.'

I sat up straighter. 'Oh really?'

'We can now stop the Zil operation,' Croder said carefully, 'but the danger is that the moment Schrenk knows we can do that, he might switch to an alternative plan. We must therefore conceal the fact that we're on to the Zil for as long as we can.'

'Not easy, from the moment he starts missing Ignatov.'

'Precisely. Our main target, then, remains Schrenk himself.'

Bracken asked: 'If we find him, is Quiller to go in?'

Croder let a couple of seconds go by. I don't think he was hesitating: I think he was deciding how to phrase it. 'No. I shall expect him to help us locate and subdue Schrenk, but I shall not expect him to do anything more than that. Schrenk,' he said with a note of warning, 'must be considered strictly expendable. I trust that is understood.'

The smell of the river came through the open door, the smell of dead fish and diesel oil and rotting wood. Drive him as far as the river, Schrenk had said in front of me, as if I hadn't been there, as if I were already dead. You don't have to use any weights, in the river. All you have to do is to make sure he's found a long way from here.

'Do you have anything more for us?' Croder asked me.

My head jerked up. 'What? No. Yes. There's a reception at the American Embassy,' this was bloody important and I'd nearly missed it out, 'and three other Central Committee people are going there with Brezhnev from the Kremlin, by separate motorcade. Kosygin, Andropov and Kirilenko.'

'What's his idea?' Bracken asked. 'If he doesn't hit Brezhnev he'll at least hit one of the others?'

Croder turned to me. 'What type of explosive were they going to use?'

'Composition C-3 plastic in sheet form: four rectangular slabs to fit under the cushions of the Zil. And twenty-five kilograms of steel ball bearings, distributed between the plastic and the cushions.'

'My God,' Bracken said quietly. 'This is Schrenk, all right.'

'Yes. Bloody great military grenade. If the four of them came down the steps to their cars together after the meeting, he could hit the whole lot.'

I shut my eyes again and let my head sink down. I'd told them all I'd got out of Ignatov and I wanted to sleep and let Croder and the rest of them take over.

'Did you ask him if there was an alternative plan ready to go?' Bracken wanted to know.

'Yes. He said he didn't know of any.'

'Was that the truth?' Croder asked.

'I think so.'

Listen, you tried to blow my head off out there in that car park, you think that doesn't mean anything to me? You start lying and by God I'm going to leave you here for dead.

I'm not lying. I want to see my children again.

The broken sheets of ice touched together on the river's surface, bringing the sound of muted bells. 'I think he was telling the truth,' I told Croder, 'but that doesn't mean Schrenk hasn't got an alternative operation planned.'

'Precisely. Is there anything more you have to tell us?'

I took my time to think, in case I missed anything. 'No.'

'Very well.' He nodded to Bracken and they both got out of the car. 'Take him to base,' he told Fenshaw, 'and ask the woman to look after him. Then I want you to come back here and pick us up.'

Periods of waking and sleeping, the smell of wood smoke and antiseptic and the rough woven blanket. At one time the sound of metal on metal and I was halfway out of the bed before I was fully awake, something crashing on to the floor.

'It is all right.' She came over at once and held my arms with her strong fingers, looking into my face. 'I was just putting some more wood on the stove.'

'Oh. Good of you.' The room was cold.

'How do you feel?' She picked up the beaker of water I'd knocked over.

'I was dreaming, that's all.' The big black Zil going up, bursting like a chrysanthemum.

'You should be in hospital,' Zoya said, leaning over me. 'I am worried about infection.'

'You worry,' I said, 'while I sleep.'

At some other time I saw the cold grey light of the new day defrosting the grime of the window, and had a run of coherent thoughts for the first time since Fenshaw had brought me back here. It was possible that everything would be all right, provided we could find Schrenk. Croder could stop the Zil operation at any time he chose. Logan and Marshal were guarding it at the warehouse and could smash the distributor or pour dirt in the carburettor whenever they got the instructions. Ignatov was also under guard. If Schrenk hadn't got an alternative lined up, there was a chance that everything was going to be all right.