Stephen Burke: The Reluctant Contact

‘In your radio,’ she said. ‘It’s still there. Unless he took it. Then you said that the contact had spoken with you. Timur was angry with me because I couldn’t find out who it was. But I said it was fine, that we should go ahead as planned. It did not matter that I never met him or her, whoever they are. As long as we got what we needed.’

‘And did you?’ asked Yuri. ‘Did you get what you needed?’

Anya looked up at him with a cold look in her eyes.

‘It seems that way,’ she said. ‘I am waiting to hear. We have given them enough time.’

‘Hear what?’ asked Yuri.

Anya almost answered him but then decided not to.

‘You never had any intention of going, did you?’ he said. ‘All this time, you have just been stringing me along. I thought you wanted to be with her. Taisia. Was that not the whole point of all this? I don’t understand why you came all this way if you were not going to go through with it.’

Anya shook her head. ‘It was not a lie between you and me. I know you don’t believe that right now. But it’s true.’

‘You’re right. I don’t.’

‘She left me,’ said Anya. ‘Abandoned me, without one thought. Left my career in ruins. She took my whole life away. Everything. Then five years later she remembers I’m alive, and says “Sorry, I want to be with you after all.” I don’t want to be with her. I hate her.’

‘So it was all an act,’ said Yuri. ‘All of it. The tears. The drinking. The suicide attempt.’

‘No,’ said Anya. ‘Most of those things were real. I have nothing to go back to. I thought I had come here for nothing.’

‘But you had, hadn’t you?’ said Yuri. ‘If you weren’t going to leave, then coming here was a waste of time. Why bother making her think you were going to join her in England? Was it just so you could stand her up at the altar? Is that all? I’m sorry, but I don’t see the point. And what has Timur got to do with it? Why was he helping you to defect?’

Anya had a smug smile on her face. Then an idea came to Yuri, and he thought he had finally figured it out.

‘They want you to go, and be an agent for them in England,’ said Yuri. ‘That’s it, isn’t it?’

Anya shook her head, and appeared to be bored with his lack of speed.

‘No,’ she said. ‘They want the same thing I want. You really still don’t get it?’

Yuri caught Catherine’s eye. She was none the wiser either.

‘A little village, six miles from Oxford,’ said Anya. ‘A white cottage, yellow roses in the front garden, a river in the back.’

‘Oh no,’ said Yuri.

He had arranged the radio call between them not knowing that Anya was looking for a way to kill her. He wondered if he could stop it now somehow. But there was no way for him to do it.

‘Shouldn’t be too hard to find her,’ said Anya. ‘Maybe they already have. They have been looking ever since I spoke to her. You know what they do to traitors.’

‘Keep her here!’ Yuri said to Catherine as he ran out the door. ‘Don’t let her leave.’

YURI RACED FROM Paris, along the wooden walkway, to the administration building. He was going so fast that he skidded on ice at a corner and almost fell down on to the ground. He managed to right himself in time, and kept on going. He passed Igor on the way, but ignored the man’s outstretched hand completely. Later, he would tell him that Timur had killed Semyon. It was unlikely he would be too surprised by that news. Knowing would not make much difference. Timur would never pay for the crime.

The sight of Yuri running down the administration building corridors drew a lot of attention from the clerical staff but there was no time for secrecy now. He burst into Grigory’s office without knocking, and slammed the door behind him.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Grigory.

Yuri did not answer. He marched straight to the window, and looked out to see if anyone had followed him. He could not see anyone, but they knew. And not just Timur. This scheme to trap Taisia was way above his pay grade. It must have been set up well before Anya began her journey to Pyramiden. Yuri had been used as a pawn in a bigger game, and they had known everything, all along. Because Anya had been telling them.

But she did not know about Grigory. She couldn’t. And suddenly he regretted coming here. If someone was watching him, perhaps he had led them straight to the inside man they were looking for. That’s why they were still walking around free. An assassin had been dispatched to England to settle their vendetta against the betrayer, Taisia. But they wanted the contact too. Little did they know he was not much of a catch.

‘Men are on their way to kill Anya’s friend, if they haven’t already,’ said Yuri.

He saw the blood draining from Grigory’s face. He had been right about not getting involved, thought Yuri. Always trust your instincts. Always. He should have walked away from Anya too, at the first sign of trouble.

‘That’s what this was all about,’ he continued. ‘From the beginning. They were after Taisia. Anya was too. She never had any intention of going to join her in the west. And when they send word that she’s dead, Timur will be coming for you. We don’t have much time. You have to get out of here. Now!’

‘How do you know all this?’ asked Grigory. ‘Tell me. Is this another of your conspiracy theories?’

‘No! There’s no time for explanations,’ said Yuri. ‘You’re going to have to trust me on this one, if you want to stay alive. I presume you would like to do that?’

Grigory didn’t budge. Instead, he sat there looking confused.

‘Let’s go,’ said Yuri. ‘Come on.’

‘I can’t just—’ Grigory was saying, before his mouth stopped in mid-motion.

‘He’s a clever boy, actually,’ said Timur.

Yuri turned to see Timur standing in the doorway with his revolver trained on both of them. Once again, Yuri felt like the amateur that he was. Timur had tailed him all the way here without him noticing. They had waited patiently for him to give away the identity of Anya’s contact. And of course, he had, because he was a fool.

‘Too clever for your own good, Yuri. Should have stuck to your pipes. But then women always were your weakness. And you, Grigory, I had a feeling about you. And so close to retirement too. What a pity.’

‘I don’t imagine all this was your idea?’ said Yuri.

‘Not exactly. The plan came from Moscow, after Anya contacted them. But I’ll be taking my share of the credit, don’t you worry,’ said Timur, smiling. ‘Locating an important defector, and catching a veteran double agent, all in one week. I expect I’ll be transferred back home within the month, with Brezhnev himself pinning the medals on my chest. It’ll be a firing squad for you, Grigory, most likely. And as for you, Yuri, what are we going to do with you? A one-way ticket to Gorky perhaps, or worse, back to your old job at those uranium mines.’

‘You killed Semyon,’ said Yuri. ‘Didn’t you?’

Timur smiled. ‘Poor little Semyon had no idea what he was dealing with. At first I thought he was the double agent. You know, trying to get you fired and get himself promoted. Standard spy tactic. You can see how I got confused. When Anya told me he was threatening to blackmail her, well I didn’t need that. He was going to mess everything up. I followed him down the mine shaft that night. He thought we were having a meeting. It only took one hit with a lump hammer, and my Latvian problem was solved.’

‘And you pulled the ventilation unit down afterwards,’ said Yuri. ‘And tried to blame it on me.’

Timur smiled. ‘I did consider that. But then I thought you might be the contact, Yuri. I sent Anya to talk to you that night. I didn’t tell her to start sleeping with you. That was her own doing. She hasn’t been easy to control, as you can imagine. But then it turns out it wasn’t you or little Semyon, but dear old Grigory. The godfather of Pyramiden.’