For the men whose lives had been refrigerated throughout the Cold War the atmosphere inside the conference room became glacial. Again there was a long-held look between Rupert Dean and his deputy, beside whom Williams remained puce-faced. Pacey look confused and Simpson appeared irritated.
‘I think there’s been a misunderstanding,’ suggested Dean, easily, still looking directly at Johnson. ‘A mistake, even. You were quite right, sifting the wheat from the chaff. And you were responding as instructed, by me. Which I shall tell Moscow.’
And which the man could just as easily have told him during their earlier lunch, instead of making the nebulous remark about embassy difficulties, Charlie realized, abruptly. Not even that! If Dean knew what the complaint had been – which he clearly did – there had been no need for it to be discussed at all. The man could simply have resolved it with Moscow, like he’d just undertaken to do. Charlie, too often the shuttlecock in too many bureaucratic games, accepted he’d been used again. For some reason Dean had wanted an audience, which presumably he would have manipulated if Gerald Williams and Peter Johnson hadn’t tripped over their own tongues. Charlie conceded there was a lot of speculation in that analysis but it fitted to Charlie’s satisfaction. Certainly it explained Dean’s inexplicable refusal to discuss anything in detail at lunch.
‘Perhaps we could go back to discussing…?’ started Charlie but stopped at the entry into the room of Henry Bates.
The man leaned too closely to the Director-General for Charlie to hear the exchange, offering a single sheet of paper at the same time. Dean scanned it, then looked at Charlie. ‘Agayans was arrested at a Moscow road block this morning. Shelapin has also been arrested. Another three of the plutonium canisters stolen from Pizhma were found with him.’ The man paused and then said, ‘I think we’d best adjourn to see if you can learn anything further.’
‘It’s all coming together!’ said Popov. He was at his favourite window spot at Natalia’s office but looking at her. As well as repeated praise for her interrogation of Lev Yatisyna, there had also been a commendation relayed to Popov by Dmitri Fomin at the meeting they’d just left.
‘Personal acknowledgment for both of us from the White House!’ smiled Natalia.
‘Well deserved, in your case,’ said Popov.
‘And yours,’ said Natalia, enjoying his admiration. He’d called her questioning brilliant at the meeting, when the tape had been played in front of everybody.
‘Well over ten kilos recovered now,’ said Popov.
‘I’ll interrogate both Agayans and Shelapin, of course,’ Natalia decided. She didn’t expect either to be as easy as it had so far been with Yatisyna, but now they had both Family leaders she could bounce one against the other, with Yatisyna in between.
‘You’re going to have to handle it very carefully.’
‘I can do it.’ The confidence was quickly balanced by the recollection of Charlie’s criticism. ‘There’s been a proper forensic examination, particularly on the canisters?’
‘They were marked, as having come from Kirs. The numbering tallied with that listed on the train manifest.’
‘What about fingerprints?’
Popov shrugged. ‘Ask Gusev. He’s in charge of the ground operation.’
‘I want to hit them both hard, with as much evidence as I can.’ Natalia wanted the interrogation of the two Moscow gang leaders to be as quickly productive as it had been with Yatisyna.
‘The Englishman will be proven wrong, if we get it all back in Moscow,’ said Popov.
‘According to Yatisyna there was at least one Arab buyer for what they expected to get out of the plant,’ reminded Natalia.
‘But we’re blocking it!’
It was a debatable point but Natalia didn’t intend presenting the argument. ‘We can do that if I break Shelapin.’
‘I expected Muffin to try to contact me. He’ll obviously know from the American he’s been excluded.’
‘How much longer will the American be allowed in?’ It wasn’t ignoring Charlie’s advice. She wanted to be prepared in advance for any committee debate that included a minister or the presidential aide.
Popov shook his head. ‘I personally don’t think there’s any usefulness in continuing the arrangement. He just sat and listened today.’
‘It might be better to go on with it until everything is recovered.’
The man smiled, shaking his head at her. ‘Think about it!’ he demanded. ‘Spy satellites miles high sounded impressive, but apart from making the identification of the lorries and the car easier and quicker it did virtually nothing to help the investigation.’
Natalia held back from reminding the man how much was still missing.
chapter 27
S ome things were not strange or unfamiliar. Indeed, as he settled into the secure communications room in the headquarters basement Charlie had the very real sensation of never having been away. He liked it. He even recognized some of the technicians who recognized him, in return, but the duty officer tempered Charlie’s comforting nostalgia by complaining that things weren’t like they used to be and Charlie commiserated that they never were.
He was immediately linked to Kestler, who said he’d chosen a bad time to be away, although it all seemed pretty straightforward from the briefing to which Popov had summoned him, four hours earlier.
Both Agayans and Shelapin, recounted the American, had been picked up around Bykovo airport, where it had been pretty damned stupid of either of them to have been because it was the known turf both disputed and the most obvious place to look. His guess was that neither had wanted to give the other any edge, by going to the mattress. Agayans had been stopped at a road block. There’d been three cars in the cavalcade and six men picked up, in addition to Agayans himself. There’d been some shooting but no one had been killed, although a Militia man had been badly wounded. They’d got Shelapin in a house raid. The canisters had been found in a car, parked outside, belonging to Shelapin himself. The two seizures had occurred within four or five hours of each other and the Russians were cock-a-hoop. There was another ambassadorial briefing scheduled later at the Foreign Ministry and that evening Radomir Badim was giving a televised news conference to which all the major Western networks and news media had been invited.
‘It’s celebration time in the old town tonight,’ said Kestler
‘It might well be,’ accepted Charlie, a remark to himself rather than a response to what Kestler had said. ‘Who was at the announcement briefing?’
‘Usual crowd,’ said the American.
Charlie stifled his irritation. ‘No new faces?’
‘No.’
‘None?’
The insistence registered with Kestler. ‘New faces like who?’
‘I don’t know,’ avoided Charlie. ‘No one missing from the usual crowd?’
‘No.’
‘None?’
‘You pursuing anything particular here, Charlie? If you are, it might help if you told me what it was.’
‘I’m just filling in all the details.’ One, or maybe then again more than one, in particular, he thought. ‘General Fedova there?’
‘I already told you!’ said the American, exasperated. ‘There were all the usual people.’
‘Who did the talking?’
‘Popov, mostly.’
‘About the arrests?’
‘Yes.’
‘Anyone else, about the arrests?’
‘The Moscow Militia commander: they kind of shared it, like before.’
‘General Fedova contribute at all?’
‘Not about the seizure of Agayans and Shelapin. She appears to be heading the interrogations. Which also seem to be going well.’
Charlie listened intently to the account of the Yatisyna interview, although he’d already heard it from Natalia. ‘The actual tape was played?’