“How do you-? Oh, your friend. You got it out of her?”
“As you told me to. Send the cable.”
Campbell looked down at the paper, now little more than an annoyance.
“Alan,” he said, calling one of the clerks. “Have this encrypted. Mr. Meier here wants to see us transmit. He doesn’t trust us.”
“Just careful. It’s important in this business, isn’t that what you always say?” He gave the paper to the clerk. “And could you have somebody type this up on BOB letterhead?” He looked at Campbell. “You decide on the pay grade yet?”
“Don’t take chances.” He scribbled something in the margin.
“And this,” Alex said, handing another paper to the clerk.
“What’s that?”
“My farewell to Berlin speech. A hard copy for the file.”
The clerk waited for Campbell’s nod.
“All right. Now where is he?”
“I’ll take you to him. When we’re finished here.”
“You’re being very cute all of the sudden.”
“Have a smoke. It shouldn’t take long.” He looked around. “Some setup. Are there beds upstairs? Or do you put people in billets?”
“Depends. If they’re at risk outside.”
“So, here. With any luck I’ll be out of your hair in a few days. The speech will make the news and that should move things along at State, don’t you think?”
“You’re so sure about this.”
“When you give them Markovsky, you’ll be able to write your own ticket. So you write two. One for me. That was the deal.”
“Not quite.”
“Well, things happen. And for once we got lucky.”
“She just told you? Like that?”
“She doesn’t know she told me. I figured it out.”
“Figured it-”
“Don’t worry. I know. Anyway, you can always send another cable if anything goes wrong.”
Campbell, disgruntled, looked away and lit a cigarette.
“You might say ‘Nice job’ or something. I never thought we’d get him.”
Campbell sat smoking, watching Alex, as if he were adding up columns of numbers.
“And where has he been all this time?” he said.
“Babelsberg. Out by DEFA. But she’s moving him today.”
“She’s moving-?”
“And we run interference.”
“You’re setting her up,” Campbell said quietly.
“Would you have sent the cable otherwise?”
Campbell looked away.
“Sir? Sign here.” Handing Campbell the authorization letter. The clerk turned to Alex. “Nice to have you with us. We all wondered who you were. The protected source.”
“Not anymore.”
“No, not anymore,” Campbell said. “All right. Now you’re official. What else?”
“We wait for the cable, then we go.” He made a show of checking his watch.
“Alan, get a car. Brady and Davis, I guess. That enough?” he said to Alex.
“She’s only expecting me. Troops might scare her off. It’s just the two of them. I think we can handle it. But your call.”
Campbell thought for a second. “All right. Never mind, Alan.”
“Anything I can do?” the clerk said, eyes excited.
“No. Just start a file on this one. He’s worried about his pension.” He turned to Alex. “And what’s your next bright idea?”
“With Markovsky? He’s all yours. I’d put him on a plane for Wiesbaden. Show him in public this time. Just for the hell of it.”
“Is that what you’d do,” Campbell said, stubbing out the cigarette.
When the cable confirmation came through, Campbell got up to go.
“I’ll get my coat.”
A minute, two. Time enough for Alex to make his calls. An empty office next to Alan’s. Dieter, then Markus. Finished before Campbell got back.
Alex drove. “She knows the car,” he said.
It was a long trip back into town, through Wilmersdorf, then the more crowded West End.
“I don’t think you’re going to need that,” Alex said finally, nodding toward Campbell’s pocket. “They’re not expecting-”
“You’re new to this. You corner a man like Markovsky, you’d better be ready for anything.”
Alex was quiet for a minute.
“New,” he said. “It feels longer. What did you think? When Washington said they were sending me.”
“Think? I thought you’d be a pain in the ass. First timer. In Berlin. You don’t want to be a freshman here. It’s dangerous.”
“But maybe an opportunity for you. Somebody who doesn’t know the ropes. Easier to play.”
“To play.”
“You told me Willy was a leak and I just swallowed it.”
“Willy was a leak.”
“After you said so. And he wasn’t around to say anything. You know, I keep thinking about Lützowplatz. You said it wasn’t supposed to go that way, but how was it supposed to go? I thought they were after me. But what would be the point of setting me up so soon? You hadn’t even run me yet. But I’d make a great decoy if you wanted Willy out of the way. He’d die protecting me. But the others weren’t supposed to get killed. That’s what went wrong. You thought I’d just stand there pissing my pants. No gun. You never thought I’d kill anybody.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Willy said you had a Polish name. Hard to pronounce, so you changed it. You still have family there? Is that how they did it? Use that leverage? You were always interested in whether I had family in the East. You knew how that worked.”
“How they did what?” Campbell said.
“Turn you. So was it family? It’d be easy to check, I guess, now that I know where to look. But maybe something else. Lots of ways to do it. Look at my friend Markus. Anything he can use. But I’d guess family. I don’t see you as the believer type.”
“Turn me. What the fuck-?”
“It was you,” Alex said simply. “Only two people knew I was taking Erich to RIAS. You and Dieter. But I changed things around. And when we got to the airport, what did I find? Howley’s office hadn’t called to clear us. All right, maybe a fuckup. Except everything there’s like clockwork. No fuckups or the planes don’t turn around. And Howley’s office gives us the go-ahead like that.” He snapped his fingers. “Like they would have if you had called. But you didn’t. Why should you? You knew we were never going to get to the airport. We’d be dead. Or in a holding cell somewhere. Why waste the call?”
“You’re out of your mind.”
“Am I? Then there’s the little comedy with Saratov. Our friend going to Moscow. Not your idea, I think. He just couldn’t resist. Two can play at that game. But how did he know Markovsky wasn’t in Wiesbaden? That we couldn’t just pull him out of our hat and make the Moscow story go away? Only two people knew that. You and Dieter. So we’re back where we started. It was you.”
“And not Dieter.”
“No. You.”
“And why is that?”
“Because Dieter knows Markovsky’s dead and you don’t. You never would have gone on this little joyride if you didn’t think he was alive.”
“Dead?”
“But you didn’t know that. So neither do the Russians. Or they’d have been all over it.”
“Then what are we doing?”
“I want my life back. And you’re going to get it for me. They won’t say no to the Agency.”
“Because I sent one cable? Wait’ll you see the next one. What do you think you’re worth now? To the Agency. You think anybody gives a rat’s ass about you? Because you gave a speech? You’re not useful anymore, that’s all that matters.”
“I thought you might feel that way. That’s why the cable went first. And the speech is just what State will want to hear. So, now one more piece. A little insurance. To show the Agency how valuable I am.”
“What? By telling stories about me? Who the fuck’s going to believe you?”
“No one maybe.” He turned to glance at him. “I don’t care if you get away with it. I don’t care about you at all. I just wanted you to know I know. Maybe Willy knew too, or suspected. Is that why? Tell me something. How long were you going to keep running me before I was just another Willy? Once Markovsky disappeared, I wasn’t good for much. Gossip. Why were the Russians so interested in him, by the way? One of their own. Let me guess.”