“You’re absolutely right, Sir Hubert—”
“Good!” The diplomat smiled suddenly. “Now you’d better tell me exactly what has caused the change of plan.”
Shaw said, “The KGB have sworn me in. I’m by way of being an unofficial agent for a certain Colonel Andreyev. It’s not from choice, I need hardly add, though to some extent it may help me in my job.” He told the First-Secretary what had taken place the night before; Worth-Butters heard him out in silence, merely nodding at intervals and showing little emotion; he was a cool customer and that was all to the good. Shaw added when he’d finished, “This is going to need extremely delicate handling, as you can see. If London’s seen to be taking any protective measures on behalf of the real Stephen Cane’s family, for instance, the Russians are going to smell a rat right away and I’ll be out on a limb this end — and so will my assignment. On the other hand…”
“We don’t want to risk the lives of the wife and daughter — of course we don’t.” Worth-Butters pushed his chair away from the desk, leaned back, and stared up at the ceiling for a few moments. “Tricky,” he murmured, “Very tricky, and also extremely interesting in its implications — what? As you say, Kosyenko’s movements undoubtedly do fit and there could be a link — though I need hardly tell you it’s a nonsensical thing to suggest we’re backing any Chinese who may or may not be around Lake Baikal.” Worth-Butters hesitated. “Tell me, d’you know anything about the region, Shaw?”
“Only what Andreyev told me, that there was a big atomic industry sited in that district.”
“Exactly. In the Chalok River valley — the old valley, that is — there’s the biggest thing the Soviet Union’s ever seen yet in the field of atomic industry… and it’d be more or less at the point where Andreyev’s Chinese, I gather, are said to be infiltrating from Mongolia. Hard by are very big uranium deposits. They’ve made a vast strike of uranium-bearing pitchblende there, so big that it’s put the other uranium-producing areas out of the picture altogether. It’s now more important by far than even Ust-Kamenogorsk in the Atlas Mountains — indeed it’s the principal centre of the atomic industry these days. It’s of fairly recent growth… there’s a colossal power-station now, too, and I can well imagine Andreyev’s bosses in the Kremlin chasing him hard if there is any truth in this Chinese business. They certainly won’t want too many of their more recent projects to be seen in detail and reported back to Pekin.”
“But can there be anything particularly secret about such a large-scale project?”
Worth-Butters shrugged. “There’s certainly no secret about Kosyenko’s visit or even about the location of the site — far from it. But the Russians never show their whole hand, as you know.” He cocked an eye at Shaw, smiling slightly. “No clues from Andreyev, of course, as to anything they might have up their sleeves?”
Shaw laughed. “He hasn’t been that forthcoming. By the way, d’you happen to know him?
“Andreyev? The Turkish delight connoisseur? I do indeed! He hasn’t been in Moscow all that long — he was promoted from Leningrad fairly recently — but Alexander Ilyich Andreyev has made his presence felt. He transferred from the MVD when the KGB took over as the State security organization in the fifties, because he preferred counter-espionage work to ordinary police duties. The feller hasn’t any finer feelings when it comes to his job — he’ll have you in Siberia in half a tick if he feels like it — but he’s not really such a bad chap as these people go. Just over-zealous … and also, or so I’ve heard through the grapevine, not above a little jiggery-pokery when it comes to Number One’s interests, though I wouldn’t make a point of telling him that if I were you…”
Shaw grinned. “Thanks, I won’t! But I’d like a little background information about him, all the same.”
“I’ll see to that for you,” the First Secretary promised. “You can have a look at our file on him before you leave the Embassy.”
“Thank you, Sir Hubert. Now, as to the Chinese… I think you’d better give me a little something to pass back to Andreyev. I don’t think he’ll be satisfied with a nil report, somehow!”
“I’m inclined to agree, but it’s damned inconvenient to have to fake something up just to keep Andreyev happy.” Worth-Butters sighed, got up, and walked over to a wide window, hands clasped behind his back. Shaw looked round the spacious room; superbly furnished, with a magnificent painting of London Bridge in winter dominating one wall, it carried echoes of Latymer’s opulent former office in the old Admiralty building overlooking the Horse Guards. The First Secretary stood there looking out across the river towards the towers of the Kremlin; after a couple of minutes he swung round abruptly and said, “Tell Andreyev this. You’ve carried out his instructions to the letter and his plan has been successful so far. We’ve taken you, you believe, partially into our confidence after a scramble-line check on you with the security people in London, and also with your own chief in the Defence Ministry — your supposed chief in Accounts, that is, of course!” He grinned. “As Andreyev himself prophesied, we’ve not detained you in the Embassy — but tell him he can certainly assume we’ll be putting a tail on you to see where you lead us so we can get a line on the opposition, as it were. You have a feeling you’re being used — that you’re expendable, as he suggested you would be, I gather, and we’ve confided in you only so as to get more out of you. You’re not entirely happy about your treatment by us. Say that from what we’ve told you, you gather his suspicions are in fact somewhat inaccurate… that we’re not involved and we know nothing about any Chinese infiltration — which, as I’ve said, is true enough — but that we have heard stories… say, via Hong Kong, the refugees from the mainland, you know… about curious goings-on along the Mongolian border. We’re investigating, and you expect to have more to report to him later. I think that’s as far as I can go. All right, Shaw?”
Shaw said, “I hope so.”
“You can embroider a little if necessary,” Worth-Butters told him. “I’ll leave that to you, but on no account involve the Embassy directly, Shaw, or me either — though as far as I’m concerned I can’t see that it can do any harm to keep the pot boiling between Pekin and Moscow! In the meantime I’ll be in touch with London and they’ll be taking every precaution behind the scenes for the safety of Cane’s family. It won’t be long before they have tabs on the wife and daughter and know where to go to get them away at short notice. In any case, the Russians aren’t likely to harm them as long as yaw play ball. I’d say all we need,” he added, “is time.”
“Time’s in short supply, Sir Hubert, and I’ve yet to find Conroy.”
Worth-Butters said crisply, “I know that.”
“Finding an unknown man in this country is worse than finding a needle in a haystack. Conroy could be anywhere, be anybody.” His eyes were hard now. “You’ll have heard about the two men, Wicks and Fawcett, of course. In my opinion, they’re the most likely ones… but I’ve been thinking along a certain other line as well.”
“Yes?”
Shaw frowned and ran a hand through his hair. “Look, Sir Hubert, you may find this impertinent, but… how well do you know Hartley Henderson?”
“I beg your pardon!” The diplomat’s eyes had widened and the voice held an element of shocked surprise. “Exactly what do you mean by that, Shaw?”
“I don’t know really. It’s just an idea. There have been certain features… the way Mr Henderson happened to be along the road out of Minsk, for instance—”