‘I didn’t intend to,’ said Sampson.
Just before the very end of the wall, Sampson darted across the road, to the bordering houses, holding himself briefly in the protective cover of an unkempt hedge and then, bent double, actually entering the garden in which it grew. Charlie was directly behind, accepting as he finally crouched that the concealment was perfect. The house in whose garden they hid was in darkness but there was light on in the front of the immediate neighbour and Charlie could just detect the sound of a television show. It could, he supposed, have been a radio but he didn’t think so: there were too many breaks for applause.
‘Know what I wish?’ whispered Sampson.
‘What?’
‘That this were the garden of that prick Hickley.’
Despite everything, Charlie wished it too.
It seemed a very long fifteen minutes, so long that once Sampson risked raising himself, very carefully, to look over the hedge, imagining as Charlie imagined that they’d failed to hear the hour strike. But then it did strike, easily audible, and Sampson said, ‘Come on,’ getting up again and scurrying around to the front of the house, still shielded by the hedge but in the road where there was no possibility of their missing the pick-up car.
It came, precisely on time, some indistinguishable black limousine turning the corner from the rear of the prison, going neither too fast nor too slowly.
‘How do we know if it’s the right one?’ demanded Charlie.
‘Wait,’ cautioned Sampson.
About fifty yards down the road, approaching them, the vehicle stopped. The driver got out, came forward and kicked the front offside wheel as if testing for a puncture, then went to the boot, lifted it, appeared to gaze inside and then closed it again, softly.
‘That’s the right one,’ said Sampson. ‘That’s the identification.’
He thrust out from their concealment, leading as he had throughout. Charlie hobbled behind, trying to keep up. They were very near, Sampson actually against the front of the car, when the figure rounded the corner. There was a street light there and in its perfect illumination Charlie registered the bell-helmeted shape of a policeman.
The policeman began walking down the road and then hesitated and Charlie realised they would be completely visible in the light and that the light would show perfectly prison uniforms that the policeman would instantly recognise.
‘What the…’ he actually heard the man start and then there was a fumbled movement as he groped for something in his pocket, a truncheon or whistle maybe.
Sampson’s reaction was quicker. He ran across the road, directly at the policeman. Charlie saw his arm come out, not at once realising what was happening and then there was the muffled explosion of a shot, too muffled because the gun was held directly against the policeman’s body for the sound even to reach the late-night television viewers in the opposite houses. The policeman staggered back, arms thrust out in a physical reaction of surprise and then his legs buckled and he fell, in a stumbling collapse. Sampson did not step back immediately. Instead he stood over the body and Charlie saw him lean down, put his arm out again and then heard another muffled explosion. Charlie was against the edge of the door, leaning weakly against it, when Sampson ran back.
‘A copper,’ said Charlie. ‘You shot a copper!’
‘You knew nothing was going to stop me,’ said Sampson.
‘A copper!’ repeated Charlie.
Sampson’s arm came up, the muzzle against Charlie’s chest like it had been against the policeman’s. ‘Get into that fucking car,’ ordered Sampson.
Berenkov stared down at the brief freedom signal that had been transmitted from the prison pick-up car to the embassy and sent from London, an hour before, trying to think and digest clearly through a swamp of conflicting emotions. It wasn’t easy, because his mind kept being blocked by the name he often – almost daily – thought about but which he never thought he would again professionally confront. Charlie. Muffin. Would the man have changed, over the years? Maybe not: only four, maybe five, after all. Shambling, untidy man, suit buttons strained and shirt collar frayed, spread-apart shoes for feet that were always causing him discomfort. The sort of man people dismissed as some object of fun, which was a terrible mistake and why he dressed like that anyway, like a chameleon alters its colours to match its surroundings and stay safe. Berenkov knew the Russian service regarded him as their foremost agent, which was why he occupied the position he did today, despite Kalenin’s friendship. Yet despite that expertise, Charlie Muffin had got him. Got him brilliantly and professionally and debriefed him with matching expertise, without any hostile stupidity that the others had shown, imagining they were different people just because they were on different sides. Charlie had admired him as a professional and Berenkov had admired Charlie as an equal – no, better – professional. Just as he had admired Charlie’s brilliant retribution against his own service, when it decided to dump him. And admired it for its brilliance, not because he was a lucky part of it, the prisoner upon whose release Kalenin insisted after the KGB arrest of Cuthbertson and Wilberforce in Vienna, an arrest to which Charlie had led them, like innocent lambs to the slaughter. Except they hadn’t been slaughtered. Just rightly exposed as the incompetent, over-promoted fools they were, incompetent first for imagining that Charlie was disposable and secondly for falling into the Viennese trap anyway. Berenkov had often wondered, during the frequent reflections, how Charlie was withstanding imprisonment. Now, it seemed, he could ask him personally when he arrived.
Because of the special relationship that existed between them and because Kalenin was anxious for Sampson’s release in their search for the internal spy Berenkov’s request for a meeting with the chairman was immediately granted.
‘With Sampson?’ queried Kalenin, when Berenkov made the announcement.
‘That’s what the message said,’ repeated Berenkov. ‘It’s very brief, just the first confirmation of the escape.’
‘Wasn’t it planned?’
Berenkov shook his head. ‘I knew Charlie was in the same jail as Sampson, obviously. Just as it was obvious that they would meet, before I could get Sampson out. I actually intended to ask Sampson as much about him as possible, when Sampson got here. I liked Charlie.’
‘I liked him, too,’ said Kalenin, who had personally met Charlie and led the Austrian arrests. ‘But he isn’t a traitor, not like Sampson and the rest.’
‘I know,’ said Berenkov, conscious of his superior’s caution.
‘I felt sorry for him, after his capture.’
‘I feel sorry for anyone in jail,’ said Berenkov. ‘Even though I knew I’d get out, just like Sampson knew he’d get out, there were times when I felt so depressed that I thought of suicide…’ Berenkov smiled, embarrassed at the confession. ‘Difficult to believe that now.’
‘Charlie will find it difficult, adjusting here,’ predicted Kalenin.
‘Not if he adjusted to jail,’ said Berenkov.
‘Sampson is the important one,’ said Kalenin, hurrying on. ‘When are they due?’
‘Two days… three at the most.’
‘I’ve blanketed the embassy here,’ confided Kalenin. ‘A squad for anyone who leaves.’
‘We’ve had that embassy in a net from the moment of the first transmission, weeks before there was any transcription even,’ said Berenkov. ‘We should have established the contact procedure by now.’
‘We should have done a lot of things by now,’ said Kalenin, bitterly.
Chapter Nine
Charlie sat pressed into the corner of the car furthest from Sampson, physically wanting to distance himself from the man: from what he’d done and from everything about him. Charlie decided he was buggered; buggered in every way. A difficult but maybe just possible operation in the comparative orderliness of the governor’s office was right out the window now, if they got caught. And they would get caught. There had been occasions, during his time in intelligence, when Charlie had been on the periphery of a cop killing and he knew the affect it had, among the police. Within an hour of the finding of that poor, face-blasted bastard back there behind the prison there’d be alarms sounding throughout every southern constabulary and an hour after that road blocks and policemen everywhere. Armed. And ready – wanting – to shoot at two on-the-run spies who were now killers, as well. Cop killers. Buggered, thought Charlie, again.