‘What did come out?’
‘Not much,’ said Charlie, hoping he sounded dismissive enough. They made it sound as if I was a long term Soviet agent, which I wasn’t and never had been: that my whole purpose in being in intelligence was to get to the point where I could trap the Director. That wasn’t true, either.’
‘Wasn’t and never had been,’ echoed Natalia.
‘You know that,’ said Charlie, anticipating another move.
‘Then why have you come to Moscow?’
Charlie laughed, genuinely. ‘I didn’t have any choice, did I? Sampson was in the same bloody cell.’
‘Is that all?’
‘No, that’s not all. I came because I couldn’t stand another day in that damned prison,’ said Charlie, genuine still.
‘But you don’t think of yourself as someone subscribing to the communist way of life?’
Careful, thought Charlie. No more lies than absolutely necessary, he remembered. ‘No,’ he admitted honestly. ‘I don’t see myself subscribing to your way of life.’
‘Why then should we give you sanctuary?’ she asked forcefully, staring up at him. ‘People were hurt, killed, during your escape. Why should we harbour you to the embarrassment of ourselves?’
‘I didn’t hurt anyone. Or kill anyone,’ said Charlie.
‘Something else you’re not guilty of?’ she said, jeeringly.
She almost won. Charlie felt the burn of anger, coming close to giving way to it and then stopped himself. He said, ‘Sampson is a maniac.’
‘What if he attests the same against you?’
‘Your own people saw him shoot the policeman,’ said Charlie, scoring. ‘Ask them.’
‘You don’t like him?’
Charlie laughed again. ‘Like him! I despise him. He’s a traitor and he’s dangerous. Not as a traitor. As a man. I think he gets pleasure from inflicting hurt.’
‘How was he regarded within your service?’
Another pathway, recognised Charlie. He was comfortable with the interrogation now, no longer complacent but confident he could anticipate the traps. ‘I don’t know,’ he said.
‘Weren’t you contemporaries?’
‘No.’
‘Not even in the same departments?’
‘No.’
‘You don’t consider yourself a traitor?’
Which way was she going now? ‘No,’ repeated Charlie.
‘If you had been in the same department – knew his capabilities – would you tell me? Or would you regard that as being a traitor?’
‘My dear Natalia,’ said Charlie, intentionally patronising and seeing an easy escape. ‘If I knew anything at all about Edwin Sampson I’d tell you.’
‘So what do you know about him?’
She’d refused to become irritated by his attitude just as he had by hers, Charlie knew. He said, ‘About his work in the service, nothing. And about his betrayal only what I read in newspapers, like everyone else. In jail he was very clever, ass-crawling to everybody who mattered and getting himself trusted, which made the escape possible. And during that he delighted in causing as much physical harm as possible, as I already told you.’
‘Just as you already made it clear to me that you don’t like him,’ said Natalia. ‘Would you trust him, professionally?’
‘No,’ said Charlie immediately. ‘Sampson’s first regard would be to himself, not to the operation.’
‘Wasn’t that your attitude when you exposed your Directors?’ she pounced. ‘And isn’t it still?’
Shit, thought Charlie. He said, ‘I never failed, in any operation in which I was ever involved. I always won.’
‘Was that because of loyalty to the service?’ she asked, presciently. ‘Or personal pride?’
Shit again, he thought. Charlie said, ‘The two made a great contribution.’
‘Will you co-operate with us?’ asked his interrogator. ‘Cooperate in a full debriefing and supply us with whatever information we ask of you?’
Crunch point, decided Charlie. He’d have to give if he were going to stand any chance at all of achieving what Wilson wanted. But immediate acquiescence hadn’t been the role he’d adopted that morning. Trying to maintain the established attitude, he said, ‘I don’t know.’
Natalia Fedova snapped the folder shut, staring at him across the desk. ‘We’ll talk further,’ she said. She wasn’t smiling any more.
Such a debriefing would not normally have occupied the chairman but Kalenin wasn’t any ordinary chairman in his attention to detail and in addition he was anxious to get through the necessary interrogation as quickly as possible, to involve Sampson in the effort to trace the spy working through the British embassy. So he saw the video recording of Charlie’s interview that night, with Berenkov who was the deputy in charge of Natalia Fedova’s division and who had personal experience of the Englishman. They watched it completely once, without any halt or discussion and then a second time, stop-starting the tape at moments they considered might be important. A written transcript had also been provided and they studied that, too, so it was several hours before they began to talk.
‘Well?’ said Kalenin.
Berenkov made an uncertain rocking motion with his hand. ‘There’s not much there we didn’t already know. Nothing in fact.’
‘I only personally met Charlie a couple of times. You knew him better. What do you think?’
‘He’d have conducted a better debriefing than that,’ said Berenkov, honestly.
‘I thought he was sloppy,’ said Kalenin. ‘Careless and sloppy.’
‘Maybe,’ said Berenkov, not so convinced.
‘He couldn’t have cared less about the answers he gave,’ argued the chairman.
Instead of replying Berenkov rewound and replayed the tape to the part of Charlie’s momentary pause when Natalia reached the Italian arrest. ‘He changed his mind there,’ Berenkov judged. ‘And was sharper, from then on.’
‘You sure?’
‘No, I’m not sure,’ admitted Berenkov. ‘I got caught by under-estimating Charlie Muffin once, remember?’
‘He’s not the important one,’ said Kalenin. ‘Sampson is important.’
‘Charlie could still be useful, in many ways,’ insisted Berenkov. ‘I think they should be kept together in that apartment. It’s wired and I think it might be interesting.’
‘To learn what?’
‘I don’t know, not yet,’ admitted Berenkov. ‘I know it’s important to find as quickly as possible the spy for Britain. But I don’t think we should cut corners.’
‘I don’t intend cutting corners,’ said Kalenin, stiffly. ‘I just think it would have been better if we’d begun the debriefing with Sampson.’
Berenkov accepted it as an observation, not a criticism. He said, ‘We’d have to make a lot of adjustments if the British uncovered the ambassador in Italy. And it was important to establish Sampson’s stability. We know from our own people how he responded, confronted with the policeman.’
‘What’s Sampson’s stability got to do with anything?’ said Kalenin. ‘Maybe he panicked. It’s understandable. And maybe he likes inflicting pain. I don’t see how either thing is going to affect our use for him.’
‘Everything is an eagerness to please, to impress us,’ pointed out Berenkov. ‘We want to get whoever it is in contact with the British, not be misled by somebody saying anything that comes into his head, imagining it’s going to be what we want to hear.’
Kalenin gestured towards the now blank screen in the viewing room. ‘There was nothing there to give any indication that Sampson might do that,’ Kalenin paused. ‘In fact,’ he added. ‘From your assessment the person that might do that is Charlie Muffin.’
Berenkov shook his head. ‘Charlie Muffin won’t trick me again,’ he said.
‘He made it possible for you to be repatriated,’ reminded the Chairman.
‘Because it suited his purpose, not because of me,’ said Berenkov. Now Berenkov indicated the screen in front of them. ‘My first loyalty is always to me,’ he quoted.
‘Do you want to meet him again?’ asked Kalenin.
‘Very much,’ admitted Berenkov. ‘Very much indeed.’