The woman appeared embarrassed at being finally singled out from the rest, smiling at them apologetically and then turning back to Charlie. When they were alone Charlie said, ‘I was surprised.’
‘So was I.’
‘You didn’t know?’
‘Not that it would be you… just that it was an extra course. Something special…’ She hesitated, smiling at him this time and said, ‘Should I be looking for a second or third or fourth reason in the questions?’
He grinned back at her. ‘Maybe we both should.’
‘I don’t know if it’s possible but I think it would be best if I applied to be taken off the course, don’t you?’
Did that mean she really was undergoing overseas instruction? He said, ‘Would it really be difficult for you?’
‘Obviously,’ she said, appearing surprised at his question. ‘Wouldn’t it for you?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Charlie. ‘I don’t think so.’ Having re-established contact, he didn’t want to lose it. He said, ‘Why don’t we talk about it further… somewhere other than here?’
‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea, either.’
‘We don’t seem sure about anything, do we?’
‘I think you upset everybody,’ said Natalia.
‘Seems to be a habit I have,’ said Charlie.
‘Having you here is an innovation, instructions from outside.’
Berenkov, Charlie presumed. He said, ‘Resented?’
‘The other instructors didn’t appear very keen. Today’s group were supposed to be graduate level.’
Charlie wished he could categorise Natalia’s place in all this. He said, ‘And supposed to test me?’
She nodded. ‘You were very impressive.’
Charlie felt a physical reaction to her praise, a stomach tightening. He said, ‘They weren’t.’
‘Maybe they thought it was going to be too easy. Relaxed too much.’
‘That isn’t any sort of excuse. Explanation even,’ said Charlie, professionally.
Her face closed against him and Charlie wished he hadn’t spoken so curtly. ‘That wasn’t meant to be a rebuke,’ he said.
‘I should be joining the others.’
‘I can do it now,’ said Charlie, purposely obtuse.
She frowned back at him. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘During one of the debriefings I said I couldn’t invite you out to dinner, because I didn’t have any money. This job pays. What are you doing tonight?’
She smiled at him again, shaking her head. ‘No,’ she said.
‘Why not?’
‘You know why not.’
‘No, I don’t,’ said Charlie, still intentionally awkward. If she refused him now then any subsequent refusal would be easier for her.
‘It wouldn’t look right.’
‘Who’d be looking?’ If they knew, they’d both probably be surprised, he thought.
‘Going out to dinner in Moscow isn’t easy, like it is in the West.’
She was weakening, Charlie realised. ‘I’d still like to try,’ he said. ‘Please.’
Natalia hesitated. Then she said, ‘All right.’
Charlie felt the stomach tightening come again.
Kalenin set out his miniature tanks to recreate Montgomery’s confrontation in North Africa against Rommel, fully familiar with the ploys and the strategies of the battle. Having assembled them, he remained staring down. There had been a sandstorm, he remembered; a blinding, concealing sandstorm and Montgomery had utilised the advantage.
Was he being deflected by a sandstorm? wondered the KGB chairman. Kalenin knew he had done all the right things and made all the right moves to try to locate his traitor. But he still couldn’t see anything. So what was he doing wrong? What was blinding him from looking in the right direction?
Kalenin turned away from his game, uninterested. The order had come from the Politburo for regular reports. Kalenin was aware that rarely – at any time during his career – had he been so exposed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Charlie was happy to let Natalia lead in everything because attracted to her though he was and genuine though he believed her to be he didn’t believe in coincidence, any more than he believed Father Christmas came down chimneys every December and he couldn’t reconcile himself to her appearance at Balashikha. He was curious at her choice of the Rossiya because it was the hotel to which he’d gone after the rebellious outing which had included the GUM store, but pleased with the top storey restaurant because of its magnificent view of central Moscow. The wine list was restricted to products within the Soviet Union and he wondered what Berenkov would have ordered: at least, he thought, it prevented him making any mistakes. He selected a red, from Georgia, and it tasted good and he was relieved; he didn’t want to show himself up in front of her. His attitude – which, objective as always, he recognised as one of nervousness – intrigued Charlie because the nervousness wasn’t because of his uncertainty about her true function but just about being in her company. Having been lucky with the wine he deferred to her over the food. They started with assorted cold fish and then goulash, which was excellent. The service was typically Russian, slow, but Charlie wasn’t in any hurry and he welcomed the delay: before the goulash arrived, he’d ordered the second bottle of wine. The lecture-hall reservation remained initially between them, so that although Charlie had decided to let her lead in the choice of where and what to eat he had to prompt the conversation, coaxing her out, bit by bit. Almost at once, tauntingly, she asked from how many sides she should look at his questions and he extended one finger towards her and guessing the response she met hers with his and Charlie said it signified a pact, for neither to be suspicious of the other, comfortable with his own hypocrisy. Gradually she began to talk. She told him of her hometown of Penza but of moving to Moscow very young, within the first year of her university entrance, because the KGB personnel selectors had already received reports of her ability, particularly with languages. Charlie got the impression she clearly enjoyed being in the service, for the advantages it meant. She explained how the training had been extensive and her grades impressive, so impressive that the offer was made – and accepted – that she should extend her studies to include psychology, for the function for which she was ultimately groomed. Presented with the opening, Charlie asked outright whether that grooming was now being further extended to mean her posting abroad, the only explanation for her presence on the course. This time she offered her finger and Charlie, enjoying the game, touched back – enjoying, too, the actual touch of her – and she admitted it wasn’t. Making no effort to conceal the pride Natalia said she was the senior psychologist in the debriefing section and that her appointment to the sessions was to provide the final assessment, on the suitability of the other five selected for overseas emplacement. Charlie’s initial, abrupt, reaction was one of relief because it meant that at some time in the future he wouldn’t be entrapping her, for arrest and imprisonment – the awfulness of imprisonment that he had known – in England or America. But at the same time that other part of his brain – the never resting, never sleeping, never relaxing professional part – saw the flaw.
‘Then it didn’t mean anything, did it?’ he demanded.
She looked up at him, face creased with uncertainty. ‘What didn’t?’
‘What you said in the lecture room, about applying to be taken off the course. Because you also said it was special, an innovation. There weren’t any other courses to which you could be transferred.’
She smiled at him, admiringly. ‘I also said you were impressive,’ she said. ‘I hoped you wouldn’t remember.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because it was a lie. I meant what I said, about being surprised at seeing you when I walked into the hall today. I didn’t know how to respond: I hadn’t been given any warning. I don’t know why they didn’t warn me. It was stupid, not to have done so. And because I was uncertain, I just carried on with the charade, until I could get out to get some guidance.’