Maxim stopped trying to peer at the shadowed faces in frontof him and put on a pair of sunglasses.
"Is the light troubling you, Major?" Husband asked. "Perhaps you had a late night?"
Maxim just kept on smiling deferentially.
"I believe, " Husband went on, "that Rotherhithe is particularly beautiful at this time of year. Especially when viewed in a midnight rainstorm. You wereseen down there, Major, has the cat got your tongue? – or was it the Private Office?"
"Yes, " Maxim said. "It was, but not now. "
"What?"
"The light. Troubling me."
Husband paused, then said in a silky tone: "Thank you, Major. I'm so glad we've got that point cleared up. "
"Mr Harbinger," Miss Milward cut in smoothly, "could you help us in this matter? I'm sure you know how vital The Office considers this whole business. Can you prevail on Major Maxim to give us some straight answers?" She had a musical voice, deep and patient.
"My prevailing power with Harry seems to be rather limited, but perhaps you could try him with some straight questions."
"All right," Husband said, "where's Corporal Blagg?"
Straight enough, Maxim thought ruefully. He kept his face polite. "Why should I know?"
"The man is adeserter. Last night he killed somebody; you might call it murder. More important toall of us, he has information of national importance. Now where is he?"
"If I knew where a deserter was it would be my duty, not as a military man but as a citizen, to report him if I couldn't persuade him to give himself up. Your duty's exactly the same. Did you report him when you spotted him at Rotherhithe?"
"This is just playing with bent paperclips. Are we going to get Blagg or do we go over your head? And yours, " Husband snapped a look at George.
"And explain why you sent armed men down to pick up Blagg yesterday?" Maxim asked.
"We? We didn't send them. Are you trying to make out that we started that shooting?"
"Why else? You were covering Rotherhithe last night. You knew Blagg could be armed. "
"We called off the surveillance after we knew Blagg had spotted us. " Husband glanced at Sims, who nodded. "We put men in there again last night when we heard about the ' shooting. It was obvious Blagg could have been involved. "
George asked pleasantly: "Did you clearthat through the Co-ordinator?"
"And have his decision delayed for weeks by Agnes Algar's mob screaming Rape because we're trespassing on their territory? Blagg would have been dead of old age before we got clearance."
"He might have preferred that to a bullet wound," Maxim said.
Miss Milward pounced. "So you do know where he is?"
Bugger it, Maxim thought. Oh well, they were certain I did anyway.
Sims asked: "Will he live?"
"Yes."
"How are you sure?"
"I've seen bullet wounds before."
There was a short silence. George cleared his throat and asked: "Then just who was Blagg shooting it out with?"
"I would have thought that was obvious," Husband said. "One of the Sovbloc services. The dead man was German, wasn't he?" He glanced the question at Sims, who kept his appreciative smile fixed on Maxim.
"He had West German papers, but they are not real, we understand. Perhaps he was HVA, one of a travelling circus." The Hauptvertwaltung Abwehrwasthe espionage arm of the East German SSD.
Maxim asked: "How did they know Blagg was involved at all?"
Husband leant back, realised how uncomfortable that was on the wooden chair and rather self-consciously unleaned himself. "We've been doing some serious thinking about that. But in the end, there are just too many possibilities. "
I knew," Maxim said, "and you knew, and Blagg himself and your Mrs Howard, only she's dead. "
"Blagg himself told you," Sims pointed out politely. "Can you be sure he did not tell anybody else as well?"
There was Jim Caswell, of course, but Jim wouldn't chatter… Blagg wasn't fool enough to tell Tanner, but just how much he'd told Billy Dann…
"I knew," George said. "And I told Agnes Algar after the meeting."
"In my Department," Miss Milward put in, "at least three people know the basic facts – if they are facts – behind Plain-song."
Maxim felt as if he had baked (if that was what you did) a perfectsouffléof evidence, all crisp and firm, andthenßoop: it was swimming off the plate and dripping on his shoes.
Husband said sympathetically: "Security, Major, security. So often interpreted in this country as merely not telling anybody who's actually got a hammer and sickle embroidered on his tie. But don't think I'm being complacent about this. I'm quite willing to accept the possibility of a leak within my own service, and I'm sure Dieter accepts that also. " Sims did, nodding gently. "It would be foolish to forget that it's happened before. But that only adds a new dimension of urgency to the business. If the Other Side knows enough to be looking for Blagg, it could know enough to destroy or neutralise the information, whatever it may be, in his possession."
It was difficult to argue back. Maxim knew that George was looking across at him, on the brink of surrender.
"It was your people who got him into this, " he persisted.
Husband took off his blue-tinted glasses and polished them on a silk handkerchief chosen to pick up the colours of both his suit and his tie. "When Mrs Howard asked for an escort, I naturally assumed we would assign her one of our own people. Apparently she said she'd prefer somebody she had worked with before, and she knew Blagg's battalion was in Germany, and Dieter – rashly, we now agree – left the decision to her. I think the German end was indeed mishandled."
"That's very reassuring," Maxim said coldly. "That boy could have been in my company or squadron. He was lied to, conned into believing that the Bad Schwarzendorn operation had been approved by the Army. He thought your freelance Mrs Howard represented the same thing that he thinks he represents himself: the defence of this country. He could have wound up dead. Okay, that's something a soldier has to accept, in an abstract sort of way. But instead, he ended up a deserter and being chased by the police for a killing that was forced on him, and that's something he doesnot have to accept – and neither do I. "
Miss Milward said "You're getting emotional, Major."
"Good. I didn't think I was getting anywhere."
Husband said: "I have agreed that Dieter was at fault in that, gravely at fault. But…" Sims's smile had gone a little rueful and he was looking down at his hands, turning a gold-tipped cigarette in his small fingers. Momentarily, Maxim felt sorry for him. Whatever his sins, he was being forced to pay for them in public – well, as public as the Secret Service ever wanted to get.
"But," Husband went on, "wehave to deal with matters as they now stand. And with Corporal Blagg. "
"What are you offering?" And when the three figures stiffened in surprise, Maxim added: "What are you offering him?"
"You mean money?" asked Husband.
Miss Milward was quicker, or more sensitive. "Can we put Humpty Dumpty together again as a Corporal with a clean record? – I assume that's what he wants. Well, we certainly ought to try, and if we can't then there'll be a very good case for generous compensation out of the secret funds. "
"Quite," Husband nodded. "Quite so. Does that satisfy you, Major?"
"It's the best you can do at the moment. I'll talk to him. "
There was a moment of shocked silence, then Husband said:"You will talk to him? Our whole agreement was thatu›e should do -"
"We've got no agreement worth a damn to Blagg. I'll talk to him and see what he knows, if anything. "
"Mr Harbinger," Miss Milward turned to him, "do you think you should intervene now?"
George shrugged and nearly slid himself off the chair in which he was slumped. "You can see what I'm up against.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, as I often do, Harry still goes and does whatever he wants. Perhaps I lack charity. Why don't you wait a few hours and see if he gets what you need from Blagg?"