“Very kind of you, Herr Prakesh.”
Prakesh reached up and flicked a switch on a small microphone hanging from a hook in the car’s bodywork. Then he said quietly, “We have much to talk about, I am sure, and you may speak freely here. We are entirely to ourselves, that is why I decided it would be better to meet you here rather than in my office or my home. I have just switched my chauffeur off and he will hear nothing until I want him to.” He added, “Private as we are, I shall continue to address you as Alison, so that you will grow accustomed to the sound of it — if you will forgive me for the suggestion, which no doubt I scarcely need to make. I have heard much of your great experience… And now tell me: how is my old friend in Whitehall?”
Shaw grinned. “Very well, Herr Prakesh.”
“But worried?” A keen glance swept over him.
“Very. You know, of course, exactly why I’m here.”
“Oh, yes. I had a cypher from headquarters, a very full message.”
For a moment Shaw was silent, thinking about his companion. Carberry had told him that Wolfgang Prakesh was a banker of repute. As such as he was invaluable, for he had business contacts among all the European communities and in all the capitals — and he was known to have others also, men who were not exactly business contacts at all. He had first come within the orbit of Latymer during the war. At the start he had been interned, having been caught in London by the outbreak of war, but very soon he had been able to give excellent proof of where his sympathies lay and indeed he had been able to give very practical help to the Intelligence services. After the war, when he had returned to his native Vienna, he had agreed to continue this help and to become one of the Outfit’s world-wide network of part-time agents.
Now, as though reading Shaw’s mind, Prakesh said, “I am here to help you, yes… please ask anything you wish.”
“Thank you — I shall.” Shaw glanced out of the window as the Mercedes, crossing the Danube, headed north-eastward out of the city, then he turned to Prakesh again. He asked, “Bearing in mind what I’ve come for, have you any fresh information that might help?”
Prakesh shook his head regretfully, pursing full lips. “None. I am sorry. The news came to me as a complete surprise. There had been no hints, no straws in the wind — and there have been none since.”
“That’s not surprising, I’ll admit. This thing’s obviously being handled with kid gloves.” He frowned. “What puzzles me is how they can get away with it. I mean, it must in its very nature be something really big, and there are any number of Western agents inside Russia at this very moment — yet not one of them has reported a thing, so far as we know. I don’t see how they can keep any sizeable project quite so hushed up, particularly from their own people.”
Prakesh said, “Remember you are dealing with Russia, Mr Alison. They have a long history of intrigue behind them, they are plotters by nature. Also, do not lose sight of the fact that something else may be being used as cover. That is very important.”
“Yes, of course — I’d considered that. But we’ve no information of anything new going on.”
“Ah, but perhaps it is something that is not new. Forgive me. I am merely speaking my thoughts aloud, Mr Alison.” He leaned sideways as the Mercedes took a bend at speed. “They may be nonsense, but…” He shrugged.
“On the contrary, anything you say may be a big help,” Shaw told him. “It looks like being the toughest job I’ve come up against.” He hesitated. “Herr Prakesh, I’d like your honest opinion. You know the whole story so far as we know it ourselves. Do you believe it?”
Prakesh pulled at his upper lip. “Do I think the Eastern powers are hatching something?”
“Yes. The extremists, not the Kremlin itself.”
“Quite, yes. I gathered that the Russian Government is not involved directly.” The banker was silent for a moment after that, frowning to himself. Then he said slowly, “The East is always hatching something, my friend. Perhaps even more so when they appear to be friendly. You may have noticed that every friendly overture is quickly followed by a drop in the temperature of the cold war? I see no reason to doubt that the principle remains exactly the same this time, even though it is potential revolutionaries that we are concerned with rather than a government as legally constituted. That makes little difference to the fundamentals of the Eastern mind. Also, Rudintsev himself has an unusual reputation, a reputation for straight dealing, and I do not think he would be party to any kind of double game. Yes — I believe it to be true. Always I have thought that one day the East might try something like this, some sudden blow, and as you are aware, there has recently been much testing of nuclear weapons. This may have some bearing on what Rudintsev spoke of — these extremists may in some way be using the resources of the Soviet, the proper resources, to twist them to their own ends.”
“Could be. Certainly our people have been worried about those tests, though not in this particular connexion — so far, anyway. You see, so far as we know, they’ve only been trying out bigger and better H-bombs, nothing more unusual or newer than that.”
“Ummm… so far as we know, Mr Alison.”
Shaw looked at him quickly. “How d’you mean?”
“Only what I say.” Prakesh screwed up his face thoughtfully. “They may be trying out something very new under cover of the H-bomb test-firings. A kind of — if I may use an old-fashioned phrase — a kind of secret weapon.”
“Yes… that’s what the Chief said, as a matter of fact.”
“Then I believe he may be right. There could so easily be such. These extremists could perhaps be intending to use this new weapon, or to force the legal Government to use it, whereas the true intention of the Kremlin may be not to use it but rather to have it in reserve only.”
Shaw nodded. “It’s a line of thought. But from a practical viewpoint, what form could such a thing possibly take? Haven’t they already thought of everything, every possible kind of horror? Surely it’s only a question of size and degree these days?”
“I am not expert in such matters,” Prakesh confessed, shrugging. “But there has been much increase in fallout recently in North Russia, in the Laptev Sea region, and the island of Novaya Zemlya has seen much activity, I am told. Also the Barents Sea, where they carry out the underwater tests, between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya.” He broke off, sighing deeply. “It is a puzzle, Mr Alison, but you will solve it, never fear.”
Shaw was silent after that as the Mercedes sped on, swallowing the miles. The city and suburbs were well behind them now and they were running through fields with men and women, happy-looking peasants, at work. A little later they drove beneath the shade of some tall trees and then the car started up an incline. When they reached the top Prakesh flicked his intercom, switch and spoke to the driver, and the car slowed and stopped. Shaw looked down at rolling green country interspersed with clumps of trees. A calm scene under a clear blue sky flecked with tiny white streaks of cloud, no more than cotton wisps against the deep blue. A fresh wind blew from the south-west, cool from its passage across the snows of the high lands. Shaw said quietly, almost involuntarily, “It’s beautiful, Herr Prakesh. Really beautiful. I’m glad you brought me out here.”
Prakesh gave a faint sigh, looking troubled. “Let us hope,” he said sadly, “that nothing ever comes to spoil it. You know, of course, that my country is ultimately concerned in this as well as yours. If war comes, then an independent Austria will not long survive.”