Jeremy intervened: “Perhaps there is a section at the Embassy which keeps tabs on all the Russian ex-pats in this country – just in case.”
“In case of what?” asked David. “There must be thousands of them, many thousands, I would think. So they must have moved pretty quickly to have connected the news story about Aldanov with Marina’s father in London already. There’s more to this than meets the eye. I think Marina should talk to her father again as soon as possible and try to find out what’s going on. I think she should probably tell the police about this tomorrow, and then perhaps Scotland Yard should talk to Mr. Peters.”
Marina called the Manns’ home number from David’s office, and Mrs. Mann sounded very welcoming and understanding. She then gave driving instructions to Jeremy, who took Marina down to his car in the underground car park. They left unseen by the waiting reporters who had followed them after the doorstep interview.
It was about 10 miles from the centre of Portsmouth to the converted farmhouse, and Marina was impressed to see a couple of ponies grazing in the moonlight. Robert and Jennifer Mann heard them arriving up the long drive and were at the front door – actually, it was Rear Admiral Robert Mann, RN retired. It had been ten years since he left active service after a distinguished naval career, finally serving in the Ministry of Defence after commanding an aircraft carrier. Now he was involved mainly in charity work. David Barclay-Smith had recognised the name and address during the discussion in his office and had already phoned him in advance while Jeremy and Marina were en route to explain the situation in more detail. Robert said he was only too happy to “do his bit” to help and looked forward to meeting the woman concerned. He felt sure that the Navy would not have employed her if there had been any doubt about her loyalty – and “any friend of Susie’s is fine with us”.
The Manns gave them a warm welcome and did not ask any questions. Jeremy left to return home to Portsmouth at the end of a demanding day’s work, promising to return to see Marina the next morning. Jennifer Mann gave their guest a late supper, and they all had a reassuring chat. Marina told them briefly that she was probably a police witness in the story that had been on the news and that because the press were trying to interview her, they had advised her to find somewhere to stay out of the way for the time being. The Admiral said he fully understood, and he encouraged Marina to use their telephone. Although it was now quite late, she briefly rang Betty to thank her for making the arrangement with the Mann family and for helping her to get away from the persistent press.
At last, Marina relaxed and enjoyed a long sleep in the comfort of a luxuriously furnished and equipped guest bedroom. It did not matter that she had brought only her basic toiletries and nightwear plus a change of clothes for the next day. And it was not until nearly 9 am on the Friday morning that Jennifer Mann tapped on the door with apologies for disturbing her, adding that Jeremy Scott had called to say he was on his way and would be there at about ten.
That was just about enough time for Marina to prepare for the day ahead and to enjoy a light breakfast in the sunlit kitchen overlooking the Hampshire countryside.
10.
“FIND MARINA”
On the Friday morning, the Daily Star appeared with its front-page splash and the photograph of Marina Peters – “believed to be the woman involved”. The later editions of other daily papers carried more cautious stories based on the official statement. Then the weekly Portsmouth Herald was on the street and in the local newsagents, also with Marina’s name and photograph displayed boldly. They also had the “exclusive” picture of the car leaving the police station, believed to be carrying the Russian. Otherwise, there was little more detail than in the Daily Star, but Gary’s colourful description of the events soon had the whole town talking.
During the morning, after pressure from the media in London, another short statement was issued by the Foreign Office, releasing the names of the two people involved. It confirmed that the Russian detained in Portsmouth on Wednesday was Nikolai Aldanov, and that he had been taken to London for further questioning by the security services, and that the woman concerned was Marina Peters, a civilian employee in the Royal Navy Commodore’s office in Portsmouth Dockyard. It added that she had been questioned by Portsmouth police regarding her meeting with Aldanov and released pending further inquiries.
An urgent instruction then went out from all the news editors in London to their reporters assigned to the story: “Find Marina.”
There was, in fact, very little more for any of the national reporters to go on other than snippets of information from police contacts, brief conversations with one or two Dockyard workers anxious to get in on the act and a few paragraphs of background local information from Gary Andrews and Mike Morrissey – all of which only served to increase the speculation in the stories they wrote that day.
These few facts took the reporters back to Marina’s home in Southsea – but all they discovered from neighbours was that she had “gone to stay with friends”. But they genuinely had no idea who these friends were, or where they lived.
The Navy and the local police were saying nothing to the press either, so the reporters continued their search for any friends and colleagues who had ever known her, at her first job in London, at Holloway University and in Portsmouth. Meanwhile, in London, the press, radio and TV correspondents specialising in security matters followed up with their contacts and obtained sufficient information to confirm the involvement of MI5 in questioning the Russian. They were also able to discover through their sources that Nikolai Aldanov was now known to be an agent with the GRU in Moscow.
All this was enough to develop the story which appeared in various forms in all the media over the weekend. The Sunday papers made the most of it – and “Russian spy” was in the main headline of every report, as well as the “mystery woman”.
11.
RUSSIAN CONSULAR VISIT
Little had been said during the two-hour Thursday morning drive up the A3 from Portsmouth police station back to London and to the headquarters of the MI5 counterintelligence unit by the River Thames. The Russian officer was in the back of the car, handcuffed to one of the two interrogators, repeatedly asking where they were going and demanding to talk to the Russian embassy – and getting no response from his escort.
When they arrived, the two agents handed the Russian over to a detention officer and they were there in time for the second meeting of the inter-departmental group which had been convened for the early afternoon. This just gave the officers time for a coffee and sandwich and a chance to freshen up before facing their senior management.
This time, the meeting was chaired by the MI5 Director himself – “M” no less – and he explained how the Foreign Office and Scotland Yard’s National Security department were now involved and why their representatives were also around the table. Thomas Spencer began by congratulating the two agents on the success of their mission in Portsmouth to detain and question the Russian and the woman who met him from his ship. He went on to describe how during the past few weeks, a team of his investigators had been reviewing several hundred pages of correspondence between the Russian and his contact in Portsmouth, together with the photographs they had exchanged. Not only had the messages contained enough information to justify detaining the Russian for seeking to recruit a British national as an informant, but with the help of the photos taken in Portsmouth, the experts in face recognition had now identified him as an experienced officer of the GRU Russian Secret Service and not a serving Naval Lieutenant.