She told him where she was staying and gave him the phone number, adding, “Don’t tell anyone where I am and don’t ring my mobile – the police still have my phone.”
When Jeremy arrived, they settled in the sitting room with cups of coffee, and Marina told him about her conversations with her father. They were interrupted when Jeremy Scott took the phone call from the receptionist at his office with the news about the box returned by the police and the visit by two Russians claiming to be Marina’s relatives. Marina said she had no idea who they might be, so Jeremy decided that he would go back to the office in the city at lunchtime and be there to meet up with them in the early afternoon.
After hearing about this further complication, Jeremy decided to hook up with David Barclay-Smith, who was still at his home in Old Portsmouth. On a three-way call, they began by discussing why the Russian Embassy had contacted Victor Peters. So far as Marina knew, he had never had any reason to be in touch with the Embassy – although, of course, it was only natural that he had a network of friends in London with Russian ancestry, and she knew they met from time to time. But they had been business people, not diplomats, she insisted.
“Let’s review this,” said David. “The Russian Embassy’s intelligence people are told by the Foreign Office that the naval officer Aldanov has been detained for questioning by MI5. They also learn that the investigation is about his contact with Marina, who works in an important Royal Navy section. They know from the exchange of messages recorded in Moscow that Marina’s family came from Russia back in the 1930s and had changed their name from Petrov to Peters. They also knew that Aldanov’s mission was to find a way to recruit Marina as an informant, possibly through a romantic relationship.”
Marina looked horrified by this and David went on: “Sorry Marina, but that’s how it looks. The Russians have now sent two of their spooks to Portsmouth to try to find you. So now, what are their options? They will discover that you were released by the police after being interviewed, presumably because MI5 believed that you had become innocently involved with your online friend. No doubt they will need you to testify against Aldanov. So why are the Russian Embassy chasing your father? Do they want to use your father to persuade you to deny that there was any suggestion of passing confidential information?”
Marina interrupted. “They don’t need to involve my father about that.”
“Well,” continued David. “Do they think that, in the long run, you and possibly your father could be useful to them? Could they have some information they could use to put pressure on your father and maybe use it to exploit your experience and knowledge about the Navy? Aldanov at least succeeded in discovering your potential value through his subterfuge. I think you should have another word with your father, so I suggest you call him now – and ask Jeremy to call me again afterwards.”
They cleared the phone line, and Marina went to find Mrs. Mann and asked if she could use their phone again. Admiral Mann had gone out to his golf club for the day, anyway, and the house was quiet, she said, so go ahead.
Victor answered the phone and said, “I’m glad you rang. The man at the Embassy has just called me again and asked if he could drive me to Portsmouth to meet up with you. I said you were not at your flat and I had no idea where you were. I don’t know who he is, and I expect he will call again. What do you think?”
“I’d rather just see you, Dad, so that we can have a quiet chat about all this. Hold on a moment, I have a very helpful solicitor here with me, and I will see what he thinks.”
Marina then gave this information to Jeremy, who also thought that if her father wanted to meet up, they should just go ahead, and there was no reason why he should involve the Russian Embassy man. Marina relayed this view to her father, who said he would go ahead and get a train to Portsmouth as soon as possible and let her know when he arrived, hopefully later that afternoon. She gave him the Mann’s phone number again and ended the call.
On the way back to Portsmouth in his car, Jeremy called his boss at home again and told him about the latest developments.
“This is sounding a bit sinister,” said David. “Three Russians now want to meet Marina, and they are up to no good, and one of them is talking to her father. I think I will let the police know about this. I’ll get back to you”
David called the Portsmouth CID and told them that he was now advising Marina Peters; he was eventually put through to Detective Superintendent Maggs.
“You may know some of this already,” he began, “but there are a few things going on I thought I should share with you. First of all, Miss Peters wanted to get away from the press gathered at her front door, and through a friend, she has gone away for the weekend to a house in the country near Rowlands Castle. As you probably saw on TV, we escorted her out of her flat, and my colleague, Jeremy Scott, then drove her to stay with these friends, who turn out to be Rear Admiral Robert Mann and his wife. That was a surprise, I must say, but the young lady obviously has some well-connected friends. Anyway, Jeremy went back to visit her this morning, and two things have happened. First, Marina rang her father to reassure him and to let her parents know where she was staying. He then told her that the Russian Embassy people have been in touch with him again today, offering to take him to Portsmouth to see his daughter.”
Superintendent Maggs interrupted. “If the Embassy is in contact with Victor Peters, they will also have traced the call he had from Marina, so they probably know where she is by now. What did she tell him to do?”
“On Jeremy’s advice, she told him to ignore the call from the Embassy and just get on a train to Portsmouth and let her know when he arrived. But that’s not all,” continued David. “Two foreigners – a man and a woman – arrived at my office this morning and told the receptionist that they were relatives of Marina and wanted to see her. From their accents, we think they may have been Russians. There was no one else at the office who could help, so she rang Jeremy, and he told her he would meet them there at about two this afternoon. And by the way, Marina does not know of any Russian relatives in London who might be here and wanting to see her.”
“Well, that’s all very interesting… thank you for this,” said Maggs. “So there are now three Russians who want to see Marina, and we still have to follow up our inquiries with her and with the navy people. The plot thickens. I imagine they knew about your firm’s connection in this from your interview outside the flats last night. You know, I think I’ll get a couple of my people to go to your offices this afternoon to take a look at the Russian couple when they arrive and maybe discover who they really are.”
Maggs next reached his contact at MI5, Tom Spencer, on a secure line and briefed him on these latest developments in Portsmouth. “OK,” he was told. “Sounds like a couple of agents from the London section of GRU are sniffing around. I doubt if you will discover much by meeting them, but it will be good to let them know you are aware of their activities. Can you get someone to snatch a picture of them so that we can check them out? And by the way, the most important thing you can do is to keep the woman under wraps. Bring her in for more questioning if necessary. In any case, we will need to talk to her again on Monday.”