“I can do better than that. Let’s get Tom on the line, and you can have a chat with him.”
An assistant scuttled away and after a couple of minutes came back with the news that Mr. Spencer was on line one. The Director opened up the speaker phone and began. “It’s Chuck here again, Tom, and I have your nice lady with us to have a word. Is that okay?”
“Hello, that’s fine,” came a familiar British voice. “Hi Marina, how are they treating you there?”
“Very well, thanks – but now I’m told it’s time to come back.”
“Yes, we are making good progress here, and now we would like to spend some time with you again. When can you make it?”
“They’re hoping to get me on a Friday flight so that I can recover at the weekend and then be with you on Monday. How does that sound?”
“That’ll work out okay. Let me know what flight you are on, and we’ll arrange to meet you at Heathrow. Is that okay?”
“Where do I go, and what happens next? And by the way, I think I left the keys to my flat with Patricia, just in case you needed to check on anything while I was away.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure that Patricia has your keys for you. When you arrive, we’ll put you up at the flat here on Thameside again for the weekend, and then we can sort things out on Monday.”
“One other thing, Mr. Spencer,” continued Marina. “I realised the other day that I came away without saying anything to my solicitors in Portsmouth who had been so helpful. Can someone there let them know what is happening?”
“No problem, Marina. I think your police friends in Portsmouth have done that, and they have also kept in touch with your people in the Dockyard. Everyone knows that you are having a nice break in Canada until things settle down again. OK? See you next Monday, then.”
24.
“MARY” RETURNS
On the Wednesday afternoon, just three weeks after the Russian ships had arrived in Portsmouth, there was another senior-level meeting at the Home Office involving the Foreign Office, Scotland Yard, MI5 and MI6. Top of the agenda was to review the Aldanov case and decide on the next steps, and it began with the elegant Oliver Anderson-Scott from the FO leading the way with a surprise announcement.
“We have been having some back-channel exchanges with our contacts at GRU and at the Russian Embassy, and it seems that our little plan may be working out,” he stated. “You may not have known that when we saw the chance to pick up this Aldanov chappie in Portsmouth last month, we had another agenda in mind regarding one of our attachés being held by the Ruskies in Moscow. We have kept this matter very low profile while we tried to find out more, and it appears that they were anxious to keep it quiet, too. His name is Charles Alexander, and they said he had been caught outside the Moscow city limits – as you know, our people have to get special permission to do that. They also claimed that he had been caught taking pictures of one of the latest antennas used by their air defences around the capital. Our fellows in the Moscow embassy have kept us in the picture, of course, but no-one is saying very much – he is under house arrest and has been interviewed several times by the GRU, but it does not seem to be going any further at present.
“So, at one of the meetings where we answered their regular questions about our intentions regarding Aldanov, our people found the right moment to drop the subject of Alexander’s detention into the discussion – and cautiously, they introduced the idea of a swap. The Russians would not commit themselves at first, as usual, but now we have good reason to believe that we could make it work. I suspect that they don’t want the story about their defence antennas to get any attention, and I think they are also nervous about Aldanov going on trial with some spicy evidence about his relationship with the girl – and maybe more. They don’t know what he might say. What has happened to her, by the way?”
Tom then explained that not only had the world’s press been eager to interview her but that a Russian couple had suddenly turned up in Portsmouth looking for her. They had been photographed by the local CID, and it had been possible to identify them as known GRU agents based at the Russian embassy in London. Also, the Russian embassy had sent someone to see the girl’s father and tried to put pressure on him. So it had been decided that Marina Peters should be kept out of sight for a while, and it had been arranged for her to travel to Florida with a new identity to spend a few weeks at the CIA Languages School to learn Russian.
Sir Oliver pondered this information for a minute or two and then delivered his decision.
“You know, I think we can do without a show trial as well. Let’s see if we can get this exchange plan under way, and then you can bring the girl back from the States because she will not be needed to give evidence. What do you all think?”
The lawyers and MI6 agents who had spent many hours preparing the case against Aldanov tried to conceal their disappointment, but they nodded their agreement, as did the others at the meeting. They then turned to the question of Victor Peters and the extent to which he might have been complicit in the affair by informing his Russian friends about his daughter’s work for the Navy. The representative from the Security Service said they had now been monitoring all of Victor Peters’ activities for several weeks and had researched his records and there were certainly suspicions about his relationships with Russian embassy staff. It was agreed that this close surveillance should be continued and reviewed again after the Aldanov matter had been concluded.
There was nothing else on the agenda, and before the meeting broke up, there was a final insistence from Anderson-Scott of the FO that nothing regarding the proposed spy exchange should be leaked until it could be officially announced by the Foreign Office – and that this would be after it had been successfully concluded.
The next morning, Tom received a call from his boss, directing him to call the CIA without delay to bring an end to Marina’s trip and for her to be available for a de-briefing on Monday. After his calls to Chuck and his chat with Marina, Tom set the wheels in motion and soon received a message from Florida with the return flight arrangements. He briefed his associate, Patricia, to meet the flight and to liaise with immigration so that she could pick up her contact at the aircraft door and escort her through the special security section in the VIP arrivals area so that there would be no confusion with her two identities. When a confidential message arrived confirming Marina’s arrival at Terminal 5 at 10 am on Saturday, Patricia replied to confirm that she would be there to welcome her back and take her to the Thameside apartment again for the weekend.
Everything went just as planned. “Mary” was given a farewell party in the office before she was driven off to Orlando airport. She managed to get some sleep during the overnight flight back to London. As she left the plane, she was delighted to see the familiar face of Patricia waiting to welcome her and take her to a special lounge where they completed the formalities with an immigration official and reunited her with her luggage. Eventually, when she was able to relax in the back of the official car, heading into London on the M4, she asked Patricia the question that had been on her mind for the past two days: “So what happens next?”
Patricia could only reply, “There’s a lot going on, Marina, and Tom says he will brief us all at a meeting on Monday. I think you should be able to call your family and friends from the flat over the weekend and tell them what a lovely time you had in Canada. There’s been some more stuff in the press while you’ve been away, but mostly about your Dad and some more guesswork about what the Russian guy, Aldanov, had in mind. You are still the mystery lady in all this, and we want you to stay that way for another few days.”