In the Company of Spies by Stephen Barlay

Author:Stephen Barlay [Barlay, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Wednesday, September 26

Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine reports: Some “Pentagon strategists consider the present arms buildup in Cuba the first step toward eventual construction of intermediate-range ballistic missile emplacements. They point out that the defensive nature of armaments arriving from Soviet Russia is aimed at preventing aerial photographic reconnaissance, not at preparations to fend off invasion.” Pentagon refutes validity of such speculations.

*

“YOU FUCKING CREEP.”

“No need to become agitated, dear boy.” Charles searched for a dustfree spot for his gray Homburg. “Had to deal with some urgent mail first and didn’t realize it was already half past ten. Sorry.”

“And why did you need to find and hand over the beard and the passport to immigration?”

“I thought it would be best and safest to have everything under one roof.”

“And I thought I could trust you.” Rust felt like killing him.

“You were right. I’m your only hope to get away with, er, let’s say a bit of this and that. For the Russkis are screaming blue murder, which, in fact, may just be the operative word.” Charles knocked on the door and asked the policeman outside the cell to take him and Rust to a detention room that would be more comfortable. “And can we have some coffee, please?” He turned to Rust: “You’ve had some breakfast, I presume.”

“Your hospitality is touching.”

The detention room was a small, bare office, with a desk and two chairs. Rust glanced around. The window to the courtyard was barred. There was a perforated brick in the wall. “I don’t want to be overheard.”

“You won’t be. You must trust me.”

No doubt, thought Rust, but the question is, to what extent can Charles or anybody else be trusted?

“Incidentally, you’ve decided against asking for a lawyer at this stage, right?”

“Right.”

“How about the embassy?”

Rust remembered Holly. “Not at the moment.”

Charles was a good listener. He would not need notes to remember details, and he had the self-control to refrain from asking questions until Rust finished telling him everything — everything except the information he had to convey to Washington.

“So they tricked you into going to Moscow and risking your life.”

“Yes and no. They didn’t think that the risk was that great. It was my fault that I approached Holly despite their warnings. Besides, they took an even bigger risk.”

“Have you had a chance to talk to your father alone?”

“Yes, briefly.”

“What was your impression?”

“He’s a worried, broken man.”

“Yet brave enough to participate in some resistance operation.”

Rust slowly raised and dropped his shoulders.

“Or do you think that he might have been blackmailed into it?”

“I thought about it.”

“And?”

“Discounted it.”

“Why?”

“Because if he was cornered, he could have made some mistake in his original message to me to alert me.”

“Yes, I think I agree. For even if he hardly knew you, he wouldn’t expose you to a suicide mission in vain — no honest father would, right?”

“Right.”

“Which means that he must have cooperated in the scheme willingly. The question is, did he know that his associates were GRU?”

“Are you sure they were? Why not KGB?

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