Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré

Author:John le Carré
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9780241986554
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-08-11T16:00:00+00:00

12

Moscow has spoken. Arkady has spoken. I have spoken and been heard. Dom Trench has torn up his letter to the disciplinary committee. London General has reimbursed my travel expenses, but questioned my use of a taxi to the lakeside hotel in Karlovy Vary. It seems there was a bus I could have taken. Russia department under the temporary leadership of Guy Brammel has declared the Pitchfork case active and immediate. His master, Bryn Jordan, has signalled his assent from Washington and kept to himself whatever thoughts he may have about a certain officer’s unscripted visit to a toxic former agent. The notion of a traitor of Arkady’s stature in our midst has caused an appropriate fluttering of Whitehall’s dovecotes. Agent Pitchfork, installed in a two-room ground-floor apartment in the northern reaches of inner London, has received no fewer than three encoded under-texts from his notional Danish inamorata Anette, and their contents send a thrill through the Haven that instantly transmits itself to Dom Trench, Russia department and Operations Directorate in ascending order:

‘It is God’s vindication, Peter,’ Sergei whispers to me in an awestruck voice. ‘Maybe it is His wish that I shall be only a very small player in a great operation of which I must be otherwise ignorant. It is immaterial to me. I wish only to prove my good heart.’

Reluctant to shake off old suspicions, nonetheless, Percy Price’s watchers maintain counter-surveillance-lite on him on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, 2.00–6.00 p.m, which is the most Percy can currently afford. Sergei has also asked his minder Denise whether, if he is granted British citizenship, she will accept his hand in marriage. Denise suspects that Barry has found another and that Sergei, rather than admit this to himself, has decided he is straight. The prospects of a union are however slim. Denise is a lesbian and has a wife.

Moscow Centre’s carbon under-texts endorse Sergei’s choice of lodgings and demand further detailed information on the two remaining selected North London districts, thereby confirming the perfectionist Anette’s taste for over-organization. Particular reference is made to public parks, pedestrian and vehicular access, opening and closing times, the presence or otherwise of wardens, rangers and ‘vigilant elements’. The location of park benches, gazebos, bandstands and parking availability are also points of great interest. Signals intelligence has confirmed an unusual swell of traffic in and out of Moscow Centre’s Northern department.

Since my return from Karlovy Vary my relations with Dom Trench are enjoying a predictable honeymoon, even if Russia department has discreetly relieved him of his authority in all matters relating to Stardust, the random codename thrown up by Head Office’s computer to cover the exploitation of data passing between Moscow Centre and Source Pitchfork. But Dom, convinced as ever that rejection is just around the next corner, remains determinedly exalted by the notion that my reports bear our joint symbols. He is aware of his dependence on me and unnerved by it, which I find quietly pleasing.

*

I had promised to get back to Florence but in the euphoria of the moment I had put it off.

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