Red Star Burning: A Thriller by Brian Freemantle

Author:Brian Freemantle [Freemantle, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Espionage, General
ISBN: 9781250013064
Google: wlJXf80QDYcC
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2012-06-19T08:33:59.515000+00:00

“A total, abject disaster,” announced the flushed Sir Archibald Bland, his voice cracked from his earlier confrontation at 10 Downing Street, where his cabinet-secretary competence had unthinkably been questioned for the first time in his ten years’ tenure. “Everything is to be closed down: canceled, abandoned, whatever. This is a disaster for which each of you is required to provide a full and detailed explanation, prior to your being called upon personally to account for what’s happened. Neither of you will leave this room until I am given that explanation.”

Gerald Monsford’s squirmed reaction was heightened by the totally contrasting response from Aubrey Smith, who remained as unmoving as his voice retained its accustomed monotone. Smith said: “We’ve only had the opportunity of seeing the televised seizures, hearing the Russians’ accusations, and reading the Evening Standard. What, diplomatically, has so far come from Moscow?”

The cabinet secretary made an impatient, fly-flicking gesture to Geoffrey Palmer, who said: “The indications are they intend officially charging all sixteen with spying and publicly arraign them in court, just as we arraigned their diplomats. The ambassador’s preliminary assessment is that even if we try to negotiate with a release offer for their burglars, Moscow will still impose a prison term and keep us on a string for months.…”

“Maybe, even, including in that imprisonment the two tourists, both male, who’ve already suffered heart attacks,” expanded Bland. Outraged, he continued: “Consider the situation you’ve created! Sixteen totally innocent British holidaymakers incarcerated in a Siberian gulag, for God knows how long! It’s absolutely appalling.”

“So where’s your bloody man, Charlie Muffin or Malcolm Stoat or whatever the hell you choose to call him!” resumed the Foreign Office liaison to the Joint Intelligence Committee, directly addressing Smith.

“I don’t know,” admitted the MI5 Director-General. “And until I do, we can’t close anything down. Nor, in my opinion, should we consider exchange negotiations involving their diplomats. They’re our only bargaining lever. We shouldn’t surrender it. Any more than we should be panicked by suggestions of show trials and Siberian imprisonment. They’ve scored an impressive PR coup and they know it. They won’t risk their advantage by putting sick men in jail.”

“We’re not asking your opinion,” rejected Bland. “We’re ordering you to extricate yourselves and this government from a total, unimaginable mess.…” He looked around the table. “How do we find the damn man to get ourselves out of it?”

“I take it any thoughts of extracting his wife and daughter are abandoned?” ventured Jane Ambersom.

“Of course it does!” said Bland, irritably. “Do you have a constructive point?”

“One of my responsibilities is American liaison. Why don’t we ask their help in locating Charlie Muffin in Moscow?”

Palmer broke the ensuing silence. “Again, what’s your point?”

“The most obvious is utilizing more people in the search,” offered Jane. “It would also widen the responsibility by letting an American involvement become known.”

“He’s still your man,” challenged Rebecca Street, eager to separate MI6 from direct accountability for Charlie Muffin.

Jane smiled at the intervention. “Not if we also let it be known that Muffin is no longer in either of our services, but instead that he’s gone freelance.

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