The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John LeCarre

Author:John LeCarre
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2002-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

“So you said,” Fiedler commented, “and of course, I believe you.”

“I don’t give a damn whether you believe me or not,” Leamas rejoined hotly.

Fiedler smiled.

“I am glad. That is your virtue,” he said, “that is your great virtue. It is the virtue of indifference. A little resentment here, a little pride there, but that is nothing: the distortions of a tape recorder. You are objective. It occurred to me,” Fiedler continued after a slight pause, “that you could still help us to establish whether any of that money was ever drawn. There is nothing to stop you writing to each bank and asking for a current statement. We could say you were staying in Switzerland; use an accommodation address. Do you see any objection to that?”

“It might work. It depends on whether Control has been corresponding with the bank independently, over my forged signature. It might not fit in.”

“I do not see that we have much to lose.”

“What have you got to win?”

“If the money has been drawn, which I agree is doubtful, we shall know where the agent was on a certain day. That seems to be a useful thing to know.”

“You’re dreaming. You’ll never find him, Fiedler, not on that kind of information. Once he’s in the West he can go to any consulate, even in a small town and get a visa for another country. How are you any the wiser? You don’t even know whether the man is East German. What are you after?”

Fiedler did not answer at once. He was gazing distractedly across the valley. -

“You said you are accustomed to knowing only a little, and I cannot answer your question without telling you what you should not know.” He hesitated: “But Rolling Stone was an operation agamst us, I can assure you.,’

“Us?”

“The GDR.” He smiled. “The Zone if you prefer. I am not really so sensitive.”

He was watching Fiedler now, his brown eyes restmg on him reflectively.

“But what about me?” Learnas asked. “Suppose I don’t write the letters?” His voice was rising. “Isn’t it time to talk about me, Fiedler?”

Fiedler nodded. “Why not?” he replied, agreeably.

There was a moment’s silence, then Leamas said, “Fve done my bit, Fiedler. You and Peters between you have got all I know. I never agreed to write letters to banks-it could be bloody dangerous, a thing like that. That doesn’t worry you, I know. As far as you’re concerned I’m expendable.”

“Now let me be frank,” Fiedler replied. “There are, as you know, two stages in the interrogation of a defector. The first stage in your case is nearly complete: you have told us all we can reasonably record. You have not - told us whether your Service favors pins or paper clips because we haven’t asked you, and because you did not consider the answer worth volunteering. There is a process on both sides of unconscious selection. Now it is always possible–and this is the worrying thing, Leamas–it is always entirely

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.