Part 11 (1/2)

'Everything is an eagerness to please, to impress us,' pointed out Berenkov. 'We want to get whoever it is in contact with the British, not be misled by somebody saying anything that comes into his head, imagining it's going to be what we want to hear.'

Kalenin gestured towards the now blank screen in the viewing room. 'There was nothing there to give any indication that Sampson might do that,' Kalenin paused. 'In fact,' he added. 'From your a.s.sessment the person that might do that is Charlie m.u.f.fin.'

Berenkov shook his head. 'Charlie m.u.f.fin won't trick me again,' he said.

'He made it possible for you to be repatriated,' reminded the Chairman.

'Because it suited his purpose, not because of me,' said Berenkov. Now Berenkov indicated the screen in front of them. 'My first loyalty is always to me,' he quoted.

'Do you want to meet him again?' asked Kalenin.

'Very much,' admitted Berenkov. 'Very much indeed.'

Chapter Twelve.

Not bad, judged Charlie, reviewing the debriefing. But not good, either. A stupid start, from which he'd had to make a hurried recovery and he would never know if that recovery was obvious. And she'd backed him into a corner at the end. But they were minimal uncertainties. The biggest and one he'd failed to realise until now because everything had been so hurried was the possibility that Sampson knew, from his then undiscovered position in London, how Wilson had used the Italian amba.s.sador. Would there be any trace of his own involvement? The British Director had been personally involved, keeping it a top echelon matter, but Charlie supposed there would have had to be some headquarter discussion. And official paper work. Sampson had been number three on the Russian desk, he recalled. If there had been paper work, no matter how minimal, then at that clearance level Sampson would have read it. If he'd read it, then Sampson would have alerted Moscow, Charlie thought, carrying the internal discussion further. So why had she bothered to quiz him so closely? Maybe not the sort of test he'd imagined. Maybe he'd misinterpreted the whole d.a.m.ned thing and they'd just been checking to see whether he'd co-operate or lie. If that were the case then he'd emerged worse than he imagined. Worse but still recoverable. He'd said he wasn't sure he'd co-operate and if he were later accused of lying about Italy he could convincingly argue that he wasn't lying but uncertain at the time of his first debriefing about a full commitment. Could he argue it convincingly? He wouldn't know until he tried. Back in the familiar labyrinth, he recognised. Difficult to imagine that just a month earlier five weeks at the most he was actually missing it.

As Charlie entered the shared apartment, to find the anxious Sampson waiting directly beyond the threshold, Charlie realised a way to retrace some of his steps if he had been trapped.

'What happened?' demanded Sampson at once.

'A debriefing, that's all,' said Charlie, moving further into the main room.

'What do you mean, that's all! What happened? Was it a committee? Just one man? What do they want?' He jerked his hand, irritably towards the telephone. 'I've been sitting in this d.a.m.ned box all day and there's been nothing, nothing at all.'

'You keep telling me how important you are,' said Charlie. 'Perhaps they need time to prepare.'

'Cut it out,' insisted Sampson, voice quiet in his anger. 'I want to know what it's like.'

It had gone well, decided Charlie. 'Just one person,' he recounted. 'A woman in my case. Natalia Fedova. Said she knew nothing about me, which had to be a lie. You know as well as I do the sort of records they keep. Went over everything, in a pretty general manner, from the time I exposed the Director. Finally asked me if I'd co-operate.'

'You said yes, of course,' antic.i.p.ated the other man.

'No,' said Charlie.

'No!'

'Depends what they want me to do.'

'No it doesn't and you know it,' said Sampson. 'Christ, when are you going to learn?'

'I won't betray everything, not like you.'

'You haven't got any choice.'

Not the response he'd wanted, thought Charlie. 'Maybe you haven't,' he said. 'You're committed.'

'There was discussion about me!'

Better, thought Charlie. 'Yes,' he said.

'What? When?'

Perfect, decided Charlie, taking the second query. 'Soon after I was questioned about my detection in Italy. You knew all about that, of course.'

'About what?' asked Sampson, impatient again.

'My arrest in Italy. You were in London then?'

Sampson shook his head. 'Beirut,' he said. 'I didn't get back for several months after. The trial hadn't happened, but you were back in the country.'

So the man wouldn't have known! Safe, thought Charlie. It had been easier than he thought. Not wanting a later discernible pause he said, 'They asked if I knew anything of you in the service. What sort of person you were. Whether I liked you even.'

'What did you say?'

'That I never encountered you when I was working in the department, that I thought you were a s.h.i.+t and that I didn't like you.'

'b.a.s.t.a.r.d!' exploded Sampson.

'Do you think a reference from me is important?'

'Because of me you're not rotting in jail.'

'Because of you a copper is dead and a prison officer is probably brain damaged.'

'Aren't you ever going to forget that?'

'No,' said Charlie simply.

'You're a c.u.n.t.'

'One of us is.' Had he covered everything he wanted to? wondered Charlie. It had to be now. He said. 'You'll cooperate, naturally? As soon as you're asked?'

Sampson frowned, surprised at the question. 'This is the moment I've been working towards waiting for for ten years. I just can't understand why I'm being treated like this.'

'It's only the first day, for Christ's sake,' said Charlie. It seemed much longer.

'I don't deserve it,' protested Sampson, petulantly. 'After all I've done, the risks I've taken, I don't deserve to be ignored, not even on the first day.'

'Perhaps you're not as important as you think you are then,' jeered Charlie.

'We'll see,' said Sampson. He laughed, viciously, and said, 'And do you know what I'm going to do, when I get into some position of power?'

'What?' said Charlie.