Lost American

by Brian Freemantle

  At the apartment block he put his car in the reserved space and climbed slowly to their apartment. Outside Blair hesitated, remembering the recall to Washington. He’d tell her tomorrow, he determined. Not tonight; tonight was going to be a shock. She’d need something tomorrow: poor Ann. Poor lovely, adorable Ann.

  Blair hesitated a few moments longer, preparing himself and finally went in. Ann was sitting in the main room, close to the matroyshka set he hated. Something he shouldn’t forget to clear and pack tomorrow.

  ‘Darling,’ said Blair, solemn-voiced. ‘I’ve got the most terrible news about Jeremy Brinkman.’

  Epilogue

  ‘Could there have been a connection?’ Panov was ashen-faced and the hand holding the cigarette had a palsied shake. His question was blurred by an outburst of coughing and Sokol waited until the chairman recovered before replying.

  ‘A possibility. The two were friends,’ he said. It had all been resolved by the most incredible luck but no one apart from himself knew that and Sokol had cleverly orchestrated all the credit.

  ‘Blair’s gone?’

  ‘And the man King, whom they drafted in with the cover of temporary archivist,’ confirmed Sokol. ‘We’ve kept Krasnaya under observation for two months now. The new man hasn’t been there once.’

  There was another outburst of coughing and Sokol waited patiently. Eventually the KGB chairman said, ‘We’ve been able to mount a very effective propaganda campaign, because of the position of Brinkman’s father. Everything has worked out most satisfactorily.’

  Not completely, thought Sokol: I’m still waiting for the announcement. He said, ‘I’m glad.’

  ‘The congratulations this time don’t just come from me,’ said Panov. ‘I’ve been asked to express them on the part of the Politburo, as well.’

  ‘That’s extremely gratifying,’ said Sokol, properly modest. Was today going to be the day?

  ‘It is necessary for me to retire,’ declared Panov, clearing his throat as if to indicate the reason. He smiled across the desk. ‘Of course that will mean changes.’

  It was to be today! thought Sokol. He said, hoping the excitement wasn’t obvious in his voice, ‘Of course. I understand.’

  ‘I’ve already made clear the admiration that the Politburo have for you. Not just for the Brinkman affair; they fully realise how well you contained the disruption following the famine …’ The chairman’s pause this time was for the other man to assimilate the praise. ‘They feel,’ Panov began again, ‘that there is no one else at the required echelon within the organisation who could fulfil as well as yourself the position of Deputy, in charge of the Second Chief Directorate. And I, of course, agree with that assessment. You’re irreplaceable. Again, congratulations. The confidence in you is absolute …’

  ‘But …’ tried Sokol.

  ‘The chairmanship, by the way, is going to the Deputy of the First Chief Directorate, Sergei Golvbev …’

  A Biography of Brian Freemantle

  Brian Freemantle (b. 1936) is one of Britain’s most prolific and accomplished authors of spy fiction. His novels have sold more than ten million copies worldwide, and have been optioned for numerous film and television adaptations.

  Born in Southampton, on the southern coast of England, Freemantle began his career as a journalist. In 1975, as the foreign editor at the Daily Mail, he made headlines during the American evacuation of Saigon: As the North Vietnamese closed in on the city, Freemantle became worried about the future of the city’s orphans. He lobbied his superiors at the paper to take action, and they agreed to fund an evacuation for the children. In three days, Freemantle organized a thirty-six-hour helicopter airlift for ninety-nine children, who were transported to Britain. In a flash of dramatic inspiration, he changed nearly one hundred lives—and sold a bundle of newspapers.

  Although he began writing espionage fiction in the late 1960s, he first won fame in 1977, with Charlie M. That book introduced the world to Charlie Muffin—a disheveled spy with a skill set more bureaucratic than Bond-like. The novel, which drew favorable comparisons to the work of John Le Carré, was a hit, and Freemantle began writing sequels. The sixth in the series, The Blind Run, was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. To date, Freemantle has penned fourteen titles in the Charlie Muffin series, the most recent of which is Red Star Rising (2010), which brought back the popular spy after a nine-year absence.

  In addition to the stories of Charlie Muffin, Freemantle has written more than two dozen standalone novels, many of them under pseudonyms including Jonathan Evans and Andrea Hart. Freemantle’s other series include two books about Sebastian Holmes, an illegitimate son of Sherlock Holmes, and the four Cowley and Danilov books, which were written in the years after the end of the Cold War and follow an odd pair of detectives—an FBI operative and the head of Russia’s organized crime bureau.

  Freemantle lives and works in London, England.

  A school photograph of Brian Freemantle at age twelve.

  Brian Freemantle, at age fourteen, with his mother, Violet, at the country estate of a family acquaintance, Major Mears.

  Freemantle’s parents, Harold and Violet Freemantle, at the country estate of Major Mears.

  Brian Freemantle and his wife, Maureen, on their wedding day. They were married on December 8, 1956, in Southampton, where both were born and spent their childhoods. Although they attended the same schools, they did not meet until after they had both left Southampton.

  Brian Freemantle (right) with photographer Bob Lowry in 1959. Freemantle and Lowry opened a branch office of the Bristol Evening World together in Trowbridge, in Wiltshire, England.

  A bearded Freemantle with his wife, Maureen, circa 1971. He grew the beard for an undercover newspaper assignment in what was then known as Czechoslovakia.

  Freemantle (left) with Lady and Sir David English, the editors of the Daily Mail, on Freemantle’s fiftieth birthday. Freemantle was foreign editor of the Daily Mail, and with the backing of Sir David and the newspaper, he organized the airlift rescue of nearly one hundred Vietnamese orphans from Saigon in 1975.

  Freemantle working on a novel before beginning his daily newspaper assignments. His wife, Maureen, looks over his shoulder.

  Brian Freemantle says good-bye to Fleet Street and the Daily Mail to take up a fulltime career as a writer in 1975. The editor’s office was turned into a replica of a railway carriage to represent the fact that Freemantle had written eight books while commuting—when he wasn’t abroad as a foreign correspondent.

  Many of the staff secretaries are dressed as Vietnamese hostesses to commemorate the many tours Freemantle carried out in Vietnam.

  The Freemantle family on the grounds of the Winchester Cathedral in 1988. Back row: wife Maureen; eldest daughter, Victoria; and mother-in-law, Alice Tipney, a widow who lived with the Freemantle family for a total of forty-eight years until her death. Second row: middle daughter, Emma; granddaughter, Harriet; Freemantle; and third daughter, Charlotte.

  Freemantle in 1999, in the Outer Close outside Winchester Cathedral. For thirty years, he lived with his family in the basement library of a fourteenth-century house with a tunnel connecting it to the cathedral. Priests used this tunnel to escape persecution during the English Reformation.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.

  copyright © 1986 by Brian Freemantle

  cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa

  This edition published in 2011 by Open Road Integrated Media

  180 Varick Street

  New York, NY 10014

  www.openroadmedia.com

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Epilogue

  A Biography of Brian Freemantle

  Copyright Page