Red Star Burning

by Brian Freemantle

  “I really didn’t know,” said Charlie.

  “The committee convenes tomorrow. I’ll still have my cell phone with me but I won’t be able to take calls as freely as I could in my own office: probably won’t keep it on when we’re in session. I won’t know how we’re going to work until after tomorrow.”

  “I’m introducing another precaution,” announced Charlie, lifting from beside the table a bag she hadn’t seen. “Details of your cell phone will be on record at Lubyanka, easily scanned. I’m giving you six new phones, all charge-card operated, so there’s no billing address. I didn’t buy more than one from any shop, choosing new names and addresses at random. Nothing’s traceable to you. Or me. Use one a day, discarding it when you leave Lubyanka at night but taking out the SIM card and battery before you do.”

  “Do you think it’s necessary,” Natalia accepted, doubtfully.

  “I do,” said Charlie, glad she’d moved on. “I’ll call at noon. If your phone’s off I’ll call at seven and if it’s still off every hour on the hour, after that. If you keep it on mute and still don’t reply I’ll know you’re with people, disconnect, and try again later.”

  “I understand.”

  “Understand something more,” stressed Charlie. “You’re not under suspicion, but don’t take the slightest chance. In the conditions you’ve described, internal security will be paranoid. Don’t contact me. I’ll call you, always from a different phone. And I’m no longer at the Mira.”

  “What’s your new hotel like?”

  “A great improvement. I’ve got the bed all to myself.”

  “You needn’t be all by yourself, at least not for an hour or so.”

  * * *

  “Thank you both for coming back now. I didn’t want this to extend overnight,” said Aubrey Smith, coming to the end of his account of the Foreign Office encounter. “I want you to sleep on what I’ve told you and have ideas ready first thing tomorrow.”

  “You caught me before I’d got home,” said Passmore.

  “I’ve put my plans back,” said Jane Ambersom, relieved she’d reached Barry Elliott still at the American embassy. “I told you the sort of man Monsford is, didn’t I?”

  “He’s been using the Charlie Muffin business all along,” acknowledged Smith.

  “Where did Charlie’s extraction fit in?” questioned Passmore.

  “I don’t precisely know and won’t guess,” admitted the Director-General. “The only thing I am sure about is that he didn’t have anything to do with Monsford’s maneuvers. It’s essential, now, that we find Charlie. Monsford’s trying to load the blame onto Charlie for everything that’s gone wrong with Radtsic.”

  “If Charlie wasn’t involved, he was ahead of us all, suspecting it wasn’t a straight operation,” Jane pointed out.

  “We won’t know that until we get hold of him but it looks that way. I just wish he’d break cover.”

  “The last orders to those waiting for him to do just that were to use force if necessary,” reminded Passmore. “I think we should scale that down.”

  “Agreed,” said Smith, at once. “Everything has to be reevaluated.”

  “I’m surprised Monsford wasn’t challenged more strongly,” said Passmore. “His story still doesn’t explain his total disregard of what he was specifically ordered not to do. He’s built an embarrassing diplomatic foothill into a bloody great mountain.”

  “Bland and Palmer are desperate for any way out and if Monsford’s scenario works, they’ve got it,” judged Smith. “I didn’t have anything to oppose him. But there’s a very fine line we’ve got to stay behind. Whatever we do to distance ourselves, we don’t screw up Radtsic’s defection. We do anything and everything to help get the wife and son here. Which means supporting Monsford, who’s right, Radtsic is the prize of the century.”

  “You’ve just rounded a circle we can’t break,” complained Passmore.

  “That’s why tonight, starting right now, is important,” insisted Smith. “So far we’ve caught all the shit, some of it deserved. I’ll acknowledge the mistakes in what Charlie’s done. But none of those for which we’re not responsible. If Elana and Andrei are allowed to continue on, Monsford will be the golden boy who took a huge risk that worked. We’ll be the incompetents who got everything wrong and don’t deserve to be here any longer. That’s the circle we’ve got to make into a square with enough sharp edges to snag Monsford and we’ve got a little over twelve hours to do it.”

  Passmore turned sideways to Jane. “You know how the wheels go around over there.”

  When all the brakes were taken off, which she now believed they were, she thought. She was encouraged minutes later when the number she rang from her office was answered and all the more so by the conversation that followed. As usual, Barry Elliott was waiting ahead of her when Jane entered the grill room at the Connought hotel an hour after that.

  “I’d like to think you were held up by something involving a certain mother and son I’d guess right now are somewhere close to the Eiffel Tower,” he greeted.

  “Things are happening even nearer than that,” said Jane.

  * * *

  Charlie’s reaction had been surprise before excitement at Natalia’s suggestion and probably because of it their lovemaking hadn’t been as good as it usually was. The real satisfaction had come afterward, entwined and tightly holding each other, neither one needing sex or to talk or even to think, just to be there and have the touch and the feel and the comfort of each other.

  It was only after Natalia left, carrying her disposable telephones, that Charlie let his thinking run, although at the beginning unfocused, and his once-more-tentative mosaic turned upside down into yet another heap. Natalia was objectively right about the repercussive effects that Radtsic’s defection would have upon his getting her and Sasha safely away, but putting more locks on a stable door from which its horse had bolted was predictable. Unlocking them quickly afterward wasn’t, which just might give him the sufficient advantage of surprise. But there was a long way to go and a lot more to evaluate before they got that far, the major imponderable of which was whether Natalia would be strong enough at that final, nerve-snapping moment of crossing from one existence to another. And because it would remain imponderable it was going to hang over them, undermining their confidence until that precise moment. Which required he do as much as was conceivably possible to instill additional confidence within Natalia. He hoped he’d begun well, insisting the committee appointment was incontrovertible proof that her loyalty was now unquestioned. How was he going to maintain that necessary momentum? The most obvious way was by no longer remaining unconnected and out of touch on the periphery.

  It was time to contact the embassy.

  26

  In the cold dawn after overnight reflection Charlie acknowledged the reaction to his reemergence would be so unpredictable that he needed not just Janus but a virtual army of two-way-facing protectors to watch his back. And all he had was David Halliday, who unquestionably qualified as two-faced but for that reason was very definitely not a protective friend. Halliday did, however, sound more in control when he answered Charlie’s arranged contact. There’d been no overnight traffic from London, Halliday said, but from online surfing of the news wires he’d established the French seizures had achieved widespread international coverage. There was no named identification but increasing speculation that the alleged kidnap had been part of a major but now-foiled espionage operation. There was further speculation that an explanation was being demanded by the French government from London, from which there had so far been no response. Neither had there been any public reaction from the Kremlin.

  “I’ve got it all ready, every regulation and agreement there is for an internal inquiry if they come at me,” declared Halliday.

  “Good for you,” encouraged Charlie. “What’s happening with my support team?”

  “Probably nothing more than professional curiosity,” said Halliday. “But I’ve already
had two separate visits from your guys, asking me what’s going on.”

  The first glint of light, gauged Charlie. “What did you tell them?”

  “That I didn’t know: I told you I’d been ordered against sharing with them.”

  Could he trick Halliday unsuspectingly into the answer he wanted? wondered Charlie. “Not even now it’s all over with Radtsic safely away? They’re your guys, not officially mine.”

  “Briddle was my second unexpected visitor. The first was your man, Wilkinson. He was waiting when I got here this morning.”

  Why would two men supposedly working together make separate approaches? The most obvious answer, confirming Charlie’s double-cross suspicion, was that they weren’t working together. He said: “They appear worried, anything like that?”

  “Difficult to say,” hedged Halliday. “Probably wondering if it might be something more interesting than sitting around on their asses.”

  Had London made Wilkinson supervisor of the MI5 backup team during the time he’d been out of contact? Charlie said: “What else is happening at the embassy?”

  “A lot, indicated by its total, ostracizing silence,” said Halliday. “As always, when something goes wrong at our end, we cease to exist, remember?”

  Charlie decided he probably didn’t need Halliday to tell him anything more, but it was important to retain the man as a potential source, which required avoiding frightening the man away. “I’m thinking of making a move.”

  “Doing what?” demanded Halliday, instantly alarmed.

  “At the moment it’s you I’m considering,” lied Charlie. “It was wise of you to stick to London’s edict with Wilkinson. Keep doing that, if you hear anything involving me. I don’t want your being linked to me: no hint we might have been in contact.”

  “Neither do I!” said Halliday, sincerity obvious in his voice for the first time.

  “Just listen to everything,” urged Charlie.

  “You’ll tell me what’s going on, though, won’t you?”

  “That’s our deal, isn’t it: mutual self-protection?”

  * * *

  Wilkinson’s cell phone was answered on its fourth ring without any identifying acknowledgment, and from the total silence beyond and the response delay Charlie guessed Wilkinson had quieted those around him. Charlie said: “You know who this is, Patrick. Don’t let the others waste their time trying to isolate where I am. It’s a public kiosk. You’ve probably discovered our technicians fitted trackers into the ones issued to us in London.”

  “It’s good to hear from you at last.” Wilkinson’s voice sounded more computer generated than human.

  Despite the pointlessness they’d still attempt to locate him, Charlie knew. “The reason for your being here hasn’t changed but I’m only working with you, Warren, and Preston. Tell London that. Tell them also that the four of us were part of a setup, me most of all. I want you to make sure that gets through to the Director-General.”

  “I need—”

  “The need is for the two of us to meet.”

  “That’s what I want.”

  It was going to be foot aching and tiresome, Charlie accepted, but there was no other way. “Are you familiar with the Moscow Metro system?”

  “No.”

  “It has a circle line, just like London. Here it’s called Kol’cevaja. Ride it, tomorrow, between ten and noon.”

  “What else?”

  “Just that.”

  “Where will we meet?”

  “Where—and when—I decide,” said Charlie.

  “I don’t follow what you’re saying.….”

  “The scanners haven’t picked up where I’m speaking from, have they?”

  “I don’t follow that, either.”

  “Everyone around you have been scanning ever since we started talking, trying to locate me, haven’t they?”

  “We’re not all together.”

  “What you’ve got to understand is that none of you will be able to find me now and none of you will be able to pick me up tomorrow, irrespective of how closely they stay with you. I’m telling you—and I want you to tell the Director-General this as well—that we were decoys and that I know Monsford’s operation has gone bad.”

  “You expect me to go around and around in circles, until you decide to make contact?” demanded Wilkinson.

  “That’s precisely what I expect. I also expect all of the others to go around and around with you, although pretending not to be with you. I’ll find you but neither you nor anyone with you will be able to locate me. I’ll only approach you when I’m completely satisfied you’re alone.”

  “What about the reason for our being here.”

  “It’s still active but without MI6. Make that very clear to London, And tell the Director-General that the other extraction has hugely increased the value of ours.”

  * * *

  “Thanks for meeting me,” said Jane Ambersom.

  “What meeting?” said James Straughan, pointedly. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed being able to talk to her.

  She smiled. “There isn’t one. You know you can trust me as I know I can trust you.”

  “We committed ourselves when you called last night and by my being here,” said Straughan. She’d concealed her car among a line of other anonymous vehicles close to the Oval underground station at which she’d been waiting for him, fifteen minutes earlier.

  “Smith told me all that happened at the Foreign Office yesterday.”

  “Told only you?”

  “Passmore was with me.”

  “I’m not sure whether what I was told is the truth.”

  “It probably was not.”

  Straughan didn’t answer as spontaneously as Jane had hoped, staring directly ahead at the empty cars. At last he said: “More than probably not.”

  It was a chance she had to take, Jane decided. “Monsford set us up, didn’t he, with Charlie and his family?”

  “He intended to sabotage it.”

  “Is he still trying?”

  “I don’t know. It’s a repeat of what happened to you, Monsford protecting himself.”

  “Is Charlie in physical danger?”

  Straughan didn’t reply.

  “James?”

  “He should be careful.”

  Jane felt nothing, neither surprise nor anger. “Aubrey Smith thinks Monsford could still get away with it, bringing us down in the process.”

  Straughan frowned across the car. “The French have so far refused to see anyone from the Paris embassy, not until we respond to their demand for an explanation. They’re seeing the Russian chef du protocol, though. Radtsic’s refusing cooperation until we get Elana and the boy here. Jacobson’s having an emergency meeting with Monsford right now. Monsford told Rebecca there’s no reason for either her or me to be there with him: that’s how I was able to get away.” He looked instinctively at his watch. “I can’t be much longer.”

  “Where are you supposed to be?”

  “With a dementia specialist: discussing getting my mother into care.”

  “You think Monsford’s making his escape arrangement?” risked Jane, openly.

  “We know he’s making his escape arrangement,” said Straughan.

  “We?” isolated Jane, instantly.

  “Rebecca is determined she won’t go the same way you did.”

  “You going to tell her about this?”

  “No.”

  “So she’s making her own escape arrangements.”

  “She imagines she is.”

  “What about you?”

  “I have but it’s difficult.”

  “We committed ourselves the moment you got into this car,” reminded Jane.

  Straughan smiled. “Haven’t lost your touch, have you?”

  “I lost it the last time. I’m not going to let the motherfucker beat me again. What’s your difficulty?”

  “He’s had his own sound system installed in the office. But he’s using it selectiv
ely.”

  Jane answered his earlier smile. “So you’ve installed yours?”

  “After we discovered what he was doing. He’s always very careful to avoid anything incriminating.”

  “How much have you got?”

  “All of it.”

  “Including how Charlie was to be used?”

  “All of it,” repeated Straughan. “The difficulty is how to avoid suicidal self-destruction getting it to those who’ll sit in judgment. It contravenes every internal security regulation as well as the entire Official Secrets Act.”

  “I agree you couldn’t personally make it available,” said Jane, the excitement stirring through her.

  “You couldn’t, either,” insisted the man. “You’d be even more culpable after all that Charlie did. And what Monsford did to you.”

  “There could be a way: maybe even more than one.”

  “It’s better you don’t tell me,” Straughan said, hurriedly.

  He was backing off, Jane recognized. “Would you make all you’ve got available to me?”

  Straughan hesitated. “I didn’t imagine I’d find a problem answering that.”

  “I didn’t believe Monsford was capable of sacrificing me.”

  “If it hadn’t been you it would have been me: he gave himself two choices. By accepting the sideways transfer you saved me.”

  “I know,” said Jane, tensed.

  “So it’s payback time?”

  Right on the button, Jane thought. She said: “I’d appreciate that.”

  “A source investigation could only lead to me.”

  “It’s not inevitable,” argued the woman. “I’m assuming Rebecca’s escape is her own copy?”

  “It’s the original: mine’s the copy.”

  “Could yours be forensically proven to be a copy?”

  “No.”

  “Then there’s a way to prevent your ever being discovered.”

  “I made a mistake, coming here like this. I wish I hadn’t,” declared Straughan.

  “We haven’t met, remember?”