"Now I was in a queer situation. I saw her next day and the day after and I reckoned that if she wasn"t already schizoid she was going to be that way d.a.m.n soon. One minute talking about Percy giving her a top job in the Circus working for Colonel Thomas, and arguing the h.e.l.l with me about whether she should be a lieutenant or a major. Next minute saying she wouldn"t spy for anybody ever again and she was going to grow flowers and rut in the hay with Thomas. Then she had a convent kick: Baptist nuns were going to wash her soul. I nearly died. Who the h.e.l.l ever heard of Baptist nuns, I ask her? Never mind, she says, Baptists are the greatest, her mother was a peasant and knew. That was the second biggest secret she would ever tell me. "What"s the biggest, then?" I ask. No dice. All she"s saying is, we"re in mortal danger, bigger than I could possibly know: there"s no hope for either of us unless she has that special chat with Brother Percy. "What danger, for Christ"s sake? What do you know that I don"t?" She was vain as a cat but when I pressed her she clammed up and I was frightened to death she"d belt home and sing the lot to Boris. I was running out of time too. Then it was Wednesday already and the delegation was due to fly home to Moscow Friday. Her tradecraft wasn"t all lousy but how could I trust a nut like that? You know how women are when they are in love, Mr Smiley. They can"t hardly-"

Guillam had already cut him off. "You just keep your head down, right?" he ordered, and Tarr sulked for a s.p.a.ce.

"All I knew was, Irina wanted to defect - talk to Percy as she called it. She had three days left and the sooner she jumped the better for everybody. If I waited much longer she was going to talk herself out of it. So I took the plunge and walked in on Thesinger, first thing while he was opening up the shop."

"Wednesday the eleventh," Smiley murmured. "In London the early hours of the morning."

"I guess Thesinger thought I was a ghost. "I"m talking to London, personal for head of London Station," I said. He argued like h.e.l.l but he let me do it. I sat at his desk and coded up the message myself from a one-time pad while Thesinger watched me like a sick dog. We had to top and tail it like trade code because Thesinger has export cover. That took me an extra half hour. I was nervy, I really was. Then I burnt the whole d.a.m.n pad and typed the message on the ticker machine. At that point there wasn"t a soul on earth but me who knew what the numbers meant on that sheet of paper, not Thesinger, n.o.body but me. I applied for full defector treatment for Irina on emergency procedure. I held out for all the goodies she"d never even talked about: cash, nationality, a new ident.i.ty, no limelight and a place to live. After all, I was her business representative in a manner of speaking, wasn"t I, Mr Smiley?"

Smiley glanced up as if surprised to be addressed. "Yes," he said quite kindly. "Yes, I suppose in a manner of speaking that"s what you were."

"He also had a piece of the action, if I know him," said Guillam under his breath.

Catching this or guessing the meaning of it, Tarr was furious. "That"s a d.a.m.n lie!" he shouted, colouring deeply. "That"s a-" After glaring at Guillam a moment longer, he went back to his story.

"I outlined her career to date and her access, including jobs she"d had at Centre. I asked for inquisitors and an Air Force plane. She thought I was asking for a personal meeting with Percy Alleline on neutral ground but I reckoned we"d cross that bridge when we were past it. I suggested they should send out a couple of Esterhase"s lamplighters to take charge of her, maybe a tame doctor as well."

"Why lamplighters?" Smiley asked sharply. "They"re not allowed to handle defectors."

The lamplighters were Toby Esterhase"s pack, based not in Brixton but in Acton. Their job was to provide the support services for mainline operations: watching, listening, transport and safe houses.

"Ah well, Toby"s come up in the world since your day, Mr Smiley," Tarr explained. "They tell me even his pavement artists ride around in Cadillacs. Steal the scalphunters" bread out of their mouths too, if they get the chance, right, Mr Guillam?"

"They"ve become the general footpads for London Station," Guillam said shortly. "Part of lateralism."

"I reckoned it would take half a year for the inquisitors to clean her out, and for some reason she was crazy about Scotland. She had a great wish to spend the rest of her life there in fact. With Thomas. Raising our babies in the heather. I gave it the London Station address group, I graded it flash and by hand of officer only."

Guillam put in: "That"s the new formula for maximum limit. It"s supposed to cut out handling in the coding rooms."

"But not in London Station?" said Smiley.

"That"s their affair."

"You heard Bill Haydon got that job, I suppose?" said Lacon, jerking round on Smiley. "Head of London Station? He"s effectively their chief of operations, just as Percy used to be when Control was there. They"ve changed all the names, that"s the thing. You know how your old buddies are about names. You ought to fill him in, Guillam, bring him up to date."

"Oh I think I have the picture, thank you," Smiley said politely. Of Tarr, with a deceptive dreaminess, he asked: "She spoke of a great secret, you said?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did you give any hint of this in your cable to London?"

He had touched something, there was no doubt of it; he had found a spot where touching hurt, for Tarr winced, and darted a suspicious glance at Lacon, then at Guillam.

Guessing his meaning, Lacon at once sang out a disclaimer: "Smiley knows nothing beyond what you have so far told him in this room," he said. "Correct, Guillam?" Guillam nodded yes, watching Smiley.

"I told London the same as she"d told me," Tarr conceded grumpily, like someone who has been robbed of a good story.

"What form of words, precisely?" Smiley asked. "I wonder whether you remember that?"

" "Claims to have further information crucial to the well-being of the Circus, but not yet disclosed." Near enough, anyhow."

"Thank you. Thank you very much."

They waited for Tarr to continue.

"I also requested Head of London Station to inform Mr Guillam here that I"d landed on my feet and wasn"t playing hookey for the h.e.l.l of it."

"Did that happen?" Smiley asked.

"n.o.body said anything to me," said Guillam drily.

"I hung around all day for an answer but by evening it still hadn"t come. Irina was doing a normal day"s work. I insisted on that, you see. She wanted to stage a light dose of fever to keep her in bed but I wouldn"t hear of it. The delegation had factories to visit on Kowloon and I told her to tag along and look intelligent. I made her swear to keep off the bottle. I didn"t want her involved in amateur dramatics at the last moment. I wanted it normal right up to when she jumped. I waited till evening then cabled a flash follow-up."

Smiley"s shrouded gaze fixed upon the pale face before him. "You had an acknowledgment, of course?" he asked.

" "We read you." That"s all. I sweated out the whole d.a.m.n night. By dawn I still didn"t have an answer. I thought: maybe that RAF plane is already on its way. London"s playing it long, I thought, tying all the knots before they bring me in. I mean when you"re that far away from them you have to believe they"re good. Whatever you think of them, you have to believe that. And I mean now and then they are, right, Mr Guillam?"

No one helped him.

"I was worried about Irina, see? I was d.a.m.n certain that if she had to wait another day she would crack. Finally the answer did come. It wasn"t an answer at all. It was a stall:" "Tell us what sections she worked in, names of former contacts and acquaintances inside Moscow Centre, name of her present boss, date of intake into Centre." Jesus I don"t know what else. I drafted a reply fast because I had a three o"clock date with her down by the church-"

"What church?" Smiley again.

"English Baptist." To everyone"s astonishment, Tarr was once again blushing. "She liked to visit there. Not for services, just to sniff around. I hung around the entrance looking natural but she didn"t show. It was the first time she"d broken a date. Our fallback was for three hours later on the hilltop, then a one minute fifty descending scale back at the church till we met up. If she was in trouble she was going to leave her bathing suit on her window-sill. She was a swimming nut, swam every day. I shot round to the Alexandra: no bathing suit. I had two and a half hours to kill. There was nothing I could do any more except wait."

Smiley said: "What was the priority of London Station"s telegram to you?"

"Immediate."

"But yours was flash?"

"Both of mine were flash."

"Was London"s telegram signed?"

Guillam put in: "They"re not any more. Outsiders deal with London Station as a unit."

"Was it decipher yourself?"

"No," said Guillam.

They waited for Tarr to go on.

"I kicked around Thesinger"s office but I wasn"t too popular there, he doesn"t approve of scalphunters and he has a big thing going on the Chinese mainland which he seemed to think I was going to blow for him. So I sat in a cafe and I had this idea I just might go down to the airport. It was an idea: like you might say, "Maybe I"ll go to a movie." I told the cab driver to go like h.e.l.l. I didn"t even argue the price. It got like a panic. I barged the Information queue and asked for all departures to Russia or connections in. I went nearly mad going through the flight lists, yelling at the Chinese clerks, but there wasn"t a plane since yesterday and none till six tonight. But now I had this hunch. I had to know. What about charters, what about the unscheduled flights, freight, casual transit? Had nothing, but really nothing, been routed for Moscow since yesterday morning? Then this little girl comes through with the answer, one of the Chinese hostesses. She fancies me, see. She"s doing me a favour. An unscheduled Soviet plane had taken off two hours ago. Only four pa.s.sengers boarded. The centre of attraction was a woman invalid. A lady. In a coma. They had to cart her to the plane on a stretcher and her face was wrapped in bandages. Two male nurses went with her and one doctor, that was the party. I called the Alexandra as a last hope. Neither Irina nor her fake husband had checked out of their room but there was no reply. The lousy hotel didn"t even know they"d left."

Perhaps the music had been going on a long time and Smiley only noticed it now. He heard it in imperfect fragments from different parts of the house: a scale on a flute, a child"s tune on a recorder, a violin piece more confidently played. The many Lacon daughters were waking up.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

"Perhaps she was ill," said Smiley stolidly, speaking more to Guillam than anyone else. "Perhaps she was in a coma. Perhaps they were real nurses who took her away. By the sound of her she was a pretty good mess, at best." He added, with half a glance at Tarr: "After all, only twenty-four hours had elapsed between your first telegram and Irina"s departure. You can hardly lay it at London"s door on that timing."

"You can just," said Guillam, looking at the floor. "It"s extremely fast, but it does just work, if somebody in London-" They were all waiting. "If somebody in London had very good footwork. And in Moscow too, of course."

"Now that"s exactly what I told myself, sir," said Tarr proudly, taking up Smiley"s point and ignoring Guillam"s. "My very words, Mr Smiley. Relax, Ricki, I said, you"ll be shooting at shadows if you"re not d.a.m.n careful."

"Or the Russians tumbled to her," Smiley insisted. "The security guards found out about your affair and removed her. It would be a wonder if they hadn"t found out, the way you two carried on."

"Or she told her husband," Tarr suggested. "I understand psychology as well as the next man, sir. I know what can happen between a husband and wife when they have fallen out. She wishes to annoy him. To goad him, to obtain a reaction, I thought. "Want to hear what I"ve been doing while you"ve been out boozing and cutting the rug?" - like that. Boris peels off and tells the gorillas, they sandbag her and take her home. I went through all those possibilities, Mr Smiley, believe me. I really worked on them, truth. Same as any man does whose woman walks out on him."

"Let"s just have the story, shall we?" Guillam whispered, furious.

Well now, said Tarr, he would agree that for twenty-four hours he went a bit berserk: "Now I don"t often get that way, right, Mr Guillam?"

"Often enough."

"I was feeling pretty physical. Frustrated, you could almost say."

His conviction that a considerable prize had been brutally s.n.a.t.c.hed away from him drove him to a distracted fury which found expression in a rampage through old haunts. He went to the Cat"s Cradle, then to Angelika"s and by dawn he had taken in half a dozen other places besides, not to mention a few girls along the way. At some point he crossed town and raised a spot of dust around the Alexandra. He was hoping to have a couple of words with those security gorillas. When he sobered down he got thinking about Irina and their time together, and he decided before he flew back to London to go round their dead letter boxes to check whether by any chance she had written to him before she left.

Partly it was something to do. "Partly I guess I couldn"t bear to think of a letter of hers kicking around in a hole in the wall while she sweated it out in the hot seat," he added, the ever-redeemable boy.

They had two places where they dropped mail for one another. The first was not far from the hotel on a building site.

"Ever seen that bamboo scaffolding they use? Fantastic. I"ve seen it twenty storeys high and the coolies swarming over it with slabs of precast concrete." A bit of discarded piping, he said, handy at shoulder height. It seemed most likely, if Irina was in a hurry, that the piping was the letter box she would use, but when Tarr went there it was empty. The second was back by the church, "in under where they stow the pamphlets," as he put it. "This stand was part of an old wardrobe, see. If you kneel in the back pew and grope around, there"s a loose board. Behind the board there"s a recess full of rubbish and rat"s mess. I tell you, it made a real lovely drop, the best ever."

There was a short pause, illuminated by the vision of Ricki Tarr and his Moscow Centre mistress kneeling side by side in the rear pew of a Baptist church in Hong Kong.

In this dead letter box, Tarr said, he found not a letter but a whole d.a.m.n diary. The writing was fine and done on both sides of the paper so that quite often the black ink came through. It was fast urgent writing with no erasures. He knew at a glance that she had maintained it in her lucid periods.

"This isn"t it, mind. This is only my copy."

Slipping a long hand inside his shirt he had drawn out a leather purse attached to a broad thong of hide. From it he took a grimy wad of paper.

"I guess she dropped the diary just before they hit her," he said. "Maybe she was having a last pray at the same time. I made the translation myself."

"I didn"t know you spoke Russian," said Smiley - a comment lost to everyone but Tarr, who at once grinned.

"Ah, now, a man needs a qualification in this profession, Mr Smiley," he explained as he separated the pages. "I may not have been too great at law but a further language can be decisive. You know what the poets say, I expect?" He looked up from his labours and his grin widened. " "To possess another language is to possess another soul." A great king wrote that, sir, Charles the Fifth. My father never forgot a quotation, I"ll say that for him, though the funny thing is he couldn"t speak a d.a.m.n thing but English. I"ll read the diary aloud to you if you don"t mind."

"He hasn"t a word of Russian to his name," said Guillam. They spoke English all the time. Irina had done a three-year English course."

Guillam had chosen the ceiling to look at, Lacon his hands. Only Smiley was watching Tarr, who was laughing quietly at his own little joke.

"All set?" he enquired. "Right then, I"ll begin. "Thomas, listen, I am talking to you." She called me by my surname," he explained. "I told her I was Tony but it was always Thomas, right? "This diary is my gift for you in case they take me away before I speak to Alleline. I would prefer to give you my life, Thomas, and naturally my body, but I think it more likely that this wretched secret will be all I have to make you happy. Use it well!" " Tarr glanced up. "It"s marked Monday. She wrote the diary over the four days." His voice had become flat, almost bored. " "In Moscow Centre there is more gossip than our superiors would wish. Especially the little fellows like to make themselves grand by appearing to be in the know. For two years before I was attached to the Trade Ministry I worked as a supervisor in the filing department of our headquarters in Dzerzhinsky Square. The work was so boring, Thomas, the atmosphere was not happy and I was unmarried. We were encouraged to be suspicious of one another; it is such a strain never to give your heart, not once. Under me was a clerk named Ivlov. Though Ivlov was not socially or in rank my equal the oppressive atmosphere brought out a mutuality in our temperaments. Forgive me, sometimes only the body can speak for us, you should have appeared earlier, Thomas! Several times Ivlov and I worked night shifts together and eventually we agreed to defy regulations and meet outside the building. He was blond, Thomas, like you, and I wanted him. We met in a cafe in a poor district of Moscow. In Russia we are taught that Moscow has no poor districts but this is a lie. Ivlov told me that his real name was Brod but he was not a Jew. He brought me some coffee sent to him illicitly by a comrade in Teheran, he was very sweet, also some stockings. Ivlov told me that he admired me greatly and that he had once worked in a section responsible for recording the particulars of all the foreign agents employed by Centre. I laughed and told him that no such record existed, it was an idea of dreamers to suppose that so many secrets would be in one place. Well, we were both dreamers I suppose.""

Again Tarr broke off: "We get a new day," he announced. "She kicks off with a lot of "Good morning Thomas"s", prayers and a bit of love-talk. A woman can"t write to the air, she says, so she"s writing to Thomas. Her old man"s gone out early, she"s got an hour to herself. Okay?"

Smiley grunted.

""On the second occasion with Ivlov I met him in the room of a cousin of Ivlov"s wife, a teacher at Moscow State University. No one else was present. The meeting, which was extremely secret, involved what in a report we would call an incriminating act. I think, Thomas, you yourself once or twice committed such an act! Also at this meeting Ivlov told me the following story to bind us in ever closer friendship. Thomas, you must take care. Have you heard of Karla? He is an old fox, the most cunning in the Centre, the most secret, even his name is not one that Russians understand. Ivlov was extremely frightened to tell me this story, which according to Ivlov concerned a great conspiracy, perhaps the greatest we have. The story of Ivlov is as follows. You should tell it only to most trustworthy people, Thomas, because of its extremely conspiratorial nature. You must tell no one in the Circus, for no one can be trusted until the riddle is solved. Ivlov said it was not true that he once worked on agent records. He had invented this story only to show me the great depth of his knowledge concerning the Centre"s affairs and to a.s.sure me that I was not in love with a n.o.body. The truth was he had worked for Karla as a helper in one of Karla"s great conspiracies and he had actually been stationed in England in a conspiratorial capacity, under the cover of being a driver and a.s.sistant coding clerk at the Emba.s.sy. For this task he was provided with the workname Lapin. Thus Brod became Ivlov and Ivlov became Lapin: of this poor Ivlov was extremely proud. I did not tell him what Lapin means in French. That a man"s wealth should be counted by the number of his names! Ivlov"s task was to service a mole. A mole is a deep penetration agent so called because he burrows deep into the fabric of Western imperialism, in this case an Englishman. Moles are very precious to the Centre because of the many years it takes to place them, often fifteen or twenty. Most of the English moles were recruited by Karla before the war and came from the higher bourgeoisie, even aristocrats and n.o.bles who were disgusted with their origins, and became secretly fanatic, much more fanatic than their working-cla.s.s English comrades who are slothful. Several were applying to join the Party when Karla stopped them in time and directed them to special work. Some fought in Spain against Franco Fascism and Karla"s talent-spotters found them there and turned them over to Karla for recruitment. Others were recruited in the war during the alliance of expediency between Soviet Russia and Britain. Others afterwards, disappointed that the war did not bring Socialism to the West..." It kind of dries up here," Tarr announced without looking anywhere but at his own ma.n.u.script. "I wrote down: "dries up". I guess her old man came back earlier than she expected. The ink"s all blotted. G.o.d knows where she stowed the d.a.m.n thing. Under the mattress maybe."

If this was meant as a joke, it failed.

" "The mole whom Lapin serviced in London was known by the code name Gerald. He had been recruited by Karla and was the object of extreme conspiracy. The servicing of moles is performed only by comrades with a very high standard of ability, said Ivlov. Thus while in appearance Ivlov-Lapin was at the Emba.s.sy a mere n.o.body, subjected to many humiliations on account of his apparent insignificance, such as standing with women behind the bar at functions, by right he was a great man, the secret a.s.sistant to Colonel Gregor Viktorov whose workname at the Emba.s.sy is Polyakov." "

Here Smiley made his one interjection, asking for the spelling. Like an actor disturbed in midflow, Tarr answered rudely: "P-o-l-y-a-k-o-v, got it?"

"Thank you," said Smiley with unshakable courtesy, in a manner which conveyed conclusively that the name had no significance for him whatever. Tarr resumed.

" "Viktorov is himself an old professional of great cunning, said Ivlov. His cover job is cultural attache and that is how he speaks to Karla. As Cultural Attache Polyakov he organises lectures to British universities and societies concerning cultural matters in the Soviet Union, but his nightwork as Colonel Gregor Viktorov is briefing and debriefing the mole Gerald on instruction from Karla at Centre. For this purpose Colonel Viktorov-Polyakov uses legmen and poor Ivlov was for a while one. Nevertheless it is Karla in Moscow who is the real controller of the mole Gerald."

"Now it really changes," said Tarr. "She"s writing at night and she"s either plastered or scared out of her pants because she"s going all over the d.a.m.n page. There"s talk about footsteps in the corridor and the dirty looks she"s getting from the gorillas. Not transcribed, right, Mr Smiley?" And, receiving a small nod, he went on: " "The measures for the mole"s security were remarkable. Written reports from London to Karla at Moscow Centre even after coding were cut in two and sent by separate couriers, others in secret inks underneath orthodox Emba.s.sy correspondence. Ivlov told me that the mole Gerald produced at times more conspiratorial material than Viktorov-Polyakov could conveniently handle. Much was on undeveloped film, often thirty reels in a week. Anyone opening the container in the wrong fashion at once exposed the film. Other material was given by the mole in speeches, at extremely conspiratorial meetings, and recorded on special tape that could only be played through complicated machines. This tape was also wiped clean by exposure to light or to the wrong machine. The meetings were of the crash type, always different, always sudden, that is all I know except that it was the time when the Fascist aggression in Vietnam was at its worst; in England the extreme reactionaries had again taken the power. Also that according to Ivlov-Lapin the mole Gerald was a high functionary in the Circus. Thomas, I tell you this because, since I love you, I have decided to admire all English, you most of all. I do not wish to think of an English gentleman behaving as a traitor, though naturally I believe he was right to join the workers" cause. Also I fear for the safety of anyone employed by the Circus in a conspiracy. Thomas, I love you, take care with this knowledge, it could hurt you also. Ivlov was a man like you, even if they called him Lapin..." " Tarr paused diffidently. "There"s a bit at the end which..."

"Read it," Guillam murmured.

Lifting the wad of paper slightly sideways, Tarr read in the same flat drawl: " "Thomas, I am telling you this also because I am afraid. This morning when I woke he was sitting on the bed, staring at me like a madman. When I went downstairs for coffee the guards Trepov and Novikov watched me like animals, eating very carelessly. I am sure they had been there hours, also from the residency Avilov sat with them, a boy. Have you been indiscreet, Thomas? Did you tell more than you let me think? Now you see why only Alleline would do. You need not blame yourself, I can guess what you have told them. In my heart I am free. You have seen only the bad things in me, the drink, the fear, the lies we live. But deep inside me burns a new and blessed light. I used to think that the secret world was a separate place and that I was banished for ever to an island of half people. But Thomas it is not separate. G.o.d has shown me that it is here, right in the middle of the real world, all round us, and we have only to open the door and step outside to be free. Thomas, you must always long for the light which I have found. It is called love. Now I shall take this to our secret place, and leave it there while there is still time. Dear G.o.d I hope there is. G.o.d give me sanctuary in His Church. Remember it: I loved you there also."" He was extremely pale and his hands, as he pulled open his shirt to return the diary to its purse, were trembling and moist. "There"s a last bit," he said. "It goes: "Thomas, why could you remember so few prayers from your boyhood? Your father was a great and good man." Like I told you," he explained, "she was crazy."

Lacon had opened the blinds and now the full white light of day was pouring into the room. The windows looked on to a small paddock where Jackie Lacon, a fat little girl in plaits and a hard hat, was cautiously cantering her pony.

CHAPTER NINE.

Before Tarr left, Smiley asked a number of questions of him. He was gazing not at Tarr but myopically into the middle distance, his pouchy face despondent from the tragedy.

"Where is the original of that diary?"

"I put it straight back in the dead letter box. Figure it this way, Mr Smiley: by the time I found the diary Irina had been in Moscow twenty-four hours. I guessed she wouldn"t have a lot of breath when it came to the interrogation. Most likely they"d sweated her on the plane, then a second going over when she touched down, then question one as soon as the big boys had finished their breakfast. That"s the way they do it to the timid ones: the arm first and the questions after, right? So it might be only a matter of a day or two before Centre sent along a footpad to take a peek round the back of the church, okay?" Primly again: "Also I had my own welfare to consider."

"He means that Moscow Centre would be less interested in cutting his throat if they thought he hadn"t read the diary," said Guillam.

"Did you photograph it?"

"I don"t carry a camera. I bought a dollar notebook. I copied the diary into the notebook. The original I put back. The whole job took me four hours flat." He glanced at Guillam, then away from him. In the fresh daylight, a deep inner fear was suddenly apparent in Tarr"s face. "When I got back to the hotel, my room was a wreck; they"d even stripped the paper off the walls. The manager told me, "Get the h.e.l.l out". He didn"t want to know."

"He"s carrying a gun," said Guillam. "He won"t part with it."