The Moscow Sleepers

36

Liz had been left feeling very puzzled after her meeting with Mischa. But more than that, she was worried. Whichever way she looked at what the Russian had said, she couldn’t avoid the conviction that Bruno was at risk. Unless the Americans were simultaneously cultivating Boris in Moscow, Mischa’s warning must refer to Bruno.

Liz didn’t know any details of what moves Bruno was making in Moscow – how close he was to Boris or whether he was near to recruiting him – but it seemed pretty clear to her that Bruno was in danger and Geoffrey Fane needed to know as soon as possible. So when Sally Mortimer collected her to take her to the airport, she’d asked her to contact Geoffrey Fane and arrange a meeting with him first thing the following day. Sally had picked up on Liz’s concern but was reassured to be told that it had nothing to do with the arrangements in Germany but was about something going on in Moscow. She certainly wouldn’t have been reassured, reflected Liz, if she had known it was about the safety of her one-time boyfriend Bruno Mackay.

The next morning at nine o’clock Liz was in Geoffrey Fane’s office in Vauxhall Cross, drinking coffee and sitting on one of the button-back leather chairs that Fane had somehow ‘acquired’ at the time of a Foreign Office refurbishment. She looked across at Fane, sitting opposite her in a similar chair; in the clear light coming in through the tall windows she could see that he looked surprisingly scruffy.

Fane was a man who prided himself on his appearance. Liz knew him well; she had worked closely with him for years and had made something of a study of him. He was a man of well-cut three-piece suits, crisp shirt cuffs showing at the wrist and striped, old-school regimental and club ties. His customary stance at meetings was to lean back languidly in his chair with his long legs stretched out in front of him and his perfectly polished brogues on show.

Now something was different. The clothes were the same but the posture was wrong and the suit, rather than enhancing his lean figure, seemed to be hanging off him. It was as though he had shrunk. Liz was concerned. In her own way she was fond of Fane, though her feelings were different from his for her. She would be sad if anything were to happen to him.

‘Are you all right, Geoffrey?’ she asked. ‘You look tired.’

He looked at her sadly and sighed. ‘I had HR up to see me yesterday.’

‘Oh?’ said Liz cautiously.

‘Apparently, I could take my pension any time. First I knew of it. I said to them, “Is this your way of getting rid of me?”’ Fane gave a small laugh, but he was watching Liz for her reaction.

She didn’t have to feign her surprise. ‘I would never have guessed, Geoffrey. Anyway, there can’t be any question of your going. You’re absolutely essential.’

Fane smiled sadly. ‘It’s kind of you to say so. But what if I wanted to go?’

‘For heaven’s sake. You can’t want to go. Why would you?’

Fane sighed again, a long thoughtful exhalation. ‘I’m starting to question myself, Elizabeth, in a way I never have before. The whole business with Jasminder Kapoor shook me, I have to admit. I keep thinking I could have handled things better.’

Liz said firmly, ‘That’s a perfectly natural response. Anyone who wasn’t upset by what happened would be a monster. But you did nothing wrong. Nothing. In fact, I thought you handled the situation most sensitively.’

‘Really? Then why did she do what she did?’

‘Oh, Geoffrey,’ said Liz, realising how much he was still upset. ‘No one can take responsibility for other people’s actions. She just did not have the strength or the confidence to handle the situation she found herself in. Don’t forget, you didn’t think she was the right person for the job in the first place, and she wasn’t. If anyone’s to blame it’s me, for putting her name forward for the post.’

Fane sighed again, but did not disagree.

Liz said, ‘You didn’t put a foot wrong: you were firm but never unkind; you made it clear to her that you wanted the truth because we all needed the truth. And that is what you managed to get from her. You should have no doubts, and absolutely no guilt about the way you dealt with Jasminder Kapoor.’

‘That’s kind of you, Elizabeth. As you know,’ he said, with something approaching his usual wolf-like grin, ‘I don’t customarily go in for so much self-analysis but it’s just the combination of realising I’ve reached pensionable age with my lingering doubts over the way I behaved towards that poor woman that has upset my equilibrium.’

Liz was relieved to see that by now he was sitting up on his chair and the long legs were back, stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankle in a familiar pose. ‘So, let’s hear what happened at your meeting with Mischa. What did he have to say?’

‘Well, Geoffrey, that’s why I asked to see you this morning. Because I’m worried about what he said – worried for Bruno, in particular.’

‘Well, my dear girl, why didn’t you say so at once, instead of going on about me?’

Liz ground her teeth but said nothing.

‘Come on – out with it. What did he say?’

So she told him how Mischa’s position seemed to have changed. Instead of reporting snippets of information that he picked up from his brother Boris when he was drunk, he now seemed to be delivering messages from him. Boris was not supposed to know anything about his contact with Liz and yet somehow Mischa knew that Liz had been identified from the photograph taken in the headmaster’s study at Bartholomew Manor school. Even more importantly, Mischa issued a warning that no one should try to recruit his brother.

‘He seemed to think that the Americans were alongside Boris, but he must have meant Bruno. It was definitely a warning. If I have been recognised from the photographs taken at the school, then perhaps Bruno has been identified too? If so, he is in real danger.’

‘I think that’s very unlikely,’ said Fane. ‘His cover is excellent and his disguise means he looks very different from the Bruno you know. So even though the Karpis couple recognised you from the photograph, I don’t see how they could have connected the man who is living in Moscow with the Bruno who interrogated them in England with you.’

‘Well, you say that, but Bruno is in contact with Mischa’s brother, Boris. How careful has he been? Maybe Boris suspects that this Englishman who has suddenly appeared in his life is not what he says he is. Boris is an intelligence officer – he’s trained to recognise another, and it’s possible that Bruno’s enthusiasm has got the better of his caution.’ She paused and Fane said nothing. ‘It is possible, isn’t it, Geoffrey? We’re talking about Bruno Mackay. He takes risks, doesn’t he?’

‘That’s true – up to a point. But he is very experienced. He doesn’t make stupid mistakes.’

‘But supposing Boris had become suspicious. It would be natural to check out this new British acquaintance against whatever data bank they have and if the Karpises, who have recently returned from working in Britain, are around to be consulted, as they obviously are, then they would have been. A careful study of the man in Moscow could have seen through the disguise – you know it could, Geoffrey.’

Fane was looking less sure of himself. ‘Tell me again exactly what Mischa said.’

‘He said the Americans must not approach his brother. It was a warning. It sounded like a threat.’

‘If Bruno has been identified, why did he refer to the Americans, not the British?’

‘I don’t know.’ Liz was becoming exasperated. ‘But it was clearly a warning. Maybe they don’t know it is Bruno, but whether they do or not, they know there’s an intelligence officer in contact with Boris and to my mind that makes Bruno’s position very dangerous. If he is moving in to make a pitch at Boris I think he risks being arrested.’

Fane reached over to his phone. ‘I’m getting Bruno’s support team up here to tell us exactly what the state of play out there is.’

Liz listened while Fane spoke to someone called David and asked him to come up to his office immediately and to bring Charlotte. Fane put down the phone and sat gently tapping the desktop with the rubber end of a sharply pointed pencil. In a few minutes there was a knock on the door and a stocky, dark-haired man came in accompanied by a middle-aged woman with her glasses dangling on a cord round her neck. David and Charlotte were introduced and Fane asked Liz to tell them about her meeting with Mischa.

‘So,’ said Fane when Liz had finished, ‘what is the current situation with Bruno and do you agree with Liz that he’s in danger?’

Charlotte spoke first. ‘Bruno has a lunch date with Boris in two days’ time. It’s at Boris’s invitation and Boris’s choice of restaurant. Bruno has asked permission to use this opportunity to make a first pitch at Boris. He intends to offer him the opportunity to write background papers on the economic and political situation in Russia for Bruno’s investment company.’

‘Of course,’ chipped in David, ‘there’s no doubt that Boris will recognise that as the first step in a recruitment approach.’

‘Yes,’ said Fane. ‘It’s certainly not the first time that card has been played.’

There followed a heated discussion between Charlotte, who thought Boris was quite capable of looking after himself and should carry on, since the potential prize of an FSB officer in place in Moscow was worth the risk, and David, who was inclined to feel he might be walking into a trap. Throughout, Geoffrey Fane was attempting to unravel the mystery of why Mischa had issued the warning in the first place and what it all meant, questions Liz was happy to say she was unable to answer.

Eventually everything seemed to have been said and they all fell silent, looking towards Fane to make a decision, if one was to be made. He stood up and walked slowly over to the long windows looking out over the Thames towards Parliament. Liz held her breath. She was quite sure that Bruno should be got out as quickly as possible.

Finally, Fane turned around and said, ‘It’s too risky. He must not go to that lunch. Activate his escape plan. Can we get him out before the lunch date?’

‘Should be OK,’ replied David. ‘We’ll alert the Moscow Station right away. They know what to do. It’s all in place.’

‘Bruno will be very disappointed.’

‘So will we all, Charlotte,’ responded Fane. ‘But we’d be more than disappointed if he got arrested and charged with espionage. Think how you’d feel then.’