‘Contact Mischa?’ exclaimed Geoffrey Fane after Peggy had reported on the meeting with Miles and his FBI colleague at the American Embassy. ‘What on earth are the Americans thinking of? There’ll be a full-scale FSB enquiry going on in Moscow as we speak into how we got on to their people here. If the Americans want to land their man in prison, and his brother too, that’s the way to do it.’
They were sitting in Fane’s office on an upper floor of Vauxhall Cross, MI6’s London Headquarters. Liz always enjoyed a visit to Fane’s office, unchanged in all the years she had known him. Through all the structural changes in the Vauxhall Cross building in recent years to accommodate the explosion in manpower, Geoffrey Fane had somehow miraculously managed to hang on to this large room with its tall windows and river view.
He had also managed to acquire a large nineteenth-century wooden desk, a couple of button-back chairs and a leather Chesterfield sofa thrown out from the Foreign Office in some refurbishment programme years before. To these he had added an antique coffee table left to him by his grandmother and the Persian rugs, picked up for a song by clever bargaining, so he claimed, on his various posts in the Middle East. To Liz they epitomised Geoffrey Fane: elegant, discreetly flamboyant and out of date.
‘I think everyone agrees that it’s very risky,’ said Peggy mildly, ‘but it seems they have no other assets in a position to throw light on what’s going on in Vermont. They did want to know if you had any sources who could help.’
Fane looked at the fourth person in the room, his colleague Bruno Mackay, who merely shook his head. The behaviour of the two men struck Liz as distinctly odd. She had known Bruno Mackay for years; when they were both much younger he had been a thorn in her side. She had found him irritatingly self-satisfied, with his Savile Row suits, unruly straw-coloured hair and skin tanned from postings in exotic countries. But age and experience had rubbed the raw edges off both of them. Liz herself had recently suffered a personal tragedy, while it was rumoured that on a recent posting in Libya something very unpleasant had happened to Bruno. Whether it was as a result of their experiences or merely because they had grown older and kinder, both seemed to find it easier now to work together.
But today Liz had a strong feeling that something was hanging in the air; something was not being said and she wanted to know what it was. She waited, saying nothing herself.
Peggy broke the silence. ‘Miles thinks their Kiev Station has an emergency contact arrangement set up with Mischa and he’s getting clearance from Langley to activate it.’
‘Oh. I see,’ said Fane. ‘So Langley haven’t given clearance yet? I can tell you, they’re not going to, either.’
It was obvious to Liz that Geoffrey Fane had something going on with the Americans that she didn’t know about. She wondered whether Miles Brookhaven knew what it was, although it sounded unlikely. Peggy, seemingly oblivious to the undercurrent in the room, said, ‘The FBI are desperate to know what can link Petersen in Vermont with Ohlson and Canada.’
‘I can see their point,’ said Fane, ‘but it’s not going to happen.’
Peggy looked about to argue, but catching Liz’s warning eye said nothing.
Liz reached for her bag and stood up. ‘Thanks for your time, gentlemen. We’ve done what we were asked to do and brought you up to date, and we’ve passed on the Bureau’s request for help. So we’ll leave you to it.’
Fane and Bruno both stood up too. Peggy, scrabbling to get her papers together and retrieve her bag from the floor, was the last to rise.
‘I’ll see you out,’ said Bruno, holding the door open. He came out into the corridor with them and said quietly to Liz, ‘Have you got a minute? There’s something I’d like to discuss.’
‘Sure,’ said Liz, curious. When the lift arrived, Bruno got in with them and pressed the button for the second floor.
‘Do you want me to wait downstairs?’ Peggy asked when the lift stopped.
‘No, you come too, please,’ said Bruno. ‘It won’t take long.’
He led them into a small windowless meeting room across from the lift. ‘Do sit down,’ said Bruno. He took a seat at the end of the room’s table. ‘Sorry to be so mysterious, but there’s something I need to tell you. I thought Geoffrey was going to, but you know what he’s like: he can’t bear to give away any information when he doesn’t have to. He’d have told you eventually, but I think you need to know now, because it affects how we handle this new business with the Bureau.’
Bruno paused as if hesitant to come clean. Liz waited patiently and finally Bruno went on again. ‘I’m being posted to Moscow. I’ll be there under cover, not diplomatic. The cover is being worked on now so I can’t tell you any more than that. But I’ve got one task and that is to get alongside Mischa’s brother. Our Station has been working with the Americans out there and they have identified the brother, Boris, and know quite a lot about him and his lifestyle. We’ve given him the codename “Starling”. I’m to try to recruit him and keep him in place.’
He exhaled nosily, seemingly revealed to have spilled the beans. ‘You can see why Geoffrey is nervous about initiating any contact with Mischa. If it went wrong, it would compromise this operation – and Starling is a much bigger prize than his brother. He’s at the heart of the FSB.’
‘Well,’ said Liz, reeling slightly from this disclosure, ‘it goes without saying, if there’s anything we can do to help…’
‘At the moment you can just look surprised when Geoffrey tells you. Which he will. When he’s ready.’
‘Who else knows?’ asked Peggy. ‘Does Miles?’
‘I don’t think he does. I’m not sure about Langley. I assume the Director of Counter Intelligence and his most senior staff do. Even Geoffrey wouldn’t dare keep this from them. And of course their Head of Station in Moscow and the head people in the Ops Directorate. There’ll be an indoctrination list soon but so far you are the first people to know in your outfit.’ He looked at Liz. ‘Given your dealings with Mischa, you clearly need to be in the picture.’
‘I appreciate your telling us.’ But she was uneasy about keeping a secret about a secret, and was puzzled that Bruno Mackay was going behind Fane’s back. She added, ‘Let’s hope Geoffrey decides to tell us officially before too long.’
As they walked back to Thames House across Vauxhall Bridge Liz said to Peggy, ‘Something must have happened to Bruno. He used to be so difficult, but just now he couldn’t have been nicer. It’s hard to believe he’s the same man.’
‘Perhaps he’s in love,’ said Peggy, and laughed.
‘Maybe,’ said Liz, unconvinced. ‘If he is, long may it last.’