The Rocket Man (20 page)

‘Haven't you asked her questions? Questions that might alert her to areas of interest to yourself?'

‘I don't know. God, I don't know, I don't think so. I have tried to be careful. Anyway, that has nothing to do with this, it is just a coincidence.'

‘In this business,' said Vedyensky softly, ‘As you may learn, there are no coincidences. You have made quite a mistake, Dmitry Nikolayevich, in trying to do this on your own. We could have put someone with some training onto this, we could have helped you along a little. Now tell me about this relationship with Haynes's wife. It's still going on, is it?'

‘Yes.'

‘I take it you've gone to bed with her?'

‘For God's sake! Is this really necessary? Does it matter –'

‘Come, come, you can be frank with me, Dmitry Nikolayevich. Is this a casual matter, of convenience to you, or to her, or is it more serious?'

Dmitry shifted from one foot to another; he thought, Vedyensky has no need to ask these questions, he does it only because he enjoys it, or maybe it is some KGB trick, some way of making people feel humiliated, less able to stand up to them. ‘It's serious,' he said.

‘If we asked you to stop seeing her, would you stop seeing her?'

For the first time since entering the room, Dmitry looked Vedyensky in the eyes. ‘No.'

Vedyensky said, ‘You will have to handle this very carefully. Please don't see her for the next couple of days. Don't argue with me; this is too important. just make some excuse. I'm only asking you to wait a day or two. Will you go along with this for me, Dmitry Nikolayevich?'

‘Yes, yes.' Dmitry took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Vedyensky walked over to him, laying his hand heavily on Dmitry's shoulder. He felt himself stiffen with resentment.

‘You're not regretting that you came to talk to me, are you? You would have been very foolish not to. You see, I think you may be in very serious danger. You should stay away from Mrs Haynes for her own sake as well as yours.'

Dmitry was silent.

‘You have the list from the security service of the precautions you should take? Good. Stick to them. You had better not contact me by telephone, unless you use a payphone. Don't use the one nearest your flat; sometimes they put a tap on that too. You can get a message to me on this number,' and he scribbled a number on a piece of paper and handed it to him. ‘Don't come to see me again here. They are watching you, but they will just think you came to this function. I will meet you tomorrow afternoon at the IAEA at four-thirty at the bar on the seventh level. Can you manage four-thirty?'

‘I would have to check with my secretary.'

‘Well then, the cafeteria downstairs at six if you fail to make it. You must pardon me, but I have to go upstairs. Go straight home tonight, watch what you are doing; we'll have someone keeping an eye on you from later this evening.'

Dmitry mumbled some thanks.

‘Some other little tips, Dmitry Nikolayevich. When you're under surveillance, you should never let them know that you know. No looking over your shoulder, jumping off trains just as the doors close, driving your car round two or three corners and stopping suddenly so they nearly run into you. Those kinds of capers are strictly for spy movies.' Vedyensky patted him on the back. ‘Don't look so downhearted, Dmitry Nikolayevich, you may have turned up something very important. Really, you are to be congratulated.' He opened the door and ushered Dmitry into the corridor.

Dmitry left the building and went to his car. He was now in a far worse state than he had been when he had arrived there. He was so disturbed that for a while he did not dare to start the car, he was afraid of crashing it. So now Vedyensky was going to run him like a common spy. He had been told not to talk to the DDG; not to see Katie. Thinking it over, he did not really believe he was in danger; Vedyensky would exaggerate that, it was in his interest to do so.

He drove home deliberately slowly and, once inside the apartment, poured himself a drink. He had better phone Katie, she was meant to be coming over; he would have to put her off. He picked up the phone. As it rang he was tense; he was afraid Bob would answer it. He did. He hung up instantly and put his head in his hand. But he would have to ring; he couldn't have Katie turn up under these circumstances. He rang again. This time Katie picked up the phone.

‘Yes?' Her voice sounded uncertain, vulnerable. He knew she had been expecting it to be him.

‘Katie, I can't see you tonight.'

‘Why not?'

‘There's something come up at work.'

‘Nihal, I'l1 ring you back later. I was just going out.' She hung up. Dmitry put the phone down in despair. After fifteen minutes or so Katie rang back. She sounded furious. She said, ‘Why did you ring me like that? You put me in an impossible position. I hate all this. What excuse are you making now?'

‘Katie, can't we meet tomorrow instead. Something has come up at work.'

‘I don't believe it. There is nothing that goes on in that place that requires you to be there late in the evening.'

‘No, I'll be at home – but there's a report I have to finish.'

She sounded close to tears. ‘If you don't want to see me, why can't you just say you don't want to see me?'

‘Because it isn't true.'

There was a long silence. Then Katie said, ‘I'm sorry.' Then she said, ‘I'm freezing – I'm in a call box.'

‘Don't be sorry. It doesn't matter. I'll ring you tomorrow, and we'll arrange something then.'

‘I can't stand this.'

‘Yes, I know. I just can't help it. I don't want things to be this way.'

‘Well what way do you want them to be?' asked Katie. ‘It seems to me the way things are suits you very well.' Her voice was angry and harsh. For a long time Dmitry did not answer; he was on the verge of tears. Finally he said, ‘Katie, don't give me a hard time. Things are bad enough for me.'

Katie's voice changed at once. ‘Mitya, what's the matter? Can't you tell me what's the matter?'

Instantly he reassured her. ‘It's all right, there's nothing the matter. I have to go, Katie, I promise I'll call you tomorrow.'

They came at nine, two young men and a girl in a black Mercedes. The girl was attractive, dark, late twenties. She had a large staircase and a bulky shoulder bag. The men carried them upstairs. Dmitry poured out the drinks and they clinked glasses and toasted one another. The girl kept laughing in a high, forced way which irritated Dmitry. She turned on the radio rather loudly and tuned in to some popular music. The two men talked and joked as they opened the suitcase. It contained a large quantity of electronic equipment. The girl's shoulder bag was also packed with counter-surveillance devices.

First they checked the phone lines. They used a large wiring analyser the size of a small television set, covered with knobs and electronic displays. They were talking politics, laughing and swearing a lot. Then there were some small hand-held instruments with aerials with which the men prowled the flat. The girl, Vera, came and sat beside Dmitry on the sofa. ‘Come, Mitya, don't look so solemn,' she said. ‘Aren't you pleased to see me? You haven't got another girlfriend, have you? Do you mind if I stay?'

‘Yes,' said Dmitry, ‘Yes, I do mind, as a matter of fact. Can't you stay in a hotel?'

‘Do you hear that, Kostya? He wants me to stay in a hotel. You're not very hospitable, are you? Haven't you got anything to eat? I'm starving.' And she went into the kitchen. The men had started a physical search. They seemed to be going through everything; they examined the furniture, curtains, curtain rails, under the carpets, behind the pictures, inside every piece of electrical equipment. Then they went into the bedroom.

They must have been in the apartment for about two hours. Then the man called Kostya came and gave Dmitry a large wink. They packed all the equipment back into the suitcase and drained their glasses. ‘We thought we'd all go out to eat somewhere,' he said. ‘Want to join us?'

‘Are you really throwing me out?' asked Vera.

‘Yes, there's only one bed. Besides, someone else is coming to stay, a friend of mine. And I am too tall for the sofa. Really, let me get your coat. Can't you stay with Kostya here?'

‘I am a respectable married man. There's no telling what my wife would say if she saw
her
.'

They left the suitcase in the flat and all went downstairs. Dmitry went with them; he felt he had to get out of the apartment, and besides, he wanted to ask them what they had found. Kostya climbed into the driving seat and indicated to Dmitry to get into the front. He headed downtown. Dmitry saw him look several times into the rear-view mirror.

‘Well,' Kostya said, ‘I should say things are fairly heavy. There's a tap on your line and two concealed bugs – sophisticated devices too, the kind which hop frequencies. And we've got a tail. What have you got, then? Atomic secrets, heh?'

Dmitry was feeling rather sick. He wanted to get out, to be on his own and think, but he felt he had nowhere to go to be alone. He was trying to think what he had said over the phone in the last few days, whether he had given anything away. He thought not, he had been very careful. He asked, ‘Where were they, then?'

‘One in each room… I know what you're thinking. That's what bothers everyone, them hearing what goes on in your bedroom. Don't worry, they've heard it all. You don't have any problems, do you? Your girlfriend likes it? Makes a lot of noise, heh? Don't worry about it.' And he laughed loudly.

Dmitry made his four-thirty appointment with Vedyensky in the delegate's lounge. They fetched some tea from the bar and sat down in the large, soft chairs opposite the window; the delegates had just departed back to the meeting and the place was quiet. Vedyensky asked, ‘Did you have a good night?'

‘Not very.'

‘I can see that you feel upset about this. I'm sorry, I may have given you the wrong impression yesterday. You can of course mention your concerns to the DDG. But it all sounds a little fantastic, doesn't it? In any case, this might be the work of Richter rather than the Brazilians. We will have to see.'

‘But surely they will have to take this seriously.'

‘Look, you know the score as well as I do. The IAEA are powerless in a situation like this. They have no intelligence gathering facilities, they cannot investigate. If you are seriously interested in this being cleared up, Dmitry Nikolayevich, you are much better leaving it to us. Suppose you make a fuss and they are forced to do investigations into all the staff, the Brazilians will at once know that the secret is out. It will be much harder to establish what is going on. We have not been unaware of all this, Dmitry Nikolayevich. We have an agent in Brazil.'

Vedyensky paused; he lowered his voice. ‘About Richter. We have been aware of his activities for some time. A copy of an extraordinary document which will prove highly embarrassing has been stolen from the Paraguayan Embassy in Bonn and leaked to the press. I think you know of this already – one of our operations, you understand. They are not going to be able to keep quiet about this for long. No, there will be a big noise about this very soon. Please, just do as I ask and don't do anything about all this just now. I am only talking of a few days.'

Dmitry shifted impatiently in his seat and sipped his tea. ‘Now this question of your… lady-friend. We're not very happy about it.'

‘But it's absurd. I'm sure she knows nothing about it. If you're suggesting she was somehow planted on me, you're quite wrong. I met her before I had the first idea…'

‘You met her at Müller's funeral, didn't you?'

Was there anything these people didn't know?

‘Look, I don't want to talk about this any further. You are making too much of it. It's distracting you from the main point of this.'