‘So?’
‘I fed all those details into the computer separately, sir. Any killings where motor cycles were involved. Cross-referencing with use of a Walther, not necessarily the same gun, of course. Also cross-referencing with the description of the individual.’
‘And you got a result?’
‘I got a result.all right, sir.’ Fox produced not one sheet, but two. ‘At least thirty probable killings since nineteen seventy-five, all linked to the factors I’ve mentioned. There are another ten possibles.’
Ferguson scanned the lists quickly. ‘Dear God!’ he whispered. ‘Catholic and Protestant alike. I don’t understand.’
‘You might if you consider the victims, sir. In all cases where the Provisionals claimed responsibility, the target was counter-productive, leaving them looking very bad indeed.’
‘And the same where Protestant extremist organizations were involved?’
True, sir, although the PIRA are more involved than anyone else. Another thing, if you consider the dates when the killings took place, it’s usually when things were either quiet or getting better or when some political initiative was taking place. One of the possible cases when our man might have been involved goes back as far as July 1972,, when, as you know, a delegation from the IRA met
William Whitelaw secretly here in London.’
‘That’s right,’ Ferguson said. ‘There was a ceasefire. A genuine chance for peace.’
‘Broken because someone started shooting on the Len-adoon estate in Belfast and that’s all it took to start the pot boiling again.’
Ferguson sat there, staring down at the lists, his face expressionless. After a while, he said, ‘So what you’re saying is that somewhere over there is one mad individual dedicated to keeping the whole rotten mess turning over.’
‘Exactly, except that I don’t think he’s mad. It seems to me he’s simply following sound Marxist-Leninist principles where urban revolution is concerned. Chaos, disorder, fear. All those factors essential to the breakdown of any kind of orderly government.’
‘With the IRA taking the brunt of the smear campaign?’
‘Which makes it less and less likely that the Protestants will ever come to a political agreement with them, or our own government, for that matter.’
‘And ensures that the struggle continues ^ar after year and a solution always recedes before us.’ Ferguson nodded slowly. ‘An interesting theory, Harry, and you believe it?’
He looked up enquiringly. Fox shrugged. ‘The facts were all there in the computer. We never asked the right questions, that’s all. If we had, the pattern would have emerged earlier. It’s been there a long time, sir.’
‘Yes, I think you could very well be right.’ Ferguson sat brooding for a little while longer.
Fox said gently, ‘He exists, sir. He is a fact, I’m sure of it. And there’s something else. Something that could go a long way to explaining the whole thing.’
‘All right, tell me the worst.’
Fox took a further sheet from the file. ‘When you were in Washington the other week, Tony Villiers came back from the Oman.’
‘Yes, I heard something of his adventures there.’
‘In his debriefing, Tony tells an interesting story concerning
a Russian Jewish dissident named Viktor Levin whom he brought out with him. A fascinating vignette about a rather unusual KGB training centre in the Ukraine.’
He moved to the fire and lit a cigarette, waiting for Ferguson to finish reading the file. After a while, Ferguson said, ‘Tony Villiers is in the Falklands now, did you know that?’
‘Yes, sir, serving with the SAS behind enemy lines.’
‘And this man, Levin?’
‘A highly gifted engineer. We’ve arranged for one of the Oxford colleges to give him a job. He’s at a safe house in Hampstead at the moment. I’ve taken the liberty of sending for him, sir.’
‘Have you indeed, Harry? What would I do without you?’
‘Manage very well, I should say, sir. Ah, and another thing. The psychologist, Paul Cherny, mentioned in that story. He defected in nineteen seventy-five.’
‘What, to England?’ Ferguson demanded.
‘No, sir – Ireland. Went there for an international conference in July of that year and asked for political asylum. He’s now Professor of Experimental Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin.’
*
Viktor Levin looked fit and well, still deeply tanned from his time in the Yemen. He wore a grey tweed suit, soft white shirt and blue tie, and black library spectacles that quite changed his appearance. He talked for some time, answering Ferguson’s questions patiently.