It is no proof of possession of the man. To hold a passport is
meaningless; I, myself, possess many passports in many names. In any
case, I know of no Slade. The name means nothing to me.’
I laughed. ‘It’s so unlike you to talk to yourself. I know for a fact
that not two hours ago you spoke to a non-existent man at the Hotel Borg
in Reykjavik. This is what you said, and this is what he said.’ I
recited the telephone conversation verbatim. ‘Of course, I could have
been wrong about what Slade said, since he doesn’t exist.’
Kennikin’s face tightened. ‘You have dangerous knowledge.’
‘I have more than that – I have Slade. I had him even as he spoke to
you. My gun was in his fat neck.’
‘And where is he now?’
‘For Christ’s sake, Vaslav!’ I said. ‘You’re talking to me, not some
muscle-bound, half-witted ape like Ilyich.’
He shrugged. ‘I had to try.’
I grinned. ‘You’l have to do a bloody sight better than that. I can
tel you this, though – if you go looking for him, by the time you find
him he’l be cold meat. Those are my orders.’
Kennikin pulled at his lower lip, thinking deeply. ‘Orders you have
received – or orders you have given?’
I leaned forward, preparing to lie heroical y. ‘Let’s make no mistake
about this, Vaslav. Those are orders I’ve given. If you, or anyone who
even smel s like you, gets close to Slade, then Slade dies. Those are
the orders I have given and they’l be followed, you may depend upon it.’
At al costs I had to drive out of his mind any suggestion that I had
been given orders. The only man who could give me orders was Taggart,
and if he had issued such orders then the game was blown as far as Slade
was concerned. If Kennikin believed for one minute that Taggart had
penetrated Slade’s cover then he’d cut his losses by kil ing me and
Elin, and get the hel back to Russia as fast as he could move.
I buttressed the argument by saying, ‘I may be rapped over the knuckles
when the Department catches up with me, but until then those orders
stand – Slade wil catch a bullet if you go near him.’
Kennikin smiled grimly. ‘And who wil pull the trigger? You’ve said
you’re working independently of Taggart, and I know you’re alone.’
I said, ‘Don’t sel the Icelanders short, Vaslav. I know them very wel
and I have a lot of friends”here – and so does Elin Ragnarsdottir. They
don’t like what you’ve been doing in their country and they don’t like
one of their own being put in danger.’
I leaned back in the chair. /’Look/ at it this way. This is a biggish
country with a smal population. Everyone knows everyone else. Damn it,
everyone is related to everyone else if you push it back far enough –
and the Icelanders do. I’ve never known a people, other than the Scots,
who are so genealogical y minded. So everyone cares what happens to Elin
Ragnarsdottir. This isn’t a mass society where people don’t even know
their next-door neighbour. By taking Elin Ragnarsdottir you’ve laid
yourself wide open.’
Kennikin looked thoughtful. I hoped I had given him something to chew
over for a long time, but I didn’t have the time so I pushed him. ‘I
want the girl down here in this room ? intact and in one piece. If any
harm has come to her then you’ve made a big mistake.’
He regarded me keenly, and said, ‘It’s obvious you haven’t informed the
Icelandic authorities. If you had, the police would be here.’
‘You’re so right,’ I said. ‘I haven’t, and for good reasons. Firstly, it
would cause an international brouhaha, which would be lamentable.
Secondly, and more important, al the authorities could do would be to
deport Slade. My friends are tougher-minded – they’l kil him if
necessary.’ I leaned over and jabbed Kennikin in the knee with a hard
forefinger. ‘And /then/ they’l blow you off to the police and you’l be
up to your neck in uniforms and diplomats.’ I straightened up. ‘I want
to see the girl, and I want to see her now.’
‘You talk straight,’ he said. ‘But, then, you always did . . .’ His
voice tailed away, and he whispered, ‘. . . until you betrayed me.’
‘I don’t see you have any options,’ I said. ‘And just to screw it
tighter I’l tel you something else. There’s a time limit. If my
friends don’t get the word from Elin’s own lips within three hours then
Slade gets what’s coming to him.’
I could see Kennikin visibly debating it with himself. He had to make a
choice and a damned thin one it was. He said, ‘Your Icelandic friends –
do they know who Slade is?’
‘You mean that he’s in Russian Intel igence?’ I said. ‘Or in British
Intel igence, for that matter?’ I shook my head. ‘All they know is that
he’s a hostage for Elin. I didn’t tel them anything else about him.
They think you’re a crowd of gangsters and, by God, they’re not far wrong!’
That clinched it. He thought he had me isolated, that only Elin and I
knew the truth that Slade was a double agent. Given that premise which,
God knows, was true enough since my Icelandic friends were pure
invention, then he could do a deal. He was faced with the choice of
sacrificing Slade, who had been laboriously built up over many years
into a superlative Trojan Horse, for a no-account Icelandic girl. The
choice was obvious. He would be no worse off than before he had taken
her, and his weasel mind would already be working out ways of
double-crossing me.
He sighed. ‘At least you can see the girl.’ He signal ed to the man
standing behind him who left the room.
I said, ‘You’ve real y queered this one, Vaslav. I don’t think Bakayev
is going to be too cheerful about it. It’l be Siberia for sure this
time, if not worse – and al because of Slade. It’s funny, isn’t it? You
spent four years in Ashkhabad because of Slade, and now what do you have
to look forward to?’
There was a look almost of pain in his eyes. ‘Is it true -what you said
about Slade and Sweden?’
‘Yes, Vaslav,’ I said. ‘It was Slade who cut the ground from under you
there.’
He shook his head irritably. ‘There’s one thing I don’t understand,’ he
said. ‘You say you are wil ing to trade Slade for the girl. Why should a
member of your Department do that?’
‘I swear to God you don’t listen to me. I’m not a member of the
Department ? I quit four years ago.’
He pondered. ‘Even so ? where are your loyalties?’
?/?/?_
‘My loyalties are my business,’ I said curtly. 1 ‘The world wel lost
for a woman?’ he asked mockingly. ‘I’ve been cured of that way of
thinking – and you were the doctor.’
‘Now, you’re not stil harping on that,’ I said. ‘If you hadn’t jumped
when you should have fallen flat you’d have been kil ed decently.’
The door opened and Elin came in under escort. I was about to get up but
subsided again as Kennikin lifted his pistol warningly. ‘Hel o, Elin;
you’l forgive me if I don’t get up.’
Her face was pale and when she saw me it acquired a bleak look. ‘You, too!’
‘I’m here by choice,’ I said. ‘Are you al right? They didn’t hurt you?’
‘Not more than was necessary,’ she said. ‘Just some arm twisting.’ She
put her hand to her wounded shoulder.
I smiled at her. ‘I’ve come to col ect you. We’l be leaving soon.’
‘That’s a matter of opinion,’ said Kennikin. ‘How do you expect to do it?’
‘In the normal way – through the front door,’ I said.
‘Just like that!’ Kennikin smiled. ‘And what about Slade?’
‘He’l be returned unharmed.’
‘My dear Alan! Not long ago you accused /me/ of being unrealistic.
You’l have to work out a better exchange mechanism than that.’
I grinned at him. ‘I didn’t think you’d fall for it but, as you said,
one has to try. I daresay we can work out something equitable.’
‘Such as?’
I rubbed my chin. ‘Such as sending Elin away. She’l contact our friends
and then you exchange Slade for me. The arrangements can be made by
telephone.’
‘That sounds logical,’ said Kennikin. ‘But I’m not sure it’s reasonable.
Two for one, Alan?’
‘It’s a pity you can’t ask Slade if it’s reasonable or not.’
‘You make a point.’ Kennikin moved restlessly. He was trying to find the
flaws in it. ‘We get Slade back unharmed?’
I smiled apologetical y. ‘Er . . . wel – not entirely. He’s been