‘So if he wouldn’t let you help him, what did you do?’ Smiley asked with the same studied casualness. ‘Sit up and read – play chess with Elvira?’
Mikhel’s brown eyes held him a moment, slipped away and came back to him.
‘No, Max,’ he replied with great courtesy. ‘I gave him the maps. He desired to be left alone with them. I wished him goodnight. I was asleep by the time he left.’
But not Elvira, apparently, Smiley thought. Elvira stayed behind for instruction from her proxy brother. Active as a patriot, as a man, as a leader, Smiley rehearsed. Active in all respects.
‘So what contact have you had with him since?’ Smiley asked and Mikhel came suddenly to yesterday. Nothing till yesterday, Mikhel said.
‘Yesterday afternoon he called me on the telephone. Max, I swear to you I had not heard him so excited for many years. Happy, I would say ecstatic. “Mikhel! Mikhel!” Max, that was a delighted man. He would come to me that night. Last night. Late maybe but he will have my fifty pounds. “General,” I tell him. “What is fifty pounds? Are you well? Are you safe? Tell me.” “Mikhel, I have been fishing and I am happy. Stay awake,” he says to me. “I shall be with you at eleven o’clock, soon after. I shall have the money. Also it is necessary I beat you at chess to calm my nerves.” I stay awake, make tea, wait for him. And wait. Max, I am a soldier, for myself I am not afraid. But for the General – for that old man, Max – I was afraid. I phone the Circus, an emergency. They hang up on me. Why? Max, why did you do that, please?’
‘I was not on duty,’ Smiley said, now watching Mikhel as intently as he dared. ‘Tell me, Mikhel,’ he began.
‘Max.’
‘What did you think Vladimir was going to be doing after he rang you with the good news – and before he came to repay you fifty pounds?’
Mikhel did not hesitate. ‘Naturally I assumed he would be going to Max,’ he said. ‘He had landed his big fish. Now he would go to Max, claim his expenses, present him with his great news. Naturally,’ he repeated, looking a little too straight into Smiley’s eyes.
Naturally, thought Smiley; and you knew to the minute when he would leave his apartment, and to the metre the route he would take to reach the Hampstead flat.
‘So he failed to appear, you rang the Circus and we were unhelpful,’ Smiley resumed. ‘I’m sorry. So what did you do next?’
‘I phone Villem. First to make sure the boy is all right, also to ask him, where is our Leader? That English wife of his bawled me out. Finally I went to his flat. I did not like to – it was an intrusion – his private life is his own – but I went. I rang the bell. He did not answer. I came home. This morning at eleven o’clock Jüri rings. I had not read the early edition of the evening papers, I am not fond of English newspapers. Jüri had read them. Vladimir our leader was dead,’ he ended.
Elvira was at his elbow. She had two glasses of vodka on a tray.
‘Please,’ said Mikhel. Smiley took a glass, Mikhel the other. ‘To life!’ said Mikhel, very loud, and drank, as the tears started to his eyes.
‘To life,’ Smiley repeated while Elvira watched them.
She went with him, Smiley thought. She forced Mikhel to the old man’s flat, she dragged him to the door.
‘Have you told anyone else of this, Mikhel?’ Smiley asked when she had once more left.
‘Jüri I don’t trust,’ said Mikhel, blowing his nose.
‘Did you tell Jüri about Villem?’
‘Please?’
‘Did you mention Villem to him? Did you suggest to Jüri in any way that Villem might have been involved with Vladimir?’
Mikhel had committed no such sin, apparently.
‘In this situation you should trust no one,’ Smiley said, in a more formal tone, as he prepared to take his leave. ‘Not even the police. Those are the orders. The police must not know that Vladimir was doing anything operational when he died. It is important for security. Yours as well as ours. He gave you no message otherwise? No word for Max, for instance?’