‘And we were ordered to discount them,’ Connie said very firmly. ‘Kirov was the target. Not Karla. That was the fifth-floor ruling, George, and you were party to it. “Stop moongazing and get on with earthly matters,” says you.’ Twisting her mouth and putting back her head, she produced an uncomfortably realistic likeness of Saul Enderby : ‘ “This Service is in the business of collectin’ intelligence,” , she drawled. ‘ “Not conductin’ feuds agin the opposition.” Don’t tell me he’s changed his tune, darling. Has he? George?’ she whispered. ‘Oh George, you are bad!’
He fetched her another drink and when he came back he saw her eyes glistening with mischievous excitement. She was plucking at the tufts of her white hair the way she used to when she wore it long.
‘The point is, we licensed the operation, Con,’ said Smiley, in a factual tone intended to rein her in. ‘We overruled the doubters, and we gave you permission to take Kirov to first base. How did it run after that?’
The drink, the memories, the revived excitement of the chase were driving her at a speed he could not control. Her breathing had quickened. She was rasping like an old engine with the restraints dangerously removed. He realized she was telling Leipzig’s story the way Leipzig had told it to Vladimir. He had thought he was in the Circus with her still, with the operation against Kirov just about to be launched. But in her imagination she had leapt instead to the ancient city of Tallinn a quarter of a century earlier. In her extraordinary mind, she had been there; she had known both Leipzig and Kirov in the time of their friendship. A love story, she insisted. Little Otto and fat Oleg. This was the pivot, she said; let the old fool tell it the way it was, she said, and you pursue your wicked purposes as I go along, George.
‘The tortoise and the hare, darling, that’s who they were. Kirov the big sad baby, reading away at his law books at the Poly, and using the beastly secret police as Daddy; and little Otto Leipzig the proper devil, a finger in all the rackets, bit of prison behind him, working in the docks all day, at night preaching sedition to the unaligned. They met in a bar and it was love at first sight. Otto pulled the girls, Oleg Kirov slip-streamed along behind him, picking up his leavings. What are you trying to do, George? Joan-of-Arc me?’
He had lighted a fresh cigarette for her and put it into her mouth in the hope of calming her, but her feverish talking had already burned it low enough to scorch her. Taking it quickly from her, he stubbed it on the tin lid she used for an ashtray. ‘They even shared a girl-friend for a time,’ she said, so loud she was nearly yelling. ‘And one day, if you can believe it, the poor ninny came to little Otto and warned him outright. “Your fat friend is jealous of you and he’s a toady of the secret police,” says she. “The unaligned discussion club is for the high jump. Beware the Ides of March! ” ‘
‘Go easy, Con,’ Smiley warned her anxiously. ‘Con, come down!’
Her voice grew still louder : ‘Otto threw the girl out and a week later the whole bunch were arrested. Including fat Oleg, of course, who’d set them up – but they knew. Oh, they knew!’ She faltered as if she had lost her way. ‘And the fool girl who’d tried to warn him died,’ she said. ‘Missing believed interrogated. Otto combed the forests for her till he found someone who’d been with her in the cells. Dead as a dodo. Two dodos. Dead as I’ll be, damn soon.’
‘Let’s go on later,’ Smiley said.
He would have stopped her, too – made tea, talked weather, anything to halt the mounting speed of her. But she had taken a second leap and was already back in Paris, describing how Otto Leipzig, with the fifth floor’s grudging approval and the old General’s passionate help, set about arranging the reunion, after all those lost years, with Second Secretary Kirov, whom she dubbed the Ginger Pig. Smiley supposed it was her name for him at the time. Her face was scarlet and her breath was not enough for her story, so that it kept running out in a wheeze, but she forced herself to continue.