THE LOOKING GLASS WAR by John LeCarré

Sarah was right: to help him wait.

Leclerc said—it seemed suddenly the point of their meeting—”I’ve arranged for you to have a short talk with George Smiley at the Circus after this morning’s conference. You’ve heard of him?”

“No,” Avery lied. This was delicate ground.

“He used to be one of their best men. Typical of the Circus in some ways, of the better kind. He resigns, you know, and comes back. His conscience. One never knows whether he’s there or not. He’s a bit past it now. They say he drinks a good deal. Smiley has the North European desk. He can brief you about dropping the film. Our own courier service is disbanded, so there’s no other way: the P.O. doesn’t want to know us; after Taylor’s death I can’t allow you to run around with the thing in your pocket. How much do you know about the Circus?” He might have been asking about women, wary, an older man without experience.

“A bit,” said Avery. “The usual gossip.”

Leclerc stood up and went to the window. “They’re a curious crowd. Some good, of course. Smiley was good. But they’re cheats,” he broke out suddenly. “That’s an odd word, I know, to use about a sister service, John. Lying’s second nature to them. Half of them don’t know any longer when they’re telling the truth.” He was inclining his head studiously this way and that to catch sight of whatever moved in the waking street below. “What wretched weather. There was a lot of rivalry during the war, you know.”

“I heard.”

“That’s all over now. I don’t grudge them their work. They’ve more money and more staff than we have. They do a bigger job. However, I doubt whether they do a better one. Nothing can touch our Research Section, for example. Nothing.” Avery suddenly had the feeling that Leclerc had revealed something intimate, a failed marriage or a discreditable act, and that now it was all right.

“When you see Smiley, he may ask you about the operation. I don’t want you to tell him anything, do you see, except that you are going to Finland and you may be handling a film for urgent dispatch to London. If he presses you, suggest it is a training matter. That’s all you’re authorized to say. The background, Gorton’s report, future operations—none of that concerns them in the least. A training matter.”

“I realize that. But he’ll know about Taylor, won’t he, if the P.O. knows?”

“Leave that to me. And don’t be misled into believing the Circus has a monopoly of agent running. We have the same right. We just don’t unnecessarily.” He had restated his text.

Avery watched Leclerc’s slim back against the lightening sky outside; a man excluded, a man without a card, he thought.

“Could we light the fire?” he asked, and went into the corridor where Pine had a cupboard for mops and brushes. There was kindling wood and some old newspapers. He came back and knelt in front of the fireplace, keeping the best pieces of cinder and coaxing the ash through the grate, just as he would in the flat at Christmas. “I wonder if it was really wise to let them meet at the airport,” he asked.

“It was urgent. After Jimmy Gorton’s report, it was very urgent. It still is. We haven’t a moment to lose.”

Avery held a match to the newspaper and watched it burn. As the wood caught, the smoke began to roll gently into his face, causing his eyes to water behind his glasses. “How could they know Lansen’s destination?”

“It was a scheduled flight. He had to get clearance in advance.”

Tossing more coal on to the fire, Avery got up and rinsed his hands at the basin in the corner, drying them on his handkerchief.

“I keep asking Pine to put me out a towel,” said Leclerc. “They haven’t enough to do, that’s half the trouble.”

“Never mind.” Avery put the wet handkerchief in his pocket. It felt cold against his thigh. “Perhaps they will have now,” he added without irony.

“I thought I’d get Pine to make me up a bed here. A sort of ops room.” Leclerc spoke cautiously, as if Avery might deprive him of the pleasure. “You can ring me here tonight from Finland. If you’ve got the film, just say the deal’s come off.”