THE LOOKING GLASS WAR by John LeCarré

Looking at the empty chair, he said, “I see I’m to take the draftiest place.”

Avery rose, but Haldane had sat down. “Don’t bother, Avery. I’m a sick man already.” He coughed, just as he coughed all year. Not even the summer could help him, apparently; he coughed in all seasons.

The others fidgeted uncomfortably; Woodford helped himself to a biscuit. Haldane glanced at the fire. “Is that the best the Ministry of Works can manage?” he asked.

“It’s the rain,” Avery said. “The rain disagrees with it. Pine’s had a go but he made no difference.”

“Ah.”

Haldane was a lean man with long, restless fingers; a man locked in himself, slow in his movement, agile in his features, balding, spare, querulous and dry; a man seemingly contemptuous of everything, keeping his own hours and his own counsel; addicted to crossword puzzles and nineteenth-century watercolors.

Carol came in with files and maps, putting them on Leclerc’s desk, which in contrast to the remainder of his room was very tidy. They waited awkwardly until she had gone. The door securely closed, Leclerc passed his hand cautiously over his dark hair as if he were not quite familiar with it.

“Taylor’s been killed. You’ve all heard it by now. He was killed last night in Finland traveling under another name.” Avery noticed he never mentioned Malherbe. “We don’t know the details. He appears to have been run over. I’ve told Carol to put it about that it was an accident. Is that clear?”

Yes, they said, it was quite clear.

“He went to collect a film from… a contact, a Scandinavian contact. You know whom I mean. We don’t normally use the routine couriers for operational work, but this was different; something very special indeed. I think Adrian will back me up there.” He made a little upward gesture with his open hands, freeing the wrists from his white cuffs, laying the palms and fingers vertically together; praying for Haldane’s support.

“Special?” Haldane repeated slowly. His voice was thin and sharp like the man himself, cultivated, without emphasis and without affectation; an enviable voice. “It was different, yes. Not least because Taylor died. We should never have used him, never,” he observed flatly. “We broke a first principle of intelligence. We used a man on the overt side for a clandestine job. Not that we have a clandestine side anymore.”

“Shall we let our masters be the judges of that?” Leclerc suggested demurely. “At least you’ll agree the Ministry is pressing us daily for results.” He turned to those on either side of him, now to the left, now to the right, bringing them in like shareholders. “It is time you all knew the details. We are dealing with something of exceptional security classification, you understand. I propose to limit to Heads of Sections. So far, only Adrian Haldane and one or two of his staff in Research have been initiated. And John Avery as my aide. I wish to emphasize that our sister service knows nothing whatever about it. Now about our own arrangements. The operation has the codeword Mayfly.” He was speaking in his clipped, effective voice. “There is one action file, which will be returned to me personally, or to Carol if I am out, at the end of each day; and there is a library copy. That is the system we used in the war for operational files and I think you are all familiar with it. It’s the system we shall use henceforth. I shall add Carol’s name to the subscription list.”

Woodford pointed at Avery with his pipe, shaking his head. Not young John there; John was not familiar with the system. Sandford, sitting beside Avery, explained. The library copy was kept in the cipher room. It was against regulations to take it away. All new serials were to be entered on it as soon as they were made; the subscription list was the list of persons authorized to read it. No pins were allowed; all the papers had to be fast. The others looked on complacently.

Sandford was Administration; he was a fatherly man in gold-rimmed spectacles and came to the office on a motorbike. Leclerc had objected once, on no particular grounds, and now he parked it down the road opposite the Hospital.