Leclerc thought Smiley’s club a very strange place; not at all the kind of thing he had expected. Two half-basement rooms and a dozen people dining at separate tables before a large fire. Some of them were vaguely familiar. He suspected they were connected with the Circus.
“This is a rather good spot. How do you join?”
“Oh, you don’t,” said Smiley apologetically, then blushed and continued, “I mean they don’t have new members. Just one generation . . . several went in the war, you know, some have died or gone abroad. What was it you had in mind, I wonder?”
“You were good enough to help young Avery out.”
“Yes. . . yes of course. How did that go, by the way? I never heard.”
“It was just a training run. There was no film in the end.”
“I’m sorry.” Smiley spoke hastily, covering up, as if someone were dead and he had not known.
“We didn’t really expect there would be. It was just a precaution. How much did Avery tell you, I wonder? We’re training up one or two of the old hands … and some of the new boys too. It’s something to do,” Leclerc explained, “during the slack season . . . Christmas, you know. People on leave.”
“I know.”
Leclerc noticed that the claret was very good. He wished he had joined a smaller club; his own had gone off terribly. They had such difficulty with staff.
“You have probably heard,” Leclerc added, officially as it were, “that Control has offered me full assistance for training purposes.”
“Yes, yes, of course.”
“My Minister was the moving spirit. He likes the idea of a pool of trained agents. When the plan was first mooted I went and spoke to Control myself. Later, Control called on me. You knew that, perhaps?”
“Yes. Control wondered…”
“He has been most helpful. Don’t think I am unappreciative. It has been agreed—I think I should give you the background, your own office will confirm it—that if the training is to be effective, we must create as nearly as possible an operational atmosphere. What we used to call battle conditions.” An indulgent smile. “We’ve chosen an area in western Germany. It’s bleak and unfamiliar ground, ideal for frontier crossing exercises and that kind of thing. We can ask for the Army’s cooperation if we need it.”
“Yes indeed. What a good idea.”
“For elementary reasons of security, we all accept that your office should only be briefed in the aspects of this exercise in which you are good enough to help.”
“Control told me,” said Smiley. “He wants to do whatever he can. He didn’t know you touched this kind of thing anymore. He was pleased.”
“Good,” Leclerc said shortly. He moved his elbows forward a little across the polished table. “I thought I might pick your brains . . . quite informally. Rather as you people from time to time have made use of Adrian Haldane.”
“Of course.”
“The first thing is false documents. I looked up our old forgers in the index. I see Hyde and Fellowby went over to the Circus some years ago.”
“Yes. It was the change in emphasis.”
“I’ve written down a personal description of a man in our employment; he is supposedly resident at Magdeburg for the purposes of the scheme. One of the men under training. Do you think they could prepare documents, Identity Card, Party Membership and that kind of thing? Whatever is necessary.”
“The man would have to sign them,” Smiley said. “We would then stamp on top of his signature. We’d need photographs, too. He’d have to be briefed on how the documents worked; perhaps Hyde could do that on the spot with your agent?”
A slight hesitation. “No doubt. I have selected a cover name. It closely approximates his own; we find that a useful technique.”
“I might just make the point,” Smiley said, with a rather comic frown, “since this is such an elaborate exercise, that forged papers are of very limited value. I mean, one telephone call to the Magdeburg Town Administration and the best forgery in the world is blown sky high . . .”
“I think we know about that. We want to teach them cover, submit them to interrogation . . . you know the kind of thing.”