The Spy Who Came in From The Cold

“It might work. It depends on whether Control has been corresponding with the bank independently, over my forged signature. It might not fit in.”

“I do not see that we have much to lose.”

“What have you got to win?”

“If the money has been drawn, which I agree is doubtful, we shall know where the agent was on a certain day. That seems to be a useful thing to know.”

“You’re dreaming. You’ll never find him, Fiedler, not on that kind of information. Once he’s in the West he can go to any consulate, even in a small town and get a visa for another country. How are you any the wiser? You don’t even know whether the man is East German. What are you after?”

Fiedler did not answer at once. He was gazing distractedly across the valley. –

“You said you are accustomed to knowing only a little, and I cannot answer your question without telling you what you should not know.” He hesitated: “But Rolling Stone was an operation agamst us, I can assure you.,’

“Us?”

“The GDR.” He smiled. “The Zone if you prefer. I am not really so sensitive.”

He was watching Fiedler now, his brown eyes restmg on him reflectively.

“But what about me?” Learnas asked. “Suppose I don’t write the letters?” His voice was rising. “Isn’t it time to talk about me, Fiedler?”

Fiedler nodded. “Why not?” he replied, agreeably.

There was a moment’s silence, then Leamas said, “Fve done my bit, Fiedler. You and Peters between you have got all I know. I never agreed to write letters to banks-it could be bloody dangerous, a thing like that. That doesn’t worry you, I know. As far as you’re concerned I’m expendable.”

“Now let me be frank,” Fiedler replied. “There are, as you know, two stages in the interrogation of a defector. The first stage in your case is nearly complete: you have told us all we can reasonably record. You have not – told us whether your Service favors pins or paper clips because we haven’t asked you, and because you did not consider the answer worth volunteering. There is a process on both sides of unconscious selection. Now it is always possible–and this is the worrying thing, Leamas–it is always entirely possible that in a month or two we shall unexpectedly and quite desperately need to know about the pins and paper clips. That is normally accounted for in the second stage– that part of the bargain which you refused to accept in Holland.” –

“You mean you’re going to keep me on ice?”

“The profession of defector,” Fiedler observed with a smile, “demands great patience. Very few are suitably qualified.”

“How long?” Leamas insisted.

Fiedler was silent.

“Well?”

Fiedler spoke with sudden urgency. “I give you my word that as soon as I possibly can, I will tell you the answer to your question. Look–I could lie to you, couldn’t I? I could say one month or less, just to keep you sweet. But I am telling you I don’t know because that is the truth. You have given us some indications: until we have run them to earth I cannot listen to talk of letting you go. But afterwards, if things are as I think they are, you will need a friend and that friend will be me. I give you my word as a German.”

Leamas was so taken aback that for a moment he was silent.

“All right,” he said finally, “I’ll play, Fiedler, but if you are stringing me along, somehow I’ll break your neck.”

“That may not be necessary,” Fiedler replied evenly.

A man who lives a part, not to others but alone, is exposed to obvious psychological dangers. In itself, the practice of deception is not particularly exacting; it is a matter of experience, of professional _expertise_, it is a facility most of us can acquire. But while a confidence trickster, a play-actor or a gambler can return from his performance to the ranks of his admirers, the secret agent enjoys no such relief. For him, deception is first a matter of self-defense. He must protect himself not only from without but from within, and against the most natural of impulses: though he earn a fortune, his role may forbid him the purchase of a razor; though he be erudite, it can befall him to mumble nothing but banalities; though be be an affectionate husband and father, he must under all circumstances withhold himself from those in whom he should naturally confide. –

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