His gaze had not left Toby’s face. ‘I can imagine that Polyakov might run to quite a few reels of film, can’t you? And that one of the jobs of whoever was seeing him might be to replenish his stock: take him little sealed packets. Packets of film. Unexposed film, of course, since it came from the Circus. Tell me, Toby, could you please, is Lapin a name to you?’
A lick, a frown, a smile, a forward movement of the head: ‘Sure, George, I know Lapin.’
‘Who ordered the lamplighter reports on Lapin destroyed?’
‘I did, George.’
‘On your own initiative?’
The smile broadened a fraction. ‘Listen, George, I made some rungs up the ladder these days.’
‘Who said Connie Sachs had to be pushed downhill?’
‘Look, I think it was Percy, okay? Say it was Percy, maybe Bill. You know how it is in a big operation. Shoes to mend, pots to clean, always a thing going.’ He shrugged. ‘Maybe it was Roy, huh?’
‘So you take orders from all of them,’ said Smiley lightly. ‘That’s very indiscriminate of you, Toby. You should know better.’
Esterhase didn’t like that at all.
‘Who told you to cool off Max, Toby? Was it the same three people? Only I have to report all this to Lacon, you see. He’s being awfully pressing just at the moment. He seems to have the Minister on his back. Who was it?’
‘George, you been talking to the wrong guys.’
‘One of us has,’ Smiley agreed pleasantly. ‘That’s for sure. They also want to know about Westerby: just who put the muzzle on him. Was it the same person who sent you down to Sarratt with a thousand quid in notes and a brief to put Jim Prideaux’s mind at rest? It’s only facts I’m after, Toby, not scalps. You know me, I’m not the vindictive sort. Anyway, what’s to say you’re not a very loyal fellow? It’s just a question of who to.’ He added: ‘Only they do badly want to know, you see. There’s even some ugly talk of calling in the competition. Nobody wants that, do they? It’s like going to solicitors when you’ve had a row with your wife: an irrevocable step. Who gave you the message for Jim about Tinker, Tailor? Did you know what it meant? Did you have it straight from Polyakov, was that it?’
‘For God’s sake,’ Guillam whispered. ‘Let me sweat the bastard.’
Smiley ignored him. ‘Let’s keep talking about Lapin. What was his job over here?’
‘He worked for Polyakov.’
‘His secretary in the cultural department?’
‘His legman.’
‘But my dear Toby: what on earth is a cultural attaché doing with his own legman?’
Esterhase’s eyes were on Smiley all the time. He’s like a dog, thought Guillam, he doesn’t know whether to expect a kick or a bone. They flickered from Smiley’s face to his hands, then back to his face, constantly checking the tell-tale places.
‘Don’t be damn silly, George,’ Toby said carelessly. ‘Polyakov is working for Moscow Centre. You know that as well as I do.’ He crossed his little legs and, with a resurgence of all his former insolence, sat back in his chair and took a sip of cold tea.
Whereas Smiley, to Guillam’s eye, appeared momentarily set back; from which Guillam in his confusion drily inferred that he was doubtless very pleased with himself. Perhaps because Toby was at last doing the talking.
‘Come on, George,’ Toby said. ‘You’re not a child. Think how many operations we ran this way. We buy Polyakov, okay? Polyakov’s a Moscow hood but he’s our joe. But he’s got to pretend to his own people that he’s spying on us. How else does he get away with it? How does he walk in and out of that house all day, no gorillas, no babysitters, everything so easy? He comes down to our shop so he got to take home the goodies. So we give him goodies. Chickenfeed, so he can pass it home and everyone in Moscow clap him on the back and tell him he’s a big guy, happens every day.’
If Guillam’s head by now was reeling with a kind of furious awe, Smiley’s seemed remarkably clear.