"Right... we shall start." " Has he called yet?" " No." "Six minutes to go yet, Control." "Will you speak up, please?" "City Removers here." "I believe you wanted an estimate." "You're always welcome." "You did exactly what I told you?" "Talked to nobody?" "Remember, Jim, trust no one." "No one." "You work to me alone." "I'm sorry, there's no vodka." "I didn't expect any." "I've got a job for you." "Familiar territory." "Czechoslovakia." " Perhaps a bit too familiar." " Which identity do you want to use?" "I'd suggest Vladimir Hajek." " Still a Czech journalist?" " Yes." " Based in Paris?" " Yes." " Has anyone else used him?" " No." "Do you agree?" "I think it's safe." "I've had an offer of service, Jim..." "on the military side." "His cover name is Testify." "You're a military-minded chap." "You should hit it off." "He's fond of horses." "Something else you've got in common." "We can chat polo, I suppose, sir." "His real name is Stevcek." "At the moment he's an artillery general." "In the past, he's worked in close liaison with Russian Intelligence... very close." "And now he wants to talk to us." "I have personally interviewed an intermediary in Austria." "Stevcek now wants to... testify to a ranking officer of mine who can speak Czech." "Why?" "There was a girlfriend - a student." "20 years' difference between them." "Such things happen." "She was shot during the uprising in '68." "Stevcek never forgave the Russians." "He's been after their blood ever since." "Lain low, stayed friendly." "All the time, he's been waiting his chance." "Now he's ready." "How sure are you?" "Stevcek." "Rocketry... ballistics." "Fourth man in Czech Army Intelligence." "Secretary to the National Internal Security Committee." "Anglo-American desk in Prague." "He's big, Jim, and he's got treasure for us." "He's worked for Moscow Centre's England section." "He'll give us the name of the agent Moscow planted inside our set-up." "We have a mole, Jim." " In London?" " Very near the top." "In the Circus?" "One of the top five." "Their codename for him is Gerald." "We've a rotten apple, Jim, and the maggots are eating up the Circus." "These people?" "One of these?" "Why not?" "Are the British incapable of deception?" "We've turned members of other outfits." "Russians, Poles, Czechs, Americans." "Why shouldn't there be a mole in the Circus?" "Now..." "look at them." " Control, I know who they are." " We've got to have codenames for them." "Remember the nursery rhyme - "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor"?" "Finish it." "Richman, poorman, beggarman, thief." "Percy Alleline, Director of Operations" " Tinker." "Tinker." "Bill Haydon, Head of Personnel" " Tailor." "Roy Bland, Head of Iron Curtain Networks" " Soldier." "We leave out sailor." "Too much like tailor." " Richman." " Don't like it." "Sounds like police work - fraud, Swiss banks." "Toby Esterhase, Top Lamplighter, exquisite head sleuth" " Poorman." "Yes..." "Poorman." "And George Smiley, my devoted deputy" " Beggarman." " Have you got it?" " I'll remember." "All I want from you, Jim, is... one word." "Just the one codename." "If you have to scrawl it on the front door of the Embassy in Prague or phone our resident hood and shout it in his ear before you go underground - if there's some kind of a fumble and it's necessary - just give me that one word." "Remember, if you're caught, deny me." "I don't know you're there." "Where do I meet Stevcek?" "How?" "When?" "On Friday March 20 Stevcek will be inspecting the weapon research station at Tisnov near Brno, about 100 miles north of the Austrian border." "He'll be visiting a hunting lodge for the weekend." "It's a place high up in the forest not far from Racice." "He'll provide you with an escort from Brno, and he expects you on the evening of Saturday March 21st." "Mm." "What does he get from us?" "The usual assurances." "If and when he wants to come, we'll look after him." "One word will do it, Jim." "I'm almost there." "Barabbas was a bookseller." "Mr Smiley, please." "You're making an investment." "Remember that when I sell it back to you." "A pleasure to do business with you, sir." "You always have a joke for me." " We could trust this to the Post Office." " I'll send it on." " I'll slip out that way, if you don't mind." " Not at all, sir." "George!" "Hello, there!" "My dear boy!" "The maestro himself!" "Don't say you've forgotten me?" " Hello, Roddy." " How marvellous to run into you." "They told me you were locked up with the monks in St Gallen or somewhere!" "Self-exile, they said." "I knew it wasn't true." "You, George, you'd never leave England." "You're not capable of such an act of abandonment, no matter how shabbily the Circus treated you." "So... what have you been doing all these months?" "I want to know everything, every little bit." "How's the delectable wife?" "How is the lovely Lady Ann?" "Not in town at the moment, I hear." "Pound to a penny you're shopping for her." "Little prezzies all the time, they tell me." "Are you back on the beat, George..." "or did you never really chuck it in?" "Has it all been cover?" "Cover, George?" " Roddy, I've retired." " All right, George, if you say so." " You look well, but I mustn't delay you." " No, George, really!" "My friend, you can't get away like that!" "Roddy Martindale simply wouldn't let you." "It's months since we last had a chin-wag!" "Let me buy you an aperitif and then let me take you to dinner." "Allow me that privilege." "Honour me, George." "I can tell that no one else has claimed you tonight." " It's kind of you..." " It's my role in life." "We all need to be good at something." " Wasn't Jebedee your old tutor?" " Yes, once upon a time." "How do you rate Sparke, the one who came from the School of Oriental Languages?" "Not quite there." "Had trouble with his nerves, they say." "What a pity." "All dead and gone." "Only appreciated by a select few, like you and me." "You flatter me." "Now, George, let's talk about your old boss." "Control." "He kept his name a secret." "Shall we talk about Control?" " If you insist." " It wasn't a secret to you, was it?" "He never had any secrets from you, his trusted right hand." "I don't know." "That's the point about secrets." "Close as thieves Control and Smiley were, so they say." " THEY are very complimentary." " Don't flirt, George!" "I'm an old trooper." "You and Control were just like that." "That's why you were thrown out." "It's why Bill Haydon's got your job." "It's why Percy Alleline got into Control's chair when it ought to be YOU and why Bill Haydon's his cup-bearer and you're out altogether." " If you say so, Roddy." " I do." "I say more than that." "Far more." "I say this." "Control never died at all." "He's been seen in South Africa." "Now, we can't blame a man for wanting a bit of peace in the evening of his life." "Willy Andrewartha walked straight into him in Jo'burg Airport in the waiting room." "Not a ghost." "Flesh." "That's the most idiotic story I've heard." "Control died of a heart attack." "After a long illness, through which he worked." "He hated South Africa." "He hated everywhere except Surrey, the Circus and Lord's Cricket Ground." "Yes, of course." "Willy was always the most god-awful liar." "I said, "Willy, you should be ashamed of yourself."" "I... suppose what put the last nail into Control's coffin was the Czecho scandal, the poor devil that got shot in the back." "The one who was thick with Haydon." "With his picture in the newspaper under some fictitious name, but we know his REAL name." "Jim Prideaux." "Somehow I don't think I can ever quite believe in Percy Alleline as Chief, can you?" "It might be just my natural cynicism, but power sits poorly on those we've grown up with." "There are so few who can carry it off." "Percy's such an obvious fellow, especially after Control, who was a positive serpent." "How can anyone take Alleline seriously?" "All that heavy good fellowship." "One thinks of him in the old days, lolling in the Travellers' bar, sucking away on that log of a pipe..." "and buying drinks for all the moguls." "Really!" "One does like one's perfidy to be subtle, don't you agree?" "What's his knack?" "Living off the wits of his subordinates?" "Really, Roddy, I can't help you." "I never knew Percy as a force, only as a..." "Striver?" "Right." "With his eyes on Control's purple, day and night." "Now he's actually wearing it and the mob loves him." "So who's doing the business for him?" " Who is it?" " I cannot help you." "Who's the clever-boots?" "Well, not Percy, that's for sure." "Don't say the Americans trust us again." "They'd never fall for Percy." "Please stop this!" "Wonderfully well he's doing." "Little committees popping up, red carpet for Percy wherever he goes, tripping the light fantastic in Whitehall!" " You're out of my depth, truly." " So who's earning him his reputation?" " Anything you want, sir?" " No, thank you." "We've finished now." "It's my party, George." "I'll get the bill when I'm ready." "So who's pulling the strings for Percy Puppet?" "How about dashing Bill Haydon, your old rival... in EVERY sense, I'm told." "Of course, he never was orthodox, was he?" "Genius never is." "All right, then, it's Roy Bland, the shop-soiled white hope." "The first redbrick don to make the Circus." "If it's neither of them, and Control is really dead, then there's only one possibility left." "It's someone who's pretending to be in retirement." "YOU, George." "Admit it!" "You featherhead, Martindale!" "You pompous, bogus, gossiping old featherhead!" "Roy Bland is not redbrick." "He was at St Antony's College, Oxford." "Oh, don't be silly, dear." "Of course St Antony is redbrick." "Makes no difference there's a bit of sandstone in the same street." "Just because he was your protégé." "I suppose he's Haydon's boy now." "Bill was father to them all, wasn't he?" "Or something like that." " It's not mine, thank you." " Don't tip him." "It's a guinea at Christmas." "Anyway, it's MY party." " Bill draws them like bees to a honey pot." " Goodnight, Roddy." "Fancy a nightcap?" "Start afresh with the bubbly?" "Why not, George?" "I think I will." "Of course, Bill's got the glamour." "Not like some of us." "Star quality, I call it." "One of the very few." "I'm told that women literally bow down before him... if that's what women do." "Goodnight." "Love to Ann." "EVERYBODY'S love to Ann." "Bits of sandstone... shop-soiled white hope." "Everybody's love to Ann." "Oh, damn!" "Oh... damn!" "Peter?" "I'd leave that coat on if I were you, George." "We've a long way to go." "Well, you're not me." "Before I go anywhere, I shall change out of my sopping shoes." " And, also, make a pot of coffee." " You sound a little testy, George." " Lacon is waiting for you." " Me, Peter?" "George, I've been sent to deliver you." "I've been reviewing my situation in the last half-hour of hell and I've come to a very grave decision." "After a lifetime of living by my wits and on my memory," "I shall give myself up full-time to the profession of forgetting." "I'll put an end to emotional attachments which have long outlived their purpose." "Namely the Circus, this house, my whole past." "I shall sell up and buy a cottage, in the Cotswolds, I think." "Steeple Aston sounds about right." "Do I need overnight things?" " I'm not taking any." " I shall establish myself as a mild eccentric." "Discursive, withdrawn, but possessing one or two loveable habits, such as muttering to myself as I bumble along innocent pavements." "I shall become an oak of my own generation." "You make the coffee." "You know where everything is." "You can even pick my front door locks." "Clever Peter Guillam." "I saw you parking this toy in Curzon Street." "I ran away." "Good guess on your part." " Why did you think I was looking for you?" " I hoped you weren't, but you found me." "You had to come home sometime." " It's far too young for you, Peter." " It's quick." "I'm surprised you didn't get thrown out, too." "You had all the qualifications for dismissal." "Good at your work, loyal, discreet." "What happened tonight, George?" "How's Ann?" "Roddy Martindale happened tonight." "Why do I permit it?" "I tell myself it's for politeness' sake," "It's not." "It's weakness." "And the fact that I've nothing better to do." "My wife's fine, thank you." "They've put me in charge of scalphunters." "You are Jim Prideaux's successor?" "You?" "Looking after the heavy mob?" "Why not?" "Tucked away at Brixton behind the broken glass and barbed wire, despatching thugs occasionally, kept at arm's length from the Circus ringmasters." " How is Jim?" "Do you know?" " In quarantine." "I don't mean to pry." "I merely ask." "Can he get around?" "Can he walk and so on?" " Bad backs can be terribly tricky." " The word is he manages pretty well." "He's back in England." "Address unknown." "Travel." "Is that still the scalphunters' official name?" "Hit and run, cosh and carry." "Sorry." "Now, Control always preached that good intelligence work is gradual and rests on a kind of gentleness." " It's not my department." " No." "The scalphunters were the exception Control allowed to his own rule." "On Bill Haydon's persuasion." "A reflection of Bill temperament, of course." "The solo initiative." "Very dashing... very audacious." "I'm sorry, Peter." "What?" " Lateralism." "Are you familiar with the word?" " I most certainly am not." "It's the "in" doctrine." "We used to go up and down." "Now we go along." " What does that mean?" " Before, the Circus ran itself by regions." "Africa, Satellites, Russia, China, South East Asia, West Indies." "Each region was commanded by its own juju man." " Control held the strings." "Remember?" " It strikes a distant chord." "Today everything operational is under one hat." "It's called London Station." "Regions are out, lateralism is in." "Who's station commander?" "Bill Haydon." "His No.2 is Roy Bland." "Toby Esterhase runs between them like a poodle." "They're a service within the service - share secrets and don't mix with the proles." " There are three of them and Alleline." " That's right." " The object is to make us more secure." " A very good idea." "Why did Lacon send you for me?" "Why did he send ME for you or WHY did he send me?" "Quite right." "I should've known better than to ask." "Remember your last day at the Circus?" "One day before Control departed and the new regime took over." "You stuck your head round my door and said "I've been sacked"." "We went out and you got drunk." "Why pick me, George?" "I was pretty low grade." "Running some very sketchy networks of merchant seamen - whatever Poles, Russians, Chinks, I could cobble together" "Why me, George?" "You want a reason?" "You fastened on that word when I asked why you'd been kicked out." " I'll tell you what you said." " I hope this won't be embarrassing." "You said, "Reason as logic or reason as motive or reason as a way of life?" ""They don't have to give reasons." "I can write my own," ""and that is not the same as the half-baked tolerance that comes from no longer caring."" "I thought that was pretty impressive stuff from a man as drunk as you were." "At least I had the good sense not to let you drive me home." "Lacon sent me for you, George." " It's like Dracula's blood bank!" " Lacon said it was his Hampshire Camelot." "Built by a teetotal millionaire." "He thinks that explains everything." "I'm so out of touch." "Does Lacon have any particular title nowadays?" "Just Sir Oliver of the Cabinet Office." "Permanent watchdog of intelligence affairs." "He loves being one of nature's prefects." "George, hello!" "Thanks for coming!" "Come on in, will you?" "Guillam." "Been enjoying retirement, George?" "You haven't missed the warmth of human contact?" "I rather would, I think." "One's work with old buddies." "Oh, I think I manage very well, thank you." "Yes, yes, I'm sure I do." "And you?" "All goes well with you?" "Oh, no great changes." "No, no, all very smooth." " Charlotte got her scholarship to Roedean." " Oh, very good." "How about your wife?" "In the pink and so on?" "Very bonny, thank you." "Ah, all spruce and shipshape again, Guillam?" "You were grubby." "He did look a ruffian, didn't he, George?" "Well... shall we?" "Please, George, I want him to talk particularly to you." "All right, Fawn, lock us in, please." " I think you know Mr Smiley, don't you?" " 'Course I do." "You once gave me a job." "You remember?" "Tarr, sir." "Ricki Tarr." "The lawyer's boy from Marseilles." "You changed my first nappies." "They were very tough interviews you gave us tender young recruits." "Of course, 12 years ago." "It's that long." "You don't look any different to me, sir." "No, 12 years ago nobody, but nobody, got taken on unless we got past you." "Not even scalphunters, who aren't quite your type." " We all had to get the nod from Mr Smiley." " Tarr." "Of course I remember you." "Your father was an Australian, I recall." "A solicitor and a Nonconformist lay preacher." "Altogether a most unusual chap to pop up in Marseilles." "Just such odd circumstances do seem to provide us with... suitable personnel." "Bad boys like Ricki." "Daddy thought he could beat the sin out of me, but you knew better." "He only beat it further in and that's what scalphunters are made of." " Isn't that right, Mr Guillam?" " We're waiting, Tarr." "Yes, we ought to get on." " I guess I'd better make my pitch." " Let's keep it precise." "Before you begin, Ricki, do I understand correctly that no one at the Circus knows you're in England?" "Only Mr Guillam." "You're officially absent without leave." "On the wanted list." "I think I'm safe now." "I've got a story to tell you all about spies." "And if it's true, which I think it is, you boys are gonna need a whole new organisation, right?" "Shall I start with the day you sent me to Lisbon?" "It changed my life." "You might find it's going to change all your lives." "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant" "Depart in peace" "According to" "Thy word" "For mine eyes have seen" "Thy salvation" "Which thou hast prepared before the face" "Of all people" "To be a light" "To lighten" "The gentiles" "And to be the glory" "Of thy people" "Israel" "Glory be to the Father" "And to the Son" "And to the Holy Ghost" "As it was in the beginning" "Is now and ever shall be" "World without end" "Amen" "You're officially absent without leave." "On the wanted list." "I think I'm safe now." "I've got a story to tell you all about spies." "And if it's true, which I think it is, you boys are gonna need a whole new organisation, right?" "Shall I start with the day you sent me to Lisbon?" "It changed my life." "You might find it's going to change all your lives." "Our resident buffoon - old galloping major called Tufty Thessinger - wanted a helping hand." "My boss says you've got your eyes on a likely piece of merchandise for us." " What's his style, then, this Boris?" " He's a real Flash Harry." "Not your common-or-garden Russian granite-face." "During the day, he fulfils his norm like the rest." "There's a mixed bag of technical advisers." "Boris is with civil engineers." "At night, he makes his own arrangements." "Bashes the bars and clubs as if there's no tomorrow." "The man hasn't slept for a week." "My boys are folding at the knees." "A Muscovite with official connections and an appetite for the fleshpots seems ripe for the picking." " Always use another defector, can't we?" " Absolutely." "Got to keep in stock." "Nothing else on him, apart from the booze?" "If I'd got something to blackmail him on, I would hardly have needed London to come and fix it." "Temper, temper, Tufty!" "You think we Russians disapprove of comfort." "No, that's the Chinese." "All miserable boiler suits and the smallest comfort for the biggest number." "Not for me." "Boris looks after number one like any real person the world over." "It's nice talking to you." "Some people, when I say I'm from Moscow, I see this look in their faces." "I know what they are thinking - "He's going to indoctrinate us," ""put our names in his little black book and then awful men in black" ""will tap at our door at night and they'll say, 'Boris says you are good friend of Russia" ""'and you'll tell us all about the secret sex life of your MP and the mayor."'" "Let me get you all another drink." "Yes, indeed, be my guest." "Waiter!" "And I am telling YOU we're definitely in the wrong ball game with this, chummy." "That's a professional, a Moscow Centre-trained hood." "The way he sets himself." "That alone!" "Well... if you're right." "OK, you know." "He'd be quite a catch." "We scalphunters are forbidden to trawl for double agents." "New orders from above." "At the first smell of the opposition, drop hot potato into ample lap of London Station." "No, I'm cabling Guillam "no sale" and booking a flight home." "Okey-dokey, Ricki." "And since the job is finished let us seal it, so to speak." "Nags me a bit, though, this Boris." "Makes his rounds every night, does he?" "Never missed yet." "I told you, my boys..." "Well, before I go, I might just take a peep inside Boris's kennel, see what's under the mattress." "Can't be any harm in that, can there?" " Orders is orders." " I like keeping my hand in." "It's been quiet lately." "You can get rusty." "Well, enjoy yourself, my son, but don't break any eggs, Ricki, please." "I have to live here." "Remember?" "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall receive comfort." "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled." "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain..." "Boris?" "Good question, lady." "Where IS Boris?" "This is his room, right?" "I wish you no harm." "Sorry if I frightened you." "You caught me by surprise." "I wasn't expecting a lady, just Boris." " I'm his wife." " I don't wanna upset you..." " Does my husband know you?" " No point in pussyfooting, lady." "Your Boris walked off with my girl." "That's a liberty." "To add insult to injury, he was drinking on my wallet." "I thought I'd come up here and have a word with Boris." "Sorry, but that's the way it is." "Thanks for not screaming the place down." "You should be careful what you say about my husband." "He's an important man." " He has influential friends." " You frightening me off, Mrs Boris?" "I've got quite a name for looking after myself." "I'm your original Australian self-made success story." "Rags to riches and punching all the way." "Bureaucrats don't scare me, not even the Russian kind!" "Don't call me Mrs Boris." "My name's Irina." " I'm Tony Lawrence." " Are you?" "Yeah." "You just mention that name in Adelaide." "I'm in car sales, property, frozen foods." "If I was Boris, I wouldn't be out chasing other blokes' women." " I wouldn't feel the need." " Boris is Boris." "And Lawrence is someone else." "I don't know anything about Australia." "Perhaps somewhere tomorrow?" "The evening?" "Are you sure you don't want something stronger?" "You look as if it might help." "Don't misunderstand me, Irina." "You look great." "Really lovely." "I just meant it might... relax you." "You seem more scared now than you were last night." "It can't be me." "I'm not supposed to do this - meet people, talk without official approval." " I can't do that." " Where's the harm?" "Just two strangers in a foreign land getting to like each other." "It's normal behaviour." "I do special work." "I travel as a trade delegate in my own right." "Textiles." "I'm highly trained, experienced." "Tired of it." "I hate it." "I want to escape from it." " Textiles?" " It's like a prison." "I need someone to help me." "I can be quite brave, Lawrence." " Tony!" " I shall call you Lawrence." "Colonel Lawrence." "Like Lawrence of Arabia." "He was English." "I know." "There's an English expression." ""It takes one to spot one."" "You wouldn't have fooled me for long, even without putting those wedges in the door." "It's the way we look for things, isn't it?" "We don't stare." "We don't seem to be looking." "We are not like tourists..." "or prostitutes... or pickpockets." "We just know how to see." "Boris isn't as good as he ought to be." "He enjoys showing off too much, so he misses things." "He missed you, didn't he?" "But you didn't miss him, did you, Colonel?" " Are you very good?" " The best." "God gave me ALL the talents." "Try me." "I like being in the presence of Christianity." "I understand why some women become nuns." "Give themselves." "Their whole lives given... willingly." "There's freedom in that." "I've met Christians I've envied very deeply." "Envy is a sin, I know that, but I confess it here in this holy place." "There, Christians were being interrogated." "The worst time to see people." "And the best sometimes." "I'm studying the Bible." "Secretly, of course." "That isn't freedom." ""Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden."" "Is that it?" "Do you know how it goes on?" "There's a village below here." "Right by the sea." "Very quiet." "We could take a room." "Would you like that?" "How long have you worked with Boris?" "They made us a team a long time ago." "He's a specialist in picking up foreign businessmen for Moscow Centre." "I look after communications for him." "The special codes." "Couldn't we be a team?" "You could take me to England." "That's what I want, Lawrence." "You could." "I know something." "Something so important." "It's one of the biggest secrets ever." "It would make you so famous." "But it's so secret." "Tell me." "Tell me, Irina." " I'm frightened." " I can look after you." "You'll be safe." "I can only speak to your Chief." "Alleline." "Nobody else." "It's too dangerous." "I can only speak to Alleline." " Tell me." " Only the Head of the Circus." "I've got to go back now." "They'll be looking for me." "There's too much to tell now." "Maybe tomorrow... if I can." "The cemetery." " Come on, Lawrence!" " We can talk in the car." "Tomorrow." "There's too much." "I have to be calm or tonight they'll notice." "I drink too much sometimes." "They are used to that." "Some of the priests are drunkards." "They told me that at school." "When I was still in Moscow, before I started travelling with Boris," "I had a relationship with a filing clerk at the Centre in Dzerzhinsky Square." "We went against regulations." "We used to meet outside." "He was very sweet." "Your looks remind me of him." "His name was Ivlov... and he told me a story." "He was frightened to but sometimes, if you know something so big, so secret, you have to tell it to someone." "It has to be someone you love like I'm telling you now." "It's all right, darling." "It's all right." "Have you heard of Karla?" "He's an old fox, the most cunning of them all at the Centre." "He works so secretly that some people don't even know he exists." "This story Ivlov told me concerns one of Karla's greatest conspiracies and it is happening in England." "Do you know what is meant by the word "mole"?" "Yes." "Moles burrow very deep into the fabric of Western imperialism." "They are very dear to Moscow because it may taken 15 or 20 years before they are used." "Well, my friend Ivlov told me he had worked in London." "His cover was as a driver at the Embassy." "Do you have a name to give me?" "Ivlov's work name in London was "Lapin"." "He didn't know it meant rabbit in French." "It fitted because he was just a nobody, serving drinks with women at receptions." "But, all the time, he was the secret right-hand man to Colonel Gregor Viktorov, and Viktorov is the agent who briefs and debriefs the mole." "His name, Irina." "In London, Viktorov's cover is Cultural Attaché, known as Polyakov." "I'm so frightened." "So tired." "You must take me home with you." "We could be happy." "Finish the story." "Who's the mole?" "Where is he?" "I can only speak to Alleline." "We are in danger." "You must get me to him." "Face to face with the Head of the Circus." "Nothing else is safe." "You trust me, don't you?" " I want you." " Alleline will take some persuading." "Tell him..." "I have information crucial to the well-being of the Circus." "Use those words." "Morning, Tufty." "Can I come and play with your toys?" "I thought you'd finished your hols, Ricki." "What must they be thinking back home?" "They'll be all right." "I've got a postcard to send them." "They're going to love me for it." "Thank you." "How much are you going to tell me?" "The message is graded "flash" to London Station and "By hand of duty officer only"." "Uh-hm." "Drastic stuff, eh?" "That's maximum security limit." "What did you get on Boris?" "It's your show, my son." "Nothing for you, Ricki again." ""Supply date of intake into Moscow Centre." ""Name her present Head of Section." "Name previous sections employing her." "'Also..." Someone's stalling." "But if that's what they want." ""Lawrence, listen, I'm talking to you." ""This is my gift for you in case they take me away before I can speak to Alleline." ""I would prefer to give you my life, Lawrence," ""but I think it more likely that this secret will be all I have to make you happy." ""Use it well." ""I started to tell you about Ivlov," ""who's known in London, or used to be, as 'Lapin," ""and about Viktorov, who's really Polyakov." ""The mole in London is known by the codename of Gerald." ""There are many remarkable measures to preserve his security - most secret." ""Written reports from Gerald to Karla in Moscow Centre" ""are cut in two and sent by separate couriers, even after coding." "'And Gerald's output has sometimes been almost too much for Polyakov to handle." ""Some of it is spoken onto tape at secret meetings" ""and can only be played back on special machines." ""There is also undeveloped film." "'Anyone opening the reels wrongly destroys it immediately." ""Lawrence, this is the secret I'm giving you..." ""...with all my love." ""The mole Gerald is a high functionary in British Intelligence." ""Very close to the Head of the Circus." ""Lawrence, I fear for the safety of anyone employed by the Circus." ""Take care with this knowledge." ""I'm telling you this because I'm afraid it's all finished for me." ""The guards have started watching me like animals." ""Were you indiscreet?" "Did you tell them in London more than you let me think?" ""Now you understand why only Alleline would do." ""But do not blame yourself."" ""Will they let us live in Scotland, Lawrence?" ""I've read everything about Scotland." ""It's the Garden of Eden, isn't it?"" "Read it!" ""In my heart, I am free." "Inside me burns a new and blessed light." ""I used to think that the secret world was a separate place and I was banished..." ""...but God has shown me we have only to open the door and step outside to be free." ""Always long for the light which I have found." ""It is called love." "Now I shall take this to our secret place while there is still time." ""Why could you remember so few prayers?" "Your father must have been a great man."" "And that's it." " See?" "She was crazy." " That's not the original notebook?" " No, sir." " Where is it?" " I put it back in the dead letter box." " And then?" "I tried the airport, just on the off chance." "Put it this way, sir, I had to know!" "I got hold of a little Italian air hostess." "She liked me." "She said an unscheduled Soviet plane took off a few hours before." "Centre of attraction was an invalid - lady in a coma." "They carted her on a stretcher." "Her face was bandaged." "The rest of the party included two male nurses and a doctor." "I didn't let it go at that." "I checked the hotel." "No Irina, no Boris." "My musical daughters." "Perhaps she really was ill." "Not much more than 24 hours between your first telegram and Irina's departure." " You can hardly lay it at London's door." " You can... just." "If someone in London had good footwork and in Moscow, too." "That's what I told myself - what you said." "My very words, Mr Smiley." "The Russians could've tumbled to her having it off with me or she'd started blabbing to Boris to pay him off for boozing and whoring, but then I thought, "Come on, Ricki, that was gold she was giving you!" ""She had to sweat it out of herself!" "'" "I figured they'd give her another going over on the plane, then the big boys would take over." "Not more than a day or two before they went to the cemetery." " So you made yourself scarce." " He panicked and went native." "Istanbul." " Playing the loving father with his daughter." " That's right." "Danny's my little kid." "The mother seems to be leader of the pack of his numerous wives." "You've been away three months." "Why choose this particular moment to come to us?" "Go on." " Did something frighten you?" " Someone looking for me." " Who?" " I didn't find out." "That's why I came." "Now, Ricki... passports." " Who are you at the moment?" " Poole." "British." "I reckoned Lawrence wasn't the flavour of the month in Moscow, so I had that run up." " It's not bad." " In Lisbon, he had two Swiss escapes." " One for him, one for Boris." " What did you do with them?" " How did you get rid of them?" " Burned them." " How did you get back to England?" " Via Dublin." "I told Mr Guillam." "I'm checking." "Be damn careful!" "I don't want the wrong people on my back!" "He took my gun away, too." "He shouldn't have done that, Mr Smiley." "Why did you go to Mr Guillam?" "Didn't it cross your mind he might turn you over to Alleline?" "Mr Guillam's my boss." "I don't figure he likes the new arrangements at the Circus any more than YOU do." "We don't need that, Tarr." "He kept well out of sight." "When he gave me his story, I rang Sir Oliver from a call box." "I rang him here, not London." "There was no reason to suppose the phone was tapped." "There was every reason." "Unusual for Moscow Centre to use a husband-wife team." "Hard to believe unless they had children in Moscow." " Hostages." " They have." "It's true." "Common law marriage." "Unofficial, but permanent." "There's a lot the other way around these days, Mr Smiley!" "Fit, George?" "Natter." "Garden." " Super." " Fawn!" "When you came to me six months ago talking about a mole in the Circus," "I threw you out." "I was remiss." "You instructed me to abandon my inquiries because they were "unconstitutional"." "Was that the word I used?" "How very pompous of me." " You never had any, did you?" " What?" "Children." "You and Ann." "No." "I didn't absolutely trust your motives." "I thought Control had put you up to it." "As a way of hanging on to the power and keeping Alleline out." ""There are three of them... and Alleline." Control's words." "The composition of the now all-powerful London Station." "Bill Haydon, Roy Bland, Tony Esterhase." "Three of them." "And Alleline." "Yes, quite." "But at the time, George." "After all, we both held perfectly honourable positions." "You felt Jim Prideaux had been betrayed and you wanted a witch hunt." "My Minister and I felt there had been incompetence on the part of Control." " A view which the Foreign Office shared." " I quite understand your dilemma." "Thank you It isn't every day that the head of one's secret service embarks on a private war." "And, don't forget, you were Control's man." "He preferred you to Haydon." "When he launched that misadventure, you fronted for him." "You were in the hot seat." "You had to go." "You didn't offer a suspect." "Remember the circumstances, George." " Percy Alleline has done extremely well." " With Haydon to field for him, who wouldn't?" "He's produced intelligence, not scandal, and won the trust of his customers." "That special source of Percy's - it produced the Witchcraft material." "Is that still running?" "Since you ask, yes." "Source Merlin is our mainstay." "And, yes, the name of his product is Witchcraft." "The Circus hasn't had such good material in living memory." "In mine, anyway." " Does it still get the same special handling?" " Certainly." "Now precautions will have to be more rigorous." "No." "Gerald the mole would soon latch on to that." "Of course he would." "We can't move." "We can't investigate because we can't employ the Circus." "We can't eavesdrop or watch or open the mail because we'd need Esterhase's lamplighters." "And Esterhase is suspect like the others." "It's the oldest question of all, George." "Who can spy on the spies?" "Get the security mob in." "They'll do a job for you." "You know the Minister won't have that." "Rightly, too." "Ex-colonial bobbies ploughing through the Circus files." "It's a serious point, George." "I wouldn't give much for field agents' chances once the security gentlemen come barging in." "How many do we have?" "600... give or take a few." "Plus 120 behind the Iron Curtain." "So I can tell the Minister you'll do it?" "You'll take the job, clean the stables." "Go backwards, go forwards, do whatever's necessary." "It's your generation, after all." "Your legacy." "I never heard of anyone who left the Circus without some unfinished business." "There's no... emotional or other reason which you feel might debar you from the assignment?" "You must speak up, George." "The state of my marriage must be common knowledge if it has got as far as Ricki Tarr." "For the record, the thing with Ann and Bill Haydon is long over." "My wife's present infatuation is with a young actor currently unemployed." "There's always that part of us that belongs to the public domain." "You always knew that, I'm sure." " So did Jim Prideaux." " What does that mean?" "Well, good Lord, a bullet in the back is held to be quite a sacrifice... even in your world." "Two bullets, actually." "They were at Oxford together, weren't they" " Bill and Jim?" "Stablemates at the Circus, the famous Haydon-Prideaux partnership." ""The iron fist in the iron glove" somebody called it." "Prideaux was far too old for that Czech nonsense." " It made no difference." " No, quite." "I shall need some help." "Remember Control's man Mendel?" "Yes, of course." "If he's the chap you want." "Oh, Norman!" "The table's Georgian, so you will love it for me, won't you, Mr Barraclough?" "I shouldn't lend it to you, really." "It was the Major's." "I'm very grateful, I'm sure." " Everything all right?" " Yes, fine." "We'll leave you in peace, then." "I shall want every scrap..." "and you've known me long enough." "Times of who comes and goes." "Most of all, more important than you can imagine, this." "Any suspicious characters putting questions to your staff under ANY pretext, even if they're the Guards Armoured or Sherlock Holmes." "There's only me and Norman, and they won't get far with Norman, will they, dear?" "You're too sensitive." "The same with any incoming letters for him." "I'll want to see postmarks and times posted." "One thing more." "There'll be objects he will ask to be lodged in the safe." "Mainly they'll be papers." "There's only one person who'll look at them apart from him." "That's me." "Don't try fiddling with them, 'cause he's sharp, and you've known me long enough." "Tarr's cables to the Circus were detailed and specific." "London Station required him to submit copious background on Irina." "Names of former contacts, acquaintances inside Moscow Centre." "There should be a file of some size and we need to see it." "That's Circus material." "I can deliver only from the Minister." "I know that look, George." "I'm breaking into the Circus, am I?" " Playing Burglar Bill." " If you wouldn't mind." "While you're enjoying yourself, I shall visit Oxford to look up an old, invaluable friend." "Please, don't take any unnecessary risks." "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant" "Depart in peace" "According to" "Thy word" "For mine eyes have seen" "Thy salvation" "Which thou hast prepared before the face" "Of all people" "To be a light" "To lighten" "The gentiles" "And to be the glory" "Of thy people" "Israel" "Glory be to the Father" "And to the Son" "And to the Holy Ghost" "As it was in the beginning" "Is now and ever shall be" "World without end" "Amen" "Tarr's cables to the Circus were detailed and specific." "London Station required him to submit copious background on Irina." "Names of former contacts, acquaintances inside Moscow Centre." "There should be a file of some size and we need to see it." "That's Circus material." "I can only deliver from the Minister." "I know that look." "I'm breaking into the Circus, am I?" " Playing Burglar Bill." " If you wouldn't mind." "While you're enjoying yourself, I shall visit Oxford to look up an old, invaluable friend." "Please, don't take any unnecessary risks." "Assume, Peter, the Circus has the dogs on you 24 hours a day." "Think of it as a foreign country." "Hello, Bryant." "Hello." "Nice to see you again, sir." "Just a moment, please." "Mr Guillam, sir." "Mr Lauder Strickland's expecting you." "He'll meet you on the 5th floor." "Right." "Thanks." " About time someone oiled this." " We keep asking." "You can talk till you're blue in the face!" "Well met, Peter." "Greetings." "A trifle late, but never mind." "Sorry, Lauder." "You have to make allowances for country yokels." " How long have you had that monster?" " You really are a stranger, aren't you?" "It saves man hours." "Fantastic." "Quite fantastic." " Sorry, terribly sorry." " Hello, Bill." "What the hell are YOU doing here, you pariah?" "He wants to buy a diplomatic courier." "He needs to wash some dirty money." "That's a job for Banking Section, so we're sorting out the tangle." "He knows it has to be cleared here." "He told me the papers were routed to you." " They're probably in your in-tray now, Bill." " They had better be, Peter." "Lock up the spoons." "Scalphunters will have the gold out of your teeth!" "Lock up the girls, as well... if they'll let you!" "There you go, Bert." "Keys of the city." "London Station couldn't be in better hands." "Everything's a lot tighter here these days, Guillam." "Hey, Lauder, hold on!" "Have you seen bloody Bill anywhere?" "Indeed I have seen Bill." "We were having a brief word back down the corridor." " He's wanted urgently." " Immediately." "We've put out an alert for him." "I suspect he may well be on his way to you at this moment." "Peter... hello." "Hi." "Thanks for the glad hand." "I did wipe the cow dung off my boots." "What's the joke, Roy?" "No joke, Peter, old lad." "Just... surprised to see you, that's all." " We're used to having this floor to ourselves." " Like to see my pass, Toby?" " How are you keeping?" " I wintered very well." "You know what it's like in Brixton these days." "Plenty of Ludo, ping pong." " Normally I have my afternoon zizz now." " Off with you, Peter." " Don't waste Lauder's time." " No, sir." "Sorry, sir." "Shut up, Flush!" "Stop it." "Stop it, boy." "It's only a dunderhead." "Flush, shut up!" "George Smiley!" "Oh, but you lovely, darling man!" "You haven't come to sell me a hoover!" "You're my gorgeous George!" " Connie." " Oh, George." "Jingle, darling, could you possibly make it tomorrow?" "Don't be cross." "It isn't often my oldest, oldest lover comes to see me." "Oh, George, if only I'D seen you first." "I'll give you a whole hour all to yourself." "Honestly I will, darling." "One of my dunderheads." "I will teach I don't know why." "Oh, George, of all the lovely, darling men I ever knew." "He walked, Flush." "Don't you see his shoes?" "Oh... bless you, darling." "God bless." "Did he walk alone, Flush?" "Not accompanied, were we?" "Quite alone, Connie." "So... what does George want from Connie?" "The bad boy!" "Her memory." "To go over some very old ground, Connie." "Hear that, Flush?" "First, they chuck us out with an old bone, then they come begging to us." "I was the best Head of Research the Circus ever had!" "Everyone knew that!" "And what did they say the day they gave me the chop?" "That personnel cow! "You're losing your sense of proportion, Connie." ""Time you got out into the real world."" "I hate the real world!" "I like the Circus and my lovely boys!" "Polyakov." "Aleksey Aleksandrovich Polyakov." "Cultural Attaché, Soviet Embassy, London." "Born March 3rd, 1922 in the Ukraine." "Graduate of Leningrad State University." "Height five-foot-ten." "Colour of eyes, green." "Colour of hair, black." "Married, but unaccompanied by wife, and a six-cylinder Karla-trained hood if ever I saw one!" "But don't tell Percy Alleline or Toby Esterhase." "Oh, no," "Aleksey Aleksandrovich was as pure as the driven snow." "He was Persil white, wasn't he, Flush?" "And Connie's an old silly." "If she doesn't lay off and do as she's told, she'll have to pack her bags and go." "He's come alive" " Polyakov." "Just as you predicted." "'Course he has!" "Of course he has!" "I knew it in my bones!" "The day he arrived, I thought, "Hello, I'll have some fun with YOU." Tough as a button!" "Cultural Attaché?" "Balls!" "Army written all over him." "But not declared, George, not a mention." "Oh, he had a lovely voice." "Mellow, like yours." "I used to play the tapes over and over just to bathe in it." "Bottom pincher, too." "I just know." "Not that we ever caught him at it." "We might have if Tobe had played along and offered him a bum, but tiny Tobe wouldn't." "Eight years." "I watched Pretty Polly for eight years." "Then last Remembrance Day, I got him." "There he was, that smashing November morning, at the wreath laying." "We photographed his medals - two gallantry and four campaign." "Oh, yes." "Aleks Polyakov was a star soldier just as I'd told them, and not a word." "So I said to Toby, "Listen, you two-faced ferret," ""ego has got the better part of cover and that's nothing new." ""Now will you turn Pretty Polly inside out for me?" ""Because Connie's little hunch has turned up trumps."" "What did Toby Esterhase say?" "Oh, I got the dead-fish voice." " "Tell Percy Alleline." "Percy's in charge."" " And then?" ""Not every ex-warrior's a Karla agent," says Percy." "I said, "Listen, Percy, Polyakov's running an English mole."" "So I get the rude letter. "Stop it or else."" "I wrote at the bottom - "Yes, repeat no!"" "So... here we are Flush and me." "Please kiss me, George." "Hey-ho." "Halcyon days." " Did I start the landslide, George?" " You were always dead right, Connie." " Is George now picking up the pieces?" " Something of the sort." "Poor loves." "Trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves." "Englishmen could be proud then." "They could, George." "All gone." "Taken away." "Bye-bye, world." "If it's bad, George don't come back." "Promise?" "I want to remember you just as you were." "My lovely, lovely boys." "Promise?" "All right, Lauder, I'll just have to wait for the wheels to turn." "I don't need a pass to use the gent's, do I?" "I gotta love one man till I die" "Can't help loving that man of mine" "Stop that moaning!" "Pages had been removed with a razor blade." "No mention of Ricki Tarr's cable from Lisbon." "No Irina, no Boris, no Tarr." "There's a note scribbled on the next page." ""All inquiries to Head of London Station."" "It's in Toby Esterhase's handwriting." "The janitor's attendance list has also been removed." "Nothing to tell us who was duty officer..." "or even who was in the building." "Connie's appraisal matches the story Irina gave Ricki Tarr." "The implications, the indications, are that Karla has managed to build himself a cadre of senior men placed about the globe who work exclusively to him at Moscow Centre." " Polyakov is Karla's executant in London." " You offer that as a working hypothesis?" "Operation Witchcraft, that vital flow of Russian intelligence which happily came Alleline's way." ""Supplementary estimates to the Treasury." ""Special accommodation in London."?" ""Wider exploitation." ""See also Secret Annexe." May I see it?" " The Minister keeps it in his safe." " Do you know the combination?" " Certainly not." " What's the title of this unobtainable document?" "It doesn't have one." "It's highly secret and we've kept the readership to a minimum." "The supplier of the Witchcraft material is Merlin." "Does the file give his identity?" "Don't be ridiculous." "The Minister wouldn't want to know and Alleline wouldn't want to tell him." " What does "wider exploitation" mean?" " I refuse to be interrogated." "Why do you waste your time pursuing this?" "I should have you cleared before you see this." " Witchcraft cleared?" " Yes, George." "Do we have a list of people who've been cleared in that way?" "I hope you're not going fey, George." "Please, stick with the primary problem - the mole Gerald - instead of rootling around in extraneous matters." "This is no time to be whimsical." "Are you off?" "You won't forget Prideaux?" "Anything you can get on him, even scraps, would help." "He has a point, George." "Witchcraft and Merlin, Polyakov and the mole." "Prideaux getting himself shot up on some wild goose chase of Control's in Czechoslovakia." " You think it all connects?" " I think I am not the first to make this journey of exploration." "I believe Control was here before me." "He might even have made the full distance but for the bullets in Prideaux's back." ""There are three of them and Alleline." Control's words." "He meant Operation Witchcraft." "Merlin's minders or inventors or programmers or marionettes... or what?" "Why was Control so hostile to Alleline?" "Percy wasn't a fool." "Percy can flirt, Peter." "And Control hadn't reckoned on the power of the Alleline lobby." " Who were they?" " Golfers." ""Golfers and Conservatives." That's what Control said to me." "I got a call from Control one day - very sharp, very combative." ""George, come in here or there'll be bloodshed."" "Brother Percy's trying to twist my tail." "Take a look at this nonsense." "Top-level Soviet naval despatch." "Specially prepared for the Soviet High Command isn't it, Percy?" "An appreciation of a naval exercise in the Med and the Black Sea, of which our sailors have been screaming for details." " Haven't they, Percy?" " Topicality's always suspect." "Yes, George." "Would you like to repeat that for Percy?" " Who made the translation?" " God made it, didn't he, Percy?" " Don't ask him." "He won't tell you." " Shore-to-sea strike power." "Radio activation of enemy alert procedures." "This is hardly my territory." "Don't let that worry you." "Total ignorance of subject matter doesn't bother Percy." " Whose initials are these?" " Zharov." "Admiral, Black Sea Fleet." " What do our own evaluators say?" " They've not seen it." "What's more, they're not going to." "However, Lilley of Naval Intelligence has passed a preliminary opinion, has he not, Percy?" "Percy showed it to him last night." " Over a pink gin, was it, Percy?" " At the Admiralty." "Note that, George." "They battened down the hatches for Percy." "Brother Lilley telephoned me half an hour ago to congratulate me." "He believes this material to be neither a plant nor chickenfeed, but gold dust, and he seeks our permission to..." "Percy's, I suppose I should say to apprise his fellow Sea Lords of its conclusions." "Quite impossible." "It's for his eyes only for another couple of weeks." " It's so hot, you see, George." " But where does it come from?" " Who's the case officer?" " You'll enjoy this." "Source Merlin has access to the most sensitive levels of Soviet policy-making." "We've dubbed his product Witchcraft." "Ask him who "we" are, George." "Merlin is the fruit of a long cultivation by certain people in this service." "People who are bound to me as I am to them." "People not entertained by the failure rate about this place." "There's been too much blown, too much lost, wasted." "Too many scandals." "I've said so many times." "I could've talked to the wind for all the heed HE paid me." ""He" means me, George." "The ordinary principles of security have gone to the wall in this service." "It's all divide and rule, stimulated from the top." " Me again." " We're losing our livelihood, our self-respect." "We've had enough." "We've had a bellyful, in fact." "Please." "Like everybody's who's ever had enough, he wants more." ""This service."" "Alleline would sell his mother for a knighthood and "this service" for a seat in the Lords." " Suppose Merlin's genuine?" " Suppose Merlin would pick Percy?" "!" "It seems somebody has." "I gather Percy's under the impression he picked himself and a whole team." "You're sure he left you out, are you, George?" " What are you going to do about it?" " Depends on "it"." "I'll wait for "it" to show itself." "In the meantime, I see nothing to deal with except Percy's envious eye on my chair." "And I've put my thumb in that optic before." " George, tittle-tattle Tuesday again?" " Hello, Percy." "Toby, Roy." "This time." "Oh, Lor'!" "I thought it would be half over by now." "Got a rabbit to pull out of your hat, Percy?" "You've got that Britain-can-make-it look." "Very intimidating." "Should we have brought our sandwiches?" "I'll be brief, Bill, so long as I'm not obstructed." "I'm sorry." "Traffic." "I should've walked." "I think you and Percy between you are contriving to keep me off the streets." "They're all here now, sir." "Would you go in, please, gentlemen?" "How often do I have to emphasise the extreme sensitivity of the source of the Witchcraft product?" "There is no existing method of Whitehall distribution to meet the case." "Need I remind you of that disgraceful incident when an Under-Secretary..." "Albeit it overworked, so be it." "But the fact remains the man actually gave his despatch box key to his personal assistant." "We simply cannot afford that kind of ludicrous insecurity when we are handling Witchcraft." "Now I have already discussed the problem with Lilley of Naval Intelligence." "He is prepared to put at our disposal a special main reading room in the Admiralty main building, where Witchcraft material can be seen and watched over by a senior janitor of this service." "Wouldn't you rather have Securicor" "The reading room will be known for cover purposes as the conference room of the Adriatic Working Party - the AWP room, for short." "Thank you." "Customers with reading rights will not have passes, since these can be too accessible." "Instead, they will appear on a special list with photographs." "They will identify themselves personally to MY janitor." " Whose janitor, Percy?" " He's already got his own personal wizard." "The odd commissionaire seems modest enough domestic staff." " Allowing that all this is necessary..." " Essential." "...my Minister will want to know more about the cost." "It must appear to be borne by the Admiralty, even if you reimburse covertly." "Of course." "The reading room will have to be extensively rebuilt to begin with." "Now, I'd like to call your attention to the Foreign Office comment on the most recent Witchcraft product." "And I quote, "This document sheds an extraordinary sidelight" ""on Soviet aggressive thinking."" "Does that mean they like it, Percy?" "Do you like it, Bill?" "It's from the very heart of your territory." "In 25 years, I haven't laid hands on anything of that quality." "Unless I'm mistaken, nor have our American cousins." "Anyone taking it to Washington could drive a hard bargain." " Early days, Bill." " Agreed." "But if Merlin maintains that standard, we can buy whatever's in the Yanks' shop." "I don't think Control's going to play." "That would rule me out, as well, of course." " Percy will get his reading room." " Yes." "And after that, I suppose anything's possible." "Did you want to ask me something?" "I'm afraid he's not seeing anyone today." "Again?" "I'm being asked why he's cancelled the Tuesday conferences." "I can't add anything to his memorandum, even for you." " Even if I could, Mr Smiley..." " No, of course." "I was rather hoping, before I set off on this Hong Kong trip..." "Well, when I get back, perhaps he'll have got through that little lot." "Now there's a committee." "The Minister is in the chair, Alleline's vice-chairman." "Merlin's become an industry." "It's THE industry and I'm not employed." " You won't even read Alleline's reports." " I haven't time." "Buying their way in with counterfeit money." "Tell them that." "Tell them anything." "I need time." "There are three of them and Alleline." "Sweat them." "Tempt them." "Bully them." "Anything." "Give them what ever they eat." "I need time." "Prompt as ever, Mr Smiley." " How are your children, Toby?" " Doing terribly well." "The boy's at Westminster." "Is that right?" "You daughter's probably left school by now." " First-year medical student." "Loves it." " Good for her." "Toby..." "I have to ask you this." "Sorry to come prying." "Your department's behind with its work sheets." "Two months almost." "Now, why is that?" "It's not lamplighter style." "We're not infallible, George." "Two months?" "Well, I won't question it." "Is it terribly important?" "If you say it is, I'll see it's dealt with." "The question is WHY, Toby." " Let me be blunt." " Not YOUR style, George." "I'm allowed to say that, surely?" "I am, after all, one of your oldest protégés." "Vienna was a long time ago." "You haven't been using your staff for any special jobs?" "Either at home or abroad?" "The kind of special jobs which, for reasons of security, you haven't felt able to mention in your returns." "Who would I do that for?" "In my book, that's completely illegal." "Well, if Percy Alleline, for example, ordered you to do something and not record it, that would put you in a difficult position." " What sort of something?" " Clear a letter box, prime a safe house." "Watch someone's back." "Spike an embassy." "It's all lamplighter work." "If Percy told you to do it, you might reasonably assume he was acting on instructions from the fifth floor." "I do like the service." "I may be sentimental about it, but I prefer to stay in it." "Now, you understand that." "You of all people." "My problem is promotion." "I mean, the absence of it." "I've so many years' seniority that I feel quite embarrassed when these young fellows ask me to take orders from them." "Who, Toby?" "Which young fellows?" "Roy Bland?" "Percy?" "Would you call Percy young?" "Who?" "When you're overdue for promotion and working hard, anyone looks young who is above you on the ladder." " Have you been taking orders?" " You know the line of command, George." "Perhaps Control could move you up a few rungs." "Well, you know, actually I'm not sure he's able to these days... are you?" " So what's the deal?" " There isn't a deal, Roy, really." "It's just that Control feels the present situation is unhealthy." "He doesn't like to see you getting mixed up with a cabal." "Nor do I." " So what's the deal?" " What do you want?" "What about 5,000 quid out of the reptile fund for starters?" " Then a house and a car?" " And the kid to Eton." " Your father would turn in his grave." " Let him rotate, the old Commie thug." "If there's no deal, George, you'll have to tell Control he can get stuffed." "I've paid, you see." "You know that." "I don't know what the hell I've bought with it, but I've paid a packet." "Poznan, Budapest, Prague, back to Poznan." "Have you ever been to Poznan?" "Sofia, Kiev." "Two bloody nervous breakdowns and still between the shafts." "That's big money at any age... even yours." "No one can deny that, Roy." "And... you brought me in, remember." "If you think I'm going to the bad, you've only got yourself to blame." "You're an educated sort of a swine." ""An artist is a bloke who can hold two fundamentally opposing views" ""and still function."" " Who dreamed that one up?" " Scott Fitzgerald." "Well, Fitzgerald knew a thing or two." "And I'm definitely functioning." "As a good socialist, I'm going where the money is." "As a good capitalist, I'm sticking with the revolution because, if you can't beat it, spy on it." "Don't look like that, George?" "It's the name of the game these days." "You scratch my conscience, I'll drive your Jag, right?" "No." "Did you get that from Haydon?" "Is that one of Bill's jokes about materialist England, the pigs-in-clover society?" " Don't you like it?" " Not much." "Of course there are acquisitive instincts in Western society." "They are offset against other concerns you won't find in..." "Poznan, Budapest, Kiev, Sofia." "Tell me all about it, George." "I'm just saying that's England now, man." "All you have to do is look out the bloody window." "You're seen with Bill Haydon a great deal these days." "Jealous, George?" "You've got his job." "You're Control's High Chamberlain." "What more do you want?" "Long as it lasts." " They do say you write the reports." " That's Roy's job." "No." "Bland makes the translations." "YOU write the covering reports." "They're typed on your machine." "The material's not cleared for typists." "Percy Alleline won't do." "Is that the premise?" "Which means that Merlin won't do either." "Poor old Control." "He is in a pickle." "Merlin would do if he were MY source, wouldn't he?" "If dazzling bloody Bill had hooked a whacking big fish and wanted to play him alone, what would happen then?" "Control would say, "That's very nifty of you, Bill boy." "You do it just the way you want." ""Have some filthy jasmine tea."" "He'd be giving me a medal now... instead of sending you snooping round corridors." "We used to be rather a classy bunch." "Why are we so vulgar these days?" " He thinks Percy's on the make." " So he is." "I also want to be head boy." "And Toby and Roy have designs on your spot." "Since when was ambition an offence in our beastly outfit?" "Is Ann at home?" "Sent her out to play while you grill your old buddy." " Who runs him, Bill?" " Percy?" "Who do you think?" "Karla runs him." "Stands out a mile." "Lower-class bloke with upper-class sources." "Must be a bounder." " Bill..." " Percy's sold out to Karla." "Only explanation." " Percy's our house mole." " I meant who runs Merlin?" "Who is Merlin?" "What's going on?" "This is a Callot, isn't it?" " Nice, very nice." " Bill." "Doesn't anyone think MY nose should be out of joint?" "I'm supposed to be in charge of the Russian target." "Given it my best years." "Set up networks, talent-spotters, all mod cons." "You've all forgotten what it's like to run an operation where it takes three days to post a letter and you don't get an answer." "That's hardly fair to Control." "You know how he detests glamour-boy agents who hog the budget, how he hates "miracles" if they put the networks out of focus." "Pity he doesn't have the same hatred of failure." "Has he lived with it too long?" "Face it, George, it's Percy." "Percy's success... it's thrown Control." "And me, a bit." "Trouble is, my networks haven't been good enough." "This is new." "I fancy this very much." "Ann gave it me." " Making amends?" " Probably." "Must have been quite a sin." "How is she?" "George... cut the cord." "Get away from Control." "He's cut you out of his life for weeks." "Despatching you with errands a probationer could handle." "What's he doing up there?" "He's gone through files of Circus folk heroes from year minus-one" "Half of them under the earth already." "Sniffing out the dirt to see who was pink, who was a queen." "He's given us all up." " I don't think that's true." " Senile paranoia." "Control's going potty." "And he's also dying." "It's just a question of which gets him first." "And within six months of Bill Haydon's diagnosis," "Control was indeed dead." "And what killed him?" "Operation Witchcraft or Operation Testify?" "Neither." "Let's not be melodramatic." "Control would disapprove." "He died of old age." "A little early." "But Testify destroyed his function in life, which was a form of murder." "I don't have nearly enough on Testify, Peter." "Would you, please... er?" "Of course, George." "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant" "Depart in peace" "According to" "Thy word" "For mine eyes have seen" "Thy salvation" "Which thou hast prepared before the face" "Of all people" "To be a light" "To lighten" "The gentiles" "And to be the glory" "Of thy people" "Israel" "Glory be to the Father" "And to the Son" "And to the Holy Ghost" "As it was in the beginning" "Is now and ever shall be" "World without end" "Amen" "And within six months of Bill Haydon's diagnosis," "Control was indeed dead." "What killed him?" "Operation Witchcraft or Operation Testify?" "Neither." "Let's not be melodramatic." "Control would disapprove." "He died of old age." "A little early." "But Testify destroyed his function in life, which was a form of murder." "I don't have nearly enough on Testify, Peter." "Would you, please... er?" "Of course, George." "Telephone for you, sir." "Such a rough voice." "He says it's someone from your garage." "Right." "Your rude mechanic has bad news for you." "Personally, I find mechanics are bad news, by and large." " Which phone, Alwyn?" " The one on the left." "Get on to the head office and find out when they can supply the damn thing!" "Hang on." "I think I've got the number." "Alwyn, sling that bag across for me, please." "I will, sir." "There you go." " Open it for you?" " No, thanks." "Right, are you ready?" "The number you want is 4376299." " Seems to be going according to plan." " Thank you." "He does sound jumpy." "He might have overdone it a bit there." "He was very loud." "I've seen it happen before." "Tough ones who crack at 40." "They lock it away, then suddenly you find 'em at their desks, the tears pouring on the blotter." " I thought I ought to say what's on my mind." " Peter will manage." " You heard about his assignment in North Africa?" " Something, whispers." "Peter was overmatched and he lost." "His agents were hanged." "No one recovers entirely from that sort of thing." "That is, I wouldn't trust a man... who did." "Bag, please." "Peter, sorry to disturb you, but we have a tiny crisis." "Percy Alleline would like a word with you." "Can you come now?" "Of course, Toby." "Have you been waiting?" "Didn't you tell Mr Esterhase where I was?" "We've only just got here, Peter." "Your office told us you were doing a spot of devilling." "Only..." "Percy's anxious to speak to you now, you see." "Is there a shuttle to Brixton?" " Yes." " Ask Transport to take that thing over." "Will do, sir." "Will do." "Percy wants to consult you." "How are the martial arts, Paul?" "Any new tricks you could show me?" "Paul and I were paired on a tough-guy course." "Damn near killed each other." "Peter." "Please." "Wotcha, Pete." "Well, now, young Peter Guillam, welcome to my house, about which you've been making calls, I hear." "Are you lonely in the Brixton outposts?" "Tired of chasing the local virgins?" "If there are any in Brixton, which I would doubt!" "Excuse my freedom, Mo." "You DO know that Mo Delaware is our new Head of Research?" "Man with message in cleft stick does reach Brixton, does he?" "Barring the monsoon." "I hear you have been hobnobbing with the late, lamented Ricki Tarr, formerly of your section, despatched by you to Lisbon and, since then, listed by this service as a defector." " How is he?" " We have tea at Fortnum's every afternoon." "Jasmine." "Peter Guillam, you may not be aware of this, but I am possessed of an extremely forgiving nature." "I positively seethe with goodwill." "All I require from you is the matter of your discussion with Tarr." "I do not ask for his head or any other part of his offensive anatomy, and I will restrain my impulse personally to strangle him... or you." "I would even consider bringing you back into the palace from hateful Brixton, where presently you linger in well-earned obscurity." "I can't wait for him to turn up!" "And there's a free pardon for Ricki until I get my hands on him." "I'll tell him that, word for word." "He'll be thrilled." "I'm very disappointed in you, young Peter." "I pay you honest money and you stab me in the back." "I consider that extremely poor reward for keeping you alive, against the entreaties of my advisers, I may tell you." "Let us begin again." "If you won't give me a straight answer, perhaps you'll unburden to somebody more persuasive." "Roy." "Tarr's got a daughter, hasn't he?" "Yes." "Calls her Danny." " Talk about her a lot?" " He told me he was fond of her." " That's all I know." " What are you shrugging like that for?" "!" "I'm accusing you of playing hooky behind my back with a damn defector, of playing damn-fool parlour games, and all you do is shrug at me?" "!" "There's a law against consorting with enemy agents!" "Want me to throw the book at you?" "!" "I haven't seen him!" "Who's playing games?" "Not me." "You are." "So get off my back!" " Who's Danny's mother?" " Eurasian girl." "Tarr likes to think she passes for European." "And the child." "12 years old, long blonde hair, brown eyes, slim." "Is that Danny?" "Could be." "So if I told you Danny and her mother were due in London three days ago on a direct flight from Tunis, I take it you would share our perplexity?" " Yes, I would." " Then you'd keep your mouth shut when we let you out of here?" "It isn't ordinary flight information, Peter." "The source is very private." "Ultra, ultra sensitive, in fact." "In that case, Toby, I'll try and keep my mouth ultra, ultra shut." "So... what do you make of it, young Peter?" "You're his boss, guide, philosopher, friend." "Tell me why Ricki Tarr's in London." " You said his girl and his kid were expected." " Don't be obtuse, man!" "Where Danny goes, there goes Tarr." "Except he'd move first and have his impedimenta follow, yes?" "That would be favourite." "Tarr was supposed to be sitting in Moscow." "Now he's back here on the Russian payroll." "Why's it all so hot?" "What kind of plant is he when we know everything about him?" "Down to his attack of swine fever, from which he's only partially recovered!" "Excuse my freedom, Mo" "What kind of plant is that?" "Never mind what sort." "Muddying pools, poisoning wells." "That damn sort." "Pulling the rug out." "Now, listen." "Just remember this." "At the first peep, the first whisper of Tarr or his lady or his wee bairn, young Peter Guillam, you come to one of us grown-ups." "Anyone you see at this table." "But not another damn soul." "The name on the passport is Poole." "P, double O, L, E. All three of them." "Tarr told his woman, so we understand, in case of difficulties, she should come to you." "Sign that, Peter, would you?" "Stupid bloody cabaret." " Percy gets more insufferable every day." " I wouldn't know, Bill, would I?" ""I certify that I have today been advised of Witchcraft Report No. 308, Source Merlin." ""I undertake not to divulge any part of this report nor to divulge the existence of Source Merlin."" "Get over, you sodding snail!" " Peter..." " That bastard Tarr!" "Peter, slow down." "Slow down." "The file on Testify seemed a bit thin." "I hope it was worth the sweat." "Ricki Tarr's not lied to us, not in any material way." "He's simply done what agents the world over do." "Failed to tell us the whole story." " On the other hand, he has been rather clever." " Are you actually pleased with him?" "Well, yes." "We now know that Source Merlin works to Moscow Centre, because that's where Merlin's information on Ricki Tarr must have come from." "From Karla." "Ricki's been a lot better today, sir." "Not nearly so... nervy." "He did his football pools this morning, then we planted some trees in the garden, and this evening we had a game of cards." " Has he been out alone?" " No." " Used the telephone?" " Wouldn't dare, sir." "Has he talked about his daughter Danny or her mother?" "He did over the weekend, but he's cooled off about them since in view of the emotional side." "Did he mention any arrangements for meeting them, anything about passports?" " No, sir." " What has he talked about, for God's sake?" "Mostly the Russian lady, Irina." "He mentions her name a lot." "He likes to read her diary." "He says he's gonna make Moscow Centre swap the mole for Irina when the mole's been caught." "Then he'll buy her a place in Scotland." "He says he'll see me right." "Get me a big job in the Circus." "I just listen, of course." "Right." "You don't post those football coupons, Fawn?" " No, Mr Smiley." " Let's hope he doesn't win." "That would be expensive for us." " Thank you for your help." "Sorry to impose." " He's gone to bed." "I must ask you once more." "What did you do with the two Swiss escape passports you took with you to Lisbon?" "I told you." "Burned them." "When you bought your fake British passport in Istanbul, a passport for yourself in the name of Poole, did you buy any others from the same source?" "Why?" "Why should I?" "To protect your child and her mother." "That seems reasonable." "It wouldn't be very gallant to leave them to the mercy of the Moscow hood on your tail while you escaped to all this..." "VIP protection." "It's horrible to think of." "Truly horrible to contemplate the lengths Karla might go to in order to obtain your silence or your services." "But perhaps what you actually did and forgot to tell us about was to burn the British passports you obtained for Mrs Poole and Miss Danny Poole, but kept your own to convince Karla's footpads you thought it was still safe." "Then, probably, you made travel bookings in the name of the Poole family for the same reason." "You doctored the Swiss passports for Danny and her mother and made other arrangements for them like staying in Marseilles, perhaps..." "I don't know where they are, but I'm sure no harm has come to them." "Watch your own damn woman!" "Leave mine alone!" "No, Peter." "It's just as well I shouldn't know where they are so long as you don't try to communicate." "Unless, of course, you want me to help in some way." "Money or whatever." "No need." "Let's trust each other, shall we?" "Are we friends again, Mr Guillam?" "It won't be long now." " Got all you need?" " Can I have my gun back?" "Yes." "Well, why not, Peter?" " Do we buy that?" " Oh, yes." "I told you he'd been clever." "A little bit of the truth is indispensable in the games agents play." "You know that." "Ricki put his family in safekeeping and found his own way home." "He fooled the Russians." "If Karla had a deal with him, would you and I be alive and living in hope?" "Not by now, I think." "Let it breathe a little." "Just leave it." "We'll pour it when we're ready." "Does anyone know Karla's real name?" "How old is he?" "Another mystery." "Decades of his life unaccounted for." "So many of the people he's worked with have a way of... dying off." "He was in England in 1936 and '41." "That's documented." "We can assume it was some time during that period he recruited our mole Gerald." "I met him once." "In Delhi." "Long before we came to know him as the legendary Karla." "In the mid-fifties, Moscow Centre was in pieces on the floor." "Wholesale purgings and shootings." "As a result, defection everywhere." "I became a kind of commercial traveller." "The whole world was my territory." "Inspecting the goods, fixing the terms." "Disposing as seemed best." "On London's instructions, of course." "Well, I found myself off to India, where the authorities had arrested, at our request, on some trumped-up immigration nonsense, a Mr Gerstmann..." "Karla's name at that time." "He was on his way back to Moscow from San Francisco, except that he didn't know that he was Moscow-bound." "He'd been told to rendezvous with a Tass correspondent in Delhi." "The message from the Tass man was an aeroplane ticket and..."Don't ask me any questions, comrade."" "Karla was in disgrace." "Summoned and doomed." "There were two things he didn't know - first, we'd intercepted the radio signal directing him to Delhi." "Secondly, the San Francisco network he'd organised had been rolled up, hide and hair, the day he left." "Could we take those things off his hands?" "I only have to shout for you, don't I?" "Mr Gerstmann you are the Cold War orphan." "If you go home to Moscow, you'll be shot or sent to die in a camp." "Wouldn't you prefer to ask us for protection?" "We have no powers of permanent arrest." "Our arrangement with the Americans was that they hit your agents and we make you this invitation." "I can't see an alternative for you." "If you cooperate, we can give you a new start, a new identity." "Seclusion, a modest amount of money." "Why don't you start by telling me your true name?" "Would you like a cigarette?" "I know you're a chain-smoker." "Please." "I know this is what you smoke." "Look..." "I'm not offering you wealth..." "or smart women or your choice of fast cars - things you haven't any use for." "And I won't make any claims about the moral superiority of the West." "I'm sure you can see through our values, as I can see through yours in the East." "You and I spend our lives looking for the weaknesses in each other's systems." "I'm sure each of us has experienced innumerable technical satisfactions in our wretched Cold War." "But now your own side is going to shoot you... for nothing." "For misdemeanours you have not committed." "Because of a power struggle within your own hierarchy." "Because, probably, of someone's treachery or sheer incompetence." "I'm sure both of us, when we were young, subscribed to great visions." "Not any more." "After all you've seen you can't still be committed to that old grand design." "It's achieved nothing..." "except new forms of the old misery." "Don't destroy yourself." "They're not worth it." "Do you know where your wife is?" "I mean, at this moment." "You have to think about her." "She'll have to make a new life." "She'll have a friend... one really good friend who could look after her." "Perhaps we could get in touch with her secretly." "If you stay with us, we might be able to arrange something." "An exchange for someone your people want returned." "But if you go back, it can do her nothing but harm." "She'll be cold-shouldered... suspected." "The best she can hope for is to be allowed to see you before you're shot." "Another meaningless firing squad." "Guard." " What did Control say when you got back?" " "I hope to God they do shoot him."" "But they didn't." "His boss was the one who faced the firing squad, as it turned out." "Mr Gerstmann survived... and thrived." "How he thrived." "He went on to build his legend and become the Karla we know." "Who, all the time he sat looking at me, was thinking of Gerald the mole." "Have you noticed, Peter... that whenever I really trouble one of our acquaintances with my questions, he'll raise the matter of my failure as a husband... to confound me." " Instructive." " Ricki Tarr tried it twice." "Unimportant, in his case." "Spite." "Well... that was sumptuous" "That boy Fawn - good at his judo, isn't he?" "Karate." "Judo is what Fawn would call "Just your little cuddle, Mr Smiley."" "I don't think even Toby Esterhase's people would follow us here." "The food's well below the standard they've come to expect." "So Karla's fireproof." "He can't be bought or beaten." "Not fireproof, because he's a fanatic." "I may have behaved like the archetype of a flabby Western liberal, but I'd rather be MY kind of fool than his." "One day, that lack of moderation will be Karla's downfall." "He's never touched radio since the débâcle in San Francisco." "Cut it right out of his handwriting." "His agents aren't allowed near it." "That's something else you and Karla have in common." "Yes, I am prejudiced against radio men." "Tiresome breed." "Overstrung, unreliable." " What's the other thing?" " The cigarette lighter." " I assume he still has it." " As far as I know." " Sorry, George." " Not at all." " How do you feel, Peter?" " I'm all right." "After Delhi, you know, Control gave me three months' leave without any option." "When this is over, I hope you'll take it easy for a while." "We're not quite there, but nearly." "Peter, have you got the handbrake on?" "Operation Witchcraft." "Alleline to Minister." ""Extremely secret and personal." ""We spoke." "Merlin, as you may have known for some time, is not one source but several." ""It'll do the Treasury no harm to learn..." Percy was enjoying himself!" ""...to learn that Merlin's 10,000 Swiss francs a month in salary" ""and a similar figure for expenses are scarcely excessive" ""when the cloth has to be cut so many ways." ""Nevertheless, I regard it as paramount" ""that knowledge of the London house and its purpose" ""remain absolutely at a minimum."" "In a sense, Alleline's quite right about Merlin." "Of course Merlin represents several sources." "Various departments of Moscow Centre, with Karla cuing them in on the basis of the most timely material of the moment." "Sometimes he likes to direct Circus attention to a topical subject, sometimes to deflect it." "For example, after Ricki Tarr's encounter with Irina in Lisbon," "Merlin delivered some vivid insights on the "ideological penetration" ""of the United States."" "But Karla doesn't know what Tarr's done with Irina's information." "Which brings us to your interrogation by Alleline and his reference to Tarr's probable role over here in "muddying pools" et cetera." "Merlin's message on Tarr, I suggest, was that Ricki would be trying to sell to someone in London, on Karla's behalf, fictitious material about a traitor in the Circus." "Nothing muddier than that, is there?" "Remember, Merlin is totally believed." "We have a connection between Merlin and the mole." "And at the heart of this beautifully symmetrical plot is a house in London for which the Treasury paid £60,000." "Plus another 10 for making it more to Merlin's liking." "Or Gerald's." "Fascinating, George." "Thank you." "How do I explain to my Minister, least painfully, that Merlin's a fraud and he'll have to tell the Americans so?" "He's devoted to Merlin." "Impress upon him that whatever he's buying from the Americans with Merlin's discredited currency is going to Moscow via Gerald the mole." "That should do the trick." "This document is not one you've asked me to bring." "It arrived only today." "Source unknown." ""According to a recently released prisoner from Lubianka," ""Moscow Centre held a secret execution in March." ""The victims, three of its functionaries, were shot in the back of the neck."" " One was a woman." " Ricki Tarr mustn't know." "It's vital he gets no wind of this." "God knows what he'd do if he found out Irina was dead." " We may need to use him." " Do you believe Tarr's in love with her?" "A Highlands homestead, the avenging lover?" "The honourable Ricki Tarr?" "He may feel compelled, Peter." "Everybody has a loyalty somewhere." " He mustn't know." " I agree." " I've brought all I could find on Jim Prideaux." " Thank you." "Prideaux and Bill Haydon were really..." "very close, you know." " I hadn't realised." " Yes." "Thank you." "Operation Testify." "We need to understand what happened or, rather, why it happened." "The file you borrowed gives us a nudge in the right direction." "I think I know who to talk to next." "Your day was hardly wasted." "I am glad of that." "We traced Prideaux." "He's now a teacher." "Thursgood Preparatory School for Boys." "It's in the West Country." "Right." "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant" "Depart in peace" "According to" "Thy word" "For mine eyes have seen" "Thy salvation" "Which thou hast prepared before the face" "Of all people" "To be a light" "To lighten" "The gentiles" "And to be the glory" "Of thy people" "Israel" "Glory be to the Father" "And to the Son" "And to the Holy Ghost" "As it was in the beginning" "Is now and ever shall be" "World without end" "Amen"