"Could be a trap." "What if they are waiting for me?" "What if they shoot me?" "And that's why I'm here." "Then I can arrest them." "What?" "I'll take up position." "Wait five minutes, then head for the drop." "Okay." "What happened?" "Sex." "He wanted sex, Joe." "Well, I can always come back later." "Yeah, this time he was no one." "Every conversation we have, chk." "Every name I give you..." "We'll protect you." "Is that what you told David Hexton?" "I told him it was his chance to be a soldier, to be a hero." "My father fought in Stalingrad." "He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner." "That was a war that made heroes, not this." "Would our fathers be proud of us, Joe?" "I don't know." "My father's dead." "Look, remember what you said." "If Operation Glass is successful, it changes everything." "All the horrors you've seen in your own country, they'll bring those here." "I don't care about any of that, and I don't think you do, either." "We join the game for different reasons." "And whether you stay loyal or you betray everything, only you know why." "So whatever made you join us in the first place, just remember that." "Come on." "I'm... worried about Daddy." "One more cock-up, he'll be getting his clock, which would be heartbreaking, blah-blah, but maybe a blessing." "I mean, the business with the Chinese dancer?" "Someone has to mind the shop." "The old man is losing his grip." "As requested, all meetings are recorded for your reference." "We must have caught this conversation by accident before the tape was stopped." "Has anyone else heard this?" "I brought it straight to you." "Bobby Waterhouse." "He really is the limit." "I'm sorry, but I make no apology for my language." "Bobby is who Bobby is." "Thank you, Alan, for bringing this to my attention." "We will say no more about it." "See you on the green." "What's your name?" "Tom." "I'm Alice." "Hey." "We're going to be friends, aren't we?" "We're getting ahead of ourselves." "Who is this man?" "Thomas Mallory." "Graduated from the Royal Naval College '44." "Six years on HMS pioneer, seven on HMS eagle, rising to lieutenant." "Desk job at the M.O.D. ever since." "And the message Arkady is to give him?" "It's merely a name and a phone number." "Valerie Parkwood, 019464980." "Who is Valerie Parkwood?" "She's, um..." " secretary to the Prime Minister, Daddy." " Good God." "You don't think she's got snow on her boots too?" "Anyone with that level of access would have been thoroughly vetted, but we can't rule it out." "Could be that Mallory's task was to reactivate her." "Then why not have Arkady contact her directly?" "Information about operation Glass is released on a need-to-know basis." "Why involve someone else?" "We'll monitor Tom Mallory from the moment of reactivation, follow him to Valerie Parkwood, and see what they're cooking up." "But that brings us back to our problem." "Tom Mallory is in police custody." "He was arrested last night for beating up a prostitute." "Now, this is something of a habit with him, but the last three times, he's wangled an acquittal or it never got to court." "On this occasion, however, the victim was determined to press charges." "Sarah, I want you running things." "Use Joe for all face to face." " Sarah?" "But I was rather hoping..." " Alan, we need to put ears in Valerie Parkwood's flat and on her work telephone." "Ah, Whitehall get rather touchy about us" " tapping their phones." " I'll talk to the cabinet secretary." "Joe, return this to Arkady." "Let him reactivate Tom Mallory." "Bobby, call the police commissioner." "Get Mallory released on bail." "He can't teach us much about Operation Glass from inside a police cell." "Daddy, sorry, quick word." "Um..." "I'm a little piqued, truth be told." "I'm the most senior cub scout here, but you're giving Sarah the keys to the hut." "People are talking, Bobby." "They say, "old Waterhouse?" "He's a confirmed bachelor."" "And then they wink and they snigger and I'm sure" "I've even seen a nudge in the past." "Do you know what I take that to mean?" "I can't imagine." "Work can only ever be a mistress, Bobby." "Mistresses are ravenous." "But a wife puts the world in perspective, makes a fellow rounded." "I bet your mother is desperate for grandchildren." "Well, you've met my mother, haven't you?" "Asking you to be selfless is futile." "Only an enforced separation will suffice." "I want you to take a more observational role." "Giving you space to find yourself." "And perhaps... someone else?" "But, Daddy, my duty is to the job, to you." "Be assured I know exactly where your loyalties lie." "Very good, Daddy." "Mr. Mallory." "I bring greetings from your aunt in Somerset." "What?" "I don't have an aunt in... my aunt." "Well, well, well." "How is the old girl?" "Arkady's reactivated Tom Mallory." "We'll wait for him to make contact with Valerie Parkwood and see where that leads us." "I'll speak to the prostitute, get her to drop the charges." "The last thing we need is a pending court case when we're trying to keep him under surveillance." "What?" "You." "You're you again." "The agent that was killed in Poland, the man who killed her is part of Operation Glass." "He's the man that killed David Hexton." "His code name's Odin." "You've known about this since David Hexton died?" "Christ, Joe!" "This is a major conflict of interest!" "You don't think you should have told us?" " How is there a conflict?" " How?" "We're engaged in a delicate, volatile operation and you're pursuing a vendetta." "It's the same objective." "Find Odin, expose Glass." "Expose Glass, find Odin." "They may be the same objective now, but what if suddenly it's not?" "How do I know you'll do your job instead of pursuing some ridiculous quest for vengeance?" "Sarah, please." "Let me do this." "I told her I'd look after her." "What's that?" "It's chalk." "What does it do?" "What does it do?" "It's chalk." "What does chalk do in Russia?" "It's not secret spy chalk?" "Oh, I don't think so." "I bought it in WHSmith." "Hmm." "This is how we're going to communicate." "This." "This says there's a message in the dead-letter drop." "Under the last bench, the last pew of St. John's church." "Right." "If you've left a message there, you draw a line here." "If you've picked up that message or if I have, you draw another line here." "What will the messages be?" "I don't know." "It could be anything." "What if you just want to say hello?" "Yeah, we don't usually, uh..." "look, any messages..." "What if I want to recommend a book?" "I promise I only use for really good books." "Yulia, this is serious." "I know this is serious." "But you can smile." "You're allowed to enjoy things." "One more signal." "What's that?" "Danger." "This means you're in danger." "Alice?" "Sorry to bother you." "My name's Tim Dawson." "I work for the government." "I'd like to talk to you about the man who assaulted you." "I wondered when you'd show up." "It would be very beneficial to us if you could drop the charges against him." "I can't give you the details why, but we need to keep him under surveillance." "No." "That isn't to say you wouldn't be compensated for what you've suffered." "We'd like to give you ã150." "I was thinking about it afterwards." "I was thinking," ""it won't be easy, Alice." "He's posh, they won't like it."" "And here you are." "He's part of a process." "It's for the good of the country he remains at liberty so we can monitor him." "It's nothing to do with class." "Of course it is." "Everything is." "If I carry on, if I press charges, what will happen?" "To me." "Will you lock me up?" "Steps would have to be taken." "For the good of the country, you say." "So who are you protecting?" "'Cause you ain't protecting me." "The top copy goes to the cabinet secretary, the bottom copy goes to me." "Why does this very simple concept continue to elude you?" "Valerie Parkwood." "Valerie, it's Tom." "Tom Mallory." "Tom." "Goodness, it's been a while." "Yes, sorry about that." "Something... something came up, all very hush-hush." "You know how it is." "Um, but a day didn't go by that I" "I didn't think of you, and..." "I was wondering if we might, um, get reacquainted." "In fact, looking at the old diary, I..." "Yes." "I'm free this evening." "I could pop over. 7:00 all right?" "Well, I suppose I could move a few things around." "Well, that's lovely." "Listen, must dash." "Ta ta." "Do you want a sandwich?" "Sarah's gone slightly overboard on the provisions." "I think it's her way of saying, "you look undernourished."" "Oh, dear." "Um, we're trying to get pregnant, so I'm insisting she eats lots of oily fish, which she loathes." "Corned beef." "I can't stand the stuff." "That's revenge!" "Remarkable woman." "Curtain up." "Hello." "Sit down." "One of the duties of each new Prime Minister is to write a Letter of Last Resort." "It states his decision about whether to retaliate in the event of a nuclear strike." "You typed that letter for him, Valerie." "You know what it says." "Now you're going to tell me." "How can you ask such a thing?" "This is treason, Tom." "Valerie, Valerie," " ours is not to reason why." " No, Tom." "This will not do." "Get out." "Get out of my flat this minute." "And here was me thinking you were the decent sort." "Now what do we do?" "Joe!" "Let's try that again, shall we, Valerie." "What..." "Is in..." "The letter... of last resort?" "We have to stop this." "We can't let him access that information." "We'll lose our advantage." "He'll know we're onto him." "She's resisting him." "She's not telling him anything." "It said..." "I was really surprised by this." "It said..." ""Piss off, Tom."" "I had a feeling it'd be like this." "Luckily I came prepared." "Take a seat." "Your nephews." "Mark and Adam, yes?" "Aw." "You see, Valerie, I will do terrible things to Mark and Adam unless I find out what's in that letter." "Oh!" "Oh!" "Stop!" "Stop!" "Please, stop, stop, stop!" "Please!" "Ah!" "Valerie, my name's Joe." "I work for MI5." "I told him." "God." "He threatened my nephews." "I told him everything." "No, please." "I thought my work would be a privilege." "I thought I would spend my days in the company of..." "Gallant and charming men, but instead we shovel shit." "And when we get home, our clothes are stiff with blood and sweat and grease." "I miss the war." "The other one." "A chap knew where he stood." "Why on earth didn't we have someone stationed outside?" "For all we knew, it was just a standard reactivation." "There was nothing to make us think..." " So, where is he know?" " We don't know." "We've searched his house." "There's nothing." "Let's not panic just yet." "What's in the letter?" "If the Prime Minister says we'll retaliate, the stalemate remains intact." "It doesn't matter if they know." "Valerie said it's no." "No strike-back." "No retaliation." "So this is it." "My God." "Operation Glass is a preemptive nuclear strike on the U.K." "Sorry, can we just go back a bit?" "The Prime Minister said no?" "That if they attack us, we won't fight back?" "Are you serious?" "Right, so we're completely vulnerable." "Everything you... the whole bloody Cold War, everything." "It's nothing, it's... it's bluff." "Which is why that information cannot be allowed to reach Moscow." "Well, Mallory's only point of contact with Moscow is Arkady, so for the time being, it's contained." "But Arkady wasn't recruiting Tom, he was reactivating him." "He must have been working with someone before." "He could have..." "Contacts, handlers, safe houses, an entire network from back then." "Bobby's right." "We need to move on this quickly." "Tonight." "If Tom's already passed the information to Moscow, they could be preparing an attack as we speak." "Bobby, I want you monitoring the situation overnight." "Open lines with 6, the F.O., the M.O.D." "The Red Army start amassing on borders, residents start packing, I want to know." "Well, if you think I'm up to it." "I could help." "I mean I don't mind." "Extra pair of hands and all that." "What do we do about Tom?" "Until we hear otherwise, we assume he's still in the country." "We find him, question him." "The time to protect our advantage is past." "We need to get him and that intel out of circulation." "Interview the prostitute again." "Perhaps Tom mentioned somewhere he was going." "Speak to her, Joe." "Tell her what she needs to hear." "Thank you, everyone." "Daddy, Bobby, can I have a quick word?" "Even if we find Tom before he hands over the intel, even if we put him in prison, such a simple piece of information to pass on." "I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't suggest we prepare a couple of contingency plans." "Agreed." "But I need to know how absolute you want these plans to be." "Tom Mallory cannot be allowed to contact Moscow." "Your list of options should be comprehensive." "Brief Joe accordingly." "I want him prepared in every sense." "The man who assaulted you has gone missing." "Did he talk about someone?" "Did he mention any trips he had planned?" "If you still want to press charges, we would now be in a position to help you." "If we could locate him, entice him here, and..." "You'd bring him here?" "He wouldn't expect us to be here." "Then we could arrest him." "He left this." "It's a private club on Piccadilly." "Just a posh strip club, really, but he wouldn't have this unless he was a member." "Alice, this is great, thank you, but I've got one more favor to ask." "Go to the club, tell him you've been contacted by two Russians." "They want the information he got from Valerie Parkwood." "They'll meet him here tonight at 11:00." "I'm looking for one of your members." "He's, uh, Tom Mallory." "Yeah, lovely." "Can you make sure he gets it?" " No problem." " Thanks." "Soviet tanks are carrying out maneuvers around the Finnish border." "This is a monthly event, so probably nothing to worry about." "And the embassy residents?" "We've placed all but five, but the outstanding ones are low-level, so not the sort to be smuggled out first as a matter of priority." "Should we tell them?" "It feels wrong, us knowing what's about to happen and not them." "No, I know it's hard, but we can't." "Daddy's just promoted me, so it would be absolutely rotten luck if it was the end of the world." "Daddy's promoted you?" "I'm assistant to his permanent secretary." "Now, I'm not sure I even get a rise, just some luncheon vouchers, but I'm jolly thrilled." "Least surprising thing I've heard all day." "But if this is close of play, should I call anyone?" "I wouldn't tell them anything, obviously." "I just want to hear their voices." "Well, I'm sure they'd be very happy to hear from you." "Hello?" "Mother goose, Bobbington Bob." "Where are you?" "Your bovine cleaner knocked the aerial pushing a j-cloth around." "I swear I've never seen a more torpid individual." "She makes Eisenhower's corpse look like something out of Oh Calcutta!" "Look, Daddy asked me to stay behind." "Uh," ""something's going down," as, uh... the cousins say." "Absolute top-level stuff." "And he asked for you?" "Interesting." "Says he couldn't trust anyone else." "Um, anyway, look." "I just wanted to say, um," "I know we have our ups and downs, but I really am jolly fond of you." "Are you drunk?" "And we make a good team, don't we, you..." "You silly package." "Are you dying?" "Christ!" "Am I dying?" "Good God, woman, I just wanted to talk to you, tell you how I felt." "Well, don't." "We're not Spanish." "Now get off the line." "Clarissa Mountview has just discovered her husband's screwing a dental nurse, and if she can't get through to me, someone else will get all the details." "In the event of a nuclear attack, control of all television channels and radio stations will be given to the British wartime broadcasting service." "If an attack is imminent, you will hear the attack sound, like this." "If you are at home when you hear the warning signal, send any children to the fallout room immediately." "Because of the threat of radiation, you and your family may need to live in the fallout room for 14 days after an attack, so you must make it as safe as you can and equip it for your survival." "If you are at work or elsewhere and cannot reach home within a couple of minutes, take cover in any nearby building." "If a death occurs while you're confined to the fallout room, place the body in another room and cover it as securely as possible." "Attach identification..." "Hello, how may I help you?" "Uh, I need to speak to Henderson." "That's Mr. Henderson." "Hold on a minute, please." "Listen to me, it's urgent." "Um, I must talk to him about the shoes he ordered." "It's ready a day early." "He must come to collect it." "And what does that mean?" "An emergency meeting, to be held an hour after the contact." "Joe's at the... the... the place where they're hoping to meet Tom Mallory." "We'll go ourselves." "What?" "We can't do that, he's a protected source..." "He's Joe's agent." "This is no time for protocol." "Arkady could be telling us that the comrades are about to rain hellfire down on London." "Besides, I want Joe interrogating Tom Mallory." "Where's their rendezvous?" "First, the Olympic hotel, fall back, the bar underneath the Phoenix Theatre." "Wait!" "You're head of counter-espionage!" "He can't see your face." "Moscow want to meet Tom tomorrow morning," "Grand Union Canal under the westway at 6:00 A.M." "If Moscow are still passing messages to Tom through Arkady, that would suggest they don't know where he is, either." " And that they don't have the intel." " Good, but we still need to decide what to do with him when he turns up here, if he turns up here." "We'll question him, find out everything he knows about Glass." "Then what?" "He still has the intel." "We can't let him out of our sight." "Throw him in prison or throw him in the Thames, I say." "Either way, Moscow will know that we're onto him." "We'll lose our advantage." "Well, better that than them finding out we've got our knickers permanently round our ankles." "Come along, Wendy." "Sarah, Joe, he's here, he's at the end of the street." "Alice, he's here." "Right." "Me and Jim will go downstairs with you." "Just open the door, tell him the Russian gentlemen have arrived," " get him inside." " No." "He might see you." "Stay here." "I'll bring him up." "Sorry." "Go on." "Are they here?" "Wait." "I want you to look me in the eye." "Was there a knife on that plate?" "Oh, Jesus." "Come on!" "Get up against the wall." "I haven't done anything." "Shut up." "Get him upstairs." "Give me that." "You all right?" "Wendy?" "It's Bobby." "Are you decent?" "I, uh, thought we should celebrate." "Joe and Sarah have managed to locate Tom Mallory and you've been promoted." "Deserves a glass of Sherry, don't you think?" "Oh, I was just about to turn in." "Excellent." "Um..." "So, uh, assistant to Daddy's permanent secretary." "Um, ooh." "Hmm, unfettered access to the great man." "Yes, I'm sure I'll learn heaps." "And quite an achievement, considering you've only been here, what, six months?" " Four years." " Four years, is it?" "Good heavens, four." "Um, yes." "Um, I'm just going to pop that there for a moment." "Yes, apologies for the digs." "Um, just because we're fighting the Soviets" "I don't see why we should have to pay homage to their interior design as well." "Actually, I rather like it, which is why I volunteered to stay." "The flat where I live is pretty ghastly." "Landlord lives upstairs and he has a huge dog and he practices flamenco." "The landlord, not the dog." "And when I talk to him, he stares at my..." "Well, my blouse, and I have to share the bathroom with an Indian family who are very sweet, but goodness, they do love a sing-song." "I'm going to give your knee a jolly good squeeze now." "Right you are." "Goodness, that was, um, thorough." "Sarah's jolly clever, isn't she..." "No, I... no, I'm sorry!" "I have to call a halt!" "Am I doing something wrong?" "No, but... yes." "Is this part of the process?" "Is this what I'm expected to do?" "I'm a perk?" "What?" "No, this isn't about... no... no, this is not something like that." "I just thought it would be pleasant." "No, no, it would, but it's awkward." "Work." "This would cost you nothing, but for me... you can't court your boss and expect people to respect you." "So we have to choose." "Well, at least I do, and I choose work." "You're ambitious." " That's not a crime." " No." "No, it certainly is not." "Let me make amends." "Now, you're having trouble with your flat." "Well, there's a room going in my house." "It's just me and the mother ship there, rattling around, and she's a..." "Sweet, gentle old soul." "That's very kind, but doesn't it leave us with the same problem?" "A single chap and a single girl lodging together." "People will talk." "Oh, I'm sure they won't." "So..." "This is what we know, Tom." "You've been spying for the Soviet Union." "Through violence and coercion, you managed to obtain the contents of the Letter of Last Resort from Valerie Parkwood." "Now that right there is life in prison." "Now, people in prison for treason, they exist outside of the legal system." "It's... endless." "It's maddening." "You'll wish you'd never been born." "Tom, is the Soviet Union planning a preemptive nuclear strike, or is the Letter of Last Resort part of a bigger operation, then?" "How will Moscow use the contents of that letter?" "Do you know what the comrades have promised me for helping them?" "Statue in Gorky Park, national holiday in my name," "and a procession of pliant yet motherless girls who bruise easily but don't fight back." "All that's null and void if I cooperate with you." "Jim, can you step in a moment?" "Give me your belt." "What are you... what are you doing?" "That light fitting's not strong enough, but there's a decent drop from the banister, so we'll use the stairwell." " What are you doing?" " Well, the official version will be that you came in here to plead with Alice to drop the charges." "She refused and fled." "You couldn't deal with the inevitable disgrace so you decided to take your own life." "Jim, will you get his legs?" "Get his legs." "No, no, no, no, no!" "Christ!" "Christ, no, stop!" "Christ, stop!" "All right, all right, all right!" "All right, I'll talk!" "I'll talk!" "Aah!" "Ah." "Get in the chair." "Shall we start again?" "Who have you told about the Letter of Last Resort?" "No one." "Before you were approached the other day, when was the last time you had any contact with Moscow?" " About a year ago." " Why so long?" "They were putting a lot of the" "U.K. networks on ice." "They had an idea, they said, for something, but they needed to get certain things in place first." "I don't know, people, I think." "Who told you this?" "It was a phone call, someone I hadn't dealt with before." "He told me to imagine a constellation of stars." "The axis had to shift slightly and" "stars had to be lined up in a certain way before they could proceed." "What was his name?" "They don't trade in real names any more than you do." "He told me he was called Odin." "The Letter of Last Resort." " Is that the end game?" " I don't know." "Look, I mean, I really..." "I really..." "I don't know." "They haven't told me." "The information you were given was just a name and a telephone number." "If you had no contact with Moscow, how did you know what to do?" "The last task they gave me before it went quiet was to get the letter of last resort from Valerie." "I sought her out, I screwed her." "They told me to stand down." "How did they recruit you?" "They said Britain didn't appreciate me." "Said warming a seat at the M.O.D. was a..." "Criminal waste of my skills and intellect." "So this isn't about an ideology, this is about... recognition." "I won't get so much as a bloody M.B.E. from you lot." "So if we made you a better offer, you'd consider coming back onside?" " What?" " What?" " What?" " What?" "Well, not threatening to kill me would be a start." "Come and work for us and you'd be surprised how generous we can be." "Jim?" "Will you pop in for a moment?" "In return, all you have to do is meet with the Soviets and gather intelligence" " on the wider operation and on Odin." " Step outside." "Now." "He can't contact the Soviets." "He'll tell them about the letter, they'll attack straight away." "Arkady said the history of counterintelligence will be split into before and after Operation Glass." "Well, that to me suggests a sequence of events, not just bombs flattening London." "Then why did they want the Letter of Last Resort?" "Well, wouldn't we if they had an equivalent?" "It's just a fail-safe in case the wider operation goes wrong." "They've gone to a hell of a lot of trouble for a fail-safe." "Christ, I said this would happen." "You are putting your personal agenda" " ahead of the mission." " That has nothing to do with it." "Look, if we arrest him, we silence him, we throw him in prison," "Moscow will know that we're onto them." "They'll retreat into the shadows." "The operation will still go ahead as planned but it will be too late for us to know anything about it." "Look," "Tom will be wired and we'll have shadows on him." "We won't let him out of our sight." "Please, Sarah." "Let me do this." "He'll lead us to the heart of it." "Then he can lead me to Odin." "And if you're wrong?" "If he tries to escape?" "Then I know what I have to do." "Right." "It's time." "Whatever it said in our letter, you tell them that the plan is that the U.K. would retaliate." "Joe?" "Make sure it's pointed at Mr. Mallory." "I think he's spotted someone." "Okay." "Curtain up." "All units stand by." "They know everything." "Shit." "Hey!" "Jim, watch the door." "You, check there's no other way out." "Don't come inside." "Please!" "I'm unarmed." "Turn around." "Please." "You're better than this." "Apparently not." "Close your eyes." "I met Odin." "I met him, last year." "I can tell you everything you need to know." "What's his real name?" "Why is he here?" "Come on." "Let's not rush things." "Hmm?" "I tell you all that, you won't need me anymore." "No, let's think of this as the beginning of our relationship." "Hmm?" "How can I trust you?" "Double-crossing you was a mistake." "I can see that now." "But we're starting again." "Hmm?" "Next time I'll lead you right to the man himself." "And the Letter of Last Resort?" "Oh, don't worry about that." "My lips are sealed." "Scout's honor." "You've got a thing going with Odin, haven't you?" "I bet there's a woman involved somewhere." "Don't worry, I won't pry." "But what do you say?" "You scratch my back, hmm?" "It'll be our little secret." "That's the ticket." "You've got a thing going with Odin, haven't you?" "I bet there's a woman involved somewhere."