For a moment Sofi didn’t respond and then, curious, she said, “Will you keep in touch with your friends from work, when you leave?”
It was the closest she’d ever come to hinting at his real job. He could tell what she was really asking, if the clandestine nature of his work would make it possible to stay in touch, even though he’d still be living in Tallinn. But she’d inadvertently hit on something more serious, something he hadn’t considered until now.
How could he stay in Tallinn, the thing he’d suggested to her only that evening, if his former colleagues were under the impression he was a traitor? And why hadn’t Louisa considered that, knowing his domestic setup? The answer to the second question was easy enough—for all Louisa’s jolly-headmistress warmth and informality, she was ruthless when it came to getting results.
“I’ll stay in touch with Harry, probably.” Perry, of course, wouldn’t be around if it all worked out.
“Good,” said Sofi. “I like Harry.”
She’d met him twice. Everyone liked Harry.
They picked Finn up the next morning, Saturday, and took him to the office. It wasn’t always the case that the office was empty at weekends, but it was today. Crucially, Perry had been sent to Moscow on the early flight, to soothe concerns about the Kremlin mole story.
He wouldn’t have liked that, but when Louisa arrived to fight fires, no one questioned her methods. If she’d been in a generous mood, she’d have assured Ed that it was a job requiring someone with experience, someone who was respected.
Louisa and Finn headed into the small conference room, and then a moment or two later a guy came in who Finn hadn’t seen before. He was wearing a pale-gray suit, scarf, city overcoat, and he had an oddly bouffant mass of gray hair.
“Finn, this is John Castle.”
No introduction was needed in the other direction—Castle undoubtedly knew everything about Finn. They shook hands, but then Castle sat and didn’t say another word. Finn waited for Louisa to sit before taking a seat himself, and she smiled and threw a look of teasing admonishment at the older man. Castle looked unimpressed.
“Okay, Finn. Time really is short on this, and it’s going to take considerable nerve to pull it off. I hasten to add, if you don’t get the evidence we need on Perry, it’s not a disaster—that’s just one strand of this operation.”
“For you, perhaps, but if I’m about to make myself look like a traitor, I intend to take Perry down.”
He looked for a change in either expression, but there was none.
“Admirable,” said Louisa. “Now, the ship is called the Maria Nuovo. Our current intelligence is that it’s due to arrive in Kaliningrad next Saturday, just after dark. However, smarter people than I have suggested this is unlikely, and that Friday night or the early hours of Saturday morning is a better guess. Naturally, we’ll know more nearer the time. Demidov’s lieutenant will be there to meet it, but we think he may have as few as three other men with him, primarily because most of the others have been arrested.”
“So it should be a tempting target for Karasek.”
“And for anyone else who found out about it, I shouldn’t wonder. But the important thing is this—we have less than a week for you to get in to see Karasek, convince him that you’re looking for a final payday, get him to trust you enough that he’ll spill about Perry, and lead him into the trap in Kaliningrad.”
It sounded a ridiculously ambitious task when put like that, and Castle grimaced slightly, as if he wanted to voice concerns to that effect.
Louisa ignored him, suggesting that this was an argument they’d already had, and looked at Finn as she said, “Do you envisage any problems?”
“I envisage only problems.”
“Good,” she said, and laughed. “Anything I might not have accounted for?”
Finn shook his head, then said almost absentmindedly, “I was planning to go away next Friday for a long weekend.”
“Can’t it wait? You’re about to have one very long weekend.”
“It could, but it might arouse suspicions, particularly as I’m winding down.”
Louisa nodded, thinking it over. “We wouldn’t want you in Kaliningrad anyway, but Karasek might.” She tapped out a short little rhythm on the table, and finally said, “We’ll have to play it by ear. You may have no choice but to cancel.”
He didn’t push it for now, but he knew that his plan depended on convincing Karasek that he didn’t want him in Kaliningrad. That was assuming they could get Karasek to show an interest in the first place.
“What’s my reason for going to Karasek? If I just go in and offer him this, he’ll know it’s a phony.”