calm,â he said. âItâs been something very obvious, from that first occasion in the theatre.â
âAnd that doesnât strike you as unusual?â
Fredericksâ caution returned. âI donât follow?â
âHeâs wants to quit being a murderer: presumably sickened and revulsed by it,â challenged Charlie. âHe wouldnât be calm, surely? Particularly with the additional tension of planning as complicated a defection as this?â
âHeâs a trained man,â argued Fredericks.
âWhoâs going against that training,â said the Charlie. âFurther cause to be nervous.â
âHe is nervous!â insisted the American. âIâve told you about all the crap of separate meeting places and only he being the person able to make the contact.â
âThatâs not nervousness,â disputed Charlie. âThatâs trained, professional caution. The opposite of nervousness, in fact.â
âI think youâre making too much of it.â
âIâm not making too much of anything,â said Charlie. âIâm just trying to separate facts from impressions.â
âYouâre getting all the facts,â said Fredericks.
Almost time for the drop, thought Charlie. He said: âHow long has he been here, in Tokyo?â
âHe said he arrived in late â83. It checks out with the diplomatic registration at the Japanese Foreign Ministry,â said Fredericks.
âBefore that?â
âHe talked of London. And Bonn,â said Fredericks, intent for an obvious reaction from the Englishman.
There was none. Charlie remained quite unmoved and expressionless. He said: âWhat came from the checks of the diplomatic lists in both places?â
âNothing,â said Fredericks, disappointed. âNo Kozlov listed in either place.â
Inwardly Charlie was churning with excitement. If Kozlov had been posted â and killed â in London, then they and not the American had to have the man. And they would, Charlie determined. He determined something else, too. It had been right not to challenge the American until now. He said: âIs that it?â
âThatâs it,â said Fredericks. There was even a look of satisfaction.
Charlie sighed, loudly, wanting the other man to hear. âDo you know what I think?â he said.
âWhat?â
âI think we should decide something, you and I,â said Charlie. âI think I should stop regarding you as stupid and I certainly think you should stop regarding me as stupid. Which is what weâre both doing at the moment. Like it or not â and I donât like it any more than you do â weâre going to have to work together on this. Those are my instructions from London and yours from Washington â¦â He paused, for the point to register. Then he took up: âYou told me heâs genuine. You told me everything he said checks out ⦠and you know what youâve got so far, from what youâve told me? Youâve got fuck all: absolutely fuck all. Nothing from what youâve told me could check out, because thereâs no independent corroboration. No photographs, no confirmation of posting, just the name on a Japanese Foreign Ministry register: you donât even have proof that the man whoâs met you four times, has the name of a few CIA agents and speaks in accented English, really is Yuri Kozlov â¦â Charlie stopped again. âNow you know and I know that isnât right. And you know and I know that a Boy Scoutsâ group wouldnât accept him on what youâve so far told me. And although itâs sometimes debatable whether they actually succeed, the CIA try to do better than the Boys Scouts. So why donât you stop buggering about and imagining youâre conning an idiot, and tell me how the man in the Hitachi roundabout theatre proved he was
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