Read Online Call for the Dead by John le Carré - Free Book Online

total sacrifice to an unassailable formula, which humiliated and inspired him; and when he finally found success, prosperity and integration, he turned his back sadly upon it as a treasure he had outgrown and must leave at Oxford with the days of his youth. Was there any factual connection between the incident in Bywater Street and Fennan's death? Smiley reproached himself for being carried away. Seen in perspective, there was nothing but the sequence of events to suggest that Fennan and Smiley were part of a single problem. The sequence of events, that is, and the weight of Smiley's intuition, experience or what you will--the extra sense that had told him to ring the bell and not use his key, the sense that did not, however, warn him that a murderer stood in the night with a piece of lead piping. The interview had been informal, that was true. The walk in the park reminded him more of Oxford than of Whitehall. The walk in the park, the caf'n Mill-bank--yes, there had been a procedural difference too, but what did it amount to? An official of the Foreign Office walking in the park, talking earnestly with an anonymous little man... Unless the little man was not anonymous! Smiley took a paper-back book and began to write in pencil on the fly-leaf: "Let us assume what is by no means proven: that the murder of Fennan and the attempted murder of Smiley are related. What circumstances connected Smiley with Fennan before Fennan's death? 1. Before the interview on Monday, 2nd January, I had never met Fennan. I read his file at the De-. partaient and I had certain preliminary enquiries made. 3. The interview fell into two parts; the first at the F.O., when people wandered through the room and took no notice of us at all, the second outside when anyone could have seen us." What followed? Nothing, unless... Yes, that was the only possible conclusion: unless whoever saw them together recognised not only Fennan but Smiley as well, and was violently opposed to their association. Why? In what way was Smiley dangerous? His eyes suddenly opened very wide. Of course--in one way, in one way only--as a security officer. He put down his pencil. And so whoever killed Sam Fennan was anxious that he should not talk to a security officer. Someone in the Foreign Office, perhaps. But essentially someone who knew Smiley too. Someone Fennan had known at Oxford, known as a communist, someone who feared exposure, who thought that Fennan would talk, had talked already, perhaps? And if he had talked already then of course Smiley would have to be killed--killed quickly before he could put in his report. That would explain the murder of Fennan and the assault on Smiley. It made some sense, but not much. He had built a card-house as high as it would go, and he still had cards in his hand. What about Eisa, her lies, her complicity, her fear? What about the car and the 8.30 call? What about the anonymous letter? If the murderer was frightened of contact between Smiley and Fennan, he would scarcely call attention to Fennan by denouncing him. Who then? Who? He lay back and closed his eyes. His head was throbbing again. Perhaps Peter Guillam could help. He was the only hope. His head was going round. It hurt terribly.
    IX
    TIDYING UP
    Mendel showed Peter Guillam into the ward, grinning hugely. "Got him," he said. The conversation was awkward; strained for Guillam at least, by the recollection of Smiley's abrupt resignation and the incongruity of meeting in a hospital ward. Smiley was wearing a blue bedjacket, his hair was spiky and untidy above the bandages and he still had the trace of a heavy bruise on his left temple. After a particularly awkward pause, Smiley said: "Look, Peter, Mendel's told you what happened to me. You're the expert--what do we know about the East German Steel Mission?" "Pure as the driven snow', dear boy, except for their sudden departure. Only about three men and a dog in the thing. They hung out in Hampstead somewhere. No one quite knew why