Read Online Run Around by Brian Freemantle - Free Book Online Page B

Harkness.
    â€˜Novikov agreed that the cipher division of the KGB is not a general department, that it’s compartmented like everything else,’ said Charlie.
    Harkness nodded, in recollection.
    â€˜The assumption by all the previous debriefers had been that Novikov was part of some centralized system,’ insisted Charlie.
    â€˜Yes,’ said Wilson, looking directly at Harkness. ‘And it was a mistake.’
    â€˜I wanted particularly to establish the limitations of what Novikov handled, despite the Politburo clearance,’ disclosed Charlie. ‘The numbering told me.’
    â€˜Number four was his first involvement,’ remembered Wilson.
    â€˜I think I know what happened to the previous three,’ announced Charlie.
    â€˜What?’ asked the Director.
    â€˜Novikov agreed with me that he worked for the Directorate’s Third Department, which we know from previous defectors covers England. The logical conclusion is that the previous messages, perhaps identifying the target, went through other departments,’ said Charlie.
    â€˜Which means the killing could be anywhere in the world!’ exclaimed Wilson.
    Charlie shook his head, in another refusal. He said: ‘I think we can narrow it down.’
    â€˜How?’
    â€˜Although separate in department control, England is considered part of Europe,’ said Charlie. ‘My guess is that England is the staging post for a killing that is to be carried out somewhere in Europe.’
    â€˜A guess,’ pounced Harkness.
    â€˜Which might have been easier to confirm if surveillance had been imposed earlier,’ came back Charlie.
    â€˜Why England at all, if the assassination isn’t to be here?’ asked Wilson.
    Charlie shrugged, unable positively to answer. ‘It’s trade-craft always to conceal the point of entry,’ he suggested.
    â€˜Everything is still too vague,’ said Harkness.
    â€˜No,’ disputed Charlie again. ‘The debriefing told us how to look. And where.’
    â€˜What!’ shouted Wilson.
    â€˜The dates,’ said Charlie. ‘I’m sure it’s in the dates.’
    â€˜Tell me how?’ insisted the Director.
    â€˜The pattern fits,’ argued Charlie. ‘Novikov was cut off on 19 August?’
    â€˜Yes,’ agreed the Director. He was leaning intently across the desk.
    â€˜The last message he encoded was 12 August?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Before that, 5 August?’
    â€˜And you anticipated the first, 29 July,’ remembered Harkness.
    â€˜All Fridays,’ said Charlie.
    There was another brief silence, then Harkness said: ‘So?’
    â€˜The Politburo of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics always convenes on a Thursday,’ said Charlie. ‘Novikov’s first message, to the Politburo, was an acknowledgement of an instruction for a public and political assassination. The other two were outwardly transmitted messages, establishing London as a link in that planning.’
    Harkness shook his head in rejection. ‘I don’t agree that assumption,’ he said. ‘Or still understand the guide it gives us, even if I could accept it.’
    â€˜Allow me the assumption,’ urged Charlie. ‘We’ve got three unknown messages, before Novikov was given his, numbered four in the sequence. So let’s work backwards, from those dates. If I am right, then the assassination was discussed at three previous Politburo sessions, 22 July, 15 July and 8 July, with 8 July being the date of the initial concept.’
    â€˜I am finding this as difficult to follow as Harkness,’ protested the Director. ‘But if I do allow you the assumption, I still don’t see what we have got.’
    â€˜â€œThe need is understood that a political, public example has to be set, for the maximum impact,”’ quoted Charlie.
    â€˜I don’t need reminding of the first cable,’ said