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successful man has. Of a kind, that is. Well, there’s rivalry, competition, envy. But enemies?’ He looked almost fearfully at Pilgrim and shuddered. ‘But not in this way.’ He was silent for a moment, then looked at the admiral with an expression that approximated pretty closely to resentment and when he spoke again the tremor had gone from his voice. ‘And why do you ask me these questions? They didn’t kill me. They killed Mr Pilgrim.’
    â€˜There’s a connection. Fawcett?’
    â€˜There’s a connection. I may speak freely, sir?’
    â€˜I beg your pardon?’
    â€˜Well, there are telephone boxes and sacrificial assistant editors – ’
    â€˜Don’t be a fool. I’ve already apologized for that.’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’ Fawcett briefly searched his memory and found no apology there. It seemed pointless to mention this. ‘As you say, sir, there’s a connection. There’s also been a leak and it can only have come from within our own organization. As I said, sir, and as I have explained to these gentlemen, it’s clear that Pilgrim was killed by someone well known to him. There can’t have been any specific leak – only you, Pilgrim, Dr Harper and myself really knew what the intentions were. But any of up to a dozen people or more – researchers, telephone operators, drivers – within the organization knew that we had been in regular touch with Mr Wrinfield. It would be unusual, if not unique,to find any intelligence or counter-intelligence agency in the world whose ranks have not been infiltrated by an enemy agent, one who eventually becomes so securely entrenched as to become above suspicion. It would be naïve of us to assume that we are the sole exception.
    â€˜It was hardly top secret that Mr Wrinfield had been in the formative stages of planning a European tour – a primarily eastern European tour – and it would have been comparatively simple to discover that Crau was on the list of towns to be visited. As far as the gentlemen in Crau are concerned – more precisely, the gentlemen responsible for the research taking place in Crau – coincidence could be coincidence but the obvious tie-up with the CIA would be that little bit too much.’
    â€˜So why kill Pilgrim? As a warning?’
    â€˜In a way, sir, yes.’
    â€˜Would you care to be more specific, Mr Fawcett?’
    â€˜Yes, sir. No question but that it was a warning. But to make Pilgrim’s death both understandable and justifiable from their point of view – for we have to remember that though we are dealing with unreasonable men we are also dealing with reasoning men – it had to be something more than just a warning. His murder was also an amalgam of invitation and provocation. It is a warning they wished to be ignored. If they believe Mr Wrinfield’s forthcoming tour is sponsored by us, and if, in spiteof Pilgrim’s death – which they won’t for a moment doubt that we’ll be convinced has been engineered by them – we still go ahead and proceed with the tour, then we must have extraordinarily pressing needs to make it. Conclusive proof they would expect to find in Crau.
    â€˜And then we would be discredited internationally. Imagine, if you can, the sensational impact of the news of the internment of an entire circus. Imagine the tremendously powerful bargaining weapon it would give the East in any future negotiations. We’d become an international laughing stock, all credibility throughout the world gone, an object of ridicule in both East and West. The Gary Powers U-plane episode would be a bagatelle compared to this.’
    â€˜Indeed. Tell me, what’s your opinion of locating this cuckoo in the CIA nest?’
    â€˜As of this moment?’
    â€˜Zero.’
    â€˜Dr Harper?’
    â€˜I agree totally. No chance. It would mean putting a watcher on every one of your several