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said.
    â€˜Reading University. Mathematics and physics. Did some of his military service at Aldermaston. Never supported – anyway openly – the marchers. Labour Party, of course.’
    â€˜Like forty-five per cent of the population,’ C said.
    â€˜Yes, yes, of course, but all the same . . . He’s a bachelor. Lives alone. Spends fairly freely. Fond of vintage port. Bets on the tote. That’s a classic way, of course, of explaining why you can afford . . .’
    â€˜What does he afford? Besides port.’
    â€˜Well, he has a Jaguar.’
    â€˜So have I,’ Percival said. ‘I suppose we mustn’t ask you how the leak was discovered?’
    â€˜I wouldn’t have brought you here if I couldn’t tell you that. Watson knows, but no one else in Section 6. The source of information is an unusual one – a Soviet defector who remains in place.’
    â€˜Could the leak come from Section 6 abroad?’ Daintry asked.
    â€˜It could, but I doubt it. It’s true that one report they had seemed to come direct from Lourenço Marques. It was word for word as 69300 wrote it. Almost like a photostat of the actual report, so one might have thought that the leak was there if it weren’t for a few corrections and deletions. Inaccuracies which could only have been spotted here by comparing the report with the files.’
    â€˜A secretary?’ Percival suggested.
    â€˜Daintry began his check with those, didn’t you? They are more heavily vetted than anyone. That leaves us Watson, Castle and Davis.’
    â€˜A thing that worries me,’ Daintry said, ‘is that Davis was the one who was taking a report out of the office. One from Pretoria. No apparent importance, but it did have a Chinese angle. He said he wanted to reread it over lunch. He and Castle had got to discuss it later with Watson. I checked the truth of that with Watson.’
    â€˜What do you suggest we do?’ C asked.
    â€˜We could put down a maximum security check with the help of 5 and Special Branch. On everyone in Section 6. Letters, telephone calls, bug flats, watch movements.’
    â€˜If things were as simple as that, Daintry, I wouldn’t have bothered you to come up here. This is only a second-class shoot, and I knew the pheasants would disappoint you.’
    Hargreaves lifted his bad leg with both hands and eased it towards the fire. ‘Suppose we did prove Davis to be the culprit – or Castle or Watson. What should we do then?’
    â€˜Surely that would be up to the courts,’ Daintry said.
    â€˜Headlines in the papers. Another trial in camera . No one outside would know how small and unimportant the leaks were. Whoever he is he won’t rate forty years like Blake. Perhaps he’ll serve ten if the prison’s secure.’
    â€˜That’s not our concern surely.’
    â€˜No, Daintry, but I don’t enjoy the thought of that trial one little bit. What co-operation can we expect from the Americans afterwards? And then there’s our source. I told you, he’s still in place. We don’t want to blow him as long as he proves useful.’
    â€˜In a way,’ Percival said, ‘it would be better to close our eyes like a complaisant husband. Draft whoever it is to some innocuous department. Forget things.’
    â€˜And abet a crime?’ Daintry protested.
    â€˜Oh, crime,’ Percival said and smiled at C like a fellow conspirator. ‘We are all committing crimes somewhere, aren’t we? It’s our job.’
    â€˜The trouble is,’ C said, ‘that the situation is a bit like a rocky marriage. In a marriage, if the lover begins to be bored by the complaisant husband, he can always provoke a scandal. He holds the strong suit. He can choose his own time. I don’t want any scandal provoked.’
    Daintry hated flippancy. Flippancy was like a secret code of which he didn’t possess the