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book. He had the right to read cables and reports marked Top Secret, but flippancy like this was so secret that he hadn’t a clue to its understanding. He said, ‘Personally I would resign rather than cover up.’ He put down his glass of whisky so hard that he chipped the crystal. Lady Hargreaves again, he thought. She must have insisted on crystal. He said, ‘I’m sorry.’
    â€˜Of course you are right, Daintry,’ Hargreaves said. ‘Never mind the glass. Please don’t think I’ve brought you all the way up here to persuade you to let things drop, if we have sufficient proof . . . But a trial isn’t necessarily the right answer. The Russians don’t usually bring things to a trial with their own people. The trial of Penkovsky gave all of us a great boost in morale, they even exaggerated his importance, just as the CIA did. I still wonder why they held it. I wish I were a chess player. Do you play chess, Daintry?’
    â€˜No, bridge is my game.’
    â€˜The Russians don’t play bridge, or so I understand.’
    â€˜Is that important?’
    â€˜We are playing games, Daintry, games, all of us. It’s important not to take a game too seriously or we may lose it. We have to keep flexible, but it’s important, naturally, to play the same game.’
    â€˜I’m sorry, sir,’ Daintry said, ‘I don’t understand what you are talking about.’
    He was aware that he had drunk too much whisky, and he was aware that C and Percival were deliberately looking away from each other – they didn’t want to humiliate him. They had heads of stone, he thought, stone.
    â€˜Shall we just have one more whisky,’ C said, ‘or perhaps not. It’s been a long wet day. Percival . . .?’
    Daintry said, ‘I’d like another.’
    Percival poured out the drinks. Daintry said, ‘I’m sorry to be difficult, but I’d like to get things a little clearer before bed, or I won’t sleep.’
    â€˜It’s really very simple,’ C said. ‘Put on your maximum security check if you like. It may flush the bird without more trouble. He’ll soon realize what’s going on – if he’s guilty, that is. You might think up some kind of test – the old marked fiver technique seldom fails. When we are quite certain he’s our man, then it seems to me we will just have to eliminate him. No trial, no publicity. If we can get information about his contacts first, so much the better, but we mustn’t risk a public flight and then a press conference in Moscow. An arrest too is out of the question. Granted that he’s in Section 6, there’s no information he can possibly give which would do as much harm as the scandal of a court case.’
    â€˜Elimination? You mean . . .’
    â€˜I know that elimination is rather a new thing for us. More in the KGB line or the CIA’s. That’s why I wanted Percival here to meet you. We may need the help of his science boys. Nothing spectacular. Doctor’s certificate. No inquest if it can be avoided. A suicide’s only too easy, but then a suicide always means an inquest, and that might lead to a question in the House. Everyone knows now what a “department of the Foreign Office” means. “Was any question of security involved?” You know the kind of thing some back-bencher is sure to ask. And no one ever believes the official answer. Certainly not the Americans.’
    â€˜Yes,’ Percival said, ‘I quite understand. He should die quietly, peacefully, without pain too, poor chap. Pain sometimes shows on the face, and there may be relatives to consider. A natural death . . .’
    â€˜It’s a bit difficult, I realize, with all the new antibiotics,’ C said. ‘Assuming for the moment that it is Davis, he’s a man of only just over forty. In the prime of