Lehrter Station by David Downing Read Free Book Online Page B

less-than-world-shattering measure, you might think, one that killed nobody. But this measure made it impossible for the children of the poor – of the workers and the peasants – to get a higher education, and in doing so it turned the clock back all the way to Tsarism. Almost overnight, power and privilege were hereditary once more. Everyone knew that the sons and daughters of those now in power would automatically take the reins from their parents. We had become what we set out to overthrow.’
    ‘I didn’t even know such a measure had been passed,’ Russell admitted. He could understand the effect it would have had on someone like Shchepkin.
    ‘We are going to have to trust each other,’ Shchepkin told him.
    ‘Okay,’ Russell agreed, convinced at least of the need.
    ‘In the short run, we can help each other. As long as you’re useful to Nemedin, we’ll both be relatively safe, and I think we can make sure you will be. You must go to the Americans, as Nemedin told you to, but you must also tell them everything. Offer yourself to them as a double agent – I’m sure you can come up with personal motives, but they’ll probably take you whatever you say. They’re desperate for people who know Berlin and Berliners, and they won’t trust you with any important information, not at first. So what do they have to lose? And soon you’ll be able to win them over by getting them stuff they can’t get anywhere else.’
    ‘And where will I get that from?’ Russell asked. He was beginning to wonder whether all those months in the Lubyanka had weakened Shchepkin’s brain.
    ‘From me.’
    ‘You will betray your country?’ Russell half-asked, half-stated. He supposed it had been implicit in all that the Russian had said, but he still found it hard to believe.
    ‘It doesn’t feel like betrayal,’ Shchepkin told him. ‘When Vladimir Ilyich told us that the Revolution had no country, I believed him.’
    ‘Okay. So that’s how we survive in the short run. But I’m still the juggler with tiring arms, remember? How do we persuade Stalin to leave me alone, and let you and your family go?’
    ‘That’s harder. And I can only think of one possibility – we need something on them which trumps everything else. A secret so damaging that we could buy our safety with silence.’
    ‘Is that all?’ Russell asked sarcastically. He had found himself hoping that Shchepkin had a plan with some chance of success.
    ‘It won’t be easy,’ the Russian agreed. ‘But we’ll be working for people with secrets, and trading them ourselves – we’ll have to keep our eyes and ears open, follow any thread that looks promising. It may take years, but I can’t see any other way out. Can you?’
    ‘No,’ Russell admitted. This one didn’t look too promising, but Shchepkin knew his world best, and any hope at all was better than none.
    ‘Then, let us work together. I will see you in Berlin.’
    ‘Okay. When do you expect me to start?’
    ‘As soon as possible. Once you reach Berlin, you will go to the Housing Office at the junction of Neue König and Lietzmann. You know where that is?’
    ‘Of course. But we’re counting our chickens a bit – what if the Americans won’t take me on?’
    ‘They will. But if by any chance they refuse, then come to our embassy here – I will leave instructions. In the last resort, we will get you there.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Now I must go – our train is at two.’
    ‘When’s the game – Saturday?’
    ‘I think so. The football is nothing to do with me – I check the hotels, arrange excursions, look at the police arrangements.’
    It was the first time Russell could remember the Russian actually volunteering information about himself. It seemed a good omen.
    Shchepkin made to leave, then abruptly turned back. ‘One last thing. I forgot to tell you. Make sure the Americans keep your mutual arrangement from the British – the NKVD have several plants in MI6.’ That bombshell