Liz Carlyle - 07 - The Geneva Trap by Stella Rimington Read Free Book Online

him. Not from their meetings almost two decades before – he looked quite different, thinner, older, balder – but from the photograph she’d seen in the MI6 Station Mug Book.
    His face was expressionless as he came up to the bench and sat down at the far end from Liz, taking a folded newspaper out of his raincoat pocket. She continued to stare at a page of Paris Match as he unfolded the paper on his lap and fixed his eyes on the front page. After a moment he said quietly, ‘I am sorry for the complicated instructions but they were necessary. I am confident you were not followed.’
    She hoped he was right and that he was as confident about himself.
    ‘Do you remember me, Liz Carlyle?’
    ‘Of course I do, Alexander. It’s good to see you again. I’ve never forgotten your talk at that seminar.’
    ‘Thank you. I also remember the other time we met. You were about to take your final examinations, and I gave you some advice. Which you seem to have taken.’ He smiled wryly. ‘You have not perhaps chosen the career I expected, but it has certainly kept you out of academic life.’
    She smiled, wondering how much he knew. Presumably quite a lot, otherwise why would he have asked for her? But though she was very curious to know how he had kept abreast of her career, this meeting was for him to talk to her, so she said nothing and waited.
    ‘You know I am in the same business as yourself?’
    She nodded. ‘Yes.’
    ‘I have information that should be of interest to your government. Of great interest, in fact. I asked to see you because I knew nothing of those I’d be dealing with here – perhaps someone low-level who might not understand the significance of what I have to say. Then it could all go nowhere and I would have taken the risk for no benefit at all.’
    ‘Well, I can guarantee you that whatever you tell me will be heard at the highest level.’ She felt this sounded rather pompous, but it appeared to reassure Sorsky, who nodded and seemed satisfied. Then he began to talk.
    ‘About three months ago my Station learned about a project that is being developed jointly by the United States and your country. Its object is to create a new military communications system for drones that will be used by the armed forces of both countries. The project is not being shared with other NATO members. It will work via a special satellite system, which will be concealed behind complex encryption. I do not know the details, which I suspect neither you nor I would understand. The Pentagon and your Defence Ministry are driving the project but the development work on the encryption systems is being done in England. The project is called Operation Clarity.’
    Liz was not surprised that she had never heard of it – there was no reason for her to know about top-secret defence programmes – but how did Sorsky know? Russell White had told her that Sorsky was thought to be on the security side of the intelligence component in the Russian Embassy, so not part of the scientific and technical group.
    She could not resist asking, ‘How did you learn this?’
    ‘Well, not from the British or the Americans, be assured.’ He laughed, but then his expression sobered. ‘I am not telling you this to boast that we know about your secrets. In fact, we don’t know much more about Clarity than I’ve just told you. My Station and a few key others were tasked with finding out more about the programme – difficult since it is so hush-hush even in the US and UK. The most effective way would be to recruit one of the computer scientists working on the project, but that has proved easier said than done.’
    ‘That’s a relief.’
    Sorsky shook his head. ‘Not so fast. We have discovered that another country – not one of your NATO allies – has managed to infiltrate the development. They are acquiring enough technical information about this system to sabotage it once it’s in operation. It will be a cyber-attack. Before you ask me, I do