Run Around by Brian Freemantle Read Free Book Online

agreed there was Islay malt and when he returned with the tray Charlie said they didn’t want to bother him again, so why didn’t he leave the bottle.
    â€˜Here’s to the British taxpayer,’ toasted Charlie.
    â€˜I do not understand,’ said the Russian.
    â€˜Neither would they, if they knew,’ said Charlie.
    â€˜We are making progress?’ asked Novikov. There seemed some concern in the question.
    â€˜I think so,’ said Charlie.
    â€˜You know why I want to hurt Russia?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Charlie.
    â€˜I loved her so much,’ said Novikov, distantly. ‘So very much.’ He drank heavily from his glass and said: ‘You can’t imagine what it’s like to lose someone you love as completely as I loved Lydia.’
    I can, thought Charlie. I lost twice, not once. He wanted Novikov relaxed but not maudlin. He added to both their glasses and said: ‘There are some more things I want you to help me with.’
    Novikov’s effort to concentrate again was very obvious. He said: ‘What?’
    â€˜More dates,’ said Charlie. ‘You were cut off on 19 August?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜What was the date of that last cable, the one numbered six?’
    Novikov frowned for a moment, determined upon recall, and then said: ‘August 12.’
    â€˜And the one before that, the first to mention London?’
    â€˜August 5,’ said the Russian, quicker this time.
    â€˜And the first one you encoded was dated 29 July?’ anticipated Charlie.
    Novikov frowned, head to one side. ‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘How did you know?’
    â€˜I guessed,’ lied Charlie. ‘Something more about that second cable, the one mentioning catalogue? Had you ever before encoded messages from Department 8 of Directorate S?’
    â€˜Twice, both times before Lydia was killed.’
    â€˜With mokrie as a reference?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Was the word “catalogue” used?’
    â€˜Yes,’ confirmed Novikov.
    Thank God and the fairies for bureaucratic rigidity, thought Charlie. He said: ‘Do you know what it signifies?’
    â€˜I don’t know ,’ said the Russian, in careful qualification.
    â€˜What do you guess it to signify?’
    â€˜The operative,’ said Novikov.
    Charlie nodded. ‘That’s what I think, too,’ he said. ‘One last thing: you worked from Dzerzhinsky Square?’
    â€˜Yes,’ agreed Novikov.
    â€˜But the cipher division is not general, is it?’
    â€˜I’ve never suggested it was.’
    â€˜I think other people made wrong assumptions,’ said Charlie. ‘It’s compartmented?’
    â€˜Of course. Everything is. That is the system.’
    Charlie nodded again, in agreement. ‘So for which department of the First Chief Directorate did you work?’
    â€˜The Third,’ agreed Novikov.
    Charlie sat back, satisfied, refilling both their glasses. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘It had to be that, didn’t it?’
    â€˜Is it significant?’
    â€˜Who knows?’ said Charlie.
    â€˜Do you play chess?’
    â€˜No,’ said Charlie.
    â€˜I’m surprised,’ said the Russian. ‘I would have thought with a mind like yours that you would have done. I was going to suggest a game, if we met again.’
    â€˜Maybe darts,’ said Charlie.
    â€˜Darts?’
    â€˜It’s an English game. Played in pubs.’
    â€˜Maybe I could learn.’
    â€˜Be quicker than me trying to learn chess,’ said Charlie.
    â€˜I don’t think that is necessarily so,’ said Novikov.
    Charlie encountered Hubert Witherspoon in the entrance hall, a cavernous place of wood-panelled walls around a black and white marbled floor. The man’s face was flushed with his recent exertion and for once his hair was stuck down, still wet from the shower.
    â€˜I got a hole-in-one and two birdies,’