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.He could never do that again, never with Steffy and never with the same water, they had gone down to the sea together.When it came to screwing, nobody had ever screwed anyone more thoroughly than the Comrades had screwed the British and the French, by Christ!Hypnotised by the rippling light on the water, he put together the d’Auberon papers at last—It wasn’t just that the Comrades had known about d’Auberon and his precious documents all along, and hadn’t worried about them at all—about the alleged traitor in their midst, who had fed back to Paris every thought the Kremlin had had, through Hungary and Suez, and every word of it nothing but the truth, checkable and double-checkable from every other Anglo-French intelligence source.Of course they hadn’t been worried! Not about that.What they had been worried about, regardless of the British and the French …was the truth of those reports about the undercurrents of dissent which had been swelling ever more fiercely in their Eastern European colonies—through East Germany, still disaffected from the Berlin riots, through Poland, where patriotism and religion were inextinguishable, to Hungary, which had been primed to explode any minute by the irreversible tide of hatred even among good Comrades of the appalling Rakosi regime.And not the men in the Kremlin alone, by God! Even dear old Bill Ballance—red-nosed, superannuated, indiscreet, but always well-informed—even Bill had been worried—“Have another drink—to your next report on the incidence of scurvy in the French Mediterranean Fleet, say? The Froggies may hate us now—and the Yanks may distrust us even more than before—and the rest of the world may despise us for being a third-rate bunch of paper-hangers … but I can play Dr Pangloss to your Candide, young David, for this is still the best of all possible worlds, and I feared very much that it wasn’t going to be—I was very worried that it wouldn’t be!”“What d’you mean, Bill?”“I mean, young David, that we are alive and drinking, and not taking part in the Third World War—Leibnitz was right, and Voltaire was wrong.So I shall retire and teach metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology in my old age, like Pangloss.Because, for our sins, we have been delivered from war and pestilence and famine—but chiefly war.”“War?”“Ah—but of course you’ve been away, on that smart course of yours—so you missed all the fun.Suez saved us, young David—Suez and Hungary together! So it was all for the best in this best-of-all-possible-worlds.”“How, for God’s sake, Bill?”“Why, very simply, dear boy.If there hadn’t been any Suez—if Hungary had blown up when everything was sweetness and light between us and the Americans—us and the French and the Americans … with what those CIA fellows were up to in Budapest—Christ! It could have been Poland in ‘39 again!….Instead of which we took our chance at Suez, and offended the Yanks … and left the Russians a free hand in Hungary, thank God! But it was much too close for comfort, the Third World War.Much too close!”“Over Hungary, Bill? Not over Suez?”“Who’d want to die for Suez? Not the Russians.But they would have fought us over Hungary, no question—it’s the one thing they’re bound to fight over, to hold that frontier of theirs in the West, come hell or high water—that’s why I was so bloody worried, young David.Because I’ve done my share, and I want to see old age and come safe home.And now at least I’ll see peace in my time—“Yet even shrewd old Bill had only seen the half of it, through the rose-tinted spectacles of a grateful survivor.He had seen it all as a marvellous slice of luck—the Joint Russian Intentions and Policy sub-committee feeding back the vital and authentic information which had nerved the British and the French to chance their arm in Egypt in the certain knowledge that the Russians would only bark, and not bite, because of what was happening in Eastern Europe …which, in turn, was happening precisely at the time of an American presidential election.But it hadn’t been a slice of luck at all, it had been stage-managed from start to finish.Because, turned round, it was Suez and the collapse of the Western alliance—however temporarily—which had been perfectly timed for the Russians, giving them the free hand they needed to bring the East Europeans to heel…Even, now he thought about the final bungling efforts of Rakosi to suppress dissent… even that could have been stage-managed to coincide with Suez—turning the inevitable explosion into a controlled blast.They’d all been set up—the British and the French and the Americans… and the poor bloody Hungarians, who had been shot down in the streets by the thousand, most of all!“David…”“Yes?” He didn’t raise his head to look at her this time, because the thing was still continuing inside his brain, like a film which refused to end after the denouement.“I’m sorry, David.I shot off my big mouth again.” That wasn’t the end of it: he was part of it now—part of the continuation of the screwing process.No wonder Genghis Khan was so pleased, and so determined to help Captain Roche to do his duty: he wouldn’t only be placing the said Captain Roche—Major Roche to be—right inside Sir Eustace Avery’s operation as a trusted officer who had proved his worth, he would also be planting a source of deliberately-leaked information at the highest level, an unimpeachable source as proved and trusted as the new Major himself!The possibilities were endless—and irresistible—“David…”Damn the girl! Just as he was getting into his stride!He raised his head and looked at her, and melted again immediately.And after all, he could afford to melt, for he had it all now, with the crowning opportunity of making a deal with the British which they couldn’t resist either.“Lexy?”At least … he had it all if Genghis Khan and Audley now did their different jobs right.That thought brought him down to earth again with a bump.“You’re angry with me.I can see it in your face.But I don’t blame you—I shot my stupid mouth off.” She stared at him contritely.“I told you I was stupid.”“I’m not angry.” That wasn’t what she’d seen in his face: it was the face of treachery-in-doubt that she’d seen, poor kid.“And you’re not stupid.” And anyway… there was no reason why both men shouldn’t do their jobs right: they each had sufficient incentive, by God!“You looked black as thunder.”“I was thinking dark thoughts, that’s why.But not about you.” Once again, she relaxed his over-stretched nerves.And, in preparation for what was to come, they needed relaxing.“I couldn’t think dark thoughts about you [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]