Section 3

At about the time that Wiggins got off the train in Purley, Major Edward Crane entered Augusto Celli's newsagency in Victoria Street and asked to be admitted to the offices above it.
It was the Major's first visit to the offices of the East German office. He had been given responsibility for the German section only a month before and had had no earlier opportunity to visit this detached and specialised unit. He was regretting that as he looked about the lobby where Wiggins had stood only hours before. As he walked up the staircase he began to run over his impressions of Polesden from the meetings they had had.
Part of his brief on taking charge of the German section had been to review the continued need for a sub office dealing with East Germany so long after the wall had fallen.
"We're beginning to wonder if the whole thing isn't a little too cosy with some of the people who welded power in the old GDR, Stalinist's, Stasi, that sort of thing, Edward," the Head of European Department had explained. "There have been suspicions for a long time that it may have been infiltrated or at least open to exploitation when the wall was there. Some of that was inter-service gossip, sour grapes about resource allocations, all that sort of thing; some of it had a feel of truth; but we never got deeper. There are good men in there, Wiggins for one, I'm quite sure. Polesden needs watching like a hawk; always seemed a bit too good to be true."
Although he had tried hard to keep that analysis from influencing his judgement he had become increasingly uneasy about Polesden. He did seem to lead a charmed life; rarely in the wrong place at the wrong time. That seemed an unlikely record for any intelligence officer but particularly for one so deeply involved in East German affairs.
It was Polesden who had devised the operation to stand down the senior staff of the East German office and call in all former field officers still in service for intensive debriefing. The Major had approved the plan; He wanted to see what it brought out of the woodwork. Wiggins had been at the top of the list. Now it appeared that either Wiggins was a renegade and had taken fright at the last moment, which was Polesden's view, or Wiggins was suspicious of Polesden and had taken measures to evade him. Wiggins's call for safe accommodation suggested that his precipitate flight from the office was based on suspicions of Polesden's loyalty, the Major thought.
He waited at the head of the stairs for Polesden to appear.
"Major. Good to see you." Polesden stood at a door behind him. Crane had the feeling that he had waited to stage this entrance.
"Harry. Good to be here. Is this your office?" Crane started to walk towards it.
"Actually no." Polesden walked towards the head of the stairs and led the Major to the floor above.
Polesden settled himself behind his desk. Major Crane took a chair in front of the desk. Polesden began to lean forwards, a question on his lips.
"Tell me about Wiggins" the Major said.
Polesden leaned back, the wind taken from his sails. "A crazy man, Major. He comes to the shop about ten minutes before the time for the meeting. He's glancing all about him like he has St Vitus dance, staring at the customers. The man's paranoid. When he goes to the counter Augusto lets him through he door . Half way up the stairs he panics. He's off and running, back through he shop and off down the road. I ran out after him but he's no where to be seen."
"So you informed the section?"
"Of course. We couldn't have an operative running amok in the streets of London."
"Of course." Major Clarke looked at the objects on the desk, the blotter, the diary, an ornate pen set and a sleek computer, flat screen, wireless mouse and keyboard, nothing out of the ordinary. He raised his head and stared at Polesden. "You sent out searchers?"
"I had nobody."
"Nobody?"
"The essence of this operation,as you know, is that as few people as possible from the East German office should be involved. I stood down my staff for the day. brought in a substitute telephonist for the morning. She left at eleven, once I knew Wiggins and the others were on their way."
The Major nodded. That was the plan they had agreed. "Where do you think Wiggins is now?"
"En route for Halle. He must guess that his cover is blown, his past is catching up with him. I can't account for his behaviour otherwise."
"His cover—"
"We talked about this." Polesden sounded impatient. "I warned you of the rumours. Wiggins was suspected of sympathising with the East Germans, having contacts with the Stasi and the Party. That is why he was removed from field operations. I believe he has continued to work with reactionary factions in the East against the West German Government and us."
"Nothing was ever proved."
"That is the cleverness. They rely on our sense of fair play and justice. They have no such concepts and should therefore not have the benefit of them."
"I know your views Harry. There are principles we must follow. You know that." Crane paused then went on, "If Wiggins was not headed for East Germany tonight where would he be?"
"He would be a fool not to get out of the country as quickly as he could."
"Possibly. He has not yet tried to do this as far as we can see. That means he must be in Britain still."
Polesden furrowed his brow as he thought about this. "He may have details of other like minded agents inside Britain."
"Some of the people you called in today?"
"None of them appeared to be agents of the East Germans or whoever is now running that operation."
"You think there is only Wiggins, then, who may be a traitor?"
Polesden nodded.
"Do you think he may try to use his connections in the service to get away clear?"
"I don't see how he could. If he follows normal protocols then the people he contacts should see alerts and submit reports of the contact. Have you seen any such reports?"
Clark ignored the question. "Go on," he prompted.
"If he has contact details for people outside his own networks then it is tantamount to running a separate organisation, a clear breach of the rules for both parties. I can see the possibility but I can't see how any such network could be more than rudimentary. He'd need too many people prepared to break the rules. You'd expect the network to include some of the people I've been seeing today and, as I said, I found no basis to suspect anyone but Wiggins."
"Suppose the network Wiggins set up was presented as part of the service?"
"People would still be suspicious. Not everyone, not all at once, but some and at different times. It would be a very difficult undertaking; impossible."
Crane nodded, pondering the logic of Polesden's argument.
"So we're looking for a needle in a haystack and the haystack may be here or it may be in Germany?"
"Exactly so." Polesden agreed. "Give me some time. I'll put out some feelers among the German networks to see what news they have. If Wiggins is back in the East, or even further East, with the Russians, then my networks will find out sooner or later."
Crane stood up. "Thank you Harry. That's helpful. Let me know everything you find out as it comes through, however raw. This is a very sensitive situation as you know."
His eye fell on the desk top. Hidden from his earlier perspective by the computer he saw the small pistol that lay there. Polesden had said nothing about using a gun. Why would he have one on the desk when he was interviewing suspected traitors? Something else too; the gun was a pattern issued in the eighties to the KGB and to the Stasi.
Crane walked to the door and let himself out.

Seb watched Wiggins walk to the door. He got up and followed. "Sir," he called to Wiggins's retreating back.
Wiggins turned and waited as Seb trotted to him.
"Where will you go?" Seb asked.
"Aren't you supposed to follow me," Wiggins grinned.
Seb nodded. "But I won't be able to. Not now."
"Probably not," Wiggins agreed.
"I don't know much about what's going on here, Sir, but I think you could get in touch with Major Crane. That must be why he wants you followed, don't you think?"
"I don't waste my time speculating on the motives of my superiors. I do my job, provide what I am asked for and leave it for the higher echelons to decide what to do with it."
"Even so, there's something odd about this, isn't there? Why else put a tail on one of the department's key field agents? What's going on?"
"If I knew that I probably would be using the safe house at Coulsdon."
"Something's rotten inside the department? Is that what you think?"
"I've thought it for years. Back when I ran East German networks it was obvious that there were leaks in our security. Nothing was done, the wall fell but we kept those networks and an East German office, separate from the German office. What is that all about?"
"I still think you should approach Major Crane."
"What makes you think he is trustworthy?"
"He specifically said I should report only to him."
"That may mean that he is the one the other side has turned."
"He wasn't around for them to turn. He's come in from the regular army. He's not a dyed in the wool intelligence man."
"Maybe you're right that I should have a chat with him. You'll report back to him on your surveillance."
"Of course."
"And you'll tell him that I bought you coffee? A coffee that will appear on my expenses, incidentally."
" I won't tell him that. I'll tell him I lost you in Purley. Obviously he'll know that you never went to Coulsdon."
"Obviously."
"I expect there will be a detail told off to locate you here. I'll probably be part of that detail."
Wiggins nodded. "And."
"Can I sound him out about you contacting him?"
"And then?"
"If I can contact you I can tell you the arrangements. You and he can talk."
"How?"
"Telephone; face to face; whatever he decides."
"Whatever I decide. I won't give away my location and wait to be picked up. What I meant was, how will you contact me?"
"Mobile?"
"I don't think so. I can't afford to be replacing mobiles every day to protect my anonymity."
"So how?"
"Give me a number. I'll call you on a fixed line phone. No longer than two minutes. Wherever we are in the conversation I'll kill the call at one hundred and twenty seconds and walk away. If you haven't given me all the information I need then you're going to have to trace me all over again."
Seb could not hide his annoyance. "You're paranoid."
"I'm a survivor, son. I walked out of the GDR on my own two feet. I did that because I'm careful. I may also be paranoid but that doesn't mean that my own side isn't trying to kill me."
"Suppose we had a fall back so that if you kill the call you make another within an hour or so?"
"Twelve hours would be better. No. If you and your boss can't work out how to say what you want to say in less than two minutes I don't want to hear it. There's the deal."
"All right," Seb conceded.
"Good. give me that number."
Seb gave him a number and Wiggins walked away down the High Street, never looking back to see if he was followed,
At last he took a right turn and walked into a quiet residential neighbourhood. He took out his mobile phone and keyed in a number he remembered from many years before.