“Since our sketchy information yesterday BEA has confirmed,” said Sir Morris, consulting a note in front of him, “that Scott received a call from Roget et Cie while he was at the airport. After considerable pressure from our ambassador and Interpol we have learned from Mr. Roget that the purpose of Scott’s visit to the bank was to pick up an unknown bequest from a Mr. Emmanuel Rosenbaum Further checking shows that a Mr. Rosenbaum arrived in Zurich yesterday morning and traveled on to Geneva in the afternoon. He left his hotel first thing this morning and has subsequently vanished from the face of the earth. None of this would be of any great significance if Mr. Rosenbaum had not boarded the airplane to Zurich from”—Sir Morris couldn’t resist a short dramatic pause—”Moscow I think it is not unreasonable therefore to assume that Mr. Rosenbaum, whoever he is, works directly or indirectly for the KGB.
“The KGB, as we know to our cost, is well serviced in Geneva, by a large number of East Europeans working under the guise of the United Nations for the ILO and the WHO, all with the diplomatic status they need to carry out undercover work. What still remains a mystery is why Mr. Rosenbaum should be willing to kill two innocent people for a relatively obscure icon. That brings me up to date, but have you come up with anything in the last few hours?” asked Sir Morris turning to his number two.
Lawrence Pemberton looked up from his end of the table. “Since our meeting this morning, Sir Morris,” he began, “I have spoken to Scott’s sister, his mother, and a firm of solicitors in Appleshaw who administered his father’s will. It transpires that Scott was left with nothing of any real importance in the will apart from an envelope, which his mother says contained a letter from Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering.” There was an immediate buzz around the table until Sir Morris tapped his knuckle on the desk.
“Do we have any idea of the contents of Goering’s letter?” asked Sir Morris.
“The whole letter, no, sir. But one of our examination entrants, a Nicholas Wainwright, was asked by Scott to translate what we now believe was a paragraph from it because later
Wainwright asked the examination board if it was part of his test.” Lawrence extracted a piece of paper from the file in front of him and read out the paragraph:
During the year you cannot have failed to notice that I have been receiving from one of the guards a regular supply of Havana cigars—one of the few pleasures I have been permitted, despite my incarceration. The cigars themselves have also served another purpose, as each one contained a capsule with a small amount of poison. Enough to allow me to survive my trial, while ensuring that I shall cheat the executioner.
“That’s it?” said Sir Morris.
“Yes,” said Lawrence, “but I believe it confirms what Scott explained last night was his reason for traveling to Geneva. There is no doubt in my mind that the package contained the icon of Saint George and the dragon.”
“Saint George and the Dragon,” said Matthews interrupting, “but that’s the icon that half of the KGB has been searching for during the past two weeks, and my department has been trying to find out why.”
“And what have you come up with?” asked Sir Morris.
“Very little,” admitted Matthews. “But we had assumed it must be a decoy because the Czar’s icon of Saint George and the dragon hangs in the Winter Palace at Leningrad and has done so for three hundred years.”
“Anything else?” asked Sir Morris.
“Only that the section leader in search of the icon is Alex Romanov,” said Matthews.
Snell gave out a low whistle. “Well, at least we know we’re dealing with the A-list,” he said.
There was a long silence before Sir Morris offered, “One thing is clear. We have to get to Scott first and must also assume that it’s Romanov we’re up against. So what are we doing about it?”
“As much as we can get away with,” said Lawrence. “Along with the Americans we have seventeen operatives in Geneva, all of them trying to find Scott.”
“The Swiss police have a thousand trying to do the same job, though heaven knows whose side they imagine they’re on,” added Snell.
Lawrence chimed back in. “And it’s been almost impossible to convince them that Scott is not in any way responsible for the two murders. So we may have to get him out without relying on their cooperation.”
“But what do you consider would be the outcome if Romanov or this Rosenbaum, who must also be part of the KGB, manages to get to Scott before we do?” asked Matthews.
“A civilian against one of the Russians’ most ruthless agents. That’s all we need,” said Commander Busch.
Lawrence inclined his head toward the American. “I’ve known Adam for most of my life. The irony of his particular predicament is that it was I who, without his knowledge, recommended that he should be interviewed for a place in the Northern Department. It was my intention that he should join us as soon as he had completed his course as a trainee. If Romanov or any of his cohorts come face to face with Scott, they’d better remember that he was awarded a Military Cross for facing a thousand Chinese.”
“But if it turned out to be Romanov,” asked Snell, “would Scott be able to kill him?”
“I would have said no before Rosenbaum murdered his girlfriend,” said Lawrence.
“I still wouldn’t be confident of his chances even then,” said Busch.
“Neither would I,” added Matthews.
“That’s because you don’t know Adam Scott,” Lawrence retorted.
Matthews lowered his eyes in order to avoid a clash with his boss. His boss. Ten years his junior. A shortlist of two, and they had chosen another Oxbridge man to be under secretary. Matthews knew that as far as the Foreign Office was concerned, he had gone to the wrong school and the wrong university. He should have taken his father’s advice and joined the police force. There were no class barriers there, and he would probably have been a chief superintendent by now.
Sir Morris ignored the little outburst, which had become fairly common since he had selected Pemberton to leapfrog the older man.
“Are we allowed to know,” interrupted Snell, looking straight at Busch, “why a relatively obscure icon is of such disproportionate importance to both Russia and the United States?”