Free The Looking Glass War by John le Carré Page B

our age. He was our age in the war.’
    ‘One forgets. Yes, he must be fifty-five or six.’
    ‘Established?’ Haldane persisted.
    Leclerc shook his head. ‘He’s not qualified. Broken service. He went to the Control Commission after the war. When that packed up he wanted to stay in Germany. German wife, I think. He came to us and we gave him a contract. We could never afford to keep him there if he were established.’ He took a sip of water, delicately, like a girl. ‘Ten years ago we’d thirty men in the field. Now we’ve nine. We haven’t even got our own couriers, not clandestine ones. They all knew it this morning; why didn’t they say so?’
    ‘How often does he put in a refugee report?’
    Leclerc shrugged. ‘I don’t see all his stuff,’ he said. ‘Your people should know. The market’s dwindling, I suppose, now they’ve closed the Berlin border.’
    ‘They only put the better reports up to me. This must be the first I’ve seen from Hamburg for a year. I always imagined he had some other function.’
    Leclerc shook his head. Haldane asked, ‘When does his contract come up for renewal?’
    ‘I don’t know. I just don’t know.’
    ‘I suppose he must be fairly worried. Does he get a gratuity on retirement?’
    ‘It’s just a three-year contract. There’s no gratuity. No frills. He has the chance of going on after sixty, of course, if we want him. That’s the advantage of being a temporary.’
    ‘When was his contract last renewed?’
    ‘You’d better ask Carol. It must be two years ago. Maybe longer.’
    Haldane said again, ‘You talked about putting a man in.’
    ‘I’m seeing the Minister again this afternoon.’
    ‘You’ve sent Avery already. You shouldn’t have done that, you know.’
    ‘Somebody had to go. Did you want me to ask the Circus?’
    ‘Avery was very impertinent,’ Haldane observed.
    The rain was running in the gutters, tracing grey tracks on the dingy panes. Leclerc seemed to want Haldane to speak, but Haldane had nothing to say. ‘I don’t know yet what the Minister thinks about Taylor’s death. He’ll ask me this afternoon and I shall give him my opinion. We’re all in the dark, of course.’ His voice recovered its strength. ‘But he may instruct me – it’s on the cards, Adrian – he may instruct me to get a man in.’
    ‘Well?’
    ‘Suppose I asked you to form an operations section, make the research, prepare papers and equipment; suppose I asked you to find, train and field the agent. Would you do it?’
    ‘Without telling the Circus?’
    ‘Not in detail. We may need their facilities from time to time. That doesn’t mean we need tell them the whole story. There’s the question of security: need to know. ’
    ‘Then without the Circus?’
    ‘Why not?’
    Haldane shook his head. ‘Because it isn’t our work. We’re just not equipped. Give it to the Circus and help them out with the military stuff. Give it to an old hand, someone like Smiley or Leamas …’
    ‘Leamas is dead.’
    ‘All right then, Smiley.’
    ‘Smiley is blown.’
    Haldane coloured. ‘Then Guillam or one of the others. One of the pros. They’ve got a big enough stable these days. Go and see Control, let him have the case.’
    ‘No,’ Leclerc said firmly, putting the glass on the table. ‘No, Adrian. You’ve been in the Department as long as I have, you know our brief. Take all necessary steps – that’s what it says – all necessary steps for the procurement, analysis and verification of military intelligence in those areas where the requirement cannot be met from conventional military resources. ’ He beat out the words with his little fist as he spoke. ‘How else do you think I got authority for the overflight?’
    ‘All right,’ Haldane conceded. ‘We have our brief. But things have changed. It’s a different game now. In those days we were top of the tree – rubber boats on a moonless night; a captured enemy plane; wireless and all that. You and I