Free Disorderly Elements by Bob Cook Page B

the date of his death, since the newspaper item claimed that Grünbaum had died on May 5. Hence, Bulgakov reasoned, the other people must have died on the dates written by their names—Neumann on January 1, Reichenbach on December 18 and Gödel on October 21. But this did not explain Owen’s remark: why was all this “technically impossible”?
    Bulgakov reread the extract from the Compendium and the answer finally hit him. Given the definition of F-networks, the only thing that was “technically impossible” was that the members of the network should be exposed before the network leader. The leader must have been Grünbaum, and therefore…
    â€œShit!” he exclaimed. It was all clear to him now. He leaned back in his chair and thought very hard. The rest of Owen’s notes now made sense: “Fix emergency appt with Min.” meant that Owen was reporting his department’s discovery to the Minister in charge. “W. to establish full circs of G.’s death” indicated that Wyman had been sent out to discover precisely how Grunbaum’s network had been blown.
    It occurred to Bulgakov that he too must find out exactly what had happened in Erfurt. Unlike Wyman, however, he did not need to do so by covert means. He would merely have to interview the East Germans responsible for Grünbaum’s case. He would then be in a position to establish how far Wyman’s inquiries could possibly lead him.
    He wrote a memo for one of his secretaries, asking her to book a return ticket to East Germany on his behalf. His diary revealed that he would be needed in London for another five days, so he decided to fly to the DDR on the 20th.
    He added a postscript to the memo which ran as follows:
    â€œPlease notify the Erfurt division of the SSD of my plans, and request that they make all the necessary preparations for my stay. I will be in Erfurt for no more than four days. In that time I intend to investigate the case of one Josef Grünbaum, and I will expect all the appropriate documentation to be available to me. Stress that this is a matter of the utmost urgency, requiring the strictest observation of security procedures. Only the minimum number of people should be notified of my visit.”

Chapter Seventeen
    W YMAN FLEW TO GENEVA on the afternoon of May 14. After a pleasant thirty-six hours in Paris, the flight had no appeal for him. He regarded the Swiss as a nation of insipid nonentities who deprive you of your money in four different languages. Wyman’s visit therefore took no longer than the job required.
    He took a taxi to the Banque Internationale Descartes, 53 Rue Pascal, and was shown into the manager’s office. Monsieur Georges Piaget was an impeccably polite cadaver with a limp handshake and an antiseptic voice.
    â€œGood afternoon, Mr Ryle,” he said to Wyman. “What can we do for you?”
    â€œA great deal, I hope,” Wyman said. “I am acting on behalf of another party who wishes to open an account at this bank. The gentleman concerned is also not a Swiss national, and for reasons of discretion he wishes the account to be numbered. For the time being he wants me to act on his behalf in the matter of depositing and withdrawing sums from the account.”
    â€œI see,” Piaget said. “That should present no difficulties, Mr Ryle. Nevertheless, since neither you the contracting party, nor the beneficial owner of the account are Swiss nationals, a certain amount of documentation is required.”
    â€œI appreciate that,” Wyman said.
    â€œSplendid. You are probably aware of what is required, but I will go through it all in case of difficulty. To begin with, Mr Ryle, we need documentation of your own identity—your passport would suffice.”
    Wyman drew out the false passport and handed it to Piaget.
    â€œSplendid,” Piaget repeated, noting down the passport number. “We will also need several