A Spy by Nature - Charles Cumming [150]
‘I asked after Kate.’
They have got to her. Kate has been burned.
‘But you know I don’t see her any more. I haven’t seen her in over two years.’
‘That’s not what I heard.’
‘What did you hear?’
‘Fort says you two still sleep together, for old times’ sake.’
‘Why would he have said that?’
‘You mentioned it to him one night when the two of you were out drinking. Or don’t you remember?’
That was months ago, a slight lie in a pub just to fill the silence. Instinct tells me to deny all of this.
‘I don’t remember ever mentioning that to him.’
‘Were you bragging, Alec?’
What does she want to hear? I do not know what Kate has told them. Then - a chink of light - it occurs to me that someone from their side simply saw me going into Kate’s house last week. They know no more than that.
‘Was it male bravado?’ Katharine is asking. ‘Was that what made you say it?’
‘Not necessarily.’
‘So you two still hook up from time to time? How come you never said anything to me?’
Her voice becomes significantly warmer with this question, more friendly and engaging. Is it possible that she is simply jealous?
‘It was private. Kate wanted me to keep it a secret. She has a boyfriend. I’m sorry I told Fort and not you.’
‘That’s OK,’ she says calmly.
‘You can understand why I didn’t say anything. Not even Saul knows that I still see her.’
‘Of course,’ she says, creating a brief lapse in which an instinct to get away from any talk of Kate fatally overrides my common sense. I ask:
‘How come Fortner is in the States?’
And there is silence. And nothing I can do to retract the question.
‘Why do you ask that, Alec?’
I can say only:
‘What?’
‘Why would you think Fortner is in the States?’
‘Isn’t he? I just assumed he wasn’t home.’
‘Why didn’t you ask if he was here?’
‘I’m sorry. I’m not following you.’
‘It’s very simple, Alec. How did you know my husband had gone to America?’
I am trapped now, with no way out of this but ineffectual bluffs.
‘I just assumed. It sounded like he wasn’t around. Usually I would have talked to him by now.’
She’ll never buy that.
‘You just assumed.’
I go on to the offensive. It may be the only way to distract her.
‘Kathy, what are you getting at? You’re being really odd tonight.’
Then it is as if every sound around me is suddenly ended, a tunnel of silence into which Katharine whispers:
‘My God, it is true. I could not believe it until I heard it from you directly. I would not believe them.’
‘Believe who?’
Very slowly, she says:
‘You’re so dumb, Alec. How did you know Fortner was in the States, huh? Isn’t that revealing a little too much of what you know?’
‘I don’t understand what you’re getting at…’
‘You want me to tell you why he’s there?’
‘Maybe we should talk another time, Kathy. I don’t know what’s got into you, but…’
‘He’s there because of your fucking girlfriend.’
I have a sensation now of cold fear, like falling through space in a dream and the black ground rushing up to meet me.
‘Kate’s apartment is bugged. It has been ever since you told Fortner you were still seeing her. Just like your home is bugged, your car, your telephones, Saul, your mother’s place. Everyone is being listened to.’
My body goes stiff with panic. It was nobody’s fault but my own. They heard everything I said to Kate.
‘And you know what the irony is?’ she says contemptuously. ‘We almost shut it down. You never visited Kate and we figured you weren’t about to in the future. It was a sleeper, but Fort insisted we keep it on. He had some hunch you might go there some day, said he knew how you felt about her. I gotta hand it to your people: 5F371 was a smart plan. You guys worked us over. Nice little Alec hands over 3D seismic imaging showing the strong possibility of oil in a field where none exists. Caccia has known all along that the crude was beaten out of it by the Soviets in the sixties and seventies, but Andromeda buy out Abnex’s validity of rights, drill an exploration well, spend - what? - about three hundred million dollars, and find nothing when we get there. Meantime, the Azerbaijani government lose confidence