A Spy by Nature - Charles Cumming [90]
‘Of course.’
‘Believe me, that will be the most difficult part. But you’ll quickly come to understand the kinds of sacrifices involved and I don’t foresee that for someone of your integrity it would be a problem.’
How deft are his little flatteries.
‘Integrity? This doesn’t feel all that principled.’
‘You’ll be substantially remunerated for any and all information that you can give us.’
‘I want that to start tonight,’ I tell him, exhaling smoke in a tight cylinder which may look self-conscious. ‘I want some sort of initial down payment this evening.’
There’s a fractional skip as Fortner weighs this up before saying: ‘Of course.’ As he should, he thinks I’m greedy, but it’s more important to him to keep me sweet.
‘We’ll deposit ten thousand dollars in a US bank account straight up. You start getting irregular activity on your high-street bank account and those guys are obliged to tell their money laundering people, who’ll go straight to the cops.’
This is intended to worry me, but I say nothing in response. I’m waiting for Fortner to do what’s right.
‘What we can do for you is give you a small amount of cash as an initial gesture of good faith. Say a thousand sterling. That suit ya?’
‘Pocket money. But it’ll be OK to be getting on with.’
‘Don’t worry about it, Alec, all right? We’ll see to it that the financial side of things is very satisfactory for you. You’re not gonna have any complaints. We’re also in a position to offer you employment at Andromeda if Abnex don’t pick up your option at year end. And if they do, and if you’re still happy with our arrangement, we can keep things just as they are. But that’s all in the future.’
‘I’ll need this in writing.’
‘No,’ he says firmly, his voice raised for the first time. ‘That’s imperative. Write nothing down. You let us do all the paperwork.’
‘Why? Isn’t it better to cloak everything in some sort of code? Isn’t that how this is done? I don’t want it coming back to me.’
Fortner slowly shakes his head, trying his best to be patient with my apparent lack of expertise.
‘It won’t come back to you. Not if there’s nothing to come back in the first place. And there won’t be if you don’t write any of it down. That’s the first rule you gotta learn.’
This is what it’s all about for Fortner: the lure, the approach, the sting. He’s relishing this situation for all the demands it is going to make on his tradecraft. He has lifted right out of himself and all the old tingles are coming back. This is the way things used to be, in the old days. This is the way he likes it.
‘You have any other questions at this time?’
‘What about getting the information to you? How do I do that?’
Katharine leans forward in her chair: she’s prepared to field this one.
‘We have an entire set-up which will assist you with that.’
‘What do you mean an entire set-up? At Andromeda?’
She looks across at Fortner, who is slowly lolling his neck from side to side, loosening tightened muscles. He stands up and slides his hands into his pockets, beginning to pace the room once again.
‘You explain, honey,’ Katharine says to him, in a quiet, almost respectful voice. Fortner steadies himself, turns around and smiles at me. A man preparing to reveal his hand.
‘Alec,’ he says, ‘let me put it to you this way.’ He takes another couple of paces and briefly glances at the mantelpiece. ‘The end of the Cold War has meant an increasingly blurred line between state-sponsored intelligence gathering and private-sector espionage. Do you follow me?’
‘I think so. Yes.’
‘I made the crossover.’
He coughs, a throat-clearer.
‘You mean you used to work for the CIA?’
Asking him this feels very ordinary, very straightforward, like enquiring after his star sign.
‘Yes,’ he says.
I look towards Katharine, whose head is very slightly bowed.
‘And you?’
She looks up at her husband, waiting for him to give her clearance.
‘Katharine is still with the Agency,