Confessional - Jack Higgins [58]
'There is little point in referring to the gross inefficiency shown by your department in the matter of the Cuchulain affair.'
'Comrade.' Maslovsky didn't attempt to defend himself.
'You have given orders that he is to be eliminated together with Cherny?'
'Yes, Comrade.'
'The sooner the better.' Andropov paused, removed his glasses and ran a hand over his forehead. 'Then there is the matter of your foster-daughter. She is now safely in London due to the bungling of your people.'
'Yes, Comrade.'
'From which city Brigadier Ferguson is having her flown to Dublin, where the IRA intend to give her any help she needs to identify Cuchulain?'
'That would appear to be the case,' Maslovsky said weakly.
'The Provisional IRA is a fascist organization as far as I am concerned, hopelessly tainted by its links with the Catholic Church, and Tanya Voroninova is a traitor to her country, her party and her class. You will send an immediate signal to the man Lubov in Dublin. He will eliminate her as well as Cherny and Cuchulain.'
He replaced his glasses, picked up his pen and started to write again. Maslovsky said in a hoarse voice, 'Please, Comrade, perhaps ...'
Andropov glanced up in surprise. 'Does my order give you some sort of problem, Comrade General?'
Maslovsky, wilting under those cold eyes, shook his head hurriedly. 'No, of course not, Comrade,' and he turned and went out, feeling just the slightest tremor in his limbs.
At the Soviet Embassy in Dublin, Lubov had already received a signal from Paris informing him that Tanya Voroninova had slipped the net. He was still in the radio room digesting this startling piece of news when the second signal came through, the one from Maslovsky in Moscow. The operator recorded it, placed the tape in the machine and Lubov keyed in his personal code. When he read the message he felt physically sick. He went to his office, locked the door and got a bottle of Scotch from the cupboard. He had one and then another. Finally he phoned Cherny.
'Costello, here.' It was the code name he used on such occasions. 'Are you busy?'
'Not particularly,' Cherny told him.
'We must meet.'
'The usual place?'
'Yes, I must talk to you first. Very important. However, we must also arrange to see our mutual friend this evening. Dun Street, I think. Can you arrange that?'
'It's very unusual.'
'As I said, matters of importance. Ring me back to confirm this evening's meeting.'
Cherny was definitely worried. Dun Street was a code name for a disused warehouse on City Quay which he had leased under a company name some years previously, but that wasn't the point. What was really important was the fact that he, Cussane and Lubov had never all met together in the same place before. He phoned Cussane at the cottage without success, so he tried the Catholic Secretariat offices in Dublin. Cussane answered at once.
'Thank God,' said Cherny. 'I tried the cottage.'
'Yes, I've just got in,' Cussane told him. 'Is there a problem?'
'I'm not sure. I feel uneasy. Can I speak freely?'
'You usually do on this line.'
'Our friend Costello has been in touch. Asked me to meet him at three-thirty.'
'Usual place?'
'Yes, but he's also asked me to arrange for the three of us to meet at Dun Street tonight.'
'That is unusual.'
'I know. I don't like it.'
'Perhaps he has instructions for us to pull out,' Cussane said. 'Did he say anything about the girl?'
'No. Should he have done?'
'I just wondered what was happening there, that's all. Tell him I'll see you at Dun Street at six-thirty. Don't worry, Paul. I'll handle things.'
He rang off and Cherny got straight back to Lubov. 'Six-thirty, is that all right?'
'Fine,' Lubov told him.
'He asked me if you'd heard anything about the girl in Paris.'
'No, not a word,' Lubov lied. 'I'll see you at three-thirty.' He rang off, poured himself a drink, then unlocked the top drawer of his desk, took out a case and