The Miernik Dossier - Charles McCarry [32]
“Did you think any further about our conversation of last night?” he asked. “I had difficulty sleeping. I dreamt of Zofia, waiting in the coffeehouse all alone. No one came for her. Finally a secret policeman came and began to read a book. She went with him. I saw her go with him. A very bad dream.”
“There’s something I’d like to ask you,” I said. “Did you fall off your skis with the idea that I’d be more tenderhearted if you had your arm in a sling?”
Miernik gave me a shocked look. “Of course not,” he said. “I might have killed myself at that speed.”
This is true enough. Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing on the conscious level, but he makes me wonder. There was such perfection in his victimhood that I began to take bets with myself that some part of his punished brain told him to have the accident. I have played the role of sympathizer for so long that it’s beginning to have some reality for me. Watching him struggle with his teacup, observing the flashes of pain playing across his injured face, I began for the first time to think seriously about rescuing Zofia for him.
It might be worth the risk just to see what scene Miernik will play next. That, at least, was the thought I had with the part of me that is a professional agent. The situation is very interesting from that point of view: he has left just enough unsaid to intrigue me. (How did Zofia get from Warsaw to Bratislava? How did Miernik, who professes to have no friend in the world, make all those “arrangements” for visas and a quiet stroll across a fortified frontier?) Of course he must know this, and be counting on it. His attempts to outwit me are annoying as hell. I tell myself that I can walk in and out of Czechoslovakia and confound the son of a bitch by doing so. One American is worth any five Communists.
At the same time I have to keep in mind the possibility that he may be exactly what he says he is. This becomes a smaller possibility every day, but it is still there. Going into Czechoslovakia may be the way to find out. The plot is interesting. There is an artistry to what we are doing: spies are like novelists—except that spies use living people and real places to make their works of art. More and more I want to see what I can do with these characters I’ve been given.
34. REPORT BY CHRISTOPHER’S CASE OFFICER (FROM VIENNA).
1. Christopher made telephone contact at 2345 hours 14 June and reported to my hotel room at 0245 hours 15 June for an operational meeting. He submitted a written report (attached), which despite its poor organization and extraneous matter provides interesting new light on Miernik.
2. Christopher regards Miernik’s request that he cross into Czechoslovakia to “rescue” Miernik’s “sister” as operational opportunity. He estimates that Miernik has set up this venture as a means of testing Christopher’s willingness to (a) trust Miernik and (b) be manipulated by Miernik. In Christopher’s reasoning, a successful “rescue” of the “sister” would increase chances that Miernik will make an overt attempt to recruit Christopher as an asset for the operation Miernik plans in Sudan. Such a move on Miernik’s part would certainly be consistent with the clumsy tactics he has used so far with Christopher.
3. To minimize risk, Christopher proposes changes in the scenario Miernik has laid on for the “rescue.” Instead of following Miernik’s plan, Christopher would enter Czechoslovakia in the secret compartment of Khatar’s Cadillac. (He believes that Prince Kalash, who has a diplomatic passport and would presumably have no difficulty in getting a genuine twenty-four-hour Czech tourist visa, could be persuaded to drive the car.) Christopher proposes to bring the girl out overtly, using public transportation. He will require two Swiss passports with Czech visas and entry stamps, made out as if to a married couple, to be used by the girl and himself on exit from Czechoslovakia.