The Trinity Six - Charles Cumming [134]
‘I owe you an apology,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have gone to Vienna. I didn’t think the Russians were following me.’
‘They most probably weren’t.’
He was surprised by this.
‘How can you be sure?’
‘I can’t. But only a handful of people knew that Wilkinson was going to be in Austria. Who alerted the Russians? Who tipped them off? He’s lived peacefully on the South Island of New Zealand for more than a decade. Why do they suddenly come looking for him now?’
‘Maybe they wanted me.’
Tanya produced a brief, one-note laugh. ‘Believe me, Sam, if the Russians wanted to kill you, they would have done it already. Vienna was a specific hit on Wilkinson. It was just lucky you were in the bathroom.’
He concluded that this was the moment to tell her what Wilkinson had revealed.
‘Look,’ he said. ‘There’s something you should know.’
‘Go on.’
‘Bob told me something before he was killed. Something that explains everything that has happened.’
He realized that he trusted her completely now. It was a total reversal. He did not even think twice about the consequences of what he was going to say.
Tanya looked across at him. ‘Tell me, Sam.’
‘Sergei Platov tried to defect in 1988.’
She almost swerved on to the hard shoulder. ‘What?’
‘He went to MI6. He gave Wilkinson ATTILA’s identity as proof that he was serious. He was disenchanted with life in the KGB and wanted to make something of himself. Didn’t think he was valued highly enough by his superiors.’
‘So he tried to come over? Jesus.’ Tanya was nodding to herself. ‘That explains the killings,’ she said. ‘Everybody who knows about this has been assassinated.’
‘Except for Brennan.’ Gaddis had been chain-smoking since the airport. He slotted a third cigarette butt through a small gap in the window and watched it whistle past the door. ‘Your boss must have something on Platov. They must have come to some kind of arrangement. Tretiak and Wilkinson were both killed. Crane knew about Dresden as well, which explains why Brennan had him sent to St Mary’s in ’92. You’ve never heard this?’
‘Of course I’ve never heard it.’ Tanya was such an accomplished liar that he could not tell whether or not her reaction was genuine. ‘Do you have any idea what it would do to Platov’s career if this became public knowledge?’
‘No shit.’ Gaddis went for another cigarette and was about to press the lighter when Tanya said: ‘Is there any chance you could not smoke? Just for five minutes? I feel like I’m driving an ashtray.’
He replaced the cigarette. ‘So why has MI6 kept it a secret? Surely once Platov rose through the ranks, his file was opened up and his defection became common know ledge? Surely Brennan or one of his predecessors must have reported what happened?’
Tanya shook her head. ‘It doesn’t work like that.’
‘How does it work?’
‘Number one, exposing Platov would have exposed ATTILA, and the Office has never wanted anybody knowing that we had another Cambridge spy on the books. It took thirty years to get our reputation back. We’re not about to throw it away again.’
‘But Eddie was a bloody hero. He was the greatest double agent in the history of Anglo-Russian espionage. Isn’t that a triumph to be celebrated?’
‘Maybe.’ Tanya was a member of the new generation of twenty-first-century spies: post-Cold War, post-9/11, post-ideological. Her attachment to the old ways was by no means an article of faith. ‘But where’s the proof of Platov’s defection? It would just be our word against his. The Russians would write it off as crude propaganda, an influence operation.’
Gaddis was silenced. ‘Influence operation.’ The secret language of the secret world. He closed the window and found himself thinking about Min. He had wondered, in the depths of the Viennese night, whether he would ever see his daughter again.
‘Wilkinson told me that he interviewed Platov