"Hall, Adam - The Sinkiang Executive" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hall Adam)

'What? God knows. Not many. Half a dozen.'

Bangkok. East Germany. Warsaw. Tunisia. Hong Kong. The States. Other places.

'Half a dozen,' he said tonelessly. 'Possibly more.'

'Possibly.' Zade had taken one or two with him, in that jet.

Parkis swung round and said with soft fury, 'Do you think that gives you a licence?'

'Not really.'

He waited to see if I was going to add anything. I let the silence go on.

'This man Novikov,' he said at last.

'Is that his name?' I looked at the paper again.

'Yes. His cover name was Weiner.'

'I didn't know.'

There must have been someone else there. Or they'd -

'You didn't know his name?' he asked sharply.

'No. I only -'

'But you knew who he was?'

'Oh, for Christ's sake, Parkis, I don't go around doing that sort of thing to strangers. If you -'

'Very well. I am now asking for your explanation.'

I took a breath and wondered if there was any point in giving him some carefully-considered lies. I didn't think there was. And some remnant of human faith was averse to my playing Judas to the dead.

'It was a personal thing,' I told Parkis. 'I -'

'Personal?'

I shut up again. If he wanted an explanation he'd have to let me give it in my own way, without interruption. But this wasn't going to be my game anyhow: I'd already lost. I knew it and they all knew it - Matthews, Woods, Tilson, and all the rest of the people who'd looked at me this morning as if I was some kind of zombie. And Parkis knew it. 'Be good enough to proceed.'

'Without interruptions?'

He stood gazing at me in silence and I could feel the chill.

'It was in Czechoslovakia,' I told him defensively, 'a couple of years ago. The Bratislava thing. Mildmay handled that one, with Loman in the field.' I looked away from him. 'Well, there was a girl.'

He waited. I was trying to remember things about her, but all I could think of was her name. Katia.