How to Betray Your Country by James Wolff (pocket ebook reader txt) 📗

be disciplined. Like the janissary you must obey your vizier. Everything else will follow from this. Check the phone tomorrow and make sure you are not followed to your hotel. Is this clear? Good. Now go.”

7

file excerpt from investigation into august DRUMMOND

INKWELL/023

top secret

foia exempt

subject:Possible second INKWELL incidentdate:11 October 2013

1. Lawrence – see below. Do we think this might be something of concern to the Gatekeeping team? It’s the transcript of a call that took place yesterday between the Russian foreign ministry and their embassy in London. It’s been a full year since the cleric/prostitute tabloid recording leak, and we’ve been talking about closing the investigation in the absence of any other possible INKWELL incidents during that time. But there’s something in this that strikes a familiar note to me – of an unidentified person trying to set things right, trying to deliver an unorthodox kind of justice. If this is one of our officers taking independent and unauthorized action against a Russian diplomat in London, we’ve got a real problem on our hands. Have a look and let’s discuss when you’ve got a few minutes.

Charles

BEGINS

— Caller introduces himself as Arkady IVANOV from the “ministry” in Moscow. He congratulates Sergei POPOV on his promotion to Second Secretary. He says he is calling to discuss the increase in POPOV’s diplomatic allowances. Brief conversation about whether housing allowance will be affected and the weather in London.

— POPOV interrupts to say that he recognizes IVANOV’s voice. He recalls meeting IVANOV previously at MISHKA’s house. [By context a former colleague.] Conversation about MISHKA and his recent health problems.

— POPOV says that his wife will be happy about the new allowance because London is so expensive. He says she isn’t at all happy about the circumstances of his promotion because of the rumours in the embassy about VASILIYEV [by context Mikhail VASILIYEV, former Second Sec.].

— IVANOV says that VASILIYEV arrived back in Moscow last week and is storming around all the ministries telling everyone that he was set up by the British special services. VASILIYEV is calling the ambassador an “idiot” for falling into “their” trap and sending him home. IVANOV says that whatever the circumstances it is very foolish to make such comments about an ambassador. He asks POPOV what really happened.

— POPOV says that the embassy mechanic found a bag of [literal] “gay sex drugs” hidden in the tyre well of VASILIYEV’s car. Laughter. POPOV says the ambassador terminated VASILIYEV’s posting the next day. More laughter.

— POPOV says that he heard from ALEXEI [possibly Alexei GRIGORIN, Assistant Naval Attaché] that according to VASILIYEV he had driven to an evening meeting outside London the day before and that when he came out of the hotel a “beautiful young woman” stopped him to ask for directions. VASILIYEV didn’t think it was odd until he got back to his car and found that the front window had been smashed and a small amount of money taken from the glove compartment. The next day he took the car to the embassy mechanic to have the window repaired. VASILIYEV said to ALEXEI that the woman was trying to delay him and that “your guys” should track her down. When ALEXEI asked how on earth they should do that, VASILIYEV said that she was wearing a green coat. Prolonged laughter.

— POPOV says that between the two of them it’s better that VASILIYEV is gone. He says that VASILIYEV was stopped three times last month by the British police for driving while drunk. One time he was going “over seventy” and almost hit a child. POPOV said “he” would have been arrested if he hadn’t been protected by diplomatic immunity.

— IVANOV says that whether the accusation is true or not VASILIYEV’s career is over. He said he has heard “they” might send “him” to Cyprus or Australia.

— General discussion about the merits of Cyprus and Australia and the different allowances connected to each posting. POPOV asks IVANOV to let him know when the current Second Secretary in Washington is thinking of leaving.

ENDS

8

Youssef was the last candidate on the list. He was wearing a dirty white shirt under a brown tweed jacket, and his red tie, which reached to the middle of his small belly, was patterned with images of the Playboy bunny.

“I apologize for my tardiness,” he said, offering a hand that trembled. A scar marked the inside of his wrist. “Unavoidable traffic circumstances.”

August had already interviewed six other candidates, all of whom had been professional, enthusiastic and credible. Some had experience of media work, others had degrees in business administration from Syrian universities. One of them, a forty-six-year-old former bank manager from Aleppo, had managed similar projects at a rival American-owned company for two years, and was only leaving because of what she described in her excellent English as “a wish to broaden her exposure to the European client base”. Three of the six were older than August.

In a long and rambling conversation about his duties, Beatrice had asked him to be the “centre forward” on a “bold and ambitious” project to set up an “opposition media centre”, which she insisted on referring to as “the hive”. Her vision was that a core management team would continue to run the company from the current office but that much of the media work – recording video and audio material for broadcast, managing Twitter and Facebook accounts, training new and existing staff, producing written copy for regional publications – would relocate to a new, larger site in a cheaper neighbourhood. The early part of the process had been depressingly bureaucratic. According to Beatrice, the funding had been approved in principle by the embassy but needed tidying up on paper, and so August’s first few days in the office had been spent producing a draft budget, a feasibility study and an impact assessment. It had left him feeling close to despair, all of it – the tedium of the paperwork, Beatrice’s demands for a progress update every few