'Lucinda Matthews,' I said. 'She prefers her maiden name nowadays. Have we got an up-to-date Michelin Guide that would cover it?'

'Dicky no doubt has one in his office.'

'We could both go. In the old days they were our closest friends, weren't they?'

'I might have to remind you of that, Bernard.'

'I wouldn't do anything to hurt Cindy.'

'You'd shop your own mother if she stood in the way of you finding out something you really wanted to know.' Fiona laughed in that sincere and friendly way that married couples do laugh when they have said something to their partner that they really mean. When her smile faded she said, 'This morning there was a "resources" meeting. There are going to be big cutbacks, Bernard.'

'They are always talking about cutbacks and it winds up with a memo asking everyone to save the paper clips on their incoming mail.'

'Not this time. Even people on permanent contract are not safe. Central Funding has set aside separate money for severance pay.'

'I'm not on a permanent contract,' I said flippantly. 'I can't argue with them on your behalf, darling. You understand that don't you?'

'No of course not. It would look bad if friends or family argued on behalf of someone it was expedient to get rid of. The only people who can legitimately argue on my behalf are my enemies.'

'Dicky isn't your enemy.'

'Who said anything about Dicky?'

'That shooting at the Campden Hill flat . . . VERDI was killed. The inquiry exonerated you and Werner, but losing such a promising source leaves a bad impression.' She paused. 'You want it straight, don't you? You don't want me to baby you along?'

'No, don't baby me along, Fi.'

She ignored the bitter tone in my voice and said, 'Nothing is decided yet, but all senior staff will be asked to submit a list of people they . . .'

'They want to get rid of.'

'Yes, and if that won't provide savings enough, they will start listing the necessary cuts . . . so many grade threes, so many grade fives and so on. Bret says there may be constitutional implications. He said it might be beyond the government's lawful powers to demand big cuts in the nation's security services without consulting Parliament and getting all-party consent.'

'Good old Bret. He's a flag-waver, isn't he?' I got to my feet and patted the stopper on the whiskey bottle to be sure it was tightly plugged. I wasn't enjoying this conversation.

'You'll be all right Bernard.'

'I've got no contract; no pension plan; no tenure; no severance pay, no rights at all. I'd be the cheapest employee to get rid of. Even the doorman has a trade union to back hint if he appeals to a tribunal for unfair dismissal. They could push me out of the door at a minute's notice.'

'At least I will be able to tell you what's happening and when, darling. It won't just come out of the blue like that.'

'I'm not going to stay awake all night worrying,' I said. 'There's nothing I can do about keeping my job, so screw them.'

She came close to me and I held her. She was still wearing her big soft fur coat and my fingers disappeared. With uncharacteristic spontaneity, she put her hand to the back of my head and kissed me with unusual verve. Holding me tight she said, 'There is something you can do: stop fighting Dicky.' The soft mellowness of her voice was laced with wifely concern. This was the voice she used to hint that I was drinking too much; the voice that had persuaded me to give up smoking.

'I'm not fighting him.'

She pulled away from me and modeled her coat in the mirror, as if there was no one there watching her. Then she looked up and said, 'Explain to Dicky your reasons for thinking that George is still alive. Get him to tell you what he's trying to achieve. Do whatever is needed to help him clear up the George Kosinski file. A neat success might see him confirmed as Controller Europe. Bret wants that ghastly Australian fellow back, I suppose he thinks Dicky is getting too powerful. The D-G is wavering.'

'So I heard.'

'And yet you are standing back to watch Dicky fall flat on his face? Your best bet is to stand behind Dicky and make sure he gets everything tight. Let him take the credit.'

'Is that what you are doing?' She'd known him since they were at Oxford together and, no matter how clearly she saw what a fool he was, that gave them an intimacy which I could never share.

'For Dicky? Perhaps. I've never thought about it.' A grin. 'You're surely not jealous. You think Dicky has got his eye on me?' She laughed. 'I can't believe it.' She went and sat in a chair near her tonic water.

'No, I'm not jealous of him,' I said.

'Dicky will need someone reliable in Berlin. Frank Harrington has asked for a Deputy.'

'So that's official now? He's managed without one for a long time.'

'Deputy to the Berlin Rezident? Berlin Field Unit. You'd love that, darling, I know you would. Allowances and expenses! You would be upgraded to a senior staff pension. And it would make you virtually invulnerable to the cutback.' So this is what she really wanted to tell me. I suppose she'd planned to explain it over a brandy in some fancy restaurant, rather than over a can of Schweppes tonic water in the kitchen, but this was the sponsor's message all right.

'Did Dicky mention my name?'

'It's in his gift and there's no one better suited,' she said. 'And if Dicky felt sure you were his man, he'd back you to the hilt.'

'Oh, I see.'

'What's the matter? What did I say?'

'As Dicky's snooper, you mean? I go to Berlin to keep an eye on Frank Harrington, and undermine him if he ever tries to go against Dicky's good advice.'

'Of course not, darling,' she said, but she wasn't standing on the table and shouting the denial. 'My children are here in London,' I said. 'You are here in London.'

'You're so loyal to us, Bernard. To your family, I mean. It's what I love about you. But careers count too. Loyalty to the job.'

'You don't mind that our children are living with your father, do you? It suits you to have them there in the country with your parents, and visit them when you can.'

'You'd be back and forth regularly, to consult with Dicky. How much more would we see of the children if they were living here in this apartment with us? You are always being sent off to the other side of the world at little or no notice. I leave early in the morning and work into the night. What kind of life would they have?'

'It sounds as if you don't want the children back home ever,' I said.

'That's not true, Bernard. It's a beastly thing to say.' She shifted in her chair and tugged at her coat to wrap it more closely around her legs.

'Fi, suppose I do help Dicky find George, and then coax from him whatever there is to know about his Stasi contacts . . . ? Can you live with that?'

'Whatever do you mean?'

'Have you asked yourself how it's going to look if George has been helping the Stasi, or the KGB, or some other enemy outfit? There'll be one hell of a rumpus. You'll be implicated. He's your brother-in-law.'

She pursed her mouth. She obviously hadn't considered that angle before, but she didn't take long to resolve it. 'We can't take that into account, darling. We can't . . . it's national security, whatever the consequences to us personally.'

'You're right,' I said, but I was far from convinced. Fiona's middle-class schooling and upbringing had made her rigidly patriotic, so that serving the Crown — and the nation — was life's highest ambition. I didn't yield to her on high motives but I had come from different stock. The rough and tumble of my work as a field agent had made me hard and distrustful, so that one small part of my psyche — and of all my other resources — was reserved for me and mine. 'This job that's waiting for me in Berlin,' I said. 'That wouldn't be something you and Dicky have cooked up to get me away from Gloria, would it?'