Eddie ushered Richard into the room and locked the door behind them.
They sat down side by side at a table in the centre of the room. Eddie seemed very tense, as though it was he, not Richard, who was about to commit to this.
Nice posters, said Richard. There were no windows in this room. On the far wall there was a row of four Soviet posters, depicting winter, spring, summer and autumn. Each poster had the name of the season in Cyrillic at the top and a transliteration in English letters at the bottom. They were evidently printed for tour- ists, though there was hardly such a thing as a Western tourist in the USSR at that time. When visiting the Soviet Union, Western visitors had to go via an official route as civil servants, trade unionists, in school parties, or some other form of official delegation. Individual tourists were a rare species.
Archie brought thum back. He loves his hoalidays in Russia.
He told me all about it. He even told me about the posters. He was dead chuffed with them.
Yup. He likes his Russian culture.
I guess its harmless enough.
Yeah.
The way Eddie said it reminded Richard that Eddie knew there was considerable doubt in his, Richards, mind about the USSR and how harmless it was. In itself, that wasnt a great betrayal. There was doubt about the USSR in the minds of most people in the Peoples Party. The old-timers like Archie still hadnt shaken off their pro-Soviet tendencies, but many of the younger guys looked to China as the main hope of a socialist future. Some of them, like Richard and Stuart, didnt like any of the current examples of socialism.
Must be terribly expensive to travel there though.
Contacts via ra unions. Its all organised by his union. Its dirt cheap, apparently.
Probably subsidised. Richard didnt hide a slightly sneering tone in the word subsidised. What was he, he asked himself. Some sort of perfect market apologist? Was it wrong for committed Party members to be subsidised? Especially when they were going on a high-minded cultural exchange to see one of the few working examples of a supposedly socialist country.
Richard felt embarrassed. He wondered if Eddie had noticed his sneering tone. To his dismay he realised he probably had, because Eddie was looking sideways at him; what he was saying amounted to a defence of Archie: He has to go to a lot ay seminars while hes there, cuz its supposed tae be an official visit, but he loves rat kinda hing anyhow.
Not my idea of fun though. Richard winced to hear himself. Now why had he blurted that out? A lot of the stuff the activists did wasnt fun. It was to do with attending long, boring meetings; committee work. They didnt rush around doing exciting stuff. They didnt try to assassinate anyone or commit terrorist acts, but they were quite convinced that passing resolutions at their meetings would eventually lead to international socialism, to fairness and equality. Richard didnt mean to criticise this, only he wanted to short circuit it. He wanted something more direct. Something truly revolutionary.
Anyway, wur here fur a purpose, Richard. You sure about this by ra way?
Richard was aware that some of the Party members, including Eddie, doubted his sincerity. He was thankful that Stuart had vouched for him and convinced Eddie to take his plan seriously. Their first meeting to discuss things had gone well. This was the final hurdle. All he had to do now was avoid hesitation. Deep down he knew he was more committed and had clearer ideas about his objectives than any of the others, even Eddie.
Dead sure. I dont need any more discussion about it.
OK. Weve been told what we need fur codes. We need things that youll remember in any context, mibby years frae now. Things that will stick out but no too much.
OK. I know that already from the last meeting.
Youll write them down, and stick rum in this envelope, but dont let me see rum. Im no involved. Im just goanie pass ruh envelope oan. As we discussed before, ruh first contact might be quite tricky. Someone just turning up out ay ra blue one day
OK. So Richard wanted to check again if this was OK. I need to be quite sure of one thing: that no one will know me personally. Theyll know me only as a set of code words that matches a person whos going to identify himself and his location once a year (or no more than four times a year if things change quickly). I have to do this via a specific type of advert in a specific newspaper, as we discussed. This means a handler can locate me and then can identify himself to me using the first code word, or code phrase.
Eddie nodded, Yes, thats the deal. Happy with that? Everything seems OK to me. I only have your word that youre not going to look at the codes though.
You dont need tuh worry about me, I canny do anything with the codes.
Richard was agitated. But how
Listen, whit mair can ah do? For whit its worth, you can have mah word if you want it. You huv the word ae Eddie MacFarlane, the guy thats nivvur let anybuddy in the Party down. Eddie looked angrily at Richard. OK, Eddie, its fine. This is a bit more stressful than I expected.
Your handler wont have anything tae identify you by except these codes. And no one else will know them. Eddie seemed to be trying to say it in a reassuring way.
I dont want to leave a trace of who I am.
Thats already agreed. Ah think ris wull work out just fine. The codes for the first contact just need to be quite exact so rut, wance weve goat a use fur ye, we assign a handler. He gets ra code words and then gets in touch with ye.
Its all good Eddie.
Ruh hing is, you may never hear frae anyone. This all depends on you getting into some sort ae position where yure goannae be useful. It also depends on you no aborting when yure coantacted. Eddie paused. He wasnt sure if he was allowed to say this but he was going to anyway. By ruh way if you want tae abort fur ideological reasons dae it now, right? I dont want tae be part ay a complete waste ay time.
No problem, Eddie. I dont know why you doubt me. I trust the Party. Im in agreement with its overall objectives. As far as Im concerned, aborting is only for operational reasons if theres an obstacle. We can suspend and resume if we have doubts and only abort if we know for sure theres an insurmountable problem. We discussed it all in detail back at your place. We went through lots of different scenarios. We even did some role play exercises, as you know.
Remember, frae now oan yure no going tae be dealing wi pals. Theres gonnae be no Stuart, no Eddie, no naebuddy tae help frae now oan. I know ruh guy that Im handing this envelope tae, but I dont know what kind of person or group that it goes tae efter rat. We have tae trust that its someone competent.
Im sure it will be. Ive never met anyone in the Party that was a fool. He hesitated and then decided hed better say it. One thing though, Eddie. As you know, Im not interested in marches or any of that sort of agitprop shite. I want this to be something real. If Im going to do anything, I want it to be something significant. I dont want to find that my mission is to unplug the photocopier or put some scratch marks on the bosss car.
Fur this idea of yours to work, we have to hope that you end up somewhere useful.
Thats not looking too good at the moment. I might need to try to change the course of my degree a bit. Accountancy would be good but I dont fancy it. I might have to add in a bit more Economics.