The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Page #4

---

and they put you in Banking.

What were your duties?

Signing checks for other people.

Concealed payments. Paper.

What were your exact duties?

Paying agents.

A letter would come from Finance.

"The, uh, payment of 5,000 Swiss francs...

to such and such an agent

is authorized by so-and-so."

So I'd sign the check

or get the bank to make a transfer.

- Which bank?

- Blatt and Rodney.

A chichi little bank in the city.

There's a theory in the service

that Etonians are discreet.

So you knew the names

of British agents all over the world?

No, I signed a blank check.

The name of the payee was secret.

Who knew then?

Who kept the names?

Special Dispatch. They, uh, added

the name and mailed the check.

So you just provided a signature.

A false signature.

After 18 years in the service,

my sole contribution.

Did you make regular payments

from Banking Section?

Rolling Stone. That was all.

Quarterly.

Rolling Stone.

- What did that involve?

- Opening accounts at two foreign banks.

Where? On what dates?

Copenhagen, the second week in April.

The 12th, I think. Yes, the 12th.

- Where else?

- Helsinki.

That was earlier, February the 29th.

- What kind of money?

- Oh, it was big. Very big.

$50,000 to Copenhagen...

100,000 deutsche marks

to Helsinki.

- You opened the accounts in false names?

- Yes.

And you called the operation Rolling Stone.

That was a cover name?

Yes.

If it was a clandestine payment,

why did it have to have a cover name as well?

- Orders.

- Whose orders?

Control.

He chose the cover name.

Shall we continue indoors?

You want to write it down, don't you?

Don't know what you're looking for.

Scratching around in the dust.

I'll start again.

One. Leamas crosses Danish border

on his own passport.

Two. Leamas collects cash

from innocent bank.

Three. Leamas goes to second bank...

with a false passport

under the name of Woolrych.

Four. Leamas opens joint account, same as

married couple does, in two false names.

One was my own alias, Woolrych.

The other was the alias of my partner.

Your partner was in this case the agent

who would later collect the money.

- Brilliant.

- What was the agent's alias?

- Werner Ziebold.

- Werner...

Ziebold.

How did you get a specimen

of Ziebold's signature?

Special Dispatch gave it to me.

All right.

Go on, please.

Nothing to go on about.

That was it.

The joint account was opened.

Only two people could draw on it.

And within a week or two, no doubt...

the mysterious Mr. Ziebold

went to the bank and drew his money.

I never knew when.

I never knew why.

I never damn well cared.

By that time I hated the lot of them,

- Control, those damned old pussycats

chewing their wine gums.

- I hated,

- Come in.

Excuse me, Herr Peters.

This came by special messenger.

Thank you.

They're looking for you in England.

They don't say anything.

They just want you.

You're missing,

and the police want information.

I shall have to make a telephone call.

Wait here.

We have to leave.

Holland is not safe for you anymore.

We have to go at once.

The discussion will be continued later.

What do you mean go?

- Go where?

- East. Where else?

My passport lapses in 18 days.

Your passport

is an embarrassment already.

You did it, didn't you?

Your people leaked it in London.

You want to get me out of Holland

in some cozy workers' paradise...

where you can keep me

safe and warm.

I don't want that. Give me my money.

I'll go now. Just give me my money!

You have not yet earned the money.

Besides, if you go now,

you will be caught within 48 hours.

So precisely what do you propose

to do about it?

- Yes?

- Miss Perry?

- Yes.

- My name is Smiley.

I'm a friend of Alec Leamas.

A close friend.

We worked for the same firm in Berlin.

Here's my business card.

I assure you I'm quite respectable.

- You mean you want to come in?

- Please, if it's not too late.

No.

Tired?

- Aren't you?

- No.

- I didn't have any drink with my supper.

I didn't have any supper with my drink.

- Will they start in on me right away?

- I don't know.

If they have any sense,

they will wait until your head is clearer.

- Who will I see?

- Fiedler.

Ah. Fiedler.

Whose room is that? Fiedler's?

No. He is in the east wing.

Very appropriate.

When will he come?

In his own time.

Do you think he's good at his job?

For a Jew.

You're tired.

We'll talk in the morning.

You will be wakened at 6:00.

Please be ready at 7:00. We can't waste time.

You have the transcript

of his first interrogation?

Yes.

It's still locked.

They are Mundt's quarters.

He's away for a while.

- When will he be back?

- In a while.

- Doesn't tell you much, does he?

- He tells me what he needs to.

Mundt was a Nazi, wasn't he?

He was a member of the Hitler Youth...

as a boy.

Now he's a grown-up Communist.

He's what I would call...

available.

Like you.

Shall we begin?

Let me start by asking you

an amusing question.

Let me start by asking you one.

Make you laugh your head off.

Where's my money? When can I go

wherever, wherever home is?

Carlton's gone home, Peters has gone home.

What about me?

- The agreement was,

- Agreement? You've broken

the bloody agreement.

And, barring miracles,

you've broken my bloody neck too.

The agreement was that I should be

interrogated for two weeks in Holland, paid...

and allowed to slip quietly back to England

without anyone knowing I'd ever been away.

And nobody would have known

if you hadn't broken the story.

Just who the hell

do you think you are?

How dare you come stamping in here

like Napolon, ordering me about!

You are a traitor. Does it occur to you?

A wanted, spent, dishonest man.

The lowest currency

of the cold war.

We buy you, we sell you,

we lose you, we even can shoot you.

Not a bird would stir

in the trees outside.

Not a single peasant

would turn his head to see what fell.

Besides, we didn't tell London.

We were thinking of using you again

so we didn't tell them. You're wrong.

As for the money, you'll get it

when you've given us the information.

The better you talk,

the sooner we pay.

So far your information is useless.

Cheap peddler stuff. Nothing.

Shall we try a little harder?

It's not a question of trying.

I told you what I know.

Make your own deductions.

Very well.

Let's make some deductions together.

What would you, as an experienced

intelligence officer...

deduce from the few facts

you gave us about Rolling Stone?

Then let me offer my conclusion first.

Control himself was running an agent.

He paid him, christened the operation,

personally supervised the case.

- Do you consider that fanciful?

- It's possible.

Anything's possible.

Can you deduce the nationality

of Control's agent?

How could I?

How could anybody?

Who chose the name Ziebold?

Who chose it?

- Control.

- A German alias, and Control chose it?

I wonder why.

So what? He could still have been

a bloody Tibetan.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes