Chapters (38)
- Cover
- Also by Philip Kerr
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
“Oh, but I am. And it gets worse, I’m afraid. Just a few days after he’s back in London, Roger Hollis quits his job at BAT and applies to join MI6; he’s rejected, thank God. But he does manage to join MI5 just a few months later, in January nineteen thirty-eight, as a probationer under training. Apparently he was introduced in August nineteen thirty-seven by Jane Sissmore following a game of tennis at the Ealing Tennis Club, where he also met Dick White. That’s what they used to call security vetting, I think. A game of fucking tennis. And here’s something else. In October nineteen thirty-seven, Hollis gives a lecture at the Royal Central Asian Society in London on the subject of the recent conflict in China. Guess who else is a member of the Royal Central Asian Society? Our old friend Kim Philby.”
“That is interesting, I agree. But look here, John, MI5’s Peach investigation still shows that nothing has actually been conclusively proved against Philby. He’s been cleared of being a Soviet agent.”
“Only officially and in public. And only for the benefit of Anglo-American relations. You know it. And I know it. Who else but Kim Philby could have tipped off Burgess and Maclean that they were about to go in the bag? There was no one else it could have been.” Sinclair paused. “Unless it was Hollis, of course.”
Sinclair paused again.
“It’s even possible that fingering Hollis leaves Kim Philby in the clear, retrospectively.”
“I know that this is exactly what you chaps in MI6 would like, Sinbad. Something that leaves your man Philby in the clear and points the finger at your rival service, MI5. So be careful what you wish for, eh? Because you’re suggesting that Roger Hollis, the current deputy DG of MI5—the man who’s been the head of our Soviet espionage section for the last ten years—is a Soviet agent,” said Reilly. “Is that any better than Philby being a Russian agent? I don’t know that it is, really.”
“But there’s more, I think. Perhaps you’ve forgotten it was Roger Hollis who tried to see off MI5’s investigation of John Cairncross in the wake of the Burgess defection. If you remember, it was thought that Cairncross might be the Soviet agent code-named Liszt. He’s been under suspicion ever since.”
“But he admitted it, didn’t he?” said Reilly. “Which is more than Philby ever did.”