October Men (31 page)

“Kidnappers,” murmured the General. “Kidnappers and murderers and troublemakers—they don’t need anyone’s tears shed for them. And we couldn’t have saved them in any case, not from their own side.”

Not after David Audley had carefully and deliberately told the Russians everything, right down to the moment when the troublemakers would be set free in exchange for Faith; he had fingered them as accurately as any Murder Incorporated contract, signed and sealed.

And the General had understood perfectly that the offer was being made to him as well as to the Russians. All he had to do was to flush the target into the open for the KGB to hit, with no awkward questions to ask before or excuses to supply afterwards.

Nor explanations either. The beauty of the two-way deal David had made—if beauty was the right word for it—was that its true substance wasn’t even written in the small print at the bottom, but between the lines where only those who were meant to read it would do so. Probably the General was only talking now because he didn’t want the son of an old flame to get the wrong idea about the durability of his word of honour.

“Listen, my boy—“ the General gave Richardson’s arm a confiding squeeze, “—don’t think I didn’t want to take him, because I’ve wanted George Ruelle to myself since before you were even born. But what I’d like and what I want are two different things—one must never confuse desires with objectives. … I wanted the Bastard dead, and he is dead at last. When you are my age you will learn to be content with such compromises.”

The End