The shaking of the tree that Smiley demanded is also the title of the second part of the Honourable Schoolboy which sees Jerry Westerby under the guidance of Craw attempting to force Ko and his brother into declaring themselves by establishing contact with Liese Worth, as she had become known. He posed as himself but in the guise of one of the investors in the distillery operation- cum racket- which Elizabeth had claimed to have the concession in Laos. He was also a journalist seeking a story, arguing that their chance reunion, although she did not remember him because they had not previously met, was his interest in her chum Tiny Ricardo.
He is dead she persisted, the version previously accepted by the Circus until the American cousins revealed they had fouled up. He pressed but she insisted so as part of the game he accepted this in exchange for a dinner with her as consolation prize. Thus it was Jerry came to see Ms Worth as more than an assignment and thus the wise readers suspect this was to be his downfall reminding once more of Richard Burton in the Spy who refused to come in from the Cold because of the official treatment of a woman he had come to care about, although she was the only precipitating cause of his final action.
Over drinks and the meal he asked her about Tiny and also how she got the scars on her chin which she claimed had occurred while fox hunting on the parental estate in Shropshire with a mother who did not know how to boil an egg. She was he considered one of the best liars and actors he had encountered. She persisted that Ricardo, her lost love, had died in a plane crash on the Thai Cambodian border 18 months previously and that no body had been found. He persisted that the evidence was that a 15 year old girl had taken her offspring to the Mexican embassy claiming that Ricardo was the father which meant he was alive somewhere. Whatever she said now she was pass that info back shaking the tree, a little.
Her also wanted her to explain how suddenly the investors, the distillery back in Scotland had all got their money back which Ricardo and she had borrowed to fund whatever they were really into, also some time after his alleged death. She had made a phone call and the relief arrived in the form of Mr Tiu. The young woman claimed that she and Ricardo had operated a ramshackle outfit with planes their last legs do anything for anyone anywhere if the price was right. Jerry then pressed home the point he had been briefed to make casually asking if the rumour was correct that their customers included the Russians. Tiu reminded of the Chinese distaste for the Russians and Ms Worth ridiculed the idea of having a Russian paymaster. The two returned to the apartment Ko had provided Ms Worth while Jerry wondered how much he had now shaken their tree.
It was not just Guillam who wondered what game Sam Collins was playing when Jerry spotted him keeping watch on the apartment and he demanded angrily of Craw and the Circus what the hell was going on. Craw advised the centre that he told Jerry he was mistaken and that Collins was not back on the payroll and had no connection with the Ko situation. Smiley was worried that his other means for shaking the tree had been rumbled for he believed that only he, Connie, Sam and Craw knew that Collins had been sent as well. It is a pity that Guillam did not share his sighting of Sam in the office with Lacon and Enderby with Smiley or Smiley might have thought otherwise. For the moment Smiley was content with how Craw had handled Jerry’s rant.
Guillam meanwhile was fully occupied with Molly Meakin as she covered bite marks on her neck when invited to attend the enlarge gathering of burrowers in the Circus conference room with Smiley presiding as Doc di Salis unveiled his finding out the Chinese name of brother Nelson - Yao Kai-sheng and from that his official records.
The man was born in 1928 and of humble parents. There was reference to moving to Shangahi but no mention of the Missionaries and their school. From an early age he had joined then clandestine revolutionary groups and studied the available literature. He had tried to join Mao but was unable to do so because of his youth so he concentrated on achieving a united front between thee students at the University of Communication and the peasants. His official Chinese records show that he was a heroic student seeing the light long before others. He was at University in Leningrad between 53 and 56 and there he appears to have been recruited by ‘brother’ Ivan Ivanovitch Bretley a Karla trained talent spotter. It was arranged for him to have a tour of Soviet Shipyards according to the Chinese record before returning to Shanghai and placed in charge of a railway workshop. The Circus knew this meant he went off to the Karla spy school for a year before his first placement. Smiley enquired as to any reference to Drake. He was reported to have died during the Communist Take Over in 1949. Smiley said it was a case full of people pretending to be dead and hoped they someday they found a real corpse. Within an hour he regretted his remark.
By the time of the Cultural Revolution Nelson had been given control of the bulk of the naval tonnage through his management of the main shipyards. And then came the cultural revolution and he was taken down with the rest. But his brains, technical know how and experience was needed so by 1973, just about the time that the payments to brother Drake got into swing he was fully rehabilitated and rising fast. He quickly gets appoint with responsibilities for the navy in Shangahi and then to the central committee of the Communist Party and had become and adviser to the committee concerned with munitions and Defence. Everyone digested the significance of this information.
This now made Nelson a gold stream of all gold streams because he had intelligence about the details of the crucial Chinese submarine fleet. The Americans were spending millions attempting to gain the information. The Doc continued that Ricardo made his opium running trip within months of the rehabilitation and Tiu had also gone to Shanghai six weeks after Ricardo. And then parting gift that there had been a German Intelligence report suggesting that Nelson had recently been co-opted onto the Chinese equivalent of Circus steering group because of his knowledge of electronic surveillance although this latter point was a guess as no one knew how the Russian Intelligence operated at its top.
Smiley asked Doc to speculate on the motive for turning traitor on his country and the Doc suggests that there did not need to be motive. Nelson would have been asked perhaps as a vigilante or custodian of Russia’s support for China by providing information. In my view if so then the events of the cultural revolution would have reinforced the Russian view in his mind, together with his fortunate advancement subsequently. The money was available for Nelson should he be forced or able to leave China.
Smiley then asked about another flyer who had worked with Ricardo called Charlie Marshall. This was information with Molly Meakin had been brought in to advise. They had both been Langley trained at their secret aviation school. They, the Americans, say he was dropped at the end of the Laos war having carried opium which it was assumed he had continued for his own purposes. It was only at this point that Smiley picked up the message which Guillam had been asked to give his leader swiftly having responded to a phone call at the request of the boss.
We learn the news indirectly as the action switches back to Hong Kong and it is Luke the American journalist who is attempting to get the info on the torture and murder of a senior official of the South Asian and China Trustee Department, the man from whom the Circus had been able gain their knowledge of the Russian funded Ko Trust. Smiley held an inquisition about who knew they had blackmailed the man into revealing the required information. There was confidence that Lacon and his masters, Karla and the Americans did not know. The Doc wanted to disassociate himself from such illegal action but he had no need to worry because Smiley said he took full responsibility and suggested the killing meant the tree had indeed been shaken.
This I suggests begs the question of whether any killing of the innocent is justified in a cold war against a nation such as Russia or China or against any religious or political faction in a war against terror on the part of a civilised democracy espousing human and civil rights and the rule of law.
Despite the killing Smiley remains bullish because the victim had no knowledge about those to whom he had given information. They tried to analyse the next moves by those concerned and the decision was taken to get Peter to ask the Cousins to step up electronic surveillance on Tiu, but at a distance without the use of the pavement artists. The next other step taken was to send Jerry to Ventiane and find Ricardo and to do this first by tackling another self styled Captain, Charlie Marshall and which takes Jerry to Phaom Penh the capital of Cambodia and to a veteran journalist Keller who brings him up todate with the local scene and the progress of the Khmer Rouge.
Le Carré paints a vivid and for some exciting picture of the situation which includes a dinner party with the Americans during which there is noise of firing and rocket bombs. Back at the hotel he gets a message to come to a room signed L which Westerby thinks is a woman only to find it is Luke moved to the city to take a closer look at the unfolding events. My understanding is that he then Jerry takes a flight to Vientiane that he made direct inquiries about Ricardo and Marshall was told that Ricardo was dead which left only Marshall who never flew in the mornings and his flight was always chartered.
Jerry also learns that the airport at Phnom Penh closed because the Khmer had exploded an ammunition dump ay the airport. He still bribes and flatters his way onto the tarmac at Vientiane and finds the plane, the Beechcraft in a hanger with the faded emblem of Ko’s racing colours on one side of the fuselage. Here is encountered Marshall giving order to the ‘coolies’ in their language and he gives him the line about doing a story of Ricardo as a means of travelling with him to Ventiane. What appeared to do the trick was a copy of Voltaire’s Candide having learned that the pilot favoured the works of the writer. Charlie sums up their journey prospects in this way. We are forbidden to take off and we are forbidden to land and we fly over the Khmer Rouge for an hour and a half. We are leaking oil and are 500 tons overweight. And you wanna come?
The effort and the risk appeared fruitless as Marshall insisted he did not know Ko or Tiu and was not interested in politics and self styled himself as straightforward opium smuggler. They made it back in the dark and when a jeep arrived for a couple of passengers known in the trade as cooks for their ability in transforming the raw opium into saleable products. It sped off quickly it into dark leaving the plane watched over by two lorry loads of local police there to protect the three tons of opium that had been carried.
And then he saw a figure approach into the plane with a Castro beard and a limp which identified him immediately as the deceased and the plane then took off leaving him alone and to explain his presence to the police. The man shot in the direction of Jerry before departing.
This meant confronting Charlie and he waiting a couple off hours before finding him full of drugs and drink and girls and as Ricardo was to say later, you sat on his head forcing him through cold turkey until you got what you wanted. Charlie becomes a pathetic self pitying figure recounting his story in fits of fear, nostalgia and melancholy together with the lives of Ricardo and Lizzie. He admires Ko and Tiu who along with Ricardo are the good guys. But he does admit that it was Ms Worth who went to Ko and begged him to take the heat away from Ricardo. He talks of the time he, Ricardo and Lizzie lived together in Ventiane, a place that Ko had never gone near but Tiu did. He was able to confirm that it was Sam Collins who had told Lizzie that with her figure and passport he could arrange for her to in out of Hong Kong like a Princess. But he said she had messed up dropped her. Tiu had wanted him to do a special operation but he passed it on to Ricardo. He also revealed where Ricardo was but this is not spelled out in the novel.
Jerry made his report to Craw who passed it to London. He then went to Bangkok and on to Saigon. Luke who had Jerry’s key for his Hong Kong flat took Jerry‘s flight under his name back to Honk Kong. The friends were not to meet again. Why this was so governed the future of Jerry, but only to a degree,
Back home Smiley was caught in a frenzy of changing positions. The Colonial Office insisted that the Governor had to be told because he had invited Ko to a at home function, while the Foreign Office wanted no action in that respect but a full sharing partnership with the Americans and let them take responsibility for finishing the mission, enabling them to counter the Vietnam failure and therefore enhance the UK interest with them.
Molly Meakin fuelled Guillam’s concern about the game being played by declaring that Enderby and the CIA man Martello not only sent their children to the same schools but were spending weekends fishing in Scotland together. In part this was also because Enderby‘s latest wife, his third, was American and a great socialite.
Nothing else appeared to be happening in Hong Kong because although Charlie Marshall had immediate rang Tiu after recovering from his confrontation with Jerry. Tiu had cut him short and told him to see Harry, and Harry was on no body’s radar whoever he was. (Some readers may have thought this was Ricardo though!) There was nothing for five weeks until the news that the captain of Ko’s junk fleet had made a visit to several of the outer islands. There was panic when Ko seemed to vanish on his launch only to return with Ms Worth having been to a Regatta. Smiley decided that Jerry should next move on Ricardo which meant leaving of Saigon where he had languished for five weeks out of reach of Ko and company. Le Carré paints another vivid picture in the last days before the West left the country until the situation steadied again.
Jerry made his way out via North Thailand and then by a dangerous road trip into the middle of nowhere to meet a colonel who Charlie said knew Ricardo and where he was. This was the deal Tiu had fixed for Ricardo, a place where only crazy men would go but where he could land and fly the plane which was his to keep and for Charlie to use for continuing business operation. This was the deal unless Ricardo or Charlie messed up or spoke out in which case they would wish they had never been born, or words to that effect, hence Charlie’s panic and despair at being forced to tell Jerry.
Ricardo expresses surprise to see him believing that he was already dead but then not surprised because as Charlie had described him as determined. What do you want Voltaire he enquired and Jerry said blackmail Ko for two million each and he and Lisie would be free. Ricardo is not interested and comments that he definitely heard Voltaire had a serious accident. He was upset that Voltaire had sat on Charlie’s head and forced cold turkey and had disrespect by taking Lizzie out to dinner when she was with Ko, wanting to know if Jerry had screwed her. He said that if Voltaire survived he should tell Lizzie he forgave her. I made Lizzie, he said, taught her art, culture religion business and religion and how to make love. He went on rather like Charlie ... His seven years in Vietnam, two in Laos and £4000 dollars a month CIA money and him a Catholic. But there was a difference Jerry concluded. He eyes said after I have told you I will kill you.
Jerry explained that the deal was real because the hold they would have was through evidence that Ko had been responsible for Ricardo going to China. Given that he sum being offered was significant greater than that Ricardo had wanted from the CIA Ricardo appeared to become interested and talked of his plan to go to Bali and create a colony of artists, concerts sometimes, developing fifty properties of which they would have one each.
He tells Jerry of his life in Vietnam of his love for school girl emphasising to her that he is Mexican not American. Then a B52 accidentally flattens the village. He insists on going down with Charlie beside him in a helicopter and they find everyone dead, including the girl. He explains his deal with the Cambodians to train them to fly with 100000 US at the end but he knows the plan is usually to ensure there is an accident which he does not survive so they do not pay. He outwits them and they pay. Ricardo is survivor.
After lunch he explains his contact with Tiu and covers the same ground thereafter as Charlie. The deal was 5000 dollars for a day trip taking 400 kilos of opium. After inquiries he told Tiu that if the job was a soft as he said 5000 was too much and it was as difficult as he believed then he wanted to taken on as a consultant for 25000 a year. In addition he wanted 20000 up front with 10000 deductible from his annual salary upon completion thus making the mission worth 35000 to him over the year. They agreed but instead of cash Tiu arranged for his debts to be cleared up.
After about five or six weeks later he was finally told the mission was on and taken to where the brand new Beechcraft and been set up with Tiu in the co pilot seat and lots of maps. Ricardo was to enter China and follow the Mekong river to a village where they will land and be met and exchange the opium for a package which is the receipt and must be returned. However after setting off he funked it and came back and was presented as dead. Then Jerry explained to him about the Russians paying Ko and that the mission was to have brought his brother out. Nelson had been the package.
Having told the tale Jerry was convinced he would not be allowed to live and refused the offer to stay the night carefully checked the oil before departing to ensure the vehicle was not bobby trapped but then brought it to halt about twenty minutes after leaving and pushed the driver to the ground before it caught fire and exploded. It was a Vietnam trick, you pulled a pin on a grenade and then placed a strong elastic band to delay the explosion and put it into the petrol tank where the petrol gradually eat into the elastic band and bang.
It was subsequently debated whether Jerry’s heroics had been necessary because only six hours later Tiu telephoned Ko and they arranged an immediate meeting. Tiu then arranged a business trip to mainland China, stopping first at Canton where his company had an office and then onto Shanghai. They could only speculate how Ricardo had managed to contact Tiu possibly by the local police. Possibly Ko was yet to know about the visit and that the existence of his brother was known and the brother’s role. It was time for Nelson to get out before there was any chance that his role in China would be exposed to his government. There were congratulations all round. Lacon called on them personally and Enderby sent round a crate of Champagne.
Jerry made it back to Saigon were he found unfriendly Americans complaining about the loss of the war and the lack of support from the Brits. He was then told the mission had been a success and he was to return to Bangkok and off straight to London and not to Honk Kong under any circumstances.
When Smiley convened a meeting with the CIA in London Enderby came along and pretended that he was not on intimate terms with Martello which aroused Guillam’s suspicions even more that something was going on which Smiley did not know. Lacon of course was there. Martello was ecstatic in his praise but Enderby cautioned saying that while Smiley had done the planning it was the CIA who had provided the artillery. They should now hold the trigger. Martello reminded that George was on the Bridge but Saul argued that what the point of George was being accountable when it was the Americans who would now do all the work on the ground.
After pressing his point in various ways including the advantage of the Americans carrying the can if it went wrong he turned his sights on the proposed debriefing insulting Connie reminding that she had been retired because of her drinking problem and then Doc referring to him as a funny little Jesuit. There was praise for George before they left but Peter Guillam remained concerned haunted by his decision to agree that Sam should take round the last communication George had asked him to deliver to the Foreign Office and then finding him in cahoots with both Enderby and Lacon later
He sensed they were about to be shafted and there was nothing which could now be done to prevent this.
Nevertheless George and Peter flew first class to Hong Kong and Fawn and a baby sitter in the front aisle seats of the tourist compartment.
They all remained unaware that Jerry had not arrived in London and Housekeeping were not made anxious because it was not unusual for fieldmen after a dangerous mission to go on some personal jolly, a feature of the end of every Bond movies no less.
On the long detour made back to Honk Kong Jerry thought of his association with George over the years from the beginning. Jerry had first met George when in the army and undertaking training at the spy school before going to Oxford and bored when George had arrived only to find the lectern too high reminding of the Queen’s visit to the USA and the White House. He had to stand by it so he could see the audience. Jerry had woken from disinterest on realising that George was speaking from experience and a man who in war had been in Germany for three years maintaining a network. After the talk George had singled him out. He had explained why he had not been immediately accepted for employment with the decision based that he needed more experience of the outside, hence going up to Oxford, He said to keep in touch because he was sure there would be a way for him in the future.
After that George had always been there for him and after that as he had told Smiley. You point me in whatever direction and I go. But now for once he was about to disobey.
He could not keep his mind from Ms Elizabeth Worthington and her relationship with Ricardo, with Marshall, with Sam Collins and with Ko and the four hour dinner he had with her. He sensed he was leaving her in Honk Kong sitting on a time bomb about to explode. He needed to see her.
He took his time eventually crossing over to Ventiane and then hitching a ride as flyers are accustomed to do in the so called bucket seat and hen went through an elaborate process to leave without showing his passport and thereby revealing that he was back to anyone. The British foursome plus Martello were unofficial and invisible guests of the US embassy which meant they could speak to no one but themselves while they monitored and in theory controlled developments. The were not staying there but at the Hilton which is said to be five minute walk down hill.
The knowledge was that Ko’s fishing fleet of junks had left Chinese waters and were heading back so taking account of its speed and weather conditions they were able to estimate its time of arrival with the assumption that Nelson was on board. The escape was exactly the same that Ko had made to reach Hong Kong in 1951. They would fish for seven days and then unload their full holds in Canton. The junk carrying Nelson would break away from the fleet with no difficulty because the in China the requirement was to deliver the agreed quota of fish and it had become traditional for any surplus to be separately delivered to the outer island for cash benefit. As with everything else Smiley insists on the most extraordinary level of detail and process, so that nothing is left to chance.
The only diversion was to learn that no one knew where Jerry was and George was not in room when he went to tell him and no one knew where George was except when he returned he added information of value which suggested he had his own information sources in the Colony to that provided by the Americans. They also brought news that Jerry had been located in as having visited to cat houses along he Mekong and was not thought to be crossing over to Ventiane. Where it was known he would be able to entertain himself further.
From the airport in Hong Kong Jerry had made his way to his flat only to find the decomposing body of Luke with much of his face shot off. That was why Ricardo thought he was dead. Tiu’s men or whoever was used had mistaken Luke for Jerry given that he had travelled back to Hong Kong on the ticket which Jerry had purchased to cover his move elsewhere. He took a cab to Kwaloon where he hired a car under his escape passport and made his way to the residence of Ms Worth where he waited and was eventually rewarded by her departure driving herself to one of the bright light spots of town. She was dressed up for some event, a fashion show at a hotel was the finding. There was strict control of entry but Jerry used his charm and his press pass noting that the invited men received lapel pins and their ladies orchids and everyone a free bottle of expensive perfume from the House of Flaubert. He greets Ms Worth as a long lost friend and placing a small gun at her back insists they depart. She shivered and was furious but not afraid or unwilling to leave the particular gathering he thought.
Guillam is distracted during the on going briefing, speculating about Jerry’s whereabouts, missing Molly Meakham and what was happening in reality to all those involved. The official was telling them about the annual religious festival held on the out island of Po Toi and which Ko attended every year. Ko, his wife and Tiu had arrived, but to an isolated Bay on the other side of island but under the watchful eye of the CIA.
Jerry took her back to her flat and waited while she changed into casually wear wanting to know where Ko was and if she could find out, No problem she said she and his wife were good friends, she could contact her, Jerry explained that he found Ricardo and after Charlie had helped him and had a great chat to which she said good, now we are all family. She then said directly what of you want nd replied in kind, you and for keeps. He continued to ask her questions about the relationship with Mellon and when had she last seen Ko, a week ago she replied because he had to fix things. He put his case that the Ko involvement was about to blow up and he thought she would want out and he had come back help, personal initiative. The phone rang and she answered and Jerry assumes it was Ko and instructed her to say she had to see him and that she loved him. But when the lock was turned it was not Ko by Sam Collins and Fawn. Then followed George Smiley.
George wanted to know what he was do there and the implications for the mission had it been Ko. Jerry explained he was courting and also wanted to revenge the death of Luke. Jerry accused them of having blackmailed Lizzie into submission warning her she was now finished. George reminded that by his behaviour he had put George under threat. Jerry , drunk continued to challenge Lizzie about the situation recognising that she had been a spy for longer than he appreciated, with mikes recording what went on in the flat. Fawn and Sam were arranging a flight for Jerry to England, Jerry boasted he would kill Ko if he got the chance. As they drove Jerry, still the worse for drink tried to work out why Smiley had been so angry with him and eventually worked out that Nelson was on his way but he was not sure how.
Guillam was still digesting the discovery he had made when called by Smiley to drive him to Sam’s place where he was listening to info from the island where Ko and Tiu were waiting on his Admiral Nelson launch and then organised Fawn to accompany them to the home of Ms Worth to collect Jerry.
The Jigsaw of the meeting between Sam, Enderby and Lacon was now clear. It is not stated whether Sam alone or they all heard the arrival of Jerry at the flat and the decision taken to ring Lizzie and confirm that the drunken Jerry was there. It was only then that Guillam understood the link between Sam, Lacon, Enderby and George. He centred his hate on Jerry for being kept out of the loop. Now he knew where Smiley was getting his info from and that Martello who must have arranged the electronic listening had played dumb about where Smiley was and how he was able to add the info. What upset Guillam most was he was now expected to take Jerry back to London and leave Smiley to what ever game Sam, Enderby and Lacon were playing behind George’s back
Jerry decided on his way to the airport with Guillam and Fawn that he was not going to leave Lizzie to the other set of wolves and managed a violent escape from the clutches of his baby sitters and made his way back to the flat where Lizzie greeted him with the words Sir Galahad is back. He pleaded her to come with him where she would have a change or stay and have nothing. She came as he spotted the Rocker arriving- Rockhurst the Hong Kong Superintendent of Police. He takes her to anonymous dump where registration was not required and she comments that she was warned she would end up in such a place one day,
He then demanded that she tell him everything she knew and everything she was asked. She replied that it was a replay. He enquired what happened before. She said it was going to happen again. She told her tale of her parents, of Mr Worthington and of Ricardo and that she had loved him and hated him when he beat her up and that when Ricardo disappeared she and Charlie had not accepted and persisted in finding out what had happened. She had gone to see Tiu and found him with Ko and that had led to a contract where Ricardo was saved and she went with Ko. He had wanted to call her Liese although he never explained why and she chose Worth to match her knew identity and ridding herself of the past. Of the present she insisted that Ko never broke his word.
Jerry was uncertain what to do next have become used to being directed by Smiley through Craw. He strikes me as being on a par in fact with Ricardo and Marshall once he becomes unofficial and working for him, although he is yet to learn that
Meanwhile Martello was exerting pressure on Guillam and then George and even Sam to do something about Jerry on the run but none of them wanted to do anything until the main job was settled one way or the other. The US navy advised that the fleet of junks was arrived as anticipated.
Jerry told Lizze he would be back in a couple hours but she unlikely heard him still in slumber. He needed to be on the move to know where he was going. His made his way to the port and found someone he knew able to tell him that the Admiral Nelson was out to Po Toi for the Tin Hau Festival. He had guessed right. He then knew he had to contact a local fixer called Luigi to get a boat on the quiet.
With Lizzie they found Luigi who immediately made a pass, several passes at Lizzie but he also got them a boat. Luigi argued against going to the Island which he regarded as a bad place with poor festival and food. He advised them to another Island and to eat at the place of a friend. It took ages to leave and Luigi continued his pressure for them to go elsewhere. They were checked out by the authorities at a distance as everyone was, the hundreds of boats already on their way to the festival. He had concerns about the suitability of the boat. They made it and Lizzie who had been before thought she knew where Ko would be.
Guillam was also able to advise George that the couple had a boat and where they were heading also confirmed by the harbour police. Martello was the most anxious by this news and wanted to immediate send someone out to stop them. George argued he wanted nothing to upset the situating as it was. Martello wanted to know what Jerry was doing. Martello said he had to have a landing party on standby and reluctantly George offered Sam and Fawn. Guillam uttered God Help us All.
On the island Lizzie was certain about the climb they had to take but Jerry repeatedly questioned, looking back at the lifeless Admiral Nelson Launch on the way. He let Lizzie take him all the way to the top and then explained that he was certain that Ko had come for his brother who was getting out of China and that she should go back to Hong Kong, making friends with any friendly round eye family she sees and say she has had a row with her boyfriend and can she have a lift back, staying with them overnight if invited or going to a hotel and then meeting up with him at the bar where they gone before the four hour dinner. She agreed saying that if he saw Ko he should say she kept to the deal, she kept her word.
She has been found Smiley was told, picked up by Rockford as soon as she had landed and was claiming she had a row and did not know where Jerry was. The US navy reported the Junks were still on course and the Admiral Nelson was where it had been all day as most if not all the other visitors and left when the Festival ended. Martello demanded that action be taken to ensure that Jerry had never been to the Colony this time.
Jerry waited and saw Drake as Lizzie referred to him with Tiu wade ashore, Tiu with a machine gun across his arms. They were waiting for Nelson to arrive. He created a diversion which enabled him to get at Tiu who he smashed with venom because of Frost and Like and his disregard for Lizzie. Then he turned his attention to Drake but it was the man who called out enquiring Mr Westerby what are you doing here? Ricardo’s men say you want to blackmail me?
He said that he wanted Lizzie and in exchange he would work out a deal for the brother. A political settlement commented Ko. I have had many of them. God loves children they say but did you ever notice God love an Asian child? God Love a peaceful man but has there ever been more civil wars than in Chistendom?
Nelson arrives and the two men embrace a long and relieved embrace and Jerry tells Nelson to get back in the boat before it too late. Then the helicopters came with their lights and took Nelson away leaving his brother helpless and hen before departing they killed Jerry who had tried keep the pledge Lizzie had made to Ko.
There was great excitement back at the Circus mission accomplished. It was Connie the realist who said there would be no knighthood for George because of Bill Hayden. Nelson did not come to the UK as anticipated but went to the United States with Enderby and Martello chairing what was called a joint Processing committee to share the product information. Connie and Doc Salis got themselves ready to be invited to help in the processing but the invitation never came. Connie persuaded Molly Meakin to resign on the basis this would at least get her a rise in pay. It worked and the Housekeeper told her to say as there were great changes underway with a new younger look to the team.
There was no contact from or with George though and eventually one of the Housekeepers let slip he might be suffering strain. Code some said for not coming back, He was alone again as Ann had gone again, but Enderby, Martello and Lacon all called ensuring that the handover was smooth. Enderby was to be the new man with great approval from Martello and the US with Sam Collins the new head of Operations. At least Smiley could agree that Roddy Martindale was not cut of for game and would also depart. When Sam’s furniture from his old room was taken away some cheered and then kept silent when his new furniture arrived. Little Fawn disappeared. The Brixton home of the scalphunters was revived and Toby Easterhase was back with the Acton lamplighters. Sam told everyone of the death of Jerry, Operational it was said so Connie held back from claming it was Karla’s work.
In Hong Kong the Foreign Correspondents Club insisted on an official inquiry into its two missing members, Luke and Jerry and scandalous with rumours that the two had become connected. There was a much publicised trial where Mr Big was not brought to justice but a glamorous English adventuress and drug carrier was featured. The Spooks home was reopened. Craw appeared at the club after awhile but soon left in a distressed state.
No one is said to have debated in public at least with the Circus if George had been the subject of a plot all along as Guillam suspected. It is considered that the intervention of Westerby provided the opportunity for the US to take Nelson away from the control of the Brits. Guillam had been shown a letter from George to Ann when he went to try and bring about a reconciliation between them. George admitted that the days of a clear enemy were past and that it had become the time of conspiracies. These people terrify me he says and I am one of them.
Guillam and George meet for lunch and neither mentions the Honourable Schoolboy.
And me the reader well I want to know what happened to the brothers Ko and to Lizzie and what kind of deals were done with them. I know George is to reappear and to have his greatest triumph. And also of Ricardo and Charlie: what happened to them?
He is dead she persisted, the version previously accepted by the Circus until the American cousins revealed they had fouled up. He pressed but she insisted so as part of the game he accepted this in exchange for a dinner with her as consolation prize. Thus it was Jerry came to see Ms Worth as more than an assignment and thus the wise readers suspect this was to be his downfall reminding once more of Richard Burton in the Spy who refused to come in from the Cold because of the official treatment of a woman he had come to care about, although she was the only precipitating cause of his final action.
Over drinks and the meal he asked her about Tiny and also how she got the scars on her chin which she claimed had occurred while fox hunting on the parental estate in Shropshire with a mother who did not know how to boil an egg. She was he considered one of the best liars and actors he had encountered. She persisted that Ricardo, her lost love, had died in a plane crash on the Thai Cambodian border 18 months previously and that no body had been found. He persisted that the evidence was that a 15 year old girl had taken her offspring to the Mexican embassy claiming that Ricardo was the father which meant he was alive somewhere. Whatever she said now she was pass that info back shaking the tree, a little.
Her also wanted her to explain how suddenly the investors, the distillery back in Scotland had all got their money back which Ricardo and she had borrowed to fund whatever they were really into, also some time after his alleged death. She had made a phone call and the relief arrived in the form of Mr Tiu. The young woman claimed that she and Ricardo had operated a ramshackle outfit with planes their last legs do anything for anyone anywhere if the price was right. Jerry then pressed home the point he had been briefed to make casually asking if the rumour was correct that their customers included the Russians. Tiu reminded of the Chinese distaste for the Russians and Ms Worth ridiculed the idea of having a Russian paymaster. The two returned to the apartment Ko had provided Ms Worth while Jerry wondered how much he had now shaken their tree.
It was not just Guillam who wondered what game Sam Collins was playing when Jerry spotted him keeping watch on the apartment and he demanded angrily of Craw and the Circus what the hell was going on. Craw advised the centre that he told Jerry he was mistaken and that Collins was not back on the payroll and had no connection with the Ko situation. Smiley was worried that his other means for shaking the tree had been rumbled for he believed that only he, Connie, Sam and Craw knew that Collins had been sent as well. It is a pity that Guillam did not share his sighting of Sam in the office with Lacon and Enderby with Smiley or Smiley might have thought otherwise. For the moment Smiley was content with how Craw had handled Jerry’s rant.
Guillam meanwhile was fully occupied with Molly Meakin as she covered bite marks on her neck when invited to attend the enlarge gathering of burrowers in the Circus conference room with Smiley presiding as Doc di Salis unveiled his finding out the Chinese name of brother Nelson - Yao Kai-sheng and from that his official records.
The man was born in 1928 and of humble parents. There was reference to moving to Shangahi but no mention of the Missionaries and their school. From an early age he had joined then clandestine revolutionary groups and studied the available literature. He had tried to join Mao but was unable to do so because of his youth so he concentrated on achieving a united front between thee students at the University of Communication and the peasants. His official Chinese records show that he was a heroic student seeing the light long before others. He was at University in Leningrad between 53 and 56 and there he appears to have been recruited by ‘brother’ Ivan Ivanovitch Bretley a Karla trained talent spotter. It was arranged for him to have a tour of Soviet Shipyards according to the Chinese record before returning to Shanghai and placed in charge of a railway workshop. The Circus knew this meant he went off to the Karla spy school for a year before his first placement. Smiley enquired as to any reference to Drake. He was reported to have died during the Communist Take Over in 1949. Smiley said it was a case full of people pretending to be dead and hoped they someday they found a real corpse. Within an hour he regretted his remark.
By the time of the Cultural Revolution Nelson had been given control of the bulk of the naval tonnage through his management of the main shipyards. And then came the cultural revolution and he was taken down with the rest. But his brains, technical know how and experience was needed so by 1973, just about the time that the payments to brother Drake got into swing he was fully rehabilitated and rising fast. He quickly gets appoint with responsibilities for the navy in Shangahi and then to the central committee of the Communist Party and had become and adviser to the committee concerned with munitions and Defence. Everyone digested the significance of this information.
This now made Nelson a gold stream of all gold streams because he had intelligence about the details of the crucial Chinese submarine fleet. The Americans were spending millions attempting to gain the information. The Doc continued that Ricardo made his opium running trip within months of the rehabilitation and Tiu had also gone to Shanghai six weeks after Ricardo. And then parting gift that there had been a German Intelligence report suggesting that Nelson had recently been co-opted onto the Chinese equivalent of Circus steering group because of his knowledge of electronic surveillance although this latter point was a guess as no one knew how the Russian Intelligence operated at its top.
Smiley asked Doc to speculate on the motive for turning traitor on his country and the Doc suggests that there did not need to be motive. Nelson would have been asked perhaps as a vigilante or custodian of Russia’s support for China by providing information. In my view if so then the events of the cultural revolution would have reinforced the Russian view in his mind, together with his fortunate advancement subsequently. The money was available for Nelson should he be forced or able to leave China.
Smiley then asked about another flyer who had worked with Ricardo called Charlie Marshall. This was information with Molly Meakin had been brought in to advise. They had both been Langley trained at their secret aviation school. They, the Americans, say he was dropped at the end of the Laos war having carried opium which it was assumed he had continued for his own purposes. It was only at this point that Smiley picked up the message which Guillam had been asked to give his leader swiftly having responded to a phone call at the request of the boss.
We learn the news indirectly as the action switches back to Hong Kong and it is Luke the American journalist who is attempting to get the info on the torture and murder of a senior official of the South Asian and China Trustee Department, the man from whom the Circus had been able gain their knowledge of the Russian funded Ko Trust. Smiley held an inquisition about who knew they had blackmailed the man into revealing the required information. There was confidence that Lacon and his masters, Karla and the Americans did not know. The Doc wanted to disassociate himself from such illegal action but he had no need to worry because Smiley said he took full responsibility and suggested the killing meant the tree had indeed been shaken.
This I suggests begs the question of whether any killing of the innocent is justified in a cold war against a nation such as Russia or China or against any religious or political faction in a war against terror on the part of a civilised democracy espousing human and civil rights and the rule of law.
Despite the killing Smiley remains bullish because the victim had no knowledge about those to whom he had given information. They tried to analyse the next moves by those concerned and the decision was taken to get Peter to ask the Cousins to step up electronic surveillance on Tiu, but at a distance without the use of the pavement artists. The next other step taken was to send Jerry to Ventiane and find Ricardo and to do this first by tackling another self styled Captain, Charlie Marshall and which takes Jerry to Phaom Penh the capital of Cambodia and to a veteran journalist Keller who brings him up todate with the local scene and the progress of the Khmer Rouge.
Le Carré paints a vivid and for some exciting picture of the situation which includes a dinner party with the Americans during which there is noise of firing and rocket bombs. Back at the hotel he gets a message to come to a room signed L which Westerby thinks is a woman only to find it is Luke moved to the city to take a closer look at the unfolding events. My understanding is that he then Jerry takes a flight to Vientiane that he made direct inquiries about Ricardo and Marshall was told that Ricardo was dead which left only Marshall who never flew in the mornings and his flight was always chartered.
Jerry also learns that the airport at Phnom Penh closed because the Khmer had exploded an ammunition dump ay the airport. He still bribes and flatters his way onto the tarmac at Vientiane and finds the plane, the Beechcraft in a hanger with the faded emblem of Ko’s racing colours on one side of the fuselage. Here is encountered Marshall giving order to the ‘coolies’ in their language and he gives him the line about doing a story of Ricardo as a means of travelling with him to Ventiane. What appeared to do the trick was a copy of Voltaire’s Candide having learned that the pilot favoured the works of the writer. Charlie sums up their journey prospects in this way. We are forbidden to take off and we are forbidden to land and we fly over the Khmer Rouge for an hour and a half. We are leaking oil and are 500 tons overweight. And you wanna come?
The effort and the risk appeared fruitless as Marshall insisted he did not know Ko or Tiu and was not interested in politics and self styled himself as straightforward opium smuggler. They made it back in the dark and when a jeep arrived for a couple of passengers known in the trade as cooks for their ability in transforming the raw opium into saleable products. It sped off quickly it into dark leaving the plane watched over by two lorry loads of local police there to protect the three tons of opium that had been carried.
And then he saw a figure approach into the plane with a Castro beard and a limp which identified him immediately as the deceased and the plane then took off leaving him alone and to explain his presence to the police. The man shot in the direction of Jerry before departing.
This meant confronting Charlie and he waiting a couple off hours before finding him full of drugs and drink and girls and as Ricardo was to say later, you sat on his head forcing him through cold turkey until you got what you wanted. Charlie becomes a pathetic self pitying figure recounting his story in fits of fear, nostalgia and melancholy together with the lives of Ricardo and Lizzie. He admires Ko and Tiu who along with Ricardo are the good guys. But he does admit that it was Ms Worth who went to Ko and begged him to take the heat away from Ricardo. He talks of the time he, Ricardo and Lizzie lived together in Ventiane, a place that Ko had never gone near but Tiu did. He was able to confirm that it was Sam Collins who had told Lizzie that with her figure and passport he could arrange for her to in out of Hong Kong like a Princess. But he said she had messed up dropped her. Tiu had wanted him to do a special operation but he passed it on to Ricardo. He also revealed where Ricardo was but this is not spelled out in the novel.
Jerry made his report to Craw who passed it to London. He then went to Bangkok and on to Saigon. Luke who had Jerry’s key for his Hong Kong flat took Jerry‘s flight under his name back to Honk Kong. The friends were not to meet again. Why this was so governed the future of Jerry, but only to a degree,
Back home Smiley was caught in a frenzy of changing positions. The Colonial Office insisted that the Governor had to be told because he had invited Ko to a at home function, while the Foreign Office wanted no action in that respect but a full sharing partnership with the Americans and let them take responsibility for finishing the mission, enabling them to counter the Vietnam failure and therefore enhance the UK interest with them.
Molly Meakin fuelled Guillam’s concern about the game being played by declaring that Enderby and the CIA man Martello not only sent their children to the same schools but were spending weekends fishing in Scotland together. In part this was also because Enderby‘s latest wife, his third, was American and a great socialite.
Nothing else appeared to be happening in Hong Kong because although Charlie Marshall had immediate rang Tiu after recovering from his confrontation with Jerry. Tiu had cut him short and told him to see Harry, and Harry was on no body’s radar whoever he was. (Some readers may have thought this was Ricardo though!) There was nothing for five weeks until the news that the captain of Ko’s junk fleet had made a visit to several of the outer islands. There was panic when Ko seemed to vanish on his launch only to return with Ms Worth having been to a Regatta. Smiley decided that Jerry should next move on Ricardo which meant leaving of Saigon where he had languished for five weeks out of reach of Ko and company. Le Carré paints another vivid picture in the last days before the West left the country until the situation steadied again.
Jerry made his way out via North Thailand and then by a dangerous road trip into the middle of nowhere to meet a colonel who Charlie said knew Ricardo and where he was. This was the deal Tiu had fixed for Ricardo, a place where only crazy men would go but where he could land and fly the plane which was his to keep and for Charlie to use for continuing business operation. This was the deal unless Ricardo or Charlie messed up or spoke out in which case they would wish they had never been born, or words to that effect, hence Charlie’s panic and despair at being forced to tell Jerry.
Ricardo expresses surprise to see him believing that he was already dead but then not surprised because as Charlie had described him as determined. What do you want Voltaire he enquired and Jerry said blackmail Ko for two million each and he and Lisie would be free. Ricardo is not interested and comments that he definitely heard Voltaire had a serious accident. He was upset that Voltaire had sat on Charlie’s head and forced cold turkey and had disrespect by taking Lizzie out to dinner when she was with Ko, wanting to know if Jerry had screwed her. He said that if Voltaire survived he should tell Lizzie he forgave her. I made Lizzie, he said, taught her art, culture religion business and religion and how to make love. He went on rather like Charlie ... His seven years in Vietnam, two in Laos and £4000 dollars a month CIA money and him a Catholic. But there was a difference Jerry concluded. He eyes said after I have told you I will kill you.
Jerry explained that the deal was real because the hold they would have was through evidence that Ko had been responsible for Ricardo going to China. Given that he sum being offered was significant greater than that Ricardo had wanted from the CIA Ricardo appeared to become interested and talked of his plan to go to Bali and create a colony of artists, concerts sometimes, developing fifty properties of which they would have one each.
He tells Jerry of his life in Vietnam of his love for school girl emphasising to her that he is Mexican not American. Then a B52 accidentally flattens the village. He insists on going down with Charlie beside him in a helicopter and they find everyone dead, including the girl. He explains his deal with the Cambodians to train them to fly with 100000 US at the end but he knows the plan is usually to ensure there is an accident which he does not survive so they do not pay. He outwits them and they pay. Ricardo is survivor.
After lunch he explains his contact with Tiu and covers the same ground thereafter as Charlie. The deal was 5000 dollars for a day trip taking 400 kilos of opium. After inquiries he told Tiu that if the job was a soft as he said 5000 was too much and it was as difficult as he believed then he wanted to taken on as a consultant for 25000 a year. In addition he wanted 20000 up front with 10000 deductible from his annual salary upon completion thus making the mission worth 35000 to him over the year. They agreed but instead of cash Tiu arranged for his debts to be cleared up.
After about five or six weeks later he was finally told the mission was on and taken to where the brand new Beechcraft and been set up with Tiu in the co pilot seat and lots of maps. Ricardo was to enter China and follow the Mekong river to a village where they will land and be met and exchange the opium for a package which is the receipt and must be returned. However after setting off he funked it and came back and was presented as dead. Then Jerry explained to him about the Russians paying Ko and that the mission was to have brought his brother out. Nelson had been the package.
Having told the tale Jerry was convinced he would not be allowed to live and refused the offer to stay the night carefully checked the oil before departing to ensure the vehicle was not bobby trapped but then brought it to halt about twenty minutes after leaving and pushed the driver to the ground before it caught fire and exploded. It was a Vietnam trick, you pulled a pin on a grenade and then placed a strong elastic band to delay the explosion and put it into the petrol tank where the petrol gradually eat into the elastic band and bang.
It was subsequently debated whether Jerry’s heroics had been necessary because only six hours later Tiu telephoned Ko and they arranged an immediate meeting. Tiu then arranged a business trip to mainland China, stopping first at Canton where his company had an office and then onto Shanghai. They could only speculate how Ricardo had managed to contact Tiu possibly by the local police. Possibly Ko was yet to know about the visit and that the existence of his brother was known and the brother’s role. It was time for Nelson to get out before there was any chance that his role in China would be exposed to his government. There were congratulations all round. Lacon called on them personally and Enderby sent round a crate of Champagne.
Jerry made it back to Saigon were he found unfriendly Americans complaining about the loss of the war and the lack of support from the Brits. He was then told the mission had been a success and he was to return to Bangkok and off straight to London and not to Honk Kong under any circumstances.
When Smiley convened a meeting with the CIA in London Enderby came along and pretended that he was not on intimate terms with Martello which aroused Guillam’s suspicions even more that something was going on which Smiley did not know. Lacon of course was there. Martello was ecstatic in his praise but Enderby cautioned saying that while Smiley had done the planning it was the CIA who had provided the artillery. They should now hold the trigger. Martello reminded that George was on the Bridge but Saul argued that what the point of George was being accountable when it was the Americans who would now do all the work on the ground.
After pressing his point in various ways including the advantage of the Americans carrying the can if it went wrong he turned his sights on the proposed debriefing insulting Connie reminding that she had been retired because of her drinking problem and then Doc referring to him as a funny little Jesuit. There was praise for George before they left but Peter Guillam remained concerned haunted by his decision to agree that Sam should take round the last communication George had asked him to deliver to the Foreign Office and then finding him in cahoots with both Enderby and Lacon later
He sensed they were about to be shafted and there was nothing which could now be done to prevent this.
Nevertheless George and Peter flew first class to Hong Kong and Fawn and a baby sitter in the front aisle seats of the tourist compartment.
They all remained unaware that Jerry had not arrived in London and Housekeeping were not made anxious because it was not unusual for fieldmen after a dangerous mission to go on some personal jolly, a feature of the end of every Bond movies no less.
On the long detour made back to Honk Kong Jerry thought of his association with George over the years from the beginning. Jerry had first met George when in the army and undertaking training at the spy school before going to Oxford and bored when George had arrived only to find the lectern too high reminding of the Queen’s visit to the USA and the White House. He had to stand by it so he could see the audience. Jerry had woken from disinterest on realising that George was speaking from experience and a man who in war had been in Germany for three years maintaining a network. After the talk George had singled him out. He had explained why he had not been immediately accepted for employment with the decision based that he needed more experience of the outside, hence going up to Oxford, He said to keep in touch because he was sure there would be a way for him in the future.
After that George had always been there for him and after that as he had told Smiley. You point me in whatever direction and I go. But now for once he was about to disobey.
He could not keep his mind from Ms Elizabeth Worthington and her relationship with Ricardo, with Marshall, with Sam Collins and with Ko and the four hour dinner he had with her. He sensed he was leaving her in Honk Kong sitting on a time bomb about to explode. He needed to see her.
He took his time eventually crossing over to Ventiane and then hitching a ride as flyers are accustomed to do in the so called bucket seat and hen went through an elaborate process to leave without showing his passport and thereby revealing that he was back to anyone. The British foursome plus Martello were unofficial and invisible guests of the US embassy which meant they could speak to no one but themselves while they monitored and in theory controlled developments. The were not staying there but at the Hilton which is said to be five minute walk down hill.
The knowledge was that Ko’s fishing fleet of junks had left Chinese waters and were heading back so taking account of its speed and weather conditions they were able to estimate its time of arrival with the assumption that Nelson was on board. The escape was exactly the same that Ko had made to reach Hong Kong in 1951. They would fish for seven days and then unload their full holds in Canton. The junk carrying Nelson would break away from the fleet with no difficulty because the in China the requirement was to deliver the agreed quota of fish and it had become traditional for any surplus to be separately delivered to the outer island for cash benefit. As with everything else Smiley insists on the most extraordinary level of detail and process, so that nothing is left to chance.
The only diversion was to learn that no one knew where Jerry was and George was not in room when he went to tell him and no one knew where George was except when he returned he added information of value which suggested he had his own information sources in the Colony to that provided by the Americans. They also brought news that Jerry had been located in as having visited to cat houses along he Mekong and was not thought to be crossing over to Ventiane. Where it was known he would be able to entertain himself further.
From the airport in Hong Kong Jerry had made his way to his flat only to find the decomposing body of Luke with much of his face shot off. That was why Ricardo thought he was dead. Tiu’s men or whoever was used had mistaken Luke for Jerry given that he had travelled back to Hong Kong on the ticket which Jerry had purchased to cover his move elsewhere. He took a cab to Kwaloon where he hired a car under his escape passport and made his way to the residence of Ms Worth where he waited and was eventually rewarded by her departure driving herself to one of the bright light spots of town. She was dressed up for some event, a fashion show at a hotel was the finding. There was strict control of entry but Jerry used his charm and his press pass noting that the invited men received lapel pins and their ladies orchids and everyone a free bottle of expensive perfume from the House of Flaubert. He greets Ms Worth as a long lost friend and placing a small gun at her back insists they depart. She shivered and was furious but not afraid or unwilling to leave the particular gathering he thought.
Guillam is distracted during the on going briefing, speculating about Jerry’s whereabouts, missing Molly Meakham and what was happening in reality to all those involved. The official was telling them about the annual religious festival held on the out island of Po Toi and which Ko attended every year. Ko, his wife and Tiu had arrived, but to an isolated Bay on the other side of island but under the watchful eye of the CIA.
Jerry took her back to her flat and waited while she changed into casually wear wanting to know where Ko was and if she could find out, No problem she said she and his wife were good friends, she could contact her, Jerry explained that he found Ricardo and after Charlie had helped him and had a great chat to which she said good, now we are all family. She then said directly what of you want nd replied in kind, you and for keeps. He continued to ask her questions about the relationship with Mellon and when had she last seen Ko, a week ago she replied because he had to fix things. He put his case that the Ko involvement was about to blow up and he thought she would want out and he had come back help, personal initiative. The phone rang and she answered and Jerry assumes it was Ko and instructed her to say she had to see him and that she loved him. But when the lock was turned it was not Ko by Sam Collins and Fawn. Then followed George Smiley.
George wanted to know what he was do there and the implications for the mission had it been Ko. Jerry explained he was courting and also wanted to revenge the death of Luke. Jerry accused them of having blackmailed Lizzie into submission warning her she was now finished. George reminded that by his behaviour he had put George under threat. Jerry , drunk continued to challenge Lizzie about the situation recognising that she had been a spy for longer than he appreciated, with mikes recording what went on in the flat. Fawn and Sam were arranging a flight for Jerry to England, Jerry boasted he would kill Ko if he got the chance. As they drove Jerry, still the worse for drink tried to work out why Smiley had been so angry with him and eventually worked out that Nelson was on his way but he was not sure how.
Guillam was still digesting the discovery he had made when called by Smiley to drive him to Sam’s place where he was listening to info from the island where Ko and Tiu were waiting on his Admiral Nelson launch and then organised Fawn to accompany them to the home of Ms Worth to collect Jerry.
The Jigsaw of the meeting between Sam, Enderby and Lacon was now clear. It is not stated whether Sam alone or they all heard the arrival of Jerry at the flat and the decision taken to ring Lizzie and confirm that the drunken Jerry was there. It was only then that Guillam understood the link between Sam, Lacon, Enderby and George. He centred his hate on Jerry for being kept out of the loop. Now he knew where Smiley was getting his info from and that Martello who must have arranged the electronic listening had played dumb about where Smiley was and how he was able to add the info. What upset Guillam most was he was now expected to take Jerry back to London and leave Smiley to what ever game Sam, Enderby and Lacon were playing behind George’s back
Jerry decided on his way to the airport with Guillam and Fawn that he was not going to leave Lizzie to the other set of wolves and managed a violent escape from the clutches of his baby sitters and made his way back to the flat where Lizzie greeted him with the words Sir Galahad is back. He pleaded her to come with him where she would have a change or stay and have nothing. She came as he spotted the Rocker arriving- Rockhurst the Hong Kong Superintendent of Police. He takes her to anonymous dump where registration was not required and she comments that she was warned she would end up in such a place one day,
He then demanded that she tell him everything she knew and everything she was asked. She replied that it was a replay. He enquired what happened before. She said it was going to happen again. She told her tale of her parents, of Mr Worthington and of Ricardo and that she had loved him and hated him when he beat her up and that when Ricardo disappeared she and Charlie had not accepted and persisted in finding out what had happened. She had gone to see Tiu and found him with Ko and that had led to a contract where Ricardo was saved and she went with Ko. He had wanted to call her Liese although he never explained why and she chose Worth to match her knew identity and ridding herself of the past. Of the present she insisted that Ko never broke his word.
Jerry was uncertain what to do next have become used to being directed by Smiley through Craw. He strikes me as being on a par in fact with Ricardo and Marshall once he becomes unofficial and working for him, although he is yet to learn that
Meanwhile Martello was exerting pressure on Guillam and then George and even Sam to do something about Jerry on the run but none of them wanted to do anything until the main job was settled one way or the other. The US navy advised that the fleet of junks was arrived as anticipated.
Jerry told Lizze he would be back in a couple hours but she unlikely heard him still in slumber. He needed to be on the move to know where he was going. His made his way to the port and found someone he knew able to tell him that the Admiral Nelson was out to Po Toi for the Tin Hau Festival. He had guessed right. He then knew he had to contact a local fixer called Luigi to get a boat on the quiet.
With Lizzie they found Luigi who immediately made a pass, several passes at Lizzie but he also got them a boat. Luigi argued against going to the Island which he regarded as a bad place with poor festival and food. He advised them to another Island and to eat at the place of a friend. It took ages to leave and Luigi continued his pressure for them to go elsewhere. They were checked out by the authorities at a distance as everyone was, the hundreds of boats already on their way to the festival. He had concerns about the suitability of the boat. They made it and Lizzie who had been before thought she knew where Ko would be.
Guillam was also able to advise George that the couple had a boat and where they were heading also confirmed by the harbour police. Martello was the most anxious by this news and wanted to immediate send someone out to stop them. George argued he wanted nothing to upset the situating as it was. Martello wanted to know what Jerry was doing. Martello said he had to have a landing party on standby and reluctantly George offered Sam and Fawn. Guillam uttered God Help us All.
On the island Lizzie was certain about the climb they had to take but Jerry repeatedly questioned, looking back at the lifeless Admiral Nelson Launch on the way. He let Lizzie take him all the way to the top and then explained that he was certain that Ko had come for his brother who was getting out of China and that she should go back to Hong Kong, making friends with any friendly round eye family she sees and say she has had a row with her boyfriend and can she have a lift back, staying with them overnight if invited or going to a hotel and then meeting up with him at the bar where they gone before the four hour dinner. She agreed saying that if he saw Ko he should say she kept to the deal, she kept her word.
She has been found Smiley was told, picked up by Rockford as soon as she had landed and was claiming she had a row and did not know where Jerry was. The US navy reported the Junks were still on course and the Admiral Nelson was where it had been all day as most if not all the other visitors and left when the Festival ended. Martello demanded that action be taken to ensure that Jerry had never been to the Colony this time.
Jerry waited and saw Drake as Lizzie referred to him with Tiu wade ashore, Tiu with a machine gun across his arms. They were waiting for Nelson to arrive. He created a diversion which enabled him to get at Tiu who he smashed with venom because of Frost and Like and his disregard for Lizzie. Then he turned his attention to Drake but it was the man who called out enquiring Mr Westerby what are you doing here? Ricardo’s men say you want to blackmail me?
He said that he wanted Lizzie and in exchange he would work out a deal for the brother. A political settlement commented Ko. I have had many of them. God loves children they say but did you ever notice God love an Asian child? God Love a peaceful man but has there ever been more civil wars than in Chistendom?
Nelson arrives and the two men embrace a long and relieved embrace and Jerry tells Nelson to get back in the boat before it too late. Then the helicopters came with their lights and took Nelson away leaving his brother helpless and hen before departing they killed Jerry who had tried keep the pledge Lizzie had made to Ko.
There was great excitement back at the Circus mission accomplished. It was Connie the realist who said there would be no knighthood for George because of Bill Hayden. Nelson did not come to the UK as anticipated but went to the United States with Enderby and Martello chairing what was called a joint Processing committee to share the product information. Connie and Doc Salis got themselves ready to be invited to help in the processing but the invitation never came. Connie persuaded Molly Meakin to resign on the basis this would at least get her a rise in pay. It worked and the Housekeeper told her to say as there were great changes underway with a new younger look to the team.
There was no contact from or with George though and eventually one of the Housekeepers let slip he might be suffering strain. Code some said for not coming back, He was alone again as Ann had gone again, but Enderby, Martello and Lacon all called ensuring that the handover was smooth. Enderby was to be the new man with great approval from Martello and the US with Sam Collins the new head of Operations. At least Smiley could agree that Roddy Martindale was not cut of for game and would also depart. When Sam’s furniture from his old room was taken away some cheered and then kept silent when his new furniture arrived. Little Fawn disappeared. The Brixton home of the scalphunters was revived and Toby Easterhase was back with the Acton lamplighters. Sam told everyone of the death of Jerry, Operational it was said so Connie held back from claming it was Karla’s work.
In Hong Kong the Foreign Correspondents Club insisted on an official inquiry into its two missing members, Luke and Jerry and scandalous with rumours that the two had become connected. There was a much publicised trial where Mr Big was not brought to justice but a glamorous English adventuress and drug carrier was featured. The Spooks home was reopened. Craw appeared at the club after awhile but soon left in a distressed state.
No one is said to have debated in public at least with the Circus if George had been the subject of a plot all along as Guillam suspected. It is considered that the intervention of Westerby provided the opportunity for the US to take Nelson away from the control of the Brits. Guillam had been shown a letter from George to Ann when he went to try and bring about a reconciliation between them. George admitted that the days of a clear enemy were past and that it had become the time of conspiracies. These people terrify me he says and I am one of them.
Guillam and George meet for lunch and neither mentions the Honourable Schoolboy.
And me the reader well I want to know what happened to the brothers Ko and to Lizzie and what kind of deals were done with them. I know George is to reappear and to have his greatest triumph. And also of Ricardo and Charlie: what happened to them?
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