Goodbye to an Old Friend Read Online Free PDF

‘I’m just convenient because I speak languages.’
    â€˜How many?’ asked Pavel, immediately.
    Unusual again, thought Adrian. He’d used the dismissive ploy several times in the past, but never been challenged on it. As a rule they were nervous, concerned only with questions revolving around their own safety.
    â€˜Quite a few,’ he said, still modest.
    â€˜But how many?’ There was an edge of impatience in the query, showing a man used to questions being specifically answered the first time, without prevarication.
    â€˜Twelve,’ replied Adrian, immediately. Let him dominate the interview, initially, just to gather more confidence.
    â€˜Chinese?’
    The question was a surprise until Adrian remembered the boy on the Chinese border. ‘Mandarin and Cantonese, and one dialect.’
    Pavel nodded, as if the answers had solved some secret questions.
    â€˜Are you worried about Georgi?’ asked Adrian, shifting the initiative.
    Pavel smiled. ‘Georgi? You know of my son?’ Then without awaiting an answer, he said confidently, ‘Alexandre has been talking.’
    Adrian wondered whether to disclose that the fact had come from the Moscow embassy and decided against it. Let him think Bennovitch was being co-operative.
    â€˜He’s very fond of you,’ said Adrian. ‘He refers to you almost as a father.’
    Clever, thought Adrian. So far he’s effortlessly avoided the only question.
    â€˜Is Alexandre happy?’
    Adrian shrugged again, still allowing the control to slide away from him.
    â€˜Of course not,’ he said. ‘Any more than you are now or will be for some months yet. There’s too much uncertainty and anxiety yet for there to be any enjoyment apart from the exhilaration of getting away.’
    It had been a tenet of his psychology training to be as honest as possible with any interviewee. The moment the subject caught the questioner in a basic dishonesty, any hope of co-operation disappeared. Pavel nodded, accepting the attitude.
    â€˜Does it get better? How long does the uncertainty last?’
    Adrian thought he saw a gap in the confidence and moved to widen it.
    â€˜It depends on the person,’ he said.
    â€˜I feel guilty,’ admitted Pavel suddenly, and Adrian stepped in, accepting the opening.
    â€˜That’s inevitable,’ he said, ‘and it’ll be more difficult for you than it was for Alexandre. He only left a sister. And being your wife, she was protected. But now she isn’t. Neither are Georgi or Valentina.’
    Adrian had spoken purposely, trying to shatter the man’s demeanour, accepting the frowns that the abrupt questions and statements would later cause among the people who argued that there should be as few reminders as possible of the difficulties that a defection caused an émigré’s family. Pavel was going to be difficult, perhaps the most difficult yet. The reaction is worth the risk, judged Adrian.
    â€˜You’re not taking any notes,’ said Pavel, suddenly.
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜So everything is being recorded?’
    Adrian sighed. It was going to be the most difficult.
    â€˜Yes,’ he said.
    â€˜Funny,’ mused Pavel. ‘I knew it was done in Russia, but I never imagined it being done here …’
    â€˜â€¦ It’s for convenience,’ broke in Adrian. It was important to establish a guide to this drifting conversation. ‘Notebooks or unspeaking shorthand writers in the corner of a room unsettle people, make them aware that every word is being noted. A tape recording is a convenience, that’s all. We make no secret of it. I could have lied.’
    â€˜But that would have been pointless, wouldn’t it?’ said Pavel. ‘And endangered any confidence growing between us.’
    Adrian frowned, unsettled by the other man’s knowledge. Where had a space scientist learned psychology? Pavel stared around the