The Long Room Read Online Free PDF

politely.
    Stephen showed the guard his badge. ‘The Cube?’ he said.
    ‘Through the double doors, take the passage on the left, not the one that leads to the garage. Follow the painted arrows.’
    Windowless corridors, chill and faintly clammy. Behind asecond set of double doors, Stephen found a tall man leaning against the wall, and a young woman, laughing. She was pretty, wearing a pink cardigan that looked as if it would be very soft to touch. ‘Donaldson?’ asked the man. ‘Good. Rollo Buckingham. And this is Binks. Binks is going to lock us up together.’
    ‘And throw away the key,’ Binks teased. The two men followed her though a door that she unlocked and into a room where the Cube stood, in the centre. The Cube is exactly what the name suggests. The size of a large shipping crate, matte-grey, walls smooth and unmarked except for an entrance cut into one side. Binks undid its combination lock and the heavy door swung open. ‘It gets stuck sometimes,’ she said.
    There was a table, chairs, and a bright light inside the Cube, cramped space enough for six. ‘Bit of a squash’, said Rollo, ‘when it’s full.’ They stepped in through the door and it shut tight behind them. ‘Grab a pew,’ said Rollo. Stephen wondered if there was an inlet for fresh air. The interior walls were completely covered in leathery grey material, slightly wrinkled, like a dinosaur’s skin.
    Rollo took a packet of Marlboro from the breast pocket of his jacket, shrugged the jacket off, opened the packet and offered it to Stephen. Stephen shook his head. Rollo tapped out a cigarette for himself. His lighter was shiny gold, like the links that held together the beautiful cuffs of his white shirt. ‘Before I say anything,’ he said, ‘I need you to sign this.’
    He removed a sheet of paper from a file he had dropped onto the table. The paper was stamped TOP SECRET . He skimmed it across to Stephen who, glancing at it quickly, saw that it was headed by the code-word PHOENIX and held nothing but a typed list of departments and initials. He put his signatureagainst his own. He didn’t have time to decipher the other nine names on the list apart from the Director’s.
    ‘Right,’ said Rollo, through his cloud of smoke. ‘Now, I cannot emphasise too strongly that security is paramount. When I asked your group-controller to nominate a listener for this case she recommended you. She says that you will be discreet. I did rather expect her to take it on herself but she explained that she is working at full stretch and couldn’t guarantee the sort of commitment that this investigation might in due course require. Potentially full-time. She said that you had capacity to spare and would do it very well.’
    ‘I can only do my best,’ said Stephen. Rollo smiled then, with a flash of warmth. ‘The thing is,’ he said, ‘I’m afraid I cannot give you the usual background briefing. This case is complicated and extremely secret. The original source of the intelligence is ultra-delicate. No one who is not on this list is authorised to know anything about it. All I can really say at this point is that we are investigating a question of loyalty. Or should I say, disloyalty rather. Internally.’
    ‘What do you mean? A traitor?’
    ‘Well, that’s perhaps too categorical a word.’
    ‘But, are you talking about someone in here, someone in the Institute?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Christ almighty! What’s his name? Or is it actually a woman?’
    ‘No, the subject of interest is a man. Look, please don’t ask me any questions. Our view is that this particular investigation absolutely must proceed without prejudice or preconception. Otherwise it’s just not fair. I’m aware that usually a listenergets a whole dossier of facts – history, dates, personality traits and description – as well as details of the intelligence case, in advance of taking on a new investigation but just for once I’m asking you to do without. Begin with a clean