The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
He’ll bluff his way through; he’s got papers, if the papers are still good. He’s got a bicycle.”
John le Carré • The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Just a few years ago, in circumstances of extraordinary courtesy, one of the Bundesnachrichtendienst’s latter-day luminaries gave me a personal tour. I recommend the 1930s furniture in the conference room and the Jugendstil statues in the gardens at the back. But the main attraction must surely be the great dark staircase winding into the cellars a
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“Far as I know. I remember reading in the file that there had been other Rolling Stone payments before I came to the section, but in those cases Banking Section got the local Resident to do it.” “These other payments that took place before you came, where were they made?” “One in Oslo. I can’t remember where the other was.” “Was the alias of the ag
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And now they had Karl, and Leamas was leaving Berlin as he had come—without a single agent worth a farthing. Mundt had won.
John le Carré • The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
The Services may choose to leak a name when it pleases them. They may showcase an intelligence baron or two to give us a glimpse of their omniscience and—wait for it—openness. But woe betide a leaky former member.
John le Carré • The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
The East German sentry fired, quite carefully, away from them, into his own sector. The first shot seemed to thrust Karl forward, the second to pull him back. Somehow he was still moving, still on the bicycle, passing the sentry, and the sentry was still shooting at him. Then he sagged, rolled to the ground, and they heard quite clearly the clatter
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The proof that the novel was not “authentic”—how many times did I have to repeat this?—had been delivered by the fact that it was published. Indeed, one former head of a department that had employed me has since gone on record to declare that my contribution was negligible, which I can well believe. Another described the novel as “the only bloody d
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“He doesn’t like the operation,” Control replied indifferently. “He finds it distasteful. He sees the necessity but he wants no part in it. His fever,” Control added with a whimsical smile, “is recurrent.” “He didn’t exactly receive me with open arms.” “Quite. He wants no part in it. But he told you about Mundt; gave you the background?” “Yes.”
John le Carré • The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
As an intelligence officer in the guise of a junior diplomat at the British Embassy in Bonn, I was a secret to my colleagues, and much of the time to myself. I had written a couple of earlier novels, necessarily under a pseudonym, and my employing service had approved them before publication. After lengthy soul-searching, they had also approved The
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