Dead Lions / C04

Chapter 4

Book 2 Part One 7810 words POV: Jackson Lamb, Shirley Dander, Min Harper, Kenny Muldoon

Summary

Lamb turns up at the shabby real offices of the Wentworth Academy of the English Language, above a stationer’s off High Holborn, and wakes Nikolai Katinsky while posing as a debt collector working for a Greek called Demetrio. Katinsky sees through the cover almost immediately but talks anyway, over wine in a nearby pub, about the word “cicadas” — overheard in a Moscow lavatory shortly before the Wall fell, spoken alongside the name Alexander Popov, in a tone approaching awe. Lamb concludes he was fed a line designed to send the Service chasing a phantom network, and Katinsky asks whose word such a buried network would answer to now. Meanwhile Shirley Dander, who spent the night raiding a DataLok archive for railway CCTV, traces the bald man to Moreton-in-Marsh and, over breakfast, gets taxi driver Kenny Muldoon to admit he drove him on to the village of Upshott. Min Harper and Louisa Guy meet Pashkin’s armed advance men, Piotr and Kyril, who deny their guns and lie about their hotel; Min chases their cab through the City on a bicycle, takes half its plate, and has Catherine Standish run it through the Trocadero. Muldoon then telephones an unknown number to report that a woman came asking questions.

Beats

C04S01 · Jackson Lamb — Jackson Lamb walked into the Wentworth Academy’s real offices off High Holborn and woke the sleeping Nikolai Katinsky, claiming to have come about a debt owed to a man called Demetrio. Katinsky let the performance run, then said he had invented Demetrio himself and asked Lamb what he actually wanted.
C04S02 · Shirley Dander — Shirley Dander, up all night and stranded in deep countryside, waited at Moreton-in-Marsh station where the bald man had stepped off the Worcester train. She bought a taxi driver’s time and had him tour the village while she pumped him about the other local drivers.
C04S03 · Min Harper — Min Harper and Louisa Guy met Pashkin’s advance men, Piotr and Kyril, on a stone plinth outside Liverpool Street Station and laid down ground rules, starting with guns. Piotr denied carrying any, gave a false hotel name, and turned his charm on Louisa, and Min left his jacket with her and went after their taxi.
C04S04 · Shirley Dander — Over breakfast Shirley Dander questioned taxi driver Kenny Muldoon, who admitted collecting a bald, bruiser-like man on the night the westbound trains ran late. He recalled the man changing his destination from Bourton-on-the-Water to Upshott and making him restart the meter.
C04S05 · Min Harper — Min Harper cycled flat out through the City after the Russians’ cab, nearly going under a bus and then narrowly avoiding a white van. He lost the cab at the lights on Old Street but kept pedalling.
C04S06 · Jackson Lamb — In a pub Katinsky rolled a cigarette and asked Lamb whether he had come to kill him, then complained about being dragged back through his own history. Lamb named the word cicadas from Katinsky’s old debriefing, and Katinsky conceded that he did remember that much.
C04S07 · Min Harper — Min Harper caught the taxi at the lights on Clerkenwell Road and read the first half of its plate, SLR6, before it pulled away west. He rang Catherine Standish to have the Trocadero track it, then was sick in the gutter.
C04S08 · Jackson Lamb — Katinsky described a day shortly before the Wall came down when, trapped in a lavatory stall with stomach cramps, he heard two men at the urinals say that Alexander Popov thought the cicadas still mattered. Lamb judged the story a plant, but Katinsky asked whose word a buried network would answer to now, and Lamb left him coughing over the table.
C04S09 · Kenny Muldoon — Kenny Muldoon watched Shirley Dander roar out of the station car park, then rang a number from his glove compartment and reported that a woman had been asking questions. He asked when he would be paid, then drove off, while a young couple with rucksacks waited for the next train.

People

Jackson Lamb — Questions Katinsky in his office and then a pub about cicadas and Popov.
Nikolai Katinsky — Ex-cipher clerk running a fake language school; overheard cicadas in a Moscow lavatory.
Shirley Dander — Slow horse; works the Moreton-in-Marsh taxi rank to trace the bald man.
Min Harper — Fronts the meeting with the Russians, then chases their cab by bicycle.
Louisa Guy — Handles the ground rules with Piotr and Kyril.
Piotr — Pashkin’s fluent, armed advance man; lies about the hotel and flirts with Louisa.
Kyril — The quieter goon, who understands more English than he admits.
James Webb — Offstage: Regent’s Park officer who set up the summit and briefed the pair.
Catherine Standish — Offstage voice on the phone; runs the taxi plate through the Trocadero.

Places

Upshott — Village the bald man insisted on being driven to; no railway station.

Lines worth keeping

““Figures. Tell the dirty Greek bastard to go fuck himself for his money. The first of the month, that was the arrangement.”” — Nikolai Katinsky, on Demetrio’s money

““It’s you I’m worried about. London’s more savvy than it used to be. You’re one phone call away from an armed response.”” — Louisa Guy, warning about the guns

““Cicadas. A word you used in your debriefing. At Regent’s Park.”” — Jackson Lamb, opening the real questions

““They finished their piss and left. I remained there some while, more concerned with my stomach than the meaning of their words.”” — Nikolai Katinsky, the lavatory anecdote

Threads

Plants: Katinsky’s overheard word cicadas, spoken in the same breath as Alexander Popov.; The idea of a sleeper network still buried in Britain, answering to no existing state.; The Russians’ real lodgings off the Edgware Road, which they lie about.; The taxi plate SLR6, run through the Trocadero.; Kenny Muldoon telephoning an unknown number to report Shirley Dander.; Pashkin’s arrival in London a fortnight after the meeting at the Needle.; Shirley Dander’s night raid on the DataLok archive holding railway CCTV.
Payoffs: Shirley Dander identifies where the bald man went: Moreton-in-Marsh, then Upshott by taxi.; Katinsky confirms he did overhear cicadas and connects it to Popov.; Min Harper establishes that the Russians lied about their hotel.
Continuity: Piotr and Kyril are armed and deny it; they work for Pashkin, who is due in London week after next.; The Russians claim the Ambassador on Hyde Park but are actually staying off the Edgware Road.; Katinsky was a Moscow Centre cipher clerk debriefed about eighteen years ago.; Katinsky’s debriefing took place in rooms under Regent’s Park and was recorded on video.; The bald man travelled to Moreton-in-Marsh and insisted on being taken to Upshott.

Characters

Places

Upshott