Slough House

Spook Street / C09

Chapter 9

Book 4 Part Two 5221 words POV: Marcus Longridge, Narrator, Moira Tregorian, David Cartwright, JK Coe

Summary

At Slough House, Louisa soaks her ankles and Chapman ices his knee while Marcus, Shirley and Ho relive the failed snatch and the escape. Catherine Standish, back with the O.B. — David Cartwright — in tow, says the Park are looking for the old man and she thought it safer to bring him here; Lamb assumes the attempt on Cartwright and the attack on Chapman are connected, and that the man who went after Cartwright ‘ended up with a flip-top head’. Lamb presses Chapman about France, and Chapman recalls Les Arbres, where he accompanied Cartwright as a junior Dog: a regimented house with eight male adults, an ex-KGB man calling himself Yevgeny, and an American called Frank in charge, while Cartwright debriefed an ex-agent codenamed Henry. On the last night of a second visit, drunk, Cartwright twice said he wished he had never heard of Project Cuckoo. Upstairs, Moira Tregorian is displaced from her desk by Cartwright, who surfaces at the word ‘cuckoo’ and starts to talk. JK Coe supplies the legend of a Soviet fake American town built to breed perfect simulacra of the enemy, then Cartwright names Frank Harkness, admits he wanted First Desk, mentions his daughter Isobel, and says Harkness’s plan to raise extremists was refused. Coe adds that the American was ex-CIA and burned for unreliability, so the project never ran; Lamb concludes Harkness went through the back door with Cartwright holding it open, and asks why it is being closed now; the answer is Westacres.

Beats

  • C09S01 · Marcus — Back at Slough House, Marcus, Shirley, Louisa and Ho go over the failed snatch, and Louisa soaks her ankles in a bowl Catherine Standish found while Chapman takes the stairs one at a time. Marcus has told Stan, the garage owner, that they were Duty Men apprehending a VAT defaulter, and feels his luck turning because he wrecked a cab that was not his own. Talk turns to River, who has sent no word, and to Catherine’s arrival with the O.B. about half an hour earlier.
  • C09S02 · Narrator — In Lamb’s office, Lamb sets Ho to clearing takeaway cartons and fetching replacements, and Chapman insults him. Catherine explains that the Park are looking for the old man, David Cartwright, and that she brought him somewhere safe; Lamb says the attack on Chapman and the attempt on Cartwright probably belong together, and that the man who went after Cartwright ended up with a flip-top head. Lamb then asks Chapman about France, and Chapman says: this is about Les Arbres.
  • C09S03 · Moira Tregorian — Moira Tregorian, the new office manager, is still rattled by her induction lunch turning into an interrogation about Claude Whelan, and is disappointed that her notorious predecessor Catherine Standish looks intact rather than raddled. Catherine installs David Cartwright in Moira’s chair and leaves him there, sunk into a vacancy. Working through Park memos, Moira mutters that it is a bloomin’ cuckoo, and the old man snaps alert at the word.
  • C09S04 · Narrator — Chapman describes Les Arbres as regimented, with few women and some children, and eight male adults, one of them an ex-KGB man calling himself Yevgeny — Ivor Fedchenko, whom Cartwright dismissed as unimportant. He says Cartwright was there to debrief an ex-agent codenamed Henry, that an American called Frank seemed to be in charge, and that on the last night of the second visit Cartwright, drunk on brandy, twice said he wished he had never heard of Project Cuckoo.
  • C09S05 · David Cartwright — Overhearing the phrase, the O.B. surfaces from wherever he has wandered, unsure where he is although he takes the room for a secretarial office in the Park. He remembers telling stories to a keen lad he found in a garden, and cannot bring back the name. Deciding which side of the door he needs to be on, he agrees to talk and asks whether anyone is taking it down.
  • C09S06 · JK Coe — Coe, leaning against the door of Lamb’s reeking room, explains the Cuckoo legend: a fake American town on Soviet soil where children would be born and raised as perfect Americans, a means of breeding a simulacrum of the enemy. He adds a related story about a replica White House near the Red Sea, and says that one never happened. Lamb pours drinks and asks what the British did; Coe says it was not on the syllabus, which makes Lamb’s ears twitch.
  • C09S07 · David Cartwright — Cartwright names Frank Harkness, an American ex-Agency man, and admits he had wanted First Desk and that he had a daughter, Isobel. He explains that Britain declined to copy Cuckoo for pragmatic reasons as the Cold War ended, and that Harkness argued the next war would be a long one against extremists and proposed a network of ex-Soviet-bloc agents — his rainbow coalition — to raise fanatics. Cartwright insists they refused him and told him to sling his hook.
  • C09S08 · JK Coe — Prompted by Catherine, Coe recounts a rumour from a course teacher: a scenario in which an American approached the Park to adapt Cuckoo into a method of building a fanatic, raising a prototype suicide bomber through indoctrination. He says the man proved to be ex-CIA, burned for unreliability and shown the door, so the project never happened. Lamb concludes Harkness went through the back door with Cartwright holding it open, Catherine asks why it is being buried now, and Lamb answers with one word: Westacres.

People

  • Shirley Dander — teases Marcus and fills Louisa in on Catherine and the O.B.
  • Roderick Ho — sent to clear and replace Lamb’s takeaway, and insulted by Chapman
  • Sam Chapman — recounts Les Arbres and what Cartwright said about Project Cuckoo
  • Catherine Standish — brings the O.B. to Slough House and asks why it is being buried now
  • David Cartwright — the O.B., Chapman’s ex-boss, who tells the story of Cuckoo
  • Moira Tregorian — new office manager whose office and chair Cartwright takes over
  • JK Coe — explains Project Cuckoo and the rumour of the American
  • Frank Harkness — the American, ex-Agency, who wanted Cuckoo adapted to raise extremists
  • Molly Doran — made the spotter’s cards of visiting Soviet talent
  • Claude Whelan — the new First Desk, named in Moira’s interrogation

Places

  • Slough House — where Louisa, Chapman and the O.B. are gathered and the debrief happens
  • Regent’s Park — the Park, which is looking for Cartwright and is suspected of more
  • Les Arbres — the house in France where Cartwright debriefed Henry and Harkness held court

Lines worth keeping

“God, I hate catch-up scenes” — Jackson Lamb, cutting off Chapman’s questions about who the man was and why anyone was following him

“It’s like watching dinosaurs having foreplay. Or Top Gear.” — Catherine Standish, on Lamb and Chapman sniping at each other in Lamb’s office

“He said he wished he’d never heard of Project Cuckoo.” — Bad Sam Chapman, the one thing Cartwright repeated, drunk, on the last night at Les Arbres

“He was a lunatic. We told him to sling his hook.” — David Cartwright, denying that he authorised Harkness’s plan to raise extremists

Threads

  • Plants: Project Cuckoo: raising children as perfect simulacra, and Harkness’s adaptation of it to breed fanatics.; Frank Harkness, his ex-Agency status, and his rainbow coalition of ex-Soviet-bloc operators.; Isobel, Cartwright’s daughter, introduced and left unexplained.; Cartwright’s admission that he wanted First Desk and that his copybook was not always clean.; The ex-agent codenamed Henry and the Les Arbres debriefings.; Molly Doran’s spotter’s cards, and the Park’s habit of keeping files on visiting talent.; Coe’s line that Harkness was burned for unreliability — unverified, and contradicted by the years of activity at Les Arbres.
  • Payoffs: The phrase ‘Project Cuckoo’, dropped by Chapman, is what makes Cartwright agree to talk.; Lamb’s suspicion of the Park is grounded in Cartwright’s Les Arbres connection, which Chapman can confirm from the inside.; The ‘flip-top head’ remark ties the attack on Cartwright to an assassin who is already dead.
  • Continuity: Chapman was a junior Dog, Cartwright’s driver and minder; he made two trips to Les Arbres, the first the summer after the Wall came down, the second later that year.; There were eight male adults at Les Arbres, first names only, and Chapman stayed in a hotel in Angevin, not on site.; Cartwright is upstairs in Moira Tregorian’s office; Lamb, Chapman, Catherine and Coe are in Lamb’s room.; Catherine arrived about half an hour before, according to Shirley.; Louisa’s skin is unbroken but her ankles are badly swollen; Chapman’s knee is injured and iced.; Tearney is gone and Whelan is the new First Desk; Coe was Psych Eval and the Cuckoo material was never on the syllabus.; Marcus told Stan they were Duty Men pursuing a VAT defaulter, and told him to send the bill for the gates to his local tax office.

Characters

Places

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