Kompromat

‘We tracked you on the bridge too, of course. You told us the time and the place, thank you very much. Had our team ready when you got there. Of course, we’ve known about Nabokov for ages. Have to send him packing now, of course. Back to Moscow. Won’t be the first time we’ve sent the Russkies packing. Won’t be the last time either.’

Abewa’s own phone pinged. ‘Ah, apparently Nabokov’s already gone. Flew out this morning on KLM. Rats leaving a sinking ship, eh?’

Half an hour later, they took a break. Mnogo Abewa looked at his watch. ‘Interview interrupted at 10:45a.m.’ he said.

Jane Porter, head of MI5, who had been watching the interview through the one-way window, was waiting for Abewa outside the room. ‘I don’t have to tell you,’ she said, ‘that this is pretty sensitive stuff. What do you think the Russians have been trying to do with Harriet Marshall?’

She made the question seem so innocent, so naive.

‘How about trying to influence the result of the Referendum? Will that do for starters?’ Mnogo Abewa replied.

‘You’re going to have to do better than a newsagent’s card dug out of someone’s rubbish bin,’ Jane Porter said. ‘And a casual meeting on Westminster Bridge. Did anyone hear what they actually said?’

Mnogo Abewa was a Tigger, not an Eeyore. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll get there,’ he assured her. ‘I’ll try my “enhanced interrogation techniques”. They usually work.’

‘Tell me about Yuri Yasonov,’ Mnogo Abewa asked Harriet when he came back into the interview room. ‘You met him at Oxford. When you were Howard, not Harriet. You were friends there. Must have been. You were both officers of the Oxford Union, as I understand. Then, after you left Oxford, you went to Russia for two years. What did you do there? Why didn’t you tell Barnard you knew Yasonov? What were you concealing? Did Yasonov himself recruit you? Did you ever meet Igor Popov? Why did you go to Amsterdam? Why did you meet Yasonov in the Rijksmuseum?’

The questions came thick and fast. Harriet blocked them all. Just pushed her pawns forward, keeping her king well-guarded. If you played chess as well as Harriet did, you soon realized that – contrary to expectations – defence was often the best form of attack.

At the end of the morning, Mnogo Abewa came, crucially, to the attempt on Edward Barnard’s life.

‘Why were you fanning your face with the order paper, when Barnard got up to speak?’ Mnogo asked. ‘It wasn’t particularly hot, as I understand. I think you were sending a signal. A signal which meant, “When I wave my order paper to fan my face, be sure to shoot the next man who gets up to speak”. Isn’t that what you were telling him? So what does that make you? A murderer or at least an accessory to murder? This is serious stuff, Harriet. You can’t go on stonewalling.’

After a while, Harriet Marshall said, ‘I’d like to call a lawyer.’

Later that morning, Jane Porter went to see the home secretary.

‘We’ve some pretty clear prima facie evidence that Russia has been trying to influence the result of the Referendum,’ she said.

Mabel Killick sighed. ‘I wish the beastly thing was over. Okay, Jane, just summarize the key points. What exactly is Russia doing? It’s all very well having stuff in the Guardian, but where’s the hard evidence?’

‘Well, Home Secretary.’ Jane Porter chose her words carefully. ‘We’ve been building the case for some time. First, there’s the so-called Referendum dossier, the one Barnard brought back from Russia. Did the Russians actually pay good money to the Conservative Party as a whole, or to the PM or Conservative Party chairman in particular, so as to ensure there was a commitment to the Referendum, first in the prime minister’s Bloomberg speech, and then in the Conservative manifesto?’

‘And what’s the answer to that question? Remind me,’ Mabel Killick asked. ‘I read Sir Oliver Holmes’ report. Very diplomatically phrased. Couldn’t make head or tail of it.’

‘I agree it’s complicated. Sir Oliver’s people are convinced the documents are genuine in the sense that that they were genuinely sent to or from the prime minister’s office. On the other hand, there is no evidence that money ever changed hands.’

‘No evidence of “cash for Brexit” transactions?’

‘None that they can find. But that’s not conclusive of course. These City folk are quite adept at covering their tracks.’

Mabel Killick obviously didn’t want to go further down that route. ‘Let’s leave that one for the moment. We’ll have to revert at some later date, I’m sure. What else do we have?’

‘The Russians have helped Leave nobble large chunks of the press and media to ensure that the Leave message gets maximum attention’.

‘And the third point?’

‘We think the Russians influenced Helga Brun, at a crucial moment on the immigration issue. There’s some suggestion of a long-standing link between the chancellor and Russian Intelligence.’

Mabel Killick groaned. ‘I can’t believe this. Don’t tell me there’s more.’