Chapter 19 Chapter Seventeen

A year after I met Brent, a clear pattern emerged.I teased some stuff out of him—mostly pillow talk he'd gleaned from Burgess.He claimed that one of The Times' writers had been courted by them.I tracked down the contributor, who confirmed that Burgess attempted to recruit him, but was turned down.He fears the consequences of being caught.Another contact Brent identified was a Department of Defense clerk named Tom Wylie, who was long dead.Brent said Wylie used to show Burgess some of the materials and documents he was handling.Although Brent was under pressure to provide us with more information, the people he confessed were either dead, retired long ago, or jumped out of danger comfortably and no longer had access to classified information.

I knew that Brent must know the people who hadn't retired and were still active in the secret world, the people he was protecting.How can I identify them?I decided to make a list of all the people I met who I thought were likely to be recruited by Burgess and who had left-wing views before the war. into it. One name stood out from all the others: Alister Watson.Berlin mentioned him, the writer Arthur Marshall mentioned him, Tess Rothschild mentioned him.They all say he was a radical Marxist at Cambridge in the thirties, a member of the "Apostolic Society," a close friend of Brent and Burgess.According to their recollection, Burgess admired him in the thirties, so he may have been courted by Burgess.

I started to do some background research on Watson.I knew him well during the war.He's now a scientist at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, and he actually lived with my brother in Bristol for two years.I never minded Watson at the time.He was tall and thin, with a wrinkled face like a goat's.He always walks on his feet, and his posture is very strange.Watson regarded himself as one of the greatest theoretical physicists of his time, but most of his colleagues believed that his practical ability was very poor, and he was also full of mistakes in theory.I think he's a bit of a liar.

Watson was a loser.At Cambridge he had been considered a distinguished student, destined for the greatest academic honors, but it was later discovered that his thesis contained a large number of fundamental errors.He failed to secure a scholarship and had to find a job in the Admiralty.He worked first in a radar signal group in the Navy, and later became the head of the submarine detection research group of the Department of the Navy Research Laboratory.This is one of the most confidential and important jobs in the entire NATO defense system, and at the same time it is an obscure job, especially for a man who had been a promising young man.

At Cambridge, Watson was an ardent Marxist.Indeed, a considerable number of those I have met have described Watson as the "senior preacher" of Marxist theory among the apostles.He was fascinated by the fact that Marxism was not only a beautiful piece of logic but also a universal truth.He was fascinated by Das Kapital as an unsuccessful missionary is fascinated by the Bible.He began to spread his teachings among his friends, especially as his hopes of pursuing scholarship faded.Brent later admitted that Watson had taught him Marxism. As I researched Watson's files, I was particularly struck by the circumstances of his departure from Cambridge - at exactly the time of the events in Munich.At that time, the radical opposition to the British ruling group had reached a fever pitch.All the features of this period could explain the shift to the right by Burgess and Philby.Here's another interesting thing.Victor Rothschild wrote a letter to White in 1951 suggesting that Watson be investigated because of his close ties to the Communist Party in the 1930s.For whatever reason, Victor's suggestion was never taken.After Watson successfully passed no fewer than three scrutiny, no one mentioned his political background again.

I decided to swindle the name Watson out of Brent's mouth at our next meeting.Knowing that it would be a waste of time to broach the matter directly, I am going to make a list of all known believers, including Watson.I asked Brent to pick out the names of people he knew, or names he thought would interest me.He looked over the list, but Watson wasn't mentioned. "How's Alister?" I asked him at last. "No," said Brent firmly, "he has nothing to do with it." Time to confront Brent.I told him that he was lying again and that he and I both knew that Watson was a good friend and fellow Communist of his at Cambridge.Brent's facial nerve spasms flared up again.Yes, it was true, he admitted.They were friends, and they still meet regularly at Believers Society dinners.But he didn't recruit him, and neither did Burgess, as far as he knew.

He said Alister was a tragic figure.His life path was completely wrong.He was a man of great promise, but achieved nothing, whereas his college friends, such as Brent himself, and Thulin, achieved notably.Turing's achievements are even more immortal. “I learned Marxist theory at the feet of Alister,” Brent told me. "I suppose you know where he works, don't you?" I asked. "Admiralty, isn't it?" "You said you had nothing more to say, Anthony. You said you were telling me the truth..." Brent fiddled with the fire. "I'll never be Whittaker Chambers," he said after a while.He was referring to the famous American communist who betrayed his faith in the 1950s, named his associates, including Alger Hiss, and appeared in a series of alarmist hearings before congressional committees .

"It's so much like McCarthyism," he continued, "betrayal, denunciation, witch hunt..." "But, Anthony, that's who you are, and that's why we're immunizing you from prosecution. It's your choice, and it won't do you any good if you pretend you don't know and won't cooperate..." Brent fell silent.From 1937 to now, so many years have passed, but his pressure has never been relieved. "I think you're going to shift the focus of the case to Alister," he said finally. I wrote a long report on the Watson situation in early 1965, recommending an urgent investigation.I sent the report to Hollis and Jones through Alec Macdonald, Chief of Division D.MacDonald was Cumming's replacement.Cumming eventually realized he wasn't going to be deputy chief, and he retired.Macdonald was a very reasonable man, a former policeman in India, who preferred first-class cooking and the other pleasures of life to a lot of administration.He is a very easy person to get along with, but when working with him, there are times when you lose face.

Five months passed and nothing happened.I mentioned this later when I ran into Hollis and Jones at the D-3 annual review meeting.I asked, why was this investigation not approved?At first, they talked a lot about priorities, limited manpower and material resources, and so on.I reminded them that the job task of the three departments of D Department is to find clues. If the ability of the first department of D department is guaranteed, they should use the clues found by the three departments of D department to carry out the task.Now a clue of a suspect has been found, but this person is still enjoying the highest right to access the secrets of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.I said, if this is a normal phenomenon, then the three departments of Department D should be completely abolished.

Jones is wise.Hollis was cranky and averse to responsibility.The error occurred at this level at D.Macdonald had somehow mixed up with Cumming in handing over the case and not giving priority to the case.Hollis directed on the spot that the case should be arrested. So the case was taken over by Patrick Stewart of D Branch One.He was a good friend, an excellent officer, clear-headed, calculating, and courageous.He was beaten and disabled during the war, and now he can only work in a wheelchair. Later, due to his poor health, he was forced to retire early.Watson was soon closely watched, and it was not long before it was discovered that his wife and daughter were members of the Communist Party.Judging by the tone of his conversation, he is now a communist too, although he never admitted to it during his many censorships.

However investigations are limited.Watson was originally scheduled to go to the United States to learn the latest anti-submarine detection technology in the United States. The Admiralty insisted on clarifying the case before he went to the United States, so we decided to review him.For six consecutive months, he reported to the Ministry of Defense every day.There he was interrogated by Cecil Shipp, MI5's best interrogator. Watson initially acted like an offended senior civil servant, asking what right we had to cross-examine him.But that attitude disappeared when Shipp began to pursue him. Did he know Burgess? Of course I do. Had he been to Burgess' apartment? Go occasionally. Did you meet anyone there? Guy, Anthony... Is there anyone else? Yes, there is a foreigner.He can't remember his name... Can he describe what that foreigner is like? At first, he couldn't describe it, but then he described it.He was a Central European man with dark hair combed back neatly.It sounded like "Otto," the leader of the "Group of Five" in the 1930s. "What does the name 'Otto' mean to you?" Shipp asked. "Yes—that's the man's name. By the way, 'Otto'..." Watson replied, looking overly enthusiastic. Heap interrogated him on other fronts, then turned the conversation back to Otto.Did Watson see him again?At first Watson said he couldn't remember, then he said he might have seen him again, but couldn't recall specific details.Then he remembered that they used to meet in parks, under street lights on corners of high streets or in the subway. "Did he give you anything?" "No, I'm sure of that..." "Did you give him anything?" "No, I don't think I have..." "Tell me, Mr. Watson, why did you meet him in these places? Why not meet him in your apartment or in a restaurant?" no answer. There was a long silence. "I'm interested in these people," he stammered. "I want to know more about Russia..." "You're interested in these people..." Shipp pointed out sarcastically. The next day, Shipp had thirty photographs spread out in a neat fan shape on the table in front of Watson.These photographs include some of the most important KGB officers to have visited Britain since 1945. "There's no one in here you recognize?" Shipp asked Watson. Watson stared at the pictures, fingering one or two hesitantly.He picked the pictures back and forth and picked them up again.Then it spread out again, and he murmured to himself.Every word he uttered was captured by the hidden microphone.From his answers to Otto's questions, we can be sure that Watson fears or suspects that we have direct evidence of him, perhaps a surveillance photo of a meeting with a KGB officer, or someone implicating him in a confession.He went home at night.We hear him grunting there through a special device built into his phone. "They must have got something," he kept whispering, "they must have got something, but I don't know what they've got..." After hours, Watson picked out three photos.The first is Yuri Modin - Philby's boss; the second is Sergey Kondrashev - George Blake's boss; the third is Nikolai Kapikov - — Vassar's boss.Watson admitted to seeing all three regularly, sometimes at lunchtime near the Admiralty Research Laboratory at Teddington.He denies sending them classified information.Golitsin said he knew that Kapikov had two naval spies, one of whom was a naval scientist.Kondrashef also has two spies, one is Black and the other is a Navy spy. Heep made him look uneasy.Does he really want us to believe that he just met these four KGB officers by accident and for no other reason?Does he think we're all fools?Are all naive?Everything is secret, isn't it?Did they all meet secretly?He's a spy, isn't he?Friendship with Burgess, belief in Marxism in the 1930s, concealment of Communist Party membership, participation in secret work, meetings with Russians, all this fit well?Now is the time for him to confess. Shipp pressed him day by day.Let's start from scratch, he would say.So Watson repeated his implausible story.Whether an interrogator is good or not is marked by his memory.Shipp had a remarkable memory.Every discrepancy, every omission in Watson's talk, he took to heart and threw it back at Watson hours or days later.But Watson still told his story, never suggesting anything to the other party.Despite his quivering lips, flushed face, and profuse sweat, he refused to concede defeat, even when he was knocked out like a boxer. This day-to-day interrogation lasted six weeks.Six weeks later, Watson was visibly haggard.When he came for trial, he was sedated and answered questions in a daze, not knowing what questions we asked.In desperation, Shipp began to consider the question of immunity.At the time, we didn't have the consent of the attorney general, so Shipp had to ask the question tentatively. "Can you change your story?" Shipp asked Watson, "if we let you get immunity." Watson, who was overdosed on sedatives, did not seem to understand the question of immunity we asked him.The interrogation had to be suspended. Anyone who has heard the interrogations or studied the transcripts is convinced that Watson had been a spy, beginning around 1938.In my opinion, he had access to anti-submarine detection research and was probably the most destructive of the Cambridge spies.One detail in particular confirms this.Watson tells a long story about Kondrashef.He had met Kondrashev, but despised him.He described Kondrashev carefully.Watson said Kondrashev was too bourgeois, wearing flannel trousers, a blue woolen suit, and a poodle on leash.After their quarrel, they never saw each other again. This is consistent with a confession in Golitsin's early materials.He said Kondrashev was sent to Britain to command two spies - one in the navy and one in MI6.The MI6 spy must have been George Blake.We always thought Black was a spy in the Navy, because Black had served in the Navy before joining MI6.Golitsin also gave another detail. He said that Kondrashev had turned against the naval spy who opposed his bourgeois living habits and refused to meet him again. As a result, Crowe, a former KGB official stationed in London, Wen was forced to return to London to replace Kondrashev in command of the naval spy.Obviously, this naval spy is Watson. Due to the insistence of MI5, Watson was transferred from the classified post overnight to the Institute of Marine Geography.He worked there until retirement.Since Watson has not pleaded guilty, we have to take the background of the Communist Party member that he concealed on the review form and the background of his wife and daughter as a legal basis.He did not protest. After interrogating Watson, I decided to make another attempt to break through him.I arranged for Watson to meet Brent at a neutral location, the Brown Hotel in London.There are two reasons for this: First, I'm not entirely sure that Watson understands that we're waivering him, and I'm going to ask Brent to explain it to him.Second, if possible, I would like to resolve the question of whether Watson was a member of the "Gang of Five".Golitsin said the members of the "Gang of Five" all knew each other, but they knew they were all spies.As far as Brent knew, it was just a "group of four"—himself, Burgess, Philby, and McClain.Recruits like Cairncross and Long operate independently of members of the central group.Watson seems likely to be the first candidate for the fifth spy. Brent was initially reluctant to implement the plan. When I first proposed the plan, he pleaded: "Alister has suffered enough." I had arranged for Brent to meet many times with his former conspirators.Neither the meeting with Long nor Strait caused any unpleasantness.Brent even told Strait that one of the best things he did was to expose him.But when I suggested that he contact Baron Pulitzer, he was subconsciously disturbed.Baron Pulitzer had been a spy for Klopp Ustinov during the war and had long since returned to East Germany.Pulitzer had sex with Brent during the war.After Ustinov took Pulitzer out of Holland, he returned to London.In 1945, Brent accompanied Pulitzer back to East Germany, and they have even been in touch since then.Pulitzer worked for the Russians both before and after the war to clear the way for his return to East Germany.I'm interested to see if he turns to us again.I had Brent write him a letter asking if he would be ready to meet me in Helsinki or Berlin. "That's not fair, Peter, that's dirty. He's done enough to this country." But Brent knew he couldn't refuse my request.He wrote, but to his relief Pulitzer declined my request. Watson, like Pulitzer, has something that makes Brent uneasy about admitting his relationship with Watson.He admitted that this hadn't happened with Long, with Strait, and others.It is a deep desire to protect them as best we can, to deny as much as we can about their activities.Moreover, it is a desire to escape the hurdle of confession.I think he was afraid of being seen by them as an informer. One night I drove to Cordall College to pick up Brent and drove to Brown's Hotel.Patrick Stewart had booked a room for us there and was waiting with Watson.Brent was extremely nervous. "I wish you could bring me something to drink," he said when we arrived at the restaurant. He and Watson both greeted each other nervously, afraid to show any enthusiasm in front of Patritt and me.Watson was very weak, like a person who just came out of the hospital.Finally, after our persuasion, he told the story of his contacts with the Russians again.It was a tragic story in the interrogation room, but it seemed ridiculous to tell it in front of Brent. Both of them spend most of their time talking about Cambridge, about Otto, about the shift to the left in the thirties.What I marvel at is the peculiar way the idealism and positivity of the thirties ended: in a hotel room, with a bottle of scotch, a bottle of gin.They want to change the world, but end up changing themselves. "I've quit now, Alister," said Brent. "I've confessed," he went on. "I'm still here. You needn't worry." But Watson didn't listen to Brent's entreaties at all.Their conversations were contradictory.Watson couldn't help being jealous of Brent, apparently since the thirties.However, this jealousy is only revealed when he attacks his friends after drinking too much.For him, betrayal seemed to be a secondary issue.Having lost his life, he talked with more interest about where he had gone wrong. "You are so successful, Anthony, but it is I who are the great hope of Cambridge. Cambridge is my whole life," he said, on the verge of tears, "but I have had to take part in secret work, and it has cost me my whole life." It's all ruined..." Brent left the table anxious and distressed.He walked over to the liquor cabinet across the room.He'd had almost the whole bottle of gin down, but he seemed to want more.I walked up to him. "How...?" I asked. Brent stood there, his shoulders drooping with tension. "I think you're right," he said, eyes blazing impulsively. "I figured he must be one of us, but I never recruited him and Guy never said he recruited him." The gin was gone, and Brent poured himself a full glass of sherry and added a splash of soda.He drank it down. "Sometimes," he said, "I think I'd be more comfortable in jail." Victor and Tess Rothschild have been instrumental in the investigation of the 1930s by D Branch III.Both of them knew intimately about the relationships of the period and those that were hidden.They were often able to arrange for people connected to the Five to meet with me who would otherwise have been reluctant to do so.Victor also arranged a series of important introductions for me.For example, after the Watson case, one of the questions that fascinated me was to what extent other scientists besides Watson had been targeted for recruitment.Burgess, Brent, Philby, and McLean were all first-class educated, and I doubt if other small groups were recruited, such as the world-renowned Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University. My suspicions fell on the famous Soviet scientist Peter Kapitsa - the father of the Russian atomic bomb.Kapicha came to Cambridge in the 1920s funded by the Royal Society, where he established the Maunder's Law Temperature Laboratory attached to the Cavendish Laboratory.Kapitza has always maintained a close relationship with the Soviet government, and he has been seen receiving Russian intelligence officials in his room many times.In the 1930s, the Soviet Union insisted that Kapitsa return to work in the Soviet Union due to rising international tensions, and he was allowed to bring all his equipment home.He kept in touch with British scientists both before and after the war, often hosting those visiting Russia at his well-appointed dacha outside Moscow.For years, there had been rumors within MI5 that Kapitza had found someone he could recruit at Cavendish Laboratory with his discerning eye, but no one had ever explored the claim.No one knows who these recruits were, or how many there were, or whether Kapitza's recruitment was a success.This is another unsolved case, so it has to be left in the file for people to doubt and guess. There is only one person who can help us understand Kapitza more and that is Lord Adrian.Adrian is friendly with Kapitza and has been in contact with him at Cambridge, where he met Kapitza before he left the UK.In the 1960s, Adrian served as Chancellor of Cambridge University and President of the Royal Society.Victor quickly arranged a dinner at which I could meet Adrian before unwittingly leading him on the subject of Soviet scientists. Adrian is totally willing to cooperate.He understands our skepticism about Kapitza, despite his admiration for Kapitza's success.He listed the names of those who were particularly close to Kapitza.There are more names on my black leather book, more names need to be verified in the archives, more people need to be traced, interviewed, estimated, and clarified, and some people need to be transferred from secret posts. .All of this is ultimately to ensure that no one slips through the cracks. The most important help Victor gave was persuading Flora Solomon to meet with MI5 again.I knew from her conversation with Arthur that she knew more than she could tell.In the mid-thirties she was clearly the most active figure in life.With her friends Lizzy Philby and Edith Dodd Hart, she became the encourager, accomplice and messenger of the fledgling "Five."After meeting Arthur, she refused to meet with MI5 again.She had a typical Russian suspicion of intrigue and treachery.She thought we were going to betray her, put her in jail, or get assassinated by the Russians, as she believed in the case of Thomas Harris.I asked Victor to intercede with her on my behalf, and she finally agreed to see me in mid-1965. "What does the name Dennis Proctor mean to you?" she growled. does mean something.Dennis Proctor, then Deputy Secretary of State for Fuel and Power, had entered the administration in the 1930s and had been Stanley Baldwin's private secretary.Through my trips to Cambridge and Oxford, I found nearly a dozen people who pointed out that Proctor was a conspicuous left-winger when he was a university student, although he was not a Communist.He bore the typical traces of a Comintern recruit at Cambridge—a good friend of Burgess, Brent, Philby, and Watson, and a member of the "Apostolic Society." One more odd thing about Proctor puzzled me.Before his defection in 1951, he left the administration abruptly and for no apparent reason, and took a job with a steamship company in Copenhagen.In 1953 he suddenly reappeared in London and resumed his career in the administration. I asked Flora why she mentioned Proctor. “Kim used to bring people to see me,” she said. “He took my opinion very seriously. I never got involved, but I used to tell him what I thought about the people he recruited.” "As far as Proctor is concerned, what did you say to him...?" "Kim brought him to dinner one night and I didn't like him. I told Kim that this guy was not good, he had no backbone. I asked Kim how he could stand the pressure?" Proctor was apparently another name Brent was determined not to tell me.I went to Hollis and asked permission to speak with Proctor, but he refused.He said that would cause too much confusion in Whitehall, where there were already enough problems.I'll have to wait until he retires.Hollis said it was only a few months away after all. Proctor retired to live on a lovely farm in the French countryside, in the rolling countryside outside Aveignon.He lives with his second wife and children.In February 1966 I visited him in France. Proctor had a dignified appearance, with an aquiline nose, and the hair around his forehead had been shaved, giving him a religious air.He received me with the kindness and generosity inherent in upper-class Englishmen towards visitors.I explained that MI5 was after the Thirties. "We're just looking for clues, you know, that sort of thing..." Proctor speaks of that period in clerical terse.At first, he didn't talk about himself.Like a standard civil servant, he is a humble spectator of other people's lives and decisions.Yet beneath his reticence I could detect a passion, as if he were remembering a better world. "What do you think of things at that time?" I asked. "Are you referring to my political beliefs?" he asked rhetorically, smiling at my euphemism. "So, you probably know that I've been a left-winger all my life?" "is that true?" "Oh, yes," he went on, "but never a Communist. I wanted so badly to go into government that I couldn't join the Communist Party. Besides, I don't have the courage of Burgess, They were openly members of the Communist Party." I asked him if Guy had approached him to work for the cause of peace, or for the Comintern, or something like that. He shook his head. "No, I don't think so... No, I don't remember any of these things at all." "But does Guy know what your political views are?" "Dark, of course. We're very close. Guy, me, Anthony. The Apostolic Society, you know..." "Aren't you surprised he never tried to recruit you?" He paused to think. "I suppose so, now that you've mentioned it. In fact, I'm really ashamed that he didn't recruit me..." He laughed and I laughed too.He suggested going for a walk before dinner.It was still winter, but the ground was already thawing, as if spring was coming.We talked about other things - about Britain, the administration and the way things change. "Most of us, you know, spent our lives trying to escape the thirties," he told me.Then we looked back down the valley leading to his house. "We were all very happy, it was our world, and we lost it in 1939. We've been trying to escape it ever since." He pointed to the farmstead shrouded in evening mist. "That's my safe haven..." he said. We had a good dinner that evening and we went to his study with wine afterward.Proctor was drunk.I could see that he felt pressured by my visit.He knew that sooner or later I would return to the subject of Burgess. He seemed to have taken a nap from the wine for a while, and when he awoke he was sweating profusely, and he began to wipe the sweat from his forehead nervously with his handkerchief. "Why do you think Guy never thought of recruiting you?" I asked him, pouring him another drink. Proctor drank it down and poured himself another. "I admire Guy a lot," he said after a moment's pause. "People forget, you know, what a talent Guy was. They don't remember what he was like before the Great War. His looks, energy and Wisdom. They only think about what's after him." I said nothing, waiting for him to break the silence. He began talking more urgently again. "You know, I have always been open and honest with him. When I have a problem, no matter how secret, I go to him and discuss it. He always gives me advice. I think the truth of the matter But Guy doesn't have to recruit me, he can get everything he wants to know, all he has to do is say it." "What about 1951?" I asked, eager to put pressure on him while he was talking. "No, no, no," he gasped, "you're totally mistaken. I left in 1950 for personal reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was because of my first A wife, Varda. She committed suicide, you know, in 1951." "Did you see Guy before he left?" "No—but my wife saw him, about six weeks before he went. She and her father were very close to him when I was in Copenhagen." "She committed suicide later?" "Shortly since then, yes..." He sat up and looked at me, suddenly sober. "If you don't mind, I don't want to mention it. I assure you, it's totally out of place." He slumped back in his chair, limp like a disordained missionary. "Both things were dreadful and appalling," he said calmly. "It was a year or two before I recovered. Edward Bridges invited me back to work in the Administration, and I returned to England. ” (Edward Bridges was then Deputy Secretary to the Treasury and Head of the Domestic Executive.) I never found out why Proctor's first wife, Varda, committed suicide or what she discussed with Burgess.The truth about Proctor is hard to tell.I am inclined to the idea that he was never formally recruited, but I do not believe the assertion that he went to Denmark in 1950 had nothing to do with Burgess.Regardless of the outcome of this case, however, one thing I can be sure of is that he was Baldwin's private secretary at the time, and he showed Burgess all the secrets in his desk, perhaps until 1950. At my next meeting with Brent, I told him what I had discussed with Proctor. "You haven't told us about him, Anthony," I said, reproachfully and indignantly.如果布伦特感到这种撒谎是朋友之间的事，他总是焦虑不安。 “你又一次保持缄默——为了保护他。” 他站起来走到窗前，凝视着窗外，仿佛他能看到过去。 “丹尼斯怎么了？”我又问。 “我能说的只是他是盖伊最好的情报来源。但我不知道他究竟扮演的是个什么角色，”他最后说，“我只知道他现在仍然在政府部门……” “可你可以猜测……”我有些不耐烦了。 布伦特拉上窗帘，仿佛对外面广场上的嘈杂声。灰尘和风气有些失望。 “除非你有过这种生活，彼得，否则你是不会理解的……” “哦，我有过那样的生活，安东尼，”我说，突然感到很生气，“或许我知道的有关三十年代的事甚至比你知道的还多。我记得我父亲因为没有工作而发疯一样地酗酒，我记得我失去了受教育的机会，失去了我的世界，我的一切。我知道三十年代的一切……” 在D处三科的研究当中，最有趣的事情之一，就是牛津大学有一个集团存在。过去，苏联的招募工作主要是与剑桥大学有关，可当布伦特坦白之后，我们认为伯吉斯和克卢格曼显然以同样的方式把牛津作为目标。牛津集团的第一个稳定的情报源是布伦特在科道尔学院的同事菲比·普尔。布伦特承认她在三十年代是他的信使。我迫切想要见到她，她同布伦特的关系很好，两个甚至合写过一本关于毕加索的书。 布伦特告诉我，说她是一个精神病患者，正处在精神分裂的状况中。他说如果我直接找她谈话，她会闭口不谈的，或许更糟，因此他为我安排了一个代表——科道尔学院的另一位高级人物阿妮塔·布鲁克纳，我可以让她把我提出的问题转告给普尔。一定程度上的弄虚作假是不可避免的。我们让布鲁克纳告诉普尔，我们正在对三十年代的事进行新的调查。安东尼想知道有没有别的什么人他可以报警。 菲比·普尔告诉阿妮塔·布鲁克纳，她过去常常为奥托把消息传递给彼得和伯纳德·弗拉德兄弟俩。彼得过去是维多利亚和艾伯特博物馆馆长，已经去世了，可他的弟弟伯纳德是一个高级的工党议员。普尔还说有一个叫珍妮弗·费希尔·威廉斯的年青妇女也参与了这事。她敦促布鲁克纳保证安迪·科恩即高级外交家安德鲁·科恩爵士也得到警报，因为此人当时也冒着风险。所有这些名字我都很熟悉。除了安德鲁·科恩以外（科恩曾是一个“使徒”和剑桥的学生），其他的人都与“克拉伦顿”有关，这是三十年代牛津大学的一个供左翼分子聚餐和讨论的俱乐部。该俱乐部曾是苏联间谍招募中心，这是第一个有力的证据。 具有讽刺意味的是，珍妮弗·费希尔·威廉斯的名字出现时，她已经同前军情五处的官员赫伯特·哈特结了婚。我拜访了她的丈夫。他是牛津大学在学术上颇有声望的法理学教授。我问他是否可以代我找一下他的妻子。他立即给她打了一个电话，向她保证不使她的地位受到威胁，她同意来见我。 珍妮弗·哈特是一位讲究穿着的中产阶级妇女。我想，她这么大岁数还着时髦的短裙和白色网眼长统袜，完全不合时宜。她很坦率地讲起她的故事。她带着一种不以为然的优越感，仿佛把我对三十年代左翼政治的兴趣与窥视女士们裙子里面等同起来。对她来说，这是很俗气的，而且是很不雅的。 她说她在三十年代是一个公开的共产党员，而且有一个俄国人拉拢过她。根据她的描述，这个俄国人肯定就是奥托。奥托指示她转入地下活动，她常常在凯维花园与奥托悄悄见面。她告诉我她仅仅是地下党的一员。一九三八年她进了内务部以后就再没有同奥托见过面了。她在内务部的一个很机密的部门工作，该部门负责处理那些截听电话的申请。她还告诉我，她从未传递过任何秘密消息。 她说她还有另外两个联系人。一个是伯纳德·弗拉德，也就是招募她的人；另一个只在一段很短时间里指挥过她。她从一张照片上认出，这个人是阿瑟·温，他是伊迪丝·杜德·哈特和她丈夫的好朋友，在加入行政机构之前是工会圈子里的积极分子。 听了珍妮弗·哈特的话，我感到这毫无疑问是一个以牛津大学为基地的单独的间谍集团，但是，要进行调查是极其困难的。安德鲁·科恩爵士（曾在剑桥后来成了外交官）差不多在不久后就死于心脏病，因此就把他的名字从名单上划掉了。彼得·弗拉德已经死了，他的弟弟看来更有希望，哈罗德·威尔逊首相指名让他担任工党政府里资历很浅的大臣级职务。军情五处受命为他提供安全合格证明。我们反对并请求允许根据珍妮弗·哈特的指控对弗拉德进行审讯。在当时，威尔逊是有权禁止对任何议员进行审问的，但当他阅读了军情五处的文件之后，他却批准进行审讯。 当我开始同弗拉德会谈时，他的态度很异常。他根本不把这当成一回事。我用珍妮弗·哈特所指控的事来给他施加压力，可他既不肯定也不否认他招募过她。 “如果我记不起这些事了，我怎么能否认呢？”他一再重复地说这话。 我对他很不客气，我知道他那患有广场恐惧症的妻子最近自杀了。可弗拉德渴望结束这次会谈，大概是被那份官位诱引了。我清楚地向他解释，既然我有责任在他的安全合格证明上提出意见，那么如果他对哈特的故事不作出一种令人满意的解释的话，我就不大可能给他提供安全合格证明。可他仍然坚持说他记忆不好。这次会谈没什么结果便结束了。第二天我又让他来参加进一步的会谈，我从他那里没有获得任何进展，他坚持说他回忆不起招募哈特的事。 第二天早晨，我得知他已自杀的消息，是用煤气和毯子来自杀的。不久以后，布伦特打电话来告诉我更多的坏消息。 “菲比死了。”他说。 “天哪，她怎么死的？”我透不过气来。 “她跳到地铁下……” 在我们正对他们进行积极的调查的时候，在这么一小群人当中，竟有三人死了，这远不是一个运气差的问题。军情五处害怕这几个人的死讯传出去，所有进一步的调查工作都暂停了。报纸上已经绘声绘色地连载了菲尔比充当“第三人”角色的事情，并首次发现他在军情六处的重要地位。有关布伦特受牵连的流言也开始在舰队街冒了出来。整个丑闻的帷幕正处在被拉开的危险之中。阿瑟·温的问题仍然被搁置在那里。非常巧，他也很快要被提拔为贸易部副大臣，也需要我们给他提供安全合格证明。 “我们怎么办？”琼斯紧张不安地说。 “我们应该告诉他，如果他讲出间谍集团的真情，我们就为他提供合格证明，否则不予办理……” “但那是讹诈呀。”他说，竭力做出吃惊的样子。 我不明白我的提议有什么不公正的地方，但是当然，正如我告诉琼斯的那样，我注命当不了外交家或政治家。 “所有这些自杀事件，”他说，“将破坏我们的形象，我们并不是那种机构。” 牛津集团结束了我对三十年代阴谋的调查。六十年代末，这个任务彻底完成了。那些有牵连的人正接近或已过了退休的年龄。我们识别出了“五人集团”的每一个成员以及其他一些人员和联系人。我们知道了“五人集团”在不同时期是怎样开展工作的，他们的通讯方式是什么。他们依靠哪些人工作、到什么地方去请求援助。我们查出一个一直未暴露的间谍沃森，俄国在一九三五至一九五一年的最重要的情报源普罗克特以及在牛津的新的间谍集团。我们共查出了死去的或还活着的间谍嫌疑犯近四十名。此外，我们还细致地重新检查了英国社会生活当中各行业的几十个人的档案，多数人都被证明是清白的，有一部分人则被发现是秘密的共产党人或是共产党的合作者。这部分人被调离那些能够接触到机密的地方，或被暗中动员退休。 当然，还有一些无头案。克卢格曼带走了他的秘密，奥托从未被查出，“红色乐团”在英国的情况我们从未发现。但我们了解到了最重要的事情——我们了解到了这个阴谋扩展到了什么程度。我们了解我们的历史，我们不必再担心。审查整个一代人是很麻烦的，这当然要比当线索还保持清晰的时候进行调查更为麻烦。可我们驱走了过去，最终又回到了现在。不能忘记，可能还有三十年代人物遗留下来的东西存在。