The Hotel Islay: Five Days Later
Smiley picked up one of the chess pieces off of the desk in front of him and pushed his glassed up the bridge of his nose to get a better look at the picture on it. He stared at the photo of Alleline taped onto the mahogany stained game piece as the wheels of his mind began to turn. 'Everything the Circus thinks is gold is shit', that's what Tarr said the woman, Irina, told him. Why are you so invested in Witchcraft, Tinker, he asked himself. Sharing information with the American's had an understandable appeal, but why must their alliance be attached to Witchcraft?
Just then there was a light knock at the door. Smiley took his eyes off of the chess piece and set it back down on the desktop next to the others. Slowly pushing himself out of his chair, he made his way to the front door. He knew it was Sylvia because Peter was far more heavy-handed with his knocks. Sylvia had a subtler manner about her.
He would admit that it was nice having a feminine presence around for a change. He could tell that Peter could have cared less, but Smiley found that it aired out some of the mental as well as physical clutter. Sylvia was also a good change of pace for them. He found that him and her were often of the same mind and could work out problems in the investigation over tea while Peter did the bulk of the espionage at the Circus. Not to mention her being a pretty young woman had its advantages, particularly when it came to getting around Haydon and Bland without issues.
Unlocking the latch, Smiley opened the door for her. She was standing there on the porch, waiting patiently with her hands in the pockets of her stylish coat and her damp hair clinging to her shoulders.
"You're all wet," Smiley stated before stepping aside and letting her in. He was pretty sure it hadn't rained today.
Sylvia nodded as she passed him, a wry smile gracing her lips. Nothing like stating the obvious, she thought to herself as she pressed the ends of her damp hair into the collar of her wool long-coat in an attempt to save the carpet from getting wet.
"I went back to the lake," she informed him. Just then, a heavy shiver from the sudden onslaught of the indoor heating ran through her body. Her reaction to the instant climate change did not go unnoticed by Smiley who briefly made note to get a cup of tea in her before she caught a chill.
"And how did you find it?" He inquired, shutting the door and setting the latch. Sylvia felt he already knew the answer but humored him all the same.
"Manageable this time, thank you," she said pulling off her leather gloves and putting them in her handbag. No one would ever know the strength that it took her to go back to that place and dive into those dark waters once more. The whole time she had told herself that it was one step closer to being normal again.
An unreadable grin tugged at the corner of Smiley's lips but he said nothing else on the subject. He offered to get her coat which she slipped off of her shoulders and handed to him to hang on the hook in the entryway. Sylvia didn't know if she was looking for his approval or bragging rights to her success but she knew that his silence was not the answer that she wanted from him. How unsatisfying, she thought to herself as she made her way up the steps to the cluttered apartment.
'How far are you willing to go to be in their world again?' She mulled over Lacon's words silently in her head as she went over to her usual place on the mangy brocade couch. The hard iron springs creaked beneath her weight and all she could do to make herself more comfortable was to throw the sunken decorative pillows around. Their world… Control was dead and now Smiley was the only one left that she could trust. Now the real question was what did Smiley's world mean to her exactly; a place by his side or a place at the table in HQ?
The answer was elusive and always changing. One desire always seemed to compromise the other and truth be told she could not make a decision on one or the other because she wanted to believe she could get away with having both. Of course this thought was naïve and she knew it too.
Smiley rounded the couch and made his way over to the rusted stove in the corner kitchenette. He refilled his mug of Earl Grey and then fixed her one. "There we are," he said, setting it down on the low coffee table in front of her and heading to his desk chair to sit down.
"Thank you," Sylvia said, not surprised by his polite kindness. She knew that he cared for his people in his own quiet way; perhaps that's why she was so fond of him. Wrapping her hands around the mug for warmth she looked over to him, "So what should we start on first?"
Smiley pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he decided if he should lead the discussion with the new development on Tarr or not. His eyes fell on hers in a brief moment of judgment. He knew that she regarded him with honest trust. He then wondered if he were a worse man, a deceitful man, would she still put her faith in him. How far did her loyalty actually extend to?
He remembered going with Control to Heathrow to pick her up from the plain they had chartered from Budapest and drive her to their medical facility. Sylvia was the only agent they were able to get back from Hungary after Prideaux had leaked their names to the Russians. It was nothing short of a miracle that she was still alive. Her torturers must have not finished working her over for information or she would have been killed like the rest.
Smiley could hardly believe what she looked like as the medics carried her off the plane and put her on a stretcher. It had only been several months before that he had seen her at the Christmas party mingling with Peter and the other Nursery boys, looking perfectly quaffed and beautiful as always. Trouble-in-a-skirt as Bill Haydon used to call her, jokingly of course.
The poor girl, he thought looking down at her now. She was the one who had really been betrayed, her and the other agents still left in Hungary. What made Prideaux blow their cover, he wondered. He was dying, what could have possibly compelled him to rat out his own countrymen?
Control couldn't manage a word as the Service turned her over to their custody. He just signed the forms they handed him and walked along with the stretcher as they took her to the ambulance that was waiting on the tarmac. Smiley watched as Control cautiously reached out to put a hand on her shoulder but then pulled away at the last moment and held back as the waiting personnel loaded her into the vehicle. Now he knew why Control wanted him there: watching one of their own coming home defeated and broken was never something he could have faced alone. Smiley said nothing about it, knowing that was what Control wanted. There was really nothing that one could say to make any of this better. One out of six agents had been saved and she was barely alive. What more bad news would they have to endure?
"They used sleep deprivation on her," Control said in the car on the way back to the office. "You could tell by the bruising patterns around her eyes."
Smiley merely nodded, "I know."
That was all they said to one another before Smiley pulled the car over in front of the Circus. Control sat in the passenger seat for a moment, looking out the window at the gate before saying, "She's a good agent George, I'm glad we got her back."
Grabbing up his briefcase, Control opened the door and headed inside leaving Smiley to go park the car. Watching him head through the checkpoint at the gate, Smiley noticed how much weaker the man looked. This mess was taking its toll on all of them and he wondered when and how it was all going to end.
A few days after Sylvia was brought back home to England, he and Control were fired. Smiley never visited her in the hospital but he often found himself sitting at home alone thinking about her battered face and bloodied hands; especially on those first few nights. Remembering back on this, Smiley looked at her face now as she sat across from him. He studied how flawless it appeared in the softly lit room; it was as if nothing had ever happened to her before. Only a trained eye could catch the slight heaviness that was added to her gaze since she came home from Budapest. He then realized that there wasn't any reason as to why he should withhold the information about Ricki Tarr from her. She had already proven herself trustworthy of keeping secrets and Control was right, she was a good agent.
"How about we start off with Tarr?" He asked, his eyebrow slightly rose as he looked at her over his mug.
"He's back?" She asked, her eyes lighting up in surprise at the news.
Smiley nodded, amused that he could catch her interest so quickly, "Indeed…"
AN: Thank you for your review(s) please keep it up!