George Smiley I met him once. Karla. In fifty-five. Moscow Centre was in pieces. Purge after purge. Half their agents were jumping ship and I traveled around signing them up. Hundreds of them. One of them was calling himself Gerstmann. He was on his way back to Russia, and we were pretty sure he was going to be executed. Plane had a twenty-four hour layover at Delhi, and that's how long I had to convince him to come over to us instead of going home to die. Little room. I'm sitting here... he's sitting there. The Americans had had him tortured. No fingernails. It's incredibly hot. I'm very tired and all I want to do is get this over with and get back home. Things weren't going well with Ann. I give him the usual pitch: come to the West and we can give you a comfortable life, after questioning. Or you can catch your plane and fly home and be shot. "Think of your wife. You have a wife, don't you? I brought you some cigarettes, by the way. Use my lighter. We could arrange for her to join you, we have a lot of stock to trade. If you go back, she'll be ostracized. Think of her. Think about how much she..." Kept harping on about the damn wife. Telling him more about me than... Should have walked out, of course, but for some reason it seemed important to save this one. So I go on. "We are not so very different, you and I. We've both spent our lives looking for the weaknesses in one another's systems. Don't you think it's time to recognize there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine?" ...Never said a word. Not one word.
Mr Guillam, I'm sorry I was out for so long.
George Smiley [Guillam attacks Tarr.]
Ricki's been helping us, Peter! He's been telling us all about his adventures.
He's a double, George! There is no mole! Irina's been locked up by Moscow! [turns on Tarr.] I stole that, because of you! I spied on my own, because of him! Do you know how that makes me feel?
George Smiley I want to talk about loyalty, Toby. Control recruited you, didn't he? He found you starving in a museum in Vienna, a wanted man. He saved your life, I heard. And yet, when the time came... when it came to picking sides between him and Alleline, you didn't hesitate. It's understandable, perhaps, with your war experience. You survived this long, I suppose, because of your ability to change sides, to serve any master.
Esterhase What's... what's this about, George?
George Smiley It's about which master you've been serving, Toby.
George! George, get in here! [Smiley enters.] George, sit down. [Smiley sits.] Take a look at this nonsense. Report by Soviet high command on their recent naval exercises in the Black Sea, just what the Admiralty has been begging us for some information on...
Smiley Where did you get this?
I didn't. Percy and his little cabal walked in with it.
Esterhase Look, Control...
[flicking through document, casually.]
Style appalling, blatantly a fabrication from beginning to end. It just could be the real thing.
Smiley If it's genuine it's gold dust. But its topicality makes it suspect.
Smiley is suspicious, Percy!
Smiley Where did it come from? What's the access?
A Alleline
A new secret source of mine.
Smiley But how could he possibly have access-
A Alleline
He has access to the most sensitive levels of policy making. We've named the operation 'Witchcraft.'
[archly.]
Oh, Percy and his pals bypassed us, Smiley. Gone straight to the minister. Percy has been allowed to keep the identity of his new friend TOP secret.
A Alleline
The minister agrees with me that too many secrets are blown around here. Too much failure, too many scandals, too little solid intelligence.
Bland Percy does have a point, Control; we should be fighting Communism, not each other.
A Alleline
No, we're losing our reputation, our partners-
A Alleline
-and we've had enough! There's going to be changes.
Esterhase We need to decide if we want to be part of the past or part of the future.
I should have left you where I found you.
Esterhase Look-!
Smiley [Alleline, Bland and Esterhase leave. Control glares at Haydon until he too exits, leaving only Smiley and Control.]
If Witchcraft is genuine-
Nothing is genuine anymore!
[She sets down a tea set and George Smiley offers her some Johnny Walker Black Label.]
Not supposed to, doctor's orders. [Smiley shakes the bottle, teasing her.] Wicked, wicked George... [After seeing two teenagers making out.] I don't know about you George, but I feel seriously under****. [Smiley looks uncomfortable.] I heard Ann left you, again. She doesn't deserve you, George. Not one hair on your head.
Smiley You left the circus around the same time as Control and I.
I didn't leave, I was dismissed; chucked out on the rubbish heap.
[In response to Smiley's questioning.]
What does it matter, anyway? Old circus is gone, anyway. [Indicates some old photos.] Here we are: the nursery in our day. Jim Prideaux and Bill Haydon, of course - the inseparables. There's Control himself. All my boys, all my lovely boys. That was a good time, George.
Smiley It was the war, Connie.
A real war. Englishman could be proud, then. [Long pause.] So I was right, then; about Polyokov. There is a mole... [Smiley gets up to leave.] If it's bad, don't come back; I want to remember you all as you were.
