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General G riffled through ents' reports froe before the Appendices which gave details of the cases on which Bond had been encountered He ran his eye to the bottoerous professional terrorist and spy He has worked for the British Secret Service since 1938 and now (see Highsmith file of December 1950) holds the secret nunify an agent who has killed and who is privileged to kill on active service There are believed to be only two other British agents with this authority The fact that this spy was decorated with the CMG in 1953, an award usually given only on retirement from the Secret Service, is a measure of his worth If encountered in the field, the fact and full details to be reported to headquarters (see SMERSH, MGB and GRU Standing Orders 1951 onwards)'

General G shut the file and slapped his hand decisively on the cover 'Well, Coreed?'

'Yes,' said Colonel Nikitin, loudly

'Yes,' said General Slavin in a bored voice

General Vozdvishensky was looking down at his fingernails He was sick of land 'Yes,' he said 'I suppose so'

General G's hand went to the internal office telephone He spoke to his ADC 'Death Warrant,' he said harshly 'Made out in the name of ''Jaliski Spion Crime: Enemy of the State' He put the receiver back and leant forward in his chair 'And noill be a question of devising an appropriate konspiratsia And one that cannot fail!' He srimly 'We cannot have another of those Khoklov affairs'

The door opened and the ADC caht yellow sheet of paper He put it in front of General G and went out General G ran his eyes down the paper and wrote the words 'To be killed Grubozaboyschikov' at the head of the large empty space at the bottom He passed the paper to the MGB man who read it and wrote 'Kill him Nikitin' and handed it across to the head of GRU rote 'Kill him Slavin' One of the ADCs passed the paper to the plain-clothesbeside the representative of RUMID The man put it in front of General Vozdvishensky and handed him a pen

General Vozdvishensky read the paper carefully He raised his eyes slowly to those of General G atching hi down, scribbled the 'Kill hinatures and scrawled his naot to his feet

'If that is all, Comrade General?' he pushed his chair back

General G was pleased His instincts about this ht He would have to put a watch on him and pass on his suspicions to General Serov 'Oneto add to the warrant'

The paper was handed up to him He took out his pen and scratched out what he had written He wrote again, speaking the words slowly as he did so

'To be killed WITH IGNOMINY Grubozaboyschikov'

He looked up and smiled pleasantly to the company 'Thank you, Comrades That is all I shall advise you of the decision of the Praesidiuht'

When the conference had filed out, General G rose to his feet and stretched and gave a loud controlled yawn He sat down again at his desk, switched off the wire-recorder and rang for his ADC The man came in and stood beside his desk

General G handed him the yellow paper 'Send this over to General Serov at once Find out where Kronsteen is and have him fetched by car I don't care if he's in bed He will have to come Otdyel II will knohere to find him And I will see Colonel Klebb in ten minutes'

'Yes, Comrade General' The man left the room

General G picked up the VCh receiver and asked for General Serov He spoke quietly for five ive the task to Colonel Klebb and the Planner, Kronsteen We will discuss the outlines of a suitable konspiratsia and they will give me detailed proposals tomorrow Is that in order, Comrade General?'

'Yes,' cah Praesidium 'Kill him But let it be excellently accomplished The Praesidiu'

The line went dead The inter-office telephone rang General G said 'Yes' into the receiver and put it back

Adoor and stood in the entrance 'Comrade Colonel Klebb,' he announced

A toad-like figure in an olive green uniforle red ribbon of the Order of Lenin came into the room and walked with quick short steps over to the desk