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“No, I did not, sir Never”

The vehemence hich Babakov said “Never” was a clear indication to Harry that he regarded this mock trial as worthy only of ridicule Every Soviet schoolchild had visited the Kree at Lenin’s tomb If Babakov had been a schoolmaster he would even have supervised such visits Harry had no way of letting hi the thin shell of deception

“At any time did you ever meet our revered leader the chairman of the Presidium Council, Comrade Stalin?” continued the state prosecutor

“Yes, on one occasion when I was a student he visited the Foreign Languages Institute to present the annual state awards”

“Did he speak to you?”

“Yes, he congratulated ree”

Harry knew Babakov had won the Lenin medal and come top of his class Why didn’t he mention that? Because it wasn’t part of the well-prepared script he had been given, and which he was sticking to The answers had probably been written by the sa the questions

“Other than that brief encounter, did you ever coain?”

“No, sir, never” Once again, he exaggerated the word “never”

Harry was beginning to form a plan in his mind If it was to work, he would have to convince those three stony-faced coe, and was appalled ever to have been taken in by the man

“I should now like to move on to 1954, when you attempted to have a book published, in which you claimed that you had worked on the president’s private staff for thirteen years as his personal interpreter, when in fact you had never once entered the Kreet aith such a deception?”

“Because, like me, no one orked at the Sarkoski Press had ever been inside the Kremlin They had only seen Comrade Stalin from a distance when he reviewed our troops at the May Day parade So it wasn’t difficult to convince them that I had been a member of his inner circle”

Harry shook his head in disgust and frowned at Babakov, hoping he wasn’t overdoing it He saw the chairman gestion of a smile?

“And is it also true that you planned to defect, in the hope of having your book published in the West, with the sole purpose of e sum of money?”

“Yes, I thought that if I could fool the people at the Sarkoski Press, how much easier it would be to convince the Americans and the British that I had been a party official working alongside the chairman After all, how many people from the West have ever visited the Soviet Union, let alone spoken to the comrade chairman, who everyone knows didn’t speak a word of