Heirs And Descendants Collection

12. Water Lilies

In April 1956, Lionel Crabb a frogman, once of the Special Boat Services or SBS, and a highly decorated hero of the Second World War went missing underneath the warship that brought President Khrushchev to Portsmouth harbour. He was working for MI6, in attempting to ascertain why the ship caused no echo passing over the underwater sonic beacons in the Solent, and the diplomats had their knickers twisting around their necks. We denied all knowledge of underwater swimmers lurking around the ship, until the Soviets declared that they had him; and wouldn"t let him go. We said he was out testing new equipment; they said he was a spy. It was in the only time in history that the "Chief" resigned. The newspapers were awash with bellicosity. Give him back, or else! They screamed. Get stuffed! The Soviets replied, and they sailed off, into the night.

"Chief"Give him back, or else!Get stuffed!Tanya seized her opportunity. "You must take the first chance that comes your way don"t wait for the door to be opened for you! You are to be the companion of the Ambassador"s wife. It is their way of showing how they care for us peasants. There will be receptions and planned visits…you will know when it is right. Memorise the address. If he is not there, tell them to call him. Make them understand that it is urgent."

I wonder if it was my father who made this incident happen? Paulo contemplated, when he recalled the instructions he had given his wife.

I wonder if it was my father who made this incident happen?When Paulo received his posting orders to London, he pleaded his case for taking his new wife with him to the bureaucrats. He begged for compassion and leniency in recognition of her sudden blindness, offering to have his meagre salary docked for her air passage in way of recompense. No one bothered to examine Tanya, nor did they refuse Paulo"s request.

“Comrade Doctor, do you remember me? Yes, you treated my mother. Well, I came across this new, shining, stethoscope whilst on official business at the Leningrad Medical Laboratory, and having noticed that yours was old and worn out, I thought of you. Please accept this one. Oh, I nearly forgot…here"s a new blood pressure recording apparatus as well. Yes, I know they are extremely difficult to come by. What? You"ve been waiting almost a year? You should have told me! I"ve been fortunate since becoming a KGB officer in making many friends. If you"re short of anything in the future, do contact me. Oh, I almost forgot something else in my excitement. While I"m here, could you do me a small favour? My wife of two months has an eye infection, and I do not want to leave her here, alone, while I am in London with First Secretary Khrushchev. Yes, him. I work for him you know. Write me a note to say she must go with me, please? Address it to his secretary and I"ll pass your name upwards, perhaps reaching his exulted ears.”

Since the news of his new assignment, he and Tanya had thought hard and long about how she could accompany Paulo to England, what temporary affliction would persuade the officials to show compassion. Paulo remembered a warning he had been given when he acquired the poison laid down to deter the rats that infested the block each winter.

“Wear gloves when you put it down, and hide it from any children. Whatever you do, don"t touch your eyes afterwards without washing your hands it can make you blind,” the chemist, whom he had bribed, told him. They practised for the remaining weeks left to them in Russia; testing quantities and effects, how much weeping was enough for sympathy and not too much for inquisitive attention or worse, examination, until they reached a comfortable enough compromise.

The day after Lionel Crabb"s disappearance, the wife of the Russian Ambassador was told that all things were to appear normal, and she must keep her prearranged visit to the decadent Harrods Store in Knightsbridge. Appearances were to be kept up, no matter what the circumstances, and how harsh she would find the experience. Mrs Ambassador had never considered the task of escorting Mrs Khrushchev to one of her favourite stores as being burdensome. The opportunity presented many advantages that could be exploited; the one of free gifts came readily to mind.

Tanya saw things differently through her weepy eyes. It was not commonplace gifts she sought, but the gift of promised freedom. It was all she had dreamed of; and now was the day that all could come true. My great Paulo has arranged this for me…I must take my chance, she thought, and she prepared herself for the challenge.

My great Paulo has arranged this for me…I must take my chance,There were three cars that set off that day from Kensington Gardens, whilst the rest of the Embassy staff busied themselves on more pressing agendas, such as what to do with Crabbs floating under battleships. The first heavy Zil, specially imported from Russia, carried the armed guards who were to protect the wife of the First Secretary. The second automobile would carry the lady herself, along with Mrs Ambassador, Madam Katrina, who would have preferred her usual British car with its obvious luxury to the practicality of this Russian beast. In the third was Tanya, and the other companions to the more important ladies who travelled before them.

London Police had surrounded the building, but democracy ruled that day and had not closed the department store, instead limiting the number of shoppers to a manageable size. Had it have been Khrushchev himself, it would have been a different matter. Luck still held for Tanya.

She had to use the toilet, she told Comrade Madam Katrina. “Yes, I can manage, my eyes are not so bad today, thank you,” she replied to Mrs Ambassador"s concerned question, and was allowed to go alone. The self-sacrificing Katrina preferred the comfort of an escort at her side, and the closeness to the attention of the Western Press with its flashing cameras, that the entourage brought.

“I will come straight back, yes. I promise I will not stop at the jewellery counter and ask for that huge diamond ring you admired so much.” Tanya joked, as she dabbed the tears away.

She kept her word in regards to the diamond, but not her word on the rendezvous. The calm Tanya took her chance, and left by the side door. She jumped into a cab, thrusting her note of the memorised address into the drivers hand, then went the short distance to 16 Eton Square and the welcoming arms of her father-in-law, Lord Maudlin Paterson, now Earl of Harrogate.

“All is done, Comrade Petronikov,” Paulo reported to the Head of Station at the Russian Embassy in London. “She has been placed as we arranged.”

Tanya gave Maudlin the letters sewn into her coat lapel, and he began to read. The first part of the first letter was all about how they were to contact each other and where Maudlin was to deposit the bulk of the money, as well as arrangements for his "everyday expenses incurred", as Paulo put it.

I have found inducement, and the fear of my position, powerful weapons in the forced concurrence of others. I have been subtle and selective in its use, and will continue in this way. However, as I climb higher in this corrupt organisation, I will need more elaborate means to effect that coercion. I will need something from you soon, to cement my position and that of Tanya"s. Add one to the Cardinal number each day, until twenty-one, then start again and wait patiently for my contact. It may be years before I am able to help in changing the world.

I have found inducement, and the fear of my position, powerful weapons in the forced concurrence of others. I have been subtle and selective in its use, and will continue in this way. However, as I climb higher in this corrupt organisation, I will need more elaborate means to effect that coercion. I will need something from you soon, to cement my position and that of Tanya"s. Add one to the Cardinal number each day, until twenty-one, then start again and wait patiently for my contact. It may be years before I am able to help in changing the world.The second part of the first letter was the surprising part, and the one Maudlin had not been prepared for.

Tanya carries my child, your grandchild inside her. It was a moment of indiscretion on both our parts, but not one I am regretful of. You are a great man, as I have come to recognise over our time through our correspondence. You have proved your devotion to me and made ample recompense for the years my mother and I spent in isolation, none of which can be attributed as your responsibility. Your responsibility can, now, be demonstrated in full. Treat my child as your own, I do not expect knighthoods bestowed upon him or her I understand your personal position but I do expect what I know you can give: respect.

Tanya carries my child, your grandchild inside her. It was a moment of indiscretion on both our parts, but not one I am regretful of. You are a great man, as I have come to recognise over our time through our correspondence. You have proved your devotion to me and made ample recompense for the years my mother and I spent in isolation, none of which can be attributed as your responsibility. Your responsibility can, now, be demonstrated in full. Treat my child as your own, I do not expect knighthoods bestowed upon him or her I understand your personal position but I do expect what I know you can give: respect.The second letter, he filed away in a ledger at "Annie"s".

In October of the same year, Maudlin was in Boodles where he was joined by a leading Civil Servant from the War Department. After the exchange of pleasantries and several glasses of a splendid Chateau Margaux, he learnt the unpleasant news that our special friends, the Americans, would not support the action being taken in the Suez by the British, the French, and the Israelis.

“They"re going to pull the plug, old boy, and back Nasser. They think the Reds will get involved if we don"t all pull back!”

The following day at the bank, Maudlin used that second letter, adding his numbers to the first, and under Tanya"s pseudonym "Mother", wrote her first message to Paulo. He addressed it to the Mail Box Number in the premises that dealt in such commodities in the Earl"s Court Road, next door to the station, two stops on the district line from Notting Hill and a stone"s throw from the Russian Consulate. In March of 1957, when the remains of the Army of Occupation left Egypt, the Russians consolidated their Mediterranean anchorage in Alexandria, thus freeing their Baltic fleet.

“It is not a great secret, Comrade Korovin. Lubyanka thinks it was inevitable, and the Kremlin agree; however, it means we can bring forward our preparations. Congratulations, Paulo! Your agent has done well.”

Over the next few years, the information that Maudlin supplied using Tanya"s code name was low-grade material, such as the launch of a Skylark rocket from Australia, freedom from British Sovereignty for Singapore, or the stationing of USA Thor missiles in Norfolk. However, all of this, plus what he did at home, established Paulo"s rise in the hierarchy of the KGB.

“She is long-term, my Mother. Maybe it will take thirty years to ingratiate herself significantly within their structure. Be patient, my friends. It will be worth it in the long run…Just you wait and see, Comrades!” He announced to his increasing list of devotees and disciples, now-well practised in the black art of deception and lies. So they did, and they are still waiting to this day for something of consequence to come from "Mother."

MotherFrom Garden, Paulo"s chosen code name in this operation, came enough to fill that opened file. It kept Dicky Blythe-Smith"s hands as "C" busy and happy. It was never started by the mistake made at the KGB headquarters, the Lubyanka, by an incompetent communications operative. It started with the unearthing of a then current British subject, in cohorts with the USSR.

Garden,