Agent Running in the Field

Nat tells the reader that normally, “if this were an official case history,” then he’d start with listing off all the data he knows about Ed (8). However, since those statistics are not available, Nat instead says that he’ll begin with his own data. Nat tells the reader that his original name was Anatoly, which was later anglicized to Nathaniel; that he’s five feet, 10 inches tall and has gray hair; that he’s married to a woman named Prudence, or “Prue”; and that he’s a solicitor in the City of London, working primarily on pro bono cases.

In addition to his positive qualities, Nat also informs the reader that his previous employers commended his willingness to exhibit the callousness required to complete his job, whatever it may be. Nat also has inherited from his family a language tutor, named Madame Galina, who hails from the Volga region of Russia. Madame Galina takes care of Nat’s personal welfare, as well as instructing him on various languages and scripts. Finally, Nat is also a member of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, which has employed him for the past 25 years.

Nat describes his recruitment to the intelligence service by his university tutor. He decided to accept the role because of the general anti-Bolshevik attitudes in his family, who’d left their homeland following the Russian Revolution. One day shortly thereafter, Nat received a letter telling him to present himself at a building close to Buckingham Palace. There, a retired Royal Navy admiral asked him what games he played, and when Nat told him badminton, the admiral recounted a time when he played Nat’s father in badminton in Singapore.

At his meeting, Nat was ordered to head to Bodmin Parkway railway station carrying a copy of the previous week’s Spectator magazine. There, a man asked him when the next train was set to leave. Understanding implicitly that this man was his contact, Nat followed him to a white van parked in a local carpark. They drove to a location where he was asked a series of inscrutable questions, mostly pertaining to his loyalty to his country. He’d been accepted into the intelligence service with the following evaluation: “Glib under pressure. Latent aggression good. Recommended” (12).

Nat met his future wife in the same month that he completed his basic training course to be a spy. Prue was a lawyer whom Nat hired to represent him in a dispute with his extended family over his father’s estate. She managed to get Nat’s family to drop their suit, and they went out for dinner together soon afterward.

Six months later, they got married and moved to the British embassy in Moscow so that Nat could begin his work in espionage. Nat notes that this was just the beginning of his career—during the following two decades of his service, he was sent, with diplomatic cover, to spy in Moscow, Prague, Bucharest, Budapest, Tbilisi, Trieste, Helsinki, and Talinn. Now, Nat’s active years are finished, and the government no longer has any use for an aging spy who detests deskwork.

Near Christmas, Nat is summoned to the Service’s headquarters beside the Thames River, where he expects to be let go from his position. However, to Nat’s surprise, he’s informed that they do have a posting open for him if he’s interested. Recently, Britain has been plagued by a number of Russian spies, whom the Human Resources representative, Moira, describes as “nastier than they ever were, more brazen, more meddlesome and more numerous” (16). Even though the British have kicked out a number of their legal spies—meaning spies with diplomatic cover, the same kind as Nat—the Russians have continued to send illegal spies without diplomatic cover. An old colleague of Nat’s in Budapest, Dominic “Dom” Trench, has recently been appointed head of London General and has requested that Nat join him in the domestic work of rooting out Russian spies.

Nat meets up with Dom, a vivacious and cheerful man who used to be a close friend of Nat’s when they both worked together in Budapest. All Britain-based substations of the intelligence service are under Dom’s command. The two friends look at the list of agents for whom Nat served as a handler, discussing their various complaints and desires and the ways in which they’ll try to accommodate them.

Dom offers Nat command of a Russian outstation based in London called Haven. Nat feels skeptical of this posting, as Haven is known to be a “dumping ground for resettled defectors of nil value and fifth-rate informants on the skids” (23). However, Dom promises that under his oversight, the station won’t be neglected, and Nat will be able to continue his field work on Russia, which has been the focus of his entire career.

Before deciding, Nat tells Dom that he must discuss the matter with his wife, Prue. Though Nat and Prue are still happily married, she has changed since the days when she was willing to uproot her whole life and move with Nat to Moscow to become the spouse of a spy. When Prue became pregnant in Russia, the couple moved back to England and purchased their home in Battersea. Prue resumed her law career and raised their daughter, Stephanie, or “Steff,” while Nat traveled from posting to posting, spying for the British crown. Now, Nat is back home in England permanently, and he and Prue need to adjust to their new life together as an older, married couple.

Prue and Nat discuss whether he should accept the job at the London substation. Prue encourages Nat to take the position, despite her reservations about Dom. Nat also decides to tell their daughter, Steff, about his history as a spy, as Nat has become tired of the now-adult Steff’s “light-hearted disdain for [him]” (29). Prue is nervous about this decision, given Steff’s difficult relationship with Nat and the history of conflict between them during Steff’s teenage years. However, they eventually decide that disclosure is in the family’s best interest.

During a family ski trip, Nat prepares to tell Steff about his past, worried about her feelings regarding patriotism, which Steff is generally against. Steff asks whether Nat has ever killed anyone, which Nat denies. He explains to her that the worst thing he’s ever done as a spy was convince people to betray their country when they otherwise might not have done so. Steff also wonders aloud whether her father ever had affairs with other women while on assignment, to which Nat snaps that Steff should “mind [her] own bloody business” (36). Steff is angrier at Prue than Nat for hiding the fact of him being a spy from her for so many years.

Soon after, Nat attends his first day of work at Haven. He meets the spies who work for the substation, including Igor, Marika, Ilya, and Denise, none of whom particularly impress Nat. He also meets Florence, who is considered his number two in the substation. Florence has prepared a whole series of intelligence operations on her own, demonstrating her loyalty to the Crown and earning Nat’s respect in the process.

Nat and Florence discuss an upcoming intelligence operation targeting a Russian oligarch named Orson, who is living in London and has known ties to the Kremlin. Nat instructs Florence to remove any references to the moral necessity of the operation in her report, to which she responds with indignation. Nat leaves the office that night consumed with his work but also looking forward to his upcoming badminton match with Ed Shannon.

Ed and Nat end up playing 15 games of badminton on a twice-weekly basis. On the first Monday they’re to play, Ed shows up to the appointment seeming rumpled and out of breath, annoying Nat. Ed takes a long time to get ready for the match, and Nat’s irritation deepens. When they go into the badminton court, Nat is already looking forward to using the game to fix his mood. That first evening, they play seven hard-fought games, of which Nat wins four. Though Ed has height on Nat, he’s an inconsistent player, which Nat exploits to win more games. Nat also appreciates Ed’s attitude while losing, as he doesn’t get mad or resentful but rather maintains a broad grin.

After an extremely busy couple of weeks, Ed and Nat face off again. Afterward, they go out for drinks together, which becomes a regular habit following their games. Ed tells Nat that he works as a researcher, though he acts cagey about the details of his job. One day, Ed asks Nat whether he supports Brexit and the current path of the United Kingdom, especially in terms of their relationship with the Trump administration. Nat feels concerned about responding, not wanting to be drawn into a political discussion contrary to his position as a civil servant. He tells Ed about his anti-Brexit and anti-Trump opinions but maintains a distance from the discussion.

Ed and Nat become fast friends. Along with badminton, they enjoy discussing politics with each other. Ed likes to be able to ramble about his own perspective, and Nat is happy to listen and absorb, delighted about not being forced to take a strong stance. Privately, Nat agrees with Ed, thinking of Brexit as a “self-immolation” (60), even if he doesn’t want to be forced into declaring it.