Boekverslag Ted Allbeury

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Titel:	Line-crosser
Auteur:	Ted Allbeury
Jaar van uitgave:	1994
Aantal pagina's:	256

Auteur:	Ted Allbeury
Geslacht:	man
Nationaliteit:	Engels
Geboren:	24 oktober 1917
Populaire titels:	1994Line-crosser (1)

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Publisher: New English Library 1993
Genre: Espionage
Pages: 278

Leading Characters: Johnny Tarrant, Charlie Foster

Where: Most part in Germany and small part in London.

When: Mainly 1988

Construction: This book has two parts. It contains 38 chapters from witch 10 chapters in the first part and 28 in the second part.

Summary:
Johnny Tarrant was given a job which he thought was supposed to be a time-filler to take his mind of a messy divorce his wife put him through. Century House used to do those kind of things for its SIS-agents. He was briefed by Powell who usually was never in charge of surveillance or anything in that section. He also found it very odd that he was given unlimited funds and a full run of facilities, cause you didn’t get that unless they meant business. Still Tarrant assumed that it was going to be a wild-goose chase meant to keep his mind occupied. The man he was supposed to locate named Charlie Foster used to be a SIS-agent who walked out a year ago. According to Powell there was a certain difference of opinion between Foster and their people in Berlin where Foster was working at the time. And one day Foster was gone. It was to their best knowledge that Foster was still in Germany but they weren’t sure whether he was in West- or East Germany. He was told that the reason they wanted to locate him was so that they could talk to him one last time before they closed the file. Tarrant spent a couple of days with his father before he went to Germany.

Johnny Tarrant knew his way around and was speaking fluent German. During the times he spent in Germany he made a few contacts, Germans as well as Brits, who he could trust and rely on. As far as the word ‘trust’ meant in his kind of business anyway. The economical situation in Germany hasn’t much approved since the end of The Second World War. The wages were very low and the products very expensive. That was one of the reasons why many people became informants for the Stasis. The other reason was politics. If they did it for political reasons they usually weren’t German but Brits or Soviets who had lived there for a long time. For many years Germany was like a battlefield between Brits and Soviets, with Brits on the West and Soviets on the East. Both associating with German government on their own sides and giving them their support. But still monitoring each others communication traffic.

When Tarrant arrived in Germany he first rented a room and then went to the SIS detachment in West Berlin. He was given a full cooperation and a access to all their files. After he spoke to some ex-colleagues of Foster he found out what happened before Foster walked out. Foster was running a network. When some of them got nicked over the other side, he wanted to ride to the rescue. His boss in Berlin said he was crazy and London said the same but a bit more diplomatically. After a couple of days it seemed like Foster had accepted it but then he was gone. Fosters network was devoted to him and he cared about them. He was tough and efficient, highly motivated and also emotional, a bit of a romantic. Inclined to rush in sometimes and not assess the risks beforehand. They were all taught never to get emotionally involved with their network cause they both new the risks. If they were caught they shouldn’t expect any help from London, infact London would denied any connection. That was something Foster never could understand, how they could just turn their backs to their own people and people working for them.

Charlie Foster was brought up in Germany. His father was a Brit and his mother was German. His father met his mother when he was working in Germany, monitoring Russian military communications. When Charlie was ten they moved to England. After graduating Charlie decided to join the army like his father. He signed on for three years in the Royal Corps of Signals. Because he was bilingual he was posted after his initial training to a unit in West Berlin that monitored the radio traffic of the East German armed forces and the security police, the Stasis. After three months he was promoted to sergeant and shortly after that was offered a job by Century House. They were interested in him because of his knowledge of the country and the people. He had accepted the job and after six-month training his army service was terminated and he was a civilian and a member of SIS. During the training he was given a crash course in Russian along with many other things. Foster was impressed by the training program. It contained surveillance, handling agents and the street craft of dead-letter drops and communication. There were also special modules that covered East German politics and East German intelligence and their KGB masters. And a separate module on the organization and identification of East German and Soviet military and their equipment. After finishing the training he was posted to West Berlin.
For a year Charlie Foster learned what it was really like. He learned that it was people who mattered and that you had to earn your network’s loyalty. He spent time with two different networks before he built up his own network that was running from SIS Berlin into East Berlin. He recruited them all himself. His three couriers serviced seven agents. The network ran smoothly and provided a wide spectrum of vital information to those whose job was to evaluate life the other side of the Wall. When he heard that his three couriers had been arrested by State Security and charged with espionage, all he had on his mind was getting them out. His boss told him that they knew the risks and that there was nothing they could do for them. He suggested to find replacements so that the network could become active again. But Charlie was determinated to get his people out. He was trying to think of a way he could do that without any help from his boss or London who both made it very clear that he was not going to get. There was only one option that he could think of. It was dangerous and for many people considered stupid but it was a way to get his people out. He offered his services to the KGB for one year in return to release his people.
Charlie was given a choice, what was more important to him: loyalty to the SIS or loyalty to his people. When he made that choice he betrayed his country and from the moment that London found out about it, they weren’t only interested in talking to him anymore.

The KGB had from the first moment they saw Foster big plans in mind for him. It was actually one man in particular, Peter Hartmann. Like Foster he was bilingual. His father was a Soviet and his mother was German. He had respect for Foster and for what he has done. Hartmann had many friends in higher rings and lot of influence. He knew a way to win Fosters trusts so that when he gave Foster a choice after one year, to go back or to stay, Foster decided to stay. He wasn’t really using Foster but he also didn’t let him see the side of the KGB that looked much like one Foster had seen at the SIS. After they were sure they could trust him, he was given lot of important jobs, but never ones they asked him to work against British government. Before the Wall fell apart KGB as well as SIS had a filling that something was going to happened. KGB was trying to found out how far the British government would get involved if there was trouble between East and West and SIS wanted to know what Moscows plans were as well. As the Wall fell apart networks of both sides were falling apart too. London and Moscow decided not to get involved on any way and to cut all connections with Germany including that with their own people. Some of them who saw it coming had already started making plans for their future, arranging new facilities to get out the country and getting hold of the money they earned during all that time.

In the mean time Foster found out that someone was looking for him. He had him picked up by Stasis who accused him of espionage. After Tarrant spent two weeks in jail Foster come to see him. He realized that Tarrant wasn’t told the whole story but now he knew it, he couldn’t sent him back to London who was already informed of Tarrant being arrested. Tarrant was publicly accused of espionage and London denied that he was working for them. Again it effected Foster to see how cold they can react.
But when the newspaper reported that Tarrant made a deal with Stasis, which he didn’t, London even knowing that it was probably just a gossip was not willing to take any risks and was now looking for Tarrant as well as Foster. Foster had a certain disc with classified information that he made while he was working for KGB. It was like an insurance. It contained information that nobody wanted to be released including SIS. He used it to blackmail the SIS. He demanded that they guaranteed no action or harassment against Tarrant plus a full pension.
London was not going to except a blackmail from anyone and especially not from Foster. They hired a man named McBride to solve the situation. When McBride was brought in it meant that all else had failed. And they never wanted to know how he had dealt with the problem. He understood what they wanted him to do without them saying it. Foster had released Tarrant and was planning on leaving the country. Tarrant first went back to his room that he rented which was under surveillance. The people watching the place had him confused with Foster and shot him in his arm. Foster never left the country. A week later an unidentified body was found in the basement of one of the disused blocks of flats which had been abandoned when the Wall was built. The autopsy indicated that the man had died from asphyxia caused by strangulation.

Johnny Tarrant was taken by ambulance to Sandown on the Isle of Wight. The house was well guarded but Tarrant was allowed reasonable freedom inside the grounds. His boss and his father, who also used to be a SIS agent, have after much anger and recrimination reached a deal. Another couple of months for the arm and shoulder to heal properly and articulate, and then Johnny would go to Ireland. His father would buy him a cottage and SIS would provide a scale-pension, nothing extravagant. After five years he would be free to do whatever he wanted.
As Tarrants father was waiting to see Johnny he remembered the letter in his pocket. It was from Johnny’s friend, addressed to him but about Johnny. It said that his ex-wife died a week ago. She was depressed and wouldn’t eat. She felt guilty about what she put Johnny through but her problems were much deeper. She and Johnny stayed in touch and despite he had forgave her, she still felt guilty. She was sick for months.
The letter ended with PS. The personnel chap I spoke to at Century House said he had never heard of Johnny. Strange people.

My opinion: The book was pretty difficult but also very exciting. It was not an ordinary book with the happy end and that makes it more real. Everything was so described that you could get the picture while you’re reading. It was the best book I ever read.