A Legacy of Spies

by John Le Carré

Is our agent Windfall for us or against us?

Start of doubt and confusion

Yet for all Mundt’s undoubted power – or maybe because of it – he had been unable to halt or even abate the relentless cull of Covert’s agents and sub-agents, as conducted by his rival Josef Fiedler.

‘So do we or do we not believe,’ he demands through his fluttering fingertips, ‘that we’re still getting the best material out of Herr bloody Mundt? Is it second pickings? Is it chickenfeed? Is it smoke? And is he leading us up the garden path? George?’

Your intent, your foreknowledge, your complicity. You could stand or fall by any one of them.’