Quarto protocollo

George Berenson: [George just found out that his South African contact is a Russian spy] Oh my God... what have I done?

Sir Nigel Irvine: You've betrayed your country. You've passed on untold numbers of military secrets to Moscow, and endangered the lives of British men and women. And I'd say you've weakened NATO. Perhaps irretrievably.

George Berenson: Oh my God...

Sir Nigel Irvine: Just you, and your schoolboy politics, and your idiotically conceited faith in your own importance.

[pause]

Sir Nigel Irvine: Now some of our more muscular colleagues would like to lock you in a cell and go to work on you with a carving knife and a pair of pliers. The rest would like to feed you to the newspapers and throw whatever's left into prison for 20 years. It's a tricky choice.

[Smiles ever so slightly, pauses]

Sir Nigel Irvine: However, this is what you will do. You shall resume your special relationship with Moscow, but this time I will be supplying the papers. Do you understand?

[George nods]

Sir Nigel Irvine: And later, when you are finished, we will decide what to do with you.

George Berenson: [very shakily] I'm very grateful, Nigel.