Nemesis by Tim Stevens Page A

decision, of course. But he did so after consultation with the President. And the President persuaded him that Mossberg was of high enough value to both of us, the US and Great Britain, that it was worth losing Rossiter in return.’
    When he said no more, Purkiss asked, ‘What’s so important about Mossberg?’
    ‘I can’t tell you that,’ said Asher.
    Purkiss sighed inwardly.
    Asher turned his head to look at Purkiss.
    ‘No. I mean, I genuinely can’t. Because I don’t know.’
    Purkiss watched his eyes. Looked for tell-tale signs in the rest of the face, a twitch or a tightening. Saw no minor movements of the hands indicating a suppressed attempt to cover up the mouth after a lie.
    He thought Asher was telling the truth.
    ‘The Company persuaded MI6 to let them in on this investigation,’ Asher continued. ‘Hence my presence here. Waring-Jones assumed you’d be suspicious if you knew I was CIA, so a legend was quickly created for me that established me as an MI6 operative. I guess it wasn’t convincing enough.’
    ‘The legend was fine,’ said Purkiss. ‘As I said, it was your use of idiom that tipped me off.’
    For the first time he saw a reaction, a minute narrowing of the eyes. He recognised the clench of shame in Asher’s face.
    ‘So what now?’ said Asher.
    Purkiss nodded through the windscreen. ‘Get going.’
    Asher looked at him.
    ‘To the site of the exchange,’ said Purkiss. ‘We’re here now. We may as well finish what we came here to do.’
    *
    T he road, the rocky slopes and scatters of woodland, became ever more desolate as they progressed.
    After a full five minutes of silence, Purkiss said, ‘What’s your take on Mossberg? Why’s he so valuable?’
    ‘I told you. I don’t know.’
    ‘I didn’t ask if you knew . I want your opinion.’
    Asher drew deeply though his nose, seeming to relax a little. ‘The obvious answer is that he’s a professor of physics. He’ll have knowledge of Moscow’s nuclear facilities and programmes.’
    ‘Doesn’t make sense,’ Purkiss said. ‘The Russians wouldn’t hand him over if he had any really useful information for us.’
    ‘Right.’ Asher paused. ‘You know anything about Mossberg’s background?’
    ‘No. Waring-Jones didn’t see fit to tell me.’
    ‘Mossberg was serving a fifteen-year prison sentence in Moscow for falsifying scientific data. He fiddled the results of a research study he was conducting into reactor safety standards. His conclusions were that many Russian nuclear reactors were at an unacceptably high risk of melting down. It turned out his research had proven no such thing. He was being overly cautious.’
    ‘Scientific fraud isn’t a criminal offence,’ Purkiss said. ‘Even in Russia.’
    ‘But his findings caused Moscow to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on upgrading their reactors,’ said Asher. ‘When they discovered the money had been wasted, the Russians prosecuted Mossberg for defrauding the public purse. Something like that.’
    Purkiss took a few moments to absorb it.
    ‘And you know all this how?’ he said.
    Asher had regained some of his confidence. ‘The Kremlin assumed at first that Mossberg was a CIA plant. He’d travelled to the US many times, and he had contacts in the scientific community over there. How exactly he’d pose a threat to Russian security by improving their nuclear safety standards is hard to work out. But if they hadn’t picked up his fraud before completing the upgrades of the reactors, the cost would have run to billions of dollars. So I guess Moscow viewed Mossberg as a possible economic saboteur. Anyhow. The Kremlin accused Washington of being behind Mossberg’s fraud. Washington denied it, of course. There was no evidence to link Mossberg to either the CIA or MI6, and in the end the Russians had to just drop it. But they jailed Mossberg for fifteen years. He was three years into his sentence when the exchange was proposed.’
    ‘Who proposed it?’ said