The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Leamas departs Berlin for London, thinking about his past as an intelligence officer who always preferred operational work to the bureaucracy of the “Circus,” the headquarters of British Intelligence. He had been successful until the rise of Hans-Dieter Mundt, a fearsome East German spymaster who rose quickly through the ranks of the Abteilung (“the department”) and promptly began an aggressive and deadly pursuit of Western spies until Leamas was left without a single valuable agent in Germany. Leamas is returning to the Circus, where he believes he will be fired for losing his network, and when he meets “Control,” the head of foreign intelligence, his boss asks him about the breakdown of the network and whether he is tired of running spies. But rather than fire him, Control asks Leamas to go on one more mission, to take down Mundt, before he “come[s] in from the cold” (19). As a first step, Control suggests that Leamas meet with George Smiley, a retired spy and subject of an assassination attempt by Mundt. After asking again whether Leamas is mentally exhausted from his experiences, Control advises him to act as though the Circus has punished him harshly for what happened in Berlin.

Leamas begins to assemble his cover for the mission. He assumes responsibility for the failure in Berlin, and as a result is taken out of operational service, loses most of his pension, and accepts a humiliating demotion to the banking section. Within a short time, Leamas becomes irritable, isolated, and frequently drunk at work. He then quits the service abruptly and draws out his remaining pay in cash, leading to rumors that he was embezzling and took all he could before getting caught. Leamas then seeks employment elsewhere, including at a factory and as a door-to-door salesperson, but with no success, and soon his neighbors and the tradespeople working the area are aware of his shabby reputation.

Leamas finally secures a job at a library, vaguely recognizing the Labour Exchange employee who helped him find it. He meets the librarian, Miss Crail, an ill-tempered woman who frequently calls her mother to argue or complain about what is transpiring in the library. In the archives, he meets another employee, a woman in her early twenties named Liz Gold, tall and neither attractive nor unattractive. After drawing Miss Crail’s ire for taking a long lunch and bringing shopping bags into the library, he finishes the day and returns to his apartment, where the electricity has been shut off. In the following days, Leamas deliberately provokes Miss Crail to the point of quiet fury and becomes friendly with Liz. They begin sharing many meals together. She expects that one day Leamas will leave suddenly, and during dinner one night she asks what he believes in. He refuses to provide a straight answer, and she muses that he seems like he’s out for revenge. Leamas turns the question back on Liz, and she confesses to being a Communist, after which they laugh and go to bed together. Leaving her apartment the next morning, Leamas notices a man down the road, but as he approaches, the man vanishes.

One week later, Leamas has not come to work at the library, delighting Miss Crail and worrying Liz. When he does not come again the following day, Liz takes a taxi to his apartment, where she finds Leamas in a miserable condition. Liz buys medicine, prepares tea, and tends to him. Liz returns every day to oversee his recovery, but he never speaks to her, except to deny being in love with her. Another night after dinner, he speaks tenderly to her, only to get up and tell her to stop following him. The next day, Leamas gets into an argument with the local grocer, who refuses him a purchase on credit. Leamas attacks him and is arrested.

Leamas is in prison. He feels the humiliation of incarceration, but he is also able to make himself inscrutable to the other incarcerated men. Early on, a group of men surrounded and attacked him, but a few days afterward he shoved the handle of a hoe into the stomach of one of his attackers, and they left him alone after that. Leamas is released after serving three months. Walking to a park, Leamas leaves behind a parcel that was given to him upon being discharged, and a man chases after him to return it. The man, known as Ashe, claims to know Leamas, but Leamas denies knowing him. Ashe’s story of knowing Leamas becomes more intricate and implausible, and Leamas decides to play along and pretend to know him. They drink together through the afternoon, and Ashe insists on meeting again the next day so he can pay for Leamas’s bill. When Ashe departs, Leamas travels by subway and then climbs into a van, acting as if he believes he is being followed. The drive takes him to George Smiley’s house, but Control is waiting inside. Control apologizes for not attending to Leamas during his illness or imprisonment, and denies knowing the man whom Leamas thought he recognized who set him up with the library job. As he prepares for his mission, Leamas insists that Liz be left out of things entirely, despite her Communist affiliations. 

The following day, Leamas has lunch with Ashe, drinking heavily. Ashe talks extensively about writing on England for foreign presses. He hints that Leamas might know his boss, Sam Kiever, based on their both having spent time in Germany. Ashe insists that he has the connections to help Leamas get back on his feet, and Leamas agrees to go to Ashe’s apartment. While Ashe is gone, Leamas furtively makes a call to the Circus, informing them of his location and his plans to meet Sam Kiever. Kiever returns with Ashe, and the three men have dinner and wine. Talk drifts to the political situation in France and Germany. Ashe suggests relocating to a private club where he has a membership. There Leamas confronts him over his suspicious behavior and obviously false cover story. Kiever tells Ashe to leave, and then provides a vague offer of a well-paying job providing information to an international clientele. Leamas is surprised at how quickly Kiever, who is presumably an agent of a Communist government, decided to make him an offer, but he accepts, and they plan to make their first stop in Holland the following day. Leamas stays over at Kiever’s apartment, and he gets ready to leave with a fresh passport, in his own name, that Kiever has prepared for him.