The Spy Who Came in From the Cold: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Fiedler brings Leamas letters to the banks in Oslo and Copenhagen to sign under the aliases he used to open the bank accounts. Leamas practices the aliases’ signatures and then signs the letters. Fiedler says that they will spend a week together, talking and awaiting a response. He offers Leamas a prostitute, but Leamas refuses, saying that unlike Fiedler, he does not need a pimp. Fiedler says that Leamas had a woman in England, and Leamas becomes enraged. He says never to mention her again, and to tell whomever told Fiedler about her never to mention it again if they want his cooperation. Fiedler says he will tell them, but it may be too late.

On a walk that day, Fiedler steers the conversation to Mundt. He asks Leamas if he knew that Mundt was in England. Leamas says that Peter Guillam told him that Mundt had killed a man while he was there. Fiedler remarks that it is odd that Mundt was able to escape England after that, but Leamas says that there was never a full attempt made to catch Mundt. Fiedler is shocked. Leamas says that there was a different organizational structure at the Circus in those years, and that Guillam had told him that, if Mundt had been caught, all kinds of embarrassing information would have come out about the man who was the head of the Circus before Control. Fiedler asks if Leamas never wondered if there were some other reason Mundt escaped. Leamas seems not to understand the question.

Fiedler steers the conversation to Riemeck, asking Leamas about the occasion when Riemeck and Control met. Leamas says that Control always liked to be around when things were going well, and Riemeck felt flattered to meet Control. Fiedler asks if Leamas ever left Control and Riemeck alone together, and Leamas answers that he did for a few minutes, at Control’s request. He says he does not know why they spoke alone, but that he thinks the flattery went to Riemeck’s head and led to his betraying too much to Elvira. Fiedler says to Leamas that he is beginning to like him, but wonders why he ever defected. Before Leamas responds, Fiedler laughs and says that that was not a tactful thing for him to say.

One night, Leamas and Fiedler go driving together in a car. Fiedler stops at a phone booth, leaving the keys in the car and makes a long call. When he returns to the car, Leamas asks why he didn’t just call from the house. Fiedler warns him to be careful, and then drives for a while. Then they stop and get out of the car. Grasping Leamas’s arm, Fiedler tells him that he may need to look after himself for a while, but everything will be all right. Leamas hates being touched, and says he does not know what Fiedler means.

Fiedler drives to a hilltop and he and Leamas get out of the car to talk. Fiedler begins to talk about Mundt, who he says shoots first and asks questions later. This is illogical in their profession, since the information that could be gleaned from those Mundt shoots is of the utmost importance. Mundt used to capture people and let Fiedler interrogate them, but then he started killing all the suspects before Fiedler could even speak with them.

Fiedler says he has worked it out: Mundt was caught in England and then turned into a British spy. Leamas says Fiedler is out of his mind, repeating again that it would be impossible for an agent to be run out of Berlin without Leamas knowing it, when he had been the head of Berlin Station. Fiedler says that he received a letter back from the bank in Copenhagen: the money was withdrawn by the co-signatory on the joint account, and the day when it was withdrawn coincides with a trip Mundt took to Copenhagen.