The Spy Who Came in From the Cold: Chapter 25 Summary & Analysis

As they drive through the night, Liz asks Leamas what her part was in the operation. Leamas says that Fiedler was too powerful to be taken down by Mundt alone. London saw that Fiedler needed to be discredited entirely, not just killed, to save Mundt’s position. Still driving, Leamas tries to overtake a lorry and then must brake hard to avoid a crash. He continues, saying that he was prepared to become an alcoholic wreck and punch Ford to kill Mundt, which is what he thought the mission was.

Liz asks Leamas if he also made love to her for the mission. He says he did not. He goes on to say that it was his job to make them think what was actually true: that Mundt was a British spy. Then, once his plot was uncovered, Mundt would be safe. Liz asks how they could have known that she and Leamas would fall for one another. Leamas says it didn’t matter. The Circus had a man in the Labor Exchange, Pitt, set him up to work at the library with her, because they knew she was a Communist and would accept the invitation to Germany. Then, even if they did not have a relationship, Mundt’s defense would have been able to make it look as if they had been involved, especially because Smiley went to call on Liz. Liz says she feels dirty and used.

Liz asks Leamas why she is being released from the prison. She says she is a risk now, if she goes back to England, because she knows so much and is a Party member. Leamas says that he imagines Mundt will secure his position by blaming their escape on someone else. Liz asks if he really doesn’t care that Fiedler and other innocent people will be killed. Leamas says it makes him sick, but all that matters to spy agencies is success. Liz says Leamas is trying to convince himself not to feel guilty for getting Fiedler—who was a good man—executed. Leamas gets angry and says that the Communists usually find it justifiable to sacrifice individuals for the good of the collective. He says she is right, that Mundt must have promised the British to get her out, but of course did not care whether she lived or died.

Liz objects to the way the spy services used her love for Leamas, saying that this amounts to turning the humanity in people into a weapon. Leamas says that this is just the way spies work, and that their goal is to protect civilians. Liz insists that the spies are worse than everyone else. Leamas says that he hates the deceit and sacrifice of innocents that come with spy work, but what they have gone through is insignificant, because the whole world is full of people killing one another both in wars like World War II and in genocides. Liz remembers the Prison Wardress saying that they are in “a prison for those who slow down the march” towards a Communist society.

Leamas sees a man on the road and picks him up. The man instructs them as they drive. He says he will show them where to climb over the Berlin Wall. Leamas, he says, should go first, then pull Liz up after him. They will only have ninety seconds, and they must climb over at a specific moment. The man tells Leamas to drive in a series of convoluted directions. When they arrive, the man tells them that the barbed wire is cut in the place where they should climb. Leamas tells the man not to drive the car away until they’re over, but once they are out of the car the man immediately drives away.