《红木》（Redwood）。作者：本·麦金太尔（Ben Macintyre）。皇冠出版社（Crown）；416页；35美元。维京出版社（Viking）；464页；25英镑。
Redwood. By Ben Macintyre. Crown; 416 pages; $35. Viking; 464 pages; £25VLADIMIR KUZICHKIN, a KGB spy who defected to Britain after a harrowing escape from Iran in 1981-82, asked for two things: a horoscope and a circumcision.
弗拉基米尔·库齐奇金（Vladimir Kuzichkin）是一名克格勃间谍，在1981至1982年经历了一场惊心动魄的伊朗大逃亡后叛逃到英国。他提出了两项要求：一份星座运势和一个割礼。“找一个通过审查的施行割礼者已经够难了，”历史学家本·麦金太尔写道，但“要找到一个通过安全审查的占星师是不可能的”。
“Recruiting a vetted circumciser had been hard enough,” writes Ben Macintyre, a historian, but “locating a security-cleared astrologer was impossible”.“Redwood” is the gripping tale of Kuzichkin’s recruitment into MI6. (“Redwood” was his code name.)
《红木》讲述了库齐奇金被军情六处招募的扣人心弦的故事（“红木”是他的代号）。这是麦金太尔最新的真实间谍惊悚小说：他先前的作品曾聚焦于叛逃至克格勃的军情六处官员金·菲尔比（Kim Philby）等人。和他的其他书籍一样，这本书成功地将间谍的心理与对间谍活动业务技能的近距离观察融合在了一起。他的每一位主角都在关键时刻推动了历史的齿轮。
It is Mr Macintyre’s latest true-life spy thriller: earlier narratives have looked at Kim Philby, an MI6 officer who defected to the KGb, among others. It succeeds, like his other books, in melding spies’ psychology with an up-close look at the tradecraft of espionage. Each of his protagonists has helped turn the cogs of history at a pivotal moment.
库齐奇金（左图）也是如此。作为革命风暴中德黑兰克格勃驻外机构的高级官员，他抵达时，巴列维国王的旧秩序正在瓦解，一个新的混乱政权正在成形。他对克格勃和苏联政权的腐败与野蛮感到不满。但他走向叛国之路出于个人原因，并因勃起功能障碍和破裂的婚姻而加速。他向军情六处寻求帮助。该机构派出了红色药丸——即维生素安慰剂，旨在安抚这位绝望的克格勃官员。
So it went with Kuzichkin (pictured left). A senior officer of the KGB rezidentura in revolutionary Tehran, he arrived as the Shah’s old order broke down and a new, chaotic regime was taking shape. He was aggrieved by the corruption and barbarity of the KGB and the Soviet regime. But his path to treason was personal, hastened by erectile dysfunction and his failing marriage. He turned to MI6 for help. The service dispatched red pills—vitamin placebos, designed to placate the desperate KGB officer, who later thought circumcision, on an astrologically favourable date, would solve his medical problem.
这位官员后来认为，在占星术上有利的日期进行割礼将解决他的医疗问题。双方在数加仑伏特加的畅饮中确定了招募关系。
His recruitment was sealed over gallons of vodka.
间谍活动往往是一场高风险的游戏，其中数百人和先进技术可能只在支持单一行动。但《红木》展示了它也可能业余、笨拙且充满即兴发挥。伊恩·麦克雷迪（Ian McCredie，右图）是库齐奇金的军情六处案员工官，他试图通过大声播放波斯语广播和开着水龙头来混淆伊朗监听人员的视听。当库齐奇金经由土耳其逃跑时，军情六处担心克格勃会派出绑架小队。他们的对策是派出一名拿着一盏大黄铜台灯的官员去痛击任何袭击者。
Espionage is often a high-stakes game in which hundreds of people and advanced technology might support a single operation. But “Redwood” shows how it can also be amateurish, bumbling and improvised. Ian McCredie, Kuzichkin’s MI6 case officer (pictured right), tried to confound Iranian eavesdroppers by blasting Persian radio and running the taps. As Kuzichkin escaped via Turkey, MI6 worried about the prospect of a KGB snatch squad. Their answer was to send an officer armed with a large brass lamp to thump any assailants.“Redwood” also highlights how spies are not always whom you expect.
《红木》还突显了间谍并不总是如你所料。克格勃确信，张扬的英国大使尼古拉斯·巴林顿（Nicholas Barrington）才是军情六处驻德黑兰主管，而不是平淡无奇的麦克雷迪先生。事实上，巴林顿“看待军情六处的眼光，跟看待那些打扫他厕所……以及清扫网球场的人差不多”。他对监督他们的工作没有任何兴趣。
The KGB was convinced that the flamboyant British ambassador, Nicholas Barrington, was the MI6 head of station in Tehran, rather than the dull Mr McCredie. In fact, Barrington “regarded MI6 in much the same light as the people who cleaned his toilet…and swept the tennis courts”. He had no interest in overseeing their work.
库齐奇金的情报可能改变了伊朗的历史进程。美国和英国担心苏联支持的共产主义政变在伊朗发生的可能性，决定与伊朗政权分享库齐奇金关于共产主义活动的军情情报。在随后的清洗中，约有4000至12000人被处决，摧毁了大部分反对派，并巩固了伊斯兰主义者对权力的掌控。
Kuzichkin’s secrets may have changed the course of Iranian history. America and Britain, worried by the possibility of a Soviet-backed communist coup in Iran, decided to share Kuzichkin’s intelligence on communist activities with Iran’s regime. Some 4,000-12,000 people were executed in the purges that followed, destroying much of the opposition and consolidating the Islamists’ grip on power.
库齐奇金对他们的屠杀感到“挥之不去”，于2009年去世。军情六处没有为《红木》提供协助，但麦克雷迪先生与作者进行了长时间的交谈。其他健在的军情六处官员则以薄弱的化名出现。他们的坦率可能会给该机构内部带来一些不安。但其结果是又一部一流的间谍故事。
Kuzichkin, “haunted” by their slaughter, died in 2009. MI6 did not co-operate in “Redwood”, but Mr McCredie spoke at length to the author. Other living MI6 officers appear under flimsy pseudonyms. Their candour may have caused some discomfort inside the service. But the result is another first-rate spy story.
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