Honorable Schoolboy

In 1974, George Smiley, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (known as the Circus at the headquarters location in ), was studying the activities of his organization during a period when one of the leading posts was held by KGB agent Bill Haydon. Smiley is looking for traces of the activities of the Soviet spy, known under the pseudonym “Karl” and his colleagues from the KGB . To protect the politically weakened Secret Service from hawks in the British government, Smiley has to conduct a successful espionage operation. To this end, he, along with analysts Connie Seychees and Doc di Salis, summoned from his retirement, is trying to find traces of operations that were unreasonably terminated at the direction of Bill Haydon. They discover an investigation by a SIS agent in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, Sam Collins, on a money laundering operation, the strings of which stretch to Karl.

During the investigation, Smiley recalls the son of a bankrupt newspaper tycoon, the venerable Sambo Westby, Jerry, a former newspaper reporter and, occasionally, an SIS operative. Jerry Westby goes to Hong Kong to identify the owner of the account, which ultimately ends up with Soviet money from Vientiane. To do this, by blackmailing a bank employee Frost, Jerry Westby gets the opportunity to photograph the documents on the account. Westby finds out that this is a “trust account”, only the name of the person who opened it is known - Drake Co., one of the richest people in Hong Kong, holder of the Order of the British Empire . Moreover, the recipient of money is identified only with the help of fingerprints, money has never been withdrawn from the account and the balance at the moment is about half a million US dollars.

A parallel investigation in Hong Kong and London made it possible to identify Lisa Ward, Drake Co's mistress, as the Englishwoman Elizabeth Wardington. Elizabeth (“Lizzy”) Werdington was previously a friend of the pilot of the “Kid” Ricardo, a Mexican mercenary in Vientiane, but she herself considered herself an agent of British intelligence, fulfilling the instructions of Sam Collins.

Seiches and di Salis interrogate Rev. Hibbert, learning that he was a missionary in Shanghai, who picked up the orphaned Ko brothers and named them “Drake” and “Nelson” in honor of the English admirals, and that “Lisa” is the name of the late wife of Hibbert.

Further investigation revealed that Nelson Co., who lives in China under a different name, is one of the leaders of the Chinese defense department and a member of the Chinese counterpart of the British intelligence committee. Smiley understands who the Soviet money is for and what Drake Co. is trying to get his brother out of Red China.

Meanwhile, the CIA reports that Ricardo is alive and that he gave the agent of the Anti-Narcotics Bureau information about the load of opium with which he was supposed to fly to Red China and pick up the valuable cargo from there. Since the US wants to arrest Drake Ko as a drug lord, they give Smiley 10 to 12 weeks during which they will not intervene so that the Circus can carry out its operation. Smiley quickly linked a trip to Shanghai Tiu (Drake Co.'s right hand) six weeks earlier and Ricardo's planned flight with a load of opium to Red China. Tiu was supposed to meet with Nelson, Drake’s brother, to organize Nelson’s escape from China on Ricardo’s Beechcraft .

Smiley is forced to rotate the operation 180 degrees, forcing Ko to respond to surveillance, which will speed up Operation Dolphin. Westerby, as it were, accidentally meets with Lizzy Werdington. She calls Tiu to the bar in which they were wholly with Jerry; before that, Westby asked her about Ricardo and about the connection between the Indocharter airline, in which Lizzie and Ricardo worked together, and the Soviet embassy in Vientiane. Westerby is very surprised by her ignorance of Nelson Co. and Indocharter’s connection with the Soviet "gold mine" (an operation to secretly transfer money to Drake Co.'s trust account).

By order of the Circus, Westbury finds opium smuggler-pilot Charlie Marshall in the Cambodian city of Battambang and flies from Battambang to Phnom Penh on a Marshall plane. Ricardo is also on board, but Westerby does not understand who he is, while in Phnom Penh, when he escapes from him, Ricardo does not shoot at Westerby. That same night, Westerby kidnaps Marshall from drug dealership and interrogates him when he learns that Lizzy was transporting heroin for Collins, that Tiu was offering Marshall $ 5,000 for a flight he had refused, and where Ricardo was hiding.

Westerby finds Ricardo in the jungle in Thailand , Ricardo tells Westerby that Tiu, on behalf of Ko, hired Ricardo to transport opium to China and pick up the bag on the other side, paying Ricardo's debts as an advance for work. Instead of doing the work, Ricardo stole the opium and Beechcraft plane and hid. Westerby tells Ricardo that the package was Drake Co's brother, Nelson. Ricardo again tries to kill Westby, putting a grenade in the fuel tank of his car; Westby finds out this trick and leaves the car before it explodes.

On April 30, 1975, Westby arrives at the U.S. Air Force base in northeast Thailand and sends a report to the Circus, he also learns that the North Vietnamese army captured Saigon , which means the victory and end of the Vietnam War . In turn, the Circus orders Jerry to return to London and by no means to appear in Hong Kong. Disobeying orders, Westbury arrives in Hong Kong. In his apartment, he discovers the shot of Luke, an American photojournalist whom Jerry allowed to use the apartment during his absence.

To verify the success of the operation, Dolphin, Smiley, Guillem, and Von (Smiley's bodyguard), along with CIA officers Martello and Murphy, arrive in Hong Kong to capture Nelson Co. Smiley knows that Nelson will flee China in the same way as Drake in 1951, on a fishing junk and arrive at the southernmost of the islands in Hong Kong territorial waters - Po-Toy.

Encouraged by romantic feelings, Jerry Westbury stays in Hong Kong to save Lizzy Wardington (he takes her from the party), as well as to protect Nelson from being captured, while the CIA spies on Drake and pans over Lizzy's phone and apartment. Jerry and Lizzy go to her apartment; Smiley enters without warning, and Weatherby, expecting it to be Drake or Tiu, attacks him before he realizes that this is his boss. Von beats Jerry while defending Smiley. Smiley orders Fon and Guillem to deliver Westbee aboard the plane to London, but Westerbee escapes on the way to the airport. Together with Lizzy they hire a boat to sail on Po-Toy. There she shows him a place special for Drake, helping Westbury determine where exactly Nelson should land when he escapes from China. After that, Lizzy returns to Hong Kong.

That same night, at the alleged landing site of Nelson, Westby sees on the banks of Drake and Tiu awaiting Nelson. With a blow to his head, Westerby disconnects Tiu, after which he tells Drake that he wants Lizzy for himself in exchange for saving Nelson from the British and Americans. Drake is skeptical but agrees to Jerry's suggestion. However, as soon as Nelson comes ashore, CIA agents appear, capture Nelson and take him out by helicopter. During the take-off of helicopters, Von queues from a machine gun to kill Westbury.

The CIA keeps Nelson at home. The British are not allowed to interrogate Nelson; neither di Salis nor the Seishes are included in the number of investigators. The success of Operation Dolphin gives high positions in the Circus for Enderby and Collins, who becomes (temporarily) the head of the Circus. Smiley and Connie Seiches are retired, Peter Guillem goes to the post of head of the circus department engaged in covert operations.

In 1977, the novel was awarded the James Tate Black Prize . ^[one]

Le Carré, John Hon. Schoolboy. - M .: Vagrius, 1998 .-- 608 p. - ISBN 5-7027-0217-4

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