The Honourable Schoolboy

by John le Carre

In 1974 George Smiley, the chief of the British secret intelligence service referred to as The Circus, is repairing the damage done to their operations by double agent Bill Haydon and looking for opportunities to target Karla, the Moscow Centre spymaster. Smiley and analysts Connie Sachs and Doc di Salis look into investigations suppressed by the outed mole and find that a historic investigation of a money laundering operation in Laos by Sam Collins could indicate a Moscow intelligence operation.

Smiley dispatches Jerry Westerby, a newspaper reporter and occasional Circus operative, to Hong Kong under the guise of a sports journalist. Westerby traces the Soviet money to Drake Ko, a local businessman with links to both the criminal underworld and the British establishment. London establishes that Drake Ko has a brother, Nelson, who is a high-ranking Chinese official and who has been spying on the Chinese for the Soviets.

Westerby, following up leads provided by London, interviews Drake's English mistress Lizzie Worthington and discovers that Drake has been attempting to set up an illicit air route into China. Charlie Marshall and Tiny Ricardo (both pilots and smugglers) were approached by Drake to carry opium into China, and return with a package. The flights were never completed, and Smiley surmises that the package was Nelson, who wished to defect from China. The money supplied by Moscow was intended for Nelson, to be accessed after he left China.

Nelson would be a prime intelligence source on both Soviet and Chinese capabilities, but political maneuverings between London and Washington hamper the investigation. It is finally agreed that the Circus will run the operation to capture Nelson and interrogate him afterwards, with all information shared with the United States. Smiley instructs Westerby to become more proactive in his investigations, forcing Drake to move forward with his plans to extract Nelson. The banker from whom Westerby had acquired Ko's identity, Frost, is brutally murdered, and Westerby and his Hong Kong colleague Luke are shown the mutilated body. Concerned for his safety, Westerby travels in and out of war-torn Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, where Ricardo tries to kill Westerby. On his return to Hong Kong Westerby finds Luke murdered in his apartment. Westerby becomes increasingly stressed and begins to obsess over Worthington's situation, the ethics of the operation and Western involvement in Asia.

Sam Collins has blackmailed Worthington into bugging and informing on Drake. The Circus now has enough information to predict Drake's plan, which replicates his own escape from China via sea. Westerby is ordered to return to London. Westerby ignores this and contacts Worthington to warn her of the danger she is in. Smiley along with Circus and CIA operatives arrive in Hong Kong to oversee the final stages of the operation. Smiley and his men encounter Westerby and try to force him to board a plane but Westerby escapes and with Worthington's help, reaches the rendezvous point where Drake will meet with his brother. Westerby warns Drake of the plans of the intelligence agencies in an effort to protect Worthington from reprisal and to have an opportunity to be with her, but Drake does not heed his warning. At their appointed meeting place on the beach, CIA forces seize Nelson, and Westerby is killed by Fawn, a Circus operative. In the aftermath, the CIA detains and interrogates Nelson, freezing the Circus out. The success of the operation yields top Circus jobs for Enderby, who becomes Chief, and Collins, who becomes Head of Operations. Smiley and Connie Sachs are retired and most of the older generation of Circus personnel are moved on. In the aftermath of the debacle, Peter Guillam contemplates the possibility that Smiley allowed the CIA to gain the upper hand so as to have himself removed as head of the Circus.