The Little Bits and Pieces of Love

Callan and Lonely break into a house in Oxford, and proceed to burgle it. Hunter briefs Meres on Mrs. Sophia Rule (Pauline Jameson), a Polish woman who was married to a rocket fuel expert, Andrei Brezhevski. During the war, she had been in a displaced persons camp, and was subsequently saved from insanity by Dr. Rule (Laurence Hardy), her current husband.

Callan arrives back at headquarters carrying stolen items from the house in Oxford; the Rules’ home. Hunter informs Callan as to Mrs. Rule’s Polish background and ex-husband, but dismisses him without giving him a reason for the burglary he has just carried out. Hunter goes on to explain to Meres that he will make Callan arrange for Mrs. Rule’s complete co-operation in getting Brezhevski to Britain. In the meantime, Meres must go to Stockholm where Brezhevski is attending a conference.

On Lonely’s advice, Callan meets Dicer (Vladek Sheybal), a Pole who has some knowledge of Brezhevski, but requires time to find out some more, agreeing to see Callan again in a couple of days. Back at the Section, Callan learns that the Russians have developed a hundred megaton bomb, and a rocket to deliver it, but not the fuel. Brezhevski is working on the fuel, so Britain needs him, both to delay the Russians, and to get the fuel for Britain. Callan’s job is to get Mrs. Rule to write to Brezhevski letting him know where she is. Meres will then deliver the letter to him in Stockholm.

Callan’s cover will be as an insurance assessor, and he duly presents himself at the Rules’ home, where Mrs. Rule is quite charmed by his manner. The next day, Callan ‘coincidentally’ meets Mrs. Rule in a cafe in Oxford. Here he reveals his true purpose, and tells her that he will be blackmailing her in order to get a letter to Brezhevski to whom she is still technically married.

The following morning, Callan arrives at the Rules’ house where he almost has to physically force Mrs. Rule to write the letter, much to Dr. Rule’s outrage. Hunter is quite satisfied with the letter, and dispatches Meres to Stockholm. Meanwhile, Callan meets with Dicer and hears that the KGB know that the British are interested in Mrs. Rule; they have also learnt where she lives. Callan reports this to Hunter, who informs him that Meres is on his way back with Brezhevski, and orders him to get Mrs. Rule up to an aerodrome in Newcastle.

That night in Oxford, Callan finds Lonely as he observes the Rules’ house. Inside with the Rules are two foreign men. Callan breaks in and kills one of the KGB men, but the other escapes. However, Lonely follows and reports back that the escaped Russian has got on a train to Newcastle. Callan and Mrs. Rule depart for Newcastle where they rendezvous with Hunter, who tells Sophia she must call out to Brezhevski when she sees him, and feign a struggle with Callan.

A helicopter arrives, Meres and Brezhevski disembark, and Sophia calls out to the husband she hasn’t seen for over twenty years. Brezhevski calls out to her, but before he can get to her, he is run over by a van driven by the escaped KGB operative. All Sophia can say is, "He only spoke my name."