Lacon formally requests that Smiley investigate the presence of the mole in total secrecy, as another PR scandal will be a disaster for both the Government and the Circus. Lacon reasons that Smiley, and Guillam, cannot be the mole due to their respective dismissal and demotions as a result of Testify. Smiley, although cautious, agrees, and forms a team consisting of himself, Guillam, Tarr, and retired Scotland Yard Inspector Mendel. He is also given access to Circus documents, and uses these to start to focus his investigation. He begins by focussing on the restructuring initiative in the wake of his and Control's ousting, spearheaded by Alleline. This leads Smiley to discover the ousting of allies such as Jerry Westerby and Connie Sachs, as well as slush fund payments to 'Mr. Ellis', the codename of Jim Prideaux. Smiley visits Sachs to investigate this further, discovering that she confronted Alleline about her discovery that Polyakov was actually a Soviet Colonel called Gregor Viktorov, but he ordered her to drop the subject. She also mentions there were rumours of a secret Soviet facility for training moles, and makes allusions to Prideaux and Bill Haydon's relationship being more than just a platonic friendship.