Smiley suspects a link between Merlin and the botched Operation Testify. He finds Sam Collins, who was duty officer that night. Sam tells Smiley that Control ordered him to relay the report of the Czech operation only to him, but that when he did so, Control froze up, and that Bill Haydon's sudden arrival was the only reason the hierarchy didn't fall apart that night. Smiley then visits Max, a Czech operative who served as a legman for Jim on the operation. Max tells Smiley that there were difficulties from the start of the operation, and that Prideaux gave him instructions to leave Czechoslovakia any way that he could if Jim didn't surface at the rendezvous at the appointed time. Next, Smiley pays a visit to Jerry Westerby, a newspaperman who tells Smiley of his trip to Prague where Jerry picked up a story about Jim by a young army conscript who insists that the Russians were in the woods waiting for Jim a full day before the ambush. Finally, Smiley tracks down Prideaux and questions him on Testify. Prideaux tells him Control believed there was a mole in the Circus, and had whittled it down to five men, Alleline (Tinker), Haydon (Tailor), Bland (Soldier), Esterhase (Poorman), and Smiley himself (Beggerman), and that his orders were to obtain the identity from a defector in Czech intelligence who knew. He tells Smiley he almost didn't make the rendezvous with Max because he noticed he was being tailed, and that when he made it the site to meet with the defector, he was ambushed. As he attempted to escape, Jim took two bullets to his right shoulder, where they remain. During his captivity, both Polyakov and Karla interrogated him, focussing solely on the extent and status of Control's investigation. The Czech defector was a plant, contrived by Karla to engineer Control's downfall through Testify's failure, and thus protect the mole.