Ah. I see you favour the practical approach. Dr Spiegel looked relieved. He poured himself another cupful, which emptied the bottle. He flicked a fingernail against the glass. I have an idea. We shall further your education and, if you have no objection, my convenience at one and the same time. If you return to the road and walk to the left, you will come to a shop on the corner. There you may purchase our lunch. A humble collation bread, a few slices of sausage and some more of this excellent Pilsener. The modern Czech, my dear Kendall, makes two things superlatively well guns and lager.
The first day established a pattern that they followed with little variation for the next few weeks. In the mornings they studied languages Czech or German, according to Spiegels whim. The afternoons were devoted, at least in theory, to general knowledge and history.
The old man proved to be a surprisingly efficient teacher, particularly in the first few hours of the day. He gave Hugh a grounding in the grammar of the two languages, but for most of the time they concentrated on speaking them.
Dr Spiegel revealed a talent for mimicry. He would invent little scenes, and he and Hugh would act them out. He gave Hugh a dictionary and a grammar, and made him puzzle out the main stories in the newspaper. Hugh often did his tutors shopping.
Dr Spiegel drank his way steadily through every day. His main source of nourishment seemed to be the strong export Pilsener which he had produced on that first morning. On later occasions, Hugh drank sweet black tea which he made himself in the cramped and evil-smelling kitchen. His tutor rarely drank tea; but he would sometimes bring out the little brown bottle between cups of lager.
As the day wore on, Dr Spiegels step would become unsteady and his eyes had difficulty in focusing. But his courtesy to Hugh remained unchanged; nor did the alcohol affect his speech.
In the afternoons he talked. Most of his monologues concerned two inextricably entwined subjects himself and the recent history of central Europe. He spoke with nostalgia of the heady days of the Great War when he had fought with the Czech Legion on the Allied side. He described the early years of the newly created republic of Czechoslovakia and the democratic constitution he had helped to frame. He was particularly proud of the course on Czech nationalism which he and his wife had founded at the Charles University.
But there were bad days as well, when the nostalgia was supplanted by bitterness and the brown bottle came out of the kitchen and stood beside Dr Spiegels chair. He was obsessed by the weakness of his country an infant democracy surrounded by increasingly hostile neighbours; its allies, Britain and France, were hundreds of miles away and lacked both the will and the means to intervene. Across the border was Germany, gleefully exploiting her neighbours political problems and racial divisions.
Hitler wants to carve us up like a big sausage, Spiegel said on one afternoon, early in March. Our minorities rush to join the feast. They do not realize that they will be eaten too.
The rape of the Sudetenland, Spiegel claimed, was but a symptom of what he regarded as a wider evil Hitlers perversion of the sacred traditions of nationalism.
With all the means at his disposal, that foul little man has encouraged the separatist nationalist movements in our Slovakian and Ruthenian provinces. Quite simply, he plans to undermine Bohemia and Moravia, which form the core of Czechoslovakia. Spiegel raised a trembling hand and hammered it down on the arm of his chair. Once he invades us, Hitler will be exposed as the fraud he is: all his previous conquests could be justified, if only speciously, on the grounds that they brought Germans into the Reich. But Bohemia and Moravia are chiefly inhabited by Czechs, not Germans. You grasp my point, my dear Kendall?
Hugh nodded; what puzzled him was his tutors uncharacteristic vehemence.
A few hours later he discovered the answer. Madame Hase had dined with the Kendalls at the Palacky. She was in a confidential mood after the better part of a bottle of wine and several brandies. Hugh was puzzling his way through an illustrated magazine when he heard his tutors name.
You would not believe that Spiegel was once a friend of President Masaryk, would you? Madame Hase was saying. Today he is nothing more than a political fossil. At one time my father believed he would succeed him as professor of history, but he destroyed his career when he wrote that pamphlet about Nazi tactics in the Sudetenland. So foolish what did he hope to achieve? He lost all sense of proportion after his wife disappeared. Jewish, you know. She went to visit relatives in Berlin in the spring of thirty-eight and never came back. He spent thousands of crowns trying to find her. We thought he was going insane.
As March progressed, Dr Spiegels behaviour became more erratic. He developed a craving for the news. Hugh gathered that the government had proclaimed martial law in some parts of the country; but in Prague life went on much as before.
On 14 March, they heard that Slovakia had declared itself to be an independent state.
The fools have changed masters, Spiegel said. They prefer Berlin to Prague.
Later the same day, the Czechoslovak president took the train to Berlin. The following morning, the German Army flooded smoothly across the border into Bohemia and Moravia.
As usual, Hugh reached his tutors apartment at nine oclock. For the first time in their acquaintance the old man was unshaven and he forgot to shake hands. He stumbled back to his chair. The brown bottle was already within reach.
It is the Ides of March, he murmured as if to himself. Today a country has been murdered.
Four
Colonel Dansey continued writing when Michael came into his office; with his free hand he pointed to the chair in front of his desk.
Michael rubbed his bloodshot eyes and sat down, grateful that there was no immediate need for him to make intelligent conversation. He had spent most of last night in the company of Betty Chandos, proving yet again that lack of sleep and an almost exclusive diet of champagne cocktails created a five-star hangover. Up here, on the eighth floor of Bush House, the rush-hour traffic in the Aldwych was mercifully muted.
Dansey capped his pen and used his blotter on the letter before him.
No news from your man Kendall yet?
No, sir. I cant understand
It doesnt matter now. You can forget him.
I dont follow you, sir. Michaels tongue seemed too large for his mouth. If Hitler I mean, since yesterday we need
If I were you, Id start again, Dansey said.
Michael flushed. Bohemia and Moravia are now part of the Reich. More than ever we need all the Czech allies we can find. I admit that Kendall and Hase have probably failed, but theres still an outside chance.
Dansey picked up a newspaper and tossed it to Michael. It was yesterdays Times. A small news item, ringed with pencil, announced the arrival of several unnamed Czechs at Croydon Airport.
Someone blundered, Dansey said sourly. There was even a photograph in some of the papers. Not that it really matters.
Who are they?
Colonel Moravec and fourteen of his intelligence officers. We chartered a Dutch plane for them. They left Prague just before the Germans arrived, with the cream of their files and all the money they could lay their hands on. Dansey permitted himself a prim smile. Which happened to be quite a substantial sum. SIS handled the operation through Gibson and the embassy.
Who are they?
Colonel Moravec and fourteen of his intelligence officers. We chartered a Dutch plane for them. They left Prague just before the Germans arrived, with the cream of their files and all the money they could lay their hands on. Dansey permitted himself a prim smile. Which happened to be quite a substantial sum. SIS handled the operation through Gibson and the embassy.
Michael felt himself beginning to sweat. What Dansey had told him seemed to have no bearing on Kendall and Hase.
Dansey took off his glasses and polished them with his handkerchief. Neither Z nor SIS has much interest in Czech communists at present. Theyre a disorganized rabble with little access to useful information; theyre too far away for us to control with any degree of certainty; and in any case theyll always give Moscow right of way over London. But Moravec naturally sees them from another angle. Hes spent half his career fighting the Bolsheviks and of course he wants to know what theyre doing in his own country.
Do you mean we were just going through the motions to oblige Moravec?
Precisely. That was the sole purpose of the exercise. Your godfather and I knew the Deuxième Bureau would have to transfer its headquarters abroad sooner or later. Moravec had two choices London or Paris. The Hase business was designed to woo him over here. Now hes here, hell find it very difficult to move on. Dansey restored his glasses and looked directly at Michael. Which means, of course, that we have achieved our real goal direct access to A-54.
A-54?
Michael knew he was now expected to ask who or what was A-54. But Danseys reply was unlikely to be very informative: either he would yet again have the pleasure of reminding Michael of the need-to-know principle; or his answer would lead to a bewildering vista of further questions that would leave Michael no better informed than he had been in the first place.
Michael mulishly decided to say nothing. He pulled out his case and lit a cigarette with a great show of concentration. As he looked up, exhaling a cloud of smoke, he caught an unfamiliar expression on Danseys face, just before it vanished.
On another mans face it might have been a smile of approval.
Dansey stood up; and Michael obediently followed suit.
So, Stanhope-Smith, from now on you may leave Czechoslovakia to SIS and the Deuxième Bureau. In the meantime
But, sir, what about Kendall? I recruited him and I do feel to some extent responsible. And it was my idea that he took his son.
Dansey clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. You and I no longer have any responsibility for the Kendalls. You didnt compel Captain Kendall to take the job. He knew there were risks: he must take the consequences.
We could at least alert Gibson and the embassy. And what about
Stanhope-Smith, Dansey snarled with a ferocious hiss of sibilants, will you be quiet? I want you to spend the rest of your valuable time this morning compiling a brief political and economic analysis of Poland, using the material in the B files. By brief, I mean about five hundred words. And make it not only succinct but simple enough for even a politician to understand. If it helps you, imagine youre writing for the eyes of our revered prime minister. I want it on my desk by lunchtime.
Poland? said Michael dully. His mind was still full of the Kendalls.
Yes, Poland. It may interest you to know that, according to A-54, Poland will be Hitlers next target.
On the evening of 15 March, twelve SS officers moved into the Hotel Palacky and the Kendalls moved out.
Most of the officers were young. They tipped well, smiled a lot and went out of their way to be pleasant to the other guests. Hugh secretly thought they looked rather heroic.
Later that evening Madame Hase came to their room unexpectedly; most people, both staff and guests, were watching Hitlers imperial entry into Prague. She was flushed with excitement and looked happier than Hugh had ever seen her.
You must leave the hotel at once. The staff will have registered your arrival with the police. Checking on foreign visitors is one of the first things the Gestapo will do.
Alfred Kendall shrugged. Does it matter? Britains not at war with Germany. My papers are all in order. Ive a perfectly legitimate reason for being here.
Fool! Madame Hase drew herself up to her full height of five foot two. Half the staff in this hotel are Nazis. If they werent before, they will be now. Servants talk, my friend, and my name is bound to come up. Have you never heard of guilt by association?
Her urgency infected Kendall and Hugh. While Kendall paid their bill, she helped Hugh pack; they were out of the hotel within ten minutes of her arrival.
She directed the taxi across the river to Mala Strana, a part of Prague that lay just south of the castle; Hugh had never been there. On the way, she explained that she could not take them to her home that would be too dangerous. They would go to the house of one of her cousins; the cousin was away but the servants knew her and would do whatever she asked.
The house came as a surprise to Hugh. It was built round a cobbled courtyard and covered an area of roughly the same size as the entire apartment block where Dr Spiegel lived.
There were only two servants, an old man and his wife, who grudgingly agreed to open up a few rooms for Madame Hase and her guests. The palace had been shut up since the previous autumn. The furniture was shrouded in dustsheets and cobwebs. Candles were the only form of light available, which made the huge rooms seem still larger.
They ate an impromptu supper in a dining room whose ceiling was so far away that it might just as well not have been there. Scratches and rattles came from the walls.
Rats, said Madame Hase. One gets used to them in an old barn like this.
Shortly after the meal, Hugh was sent to bed. He lay there, trying not to listen to the sounds behind the skirting boards and wondering whether there were many more communists like Madame Hase.
They spent the whole of the next day at the palace. In the afternoon, Jan and Bela arrived in the butchers van at the tradesmens entrance. They joined Kendall and Madame Hase in a large room that had been a library before part of the ceiling collapsed. It was not a comfortable place to sit but its windows covered the whole of the courtyard, including the great entrance gates, and it had the additional advantage of a small staircase which led down to a side entrance. As Madame Hase said, they could not afford to be careless.
Without consulting Kendall, she sent Hugh to sit in the anteroom before the library. Kendall stood in the doorway and watched as she settled him down on a tiny chair upholstered with dusty velvet. Opposite them was a grimy, twelve-foot-high mirror. Their reflections swam in the murky world behind the glass. For an instant Hughs eyes met his, and then looked away. Kendall felt an inexplicable sense of loss; since it was inexplicable, he ignored it.
As if by prearrangement, the four adults veered away from the easy chairs around the smouldering fire and sat round the table in the centre of the room. Above their heads a chandelier creaked and tinkled faintly in the draught.
Kendall tried to seize control of the meeting. We must review the situation, he began. Events have moved so quickly that
Perhaps I should do it, Alfred, Madame Hase interrupted. I am the only person here who is fluent in both English and Czech.