Frankie's Letter - By Dolores Gordon-Smith Page 0,28

That’s a pretty good inducement for any newspaperman. He’d love to get your story. You’ll be surprised when he suggests it, of course, but a series of articles about your exploits as Herr Doktor Conrad Etriech should make good reading. Don’t give them to him for anything less than an invitation to Starhanger.’

‘I can’t blab to the newspapers!’ said Anthony, horrified.

Sir Charles spread his hands out in enquiry. ‘Why not? You can’t go back to Germany as Doktor Etriech so you might as well tell Sherston about the good doctor’s doings. He’ll invite you to Starhanger right enough.’

Anthony winced. The habit of secrecy was so ingrained that to talk to the popular press went against all his instincts. Sir Charles saw his expression. ‘Come on, Brooke. There’ll be no pictures, of course. You’ll be totally anonymous but we have to offer Sherston something to get you into Starhanger.’

Anthony didn’t like it. Despite his respect for Sir Charles, he thought he was mistaken. That he was later shown to be right gave him no pleasure at all. He tried to pin down why he was so uneasy about the idea. After all, Sir Charles was his chief and should know what he was doing. Maybe, he thought, it came down to experience. Sir Charles was lacking the edge, the raw instinct for survival, that had developed during those months in Germany.

Anthony said as much but Sir Charles wasn’t convinced. Reluctantly, Anthony allowed himself to be persuaded. ‘Well, if you’re sure,’ he said grudgingly. ‘You say Sherston knows about me?’

‘He’s very keen to meet you,’ said Sir Charles. ‘He’s got a certain impression of me, which I don’t want to disturb. Follow my lead, won’t you?’ He laughed. ‘Relax, man. No one will know it’s you behind the stories in the papers unless you tell them so.’

‘Perhaps,’ Anthony said dryly. He’d seen too much of the gossipy nature of London society to believe there was any such thing as a secret any more. Still, if Sir Charles believed it would work, it probably would, he reassured himself glumly, no matter how his feelings were lacerated in the process.

‘Now, once we’re at Starhanger, there’s another scheme I want to try.’

‘What’s that?’

Sir Charles sat forward in his chair. ‘Cavanaugh was betrayed. He thought his betrayer was associated with Starhanger, but he could’ve been mistaken. With someone like Sherston involved we have to be completely certain. I want you to give out some false information once you’re in Starhanger, something that’s so delectable it’s bound to be picked up and acted upon. If it’s picked up, then we’ll know that Starhanger is definitely where our gentleman operates from. Once we know that, we can start identifying exactly who he is.’

Anthony lit a thoughtful cigarette. This was more his sort of thing than Sir Charles’s newspaper scheme. ‘You haven’t worked out the details yet?’

‘No, not yet.’

Anthony knew what Sir Charles was after. They needed to sell Fritz a pup, but it had to be the right sort of pup. ‘What about troop movements?’

Sir Charles frowned. ‘Perhaps. I suppose we could invent a lot of troops massing for an attack and see if the Germans fall for it by bringing artillery to bear, but by the time we’ve warned any real troops to keep clear and posted observers to see what actually happens, we’ve involved a dickens of a lot of outsiders.’

‘What about a ship? If I put it about that a ship carrying a highly desirable cargo was to be in a certain place at a certain time, that’d do it.’ Anthony could tell Sir Charles wasn’t convinced.

‘We can’t risk an actual ship,’ objected Sir Charles. ‘We don’t want another Lusitania. On the other hand, we need a real ship to observe the action. Maybe if we could have a dummy of some sort . . .’ He shook his head impatiently. ‘We’d still need some crew on board, even if it’s only two or three men, to make it look alive. If it was just a hulk, a U-boat wouldn’t attack and if there is something there, any U-boat attack might be nothing more than coincidence. Besides that, it means involving the Admiralty. They might not cooperate and, as I said, the fewer people who know about our idea the better.’

He stroked his chin, thinking out the flaws. ‘I could do with something on a much smaller scale,’ he said eventually. ‘Something we can control from beginning to end. And something, as well, where it’s