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Chavasse went along the corridor to his cabin, thinking about Sir George’s offer. He wondered what the Chief would say if he walked into his office and handed over his resignation along with the report on the Borma
He opened the door of the cabin and went inside, yawning as the tiredness seemed to melt into his very bones, turning them to jelly. He stood in front of the mirror and started to take off his tie, and images and thoughts circled endlessly in his brain, disjointed and meaningless, and then something erupted out of his subconscious to scream one name at him through the silence.
He gripped the edge of the washbasin with both hands and stared into the mirror, the shock of it like a bucket of ice water thrown in the face. And then he no longer felt tired and he pulled on his raincoat quickly and left the cabin.
The ship was moving through a silent world of thick fog when he came out onto the top deck, and a light rain was falling. He lit a cigarette and moved forward, his eyes probing every corner.
He found Sir George leaning over the stern rail, a cigar burning between his teeth, one hand thrust deep into the pocket of a heavy overcoat. A seaman in knitted cap and reefer jacket was coiling a rope nearby, and he moved away into the fog as Chavasse approached.
Sir George turned from the rail. “Oh, it’s you, Chavasse. Changed your mind about going to bed, eh?”
Chavasse nodded. “There are one or two loose ends to the Borma
“Certainly, my boy,” Sir George said. “Only too pleased to be of assistance.”
“I hoped you’d feel that way.” Chavasse smiled. “You can start by telling me how you came to be involved with Nagel, Steiner, and the rest of that pleasant bunch.”
Sir George’s face looked suddenly old and careworn in the sickly light of the deck lamp. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Then I’ll make it plainer for you,” Chavasse told him. “You’ve been sticking a knife into my back from the very begi
Sir George moved forward suddenly and tried to brush past him.
Chavasse pushed him violently and struck him a heavy blow in the face.
Sir George staggered backward and slipped to one knee. For a moment he stayed there, blood on his mouth. As he rose to his feet, his right hand came out of his overcoat pocket, holding an old Webley.38 with a specially shortened barrel.
“That won’t do you any good,” Chavasse said.
Sir George carefully wiped the blood from his mouth with a handkerchief. When he spoke, his voice was cold and impersonal. “How did you find out?”
“It was something you said in the bar earlier,” Chavasse replied. “You told me not to feel too badly about things because at least I’d saved Hauptma
For a moment, Sir George frowned, and then a light suddenly dawned. “Of course – I wasn’t supposed to know about the plan to assassinate Hauptma
“It was careless of you,” Chavasse said.
Sir George sighed. “We all make mistakes.”
“There were other things,” Chavasse said. “They didn’t make sense before, but they do now. The fact that the opposition knew Muller was to meet me on the train at Osnabruck. That was something I was never really happy about. And then there was something Nagel said at Berndorf when he first met A
“What’s so remarkable about that?” Sir George asked.
Chavasse shrugged. “At the best of times, the word race is only an abstraction. The only way Nagel knew she was Jewish was because he’d been told, and only one person other than myself knew that an Israeli underground organization was also after Borma
“I seem to have been even more careless than I imagined.” Sir George sighed again. “It’s a great pity, Chavasse, because I’d really taken a liking to you, and now I’m going to have to kill you.”
Chavasse took out a cigarette and lit it calmly. “Not without an explanation,” he said. “Surely, I’m entitled to that?”
“A quick one.” Sir George’s eyes glinted in the dark. “There was a period in my life when I was very dissatisfied with the way my country was being governed. At that time, I greatly admired what was going on in Germany. In fact, I was censured by the press for my too-warm support of Herr Hitler.”
“And just how warm was that support?” Chavasse asked.
“I agreed to become head of the provisional government when the Germans successfully invaded England,” Sir George told him calmly.
And then the whole thing began to make sense. “Borma
“I should imagine he devoted at least a chapter to me. He was the only member of the Nazi hierarchy with whom I was in close contact during the years before the war. The whole arrangement was made through him and was so secret that only Borma
“And who was the go-between?”
Sir George allowed himself a slight smile. “Kurt Nagel.”
“Now it is begi
Sir George shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that. We’ve always understood each other very well. Let me put it this way. I saw that he got his start in industry during the bad days after the war when things were very difficult. In fact, it proved quite profitable for me in the end. We’ve always been on the best of terms.”
“Did you know about his activities with the Nazi underground?”
“Not until recently. When the directors of the publishing firm approached me regarding Muller’s offer, I was trapped. I couldn’t stop their story from getting to the proper authorities, so I decided that the best thing to do was to take it to them myself.”
“That was clever of you,” Chavasse said, “and also dangerous.”
Sir George shook his head. “I’ve been lucky, Chavasse. Incredibly lucky from the begi
“But you hadn’t reckoned on Mark Hardt.”
Sir George sighed heavily. “One can’t think of everything. I was as careful as I could possibly be. I always acted through Nagel so that none of the others knew that I was involved. And then last night when you told me the girl had the manuscript, I had to act fast, and that unfortunately meant meeting Steiner and taking him to her apartment.”
Chavasse said slowly, “Then it was you and Steiner who took her from the apartment?”
Sir George nodded. “I’m afraid so. Of course you do realize the predicament I was in. I had to see that manuscript destroyed. I’m sorry about the girl – she just happened to be in the way. It was Steiner who shot her – not me.”
“But you’d have killed her anyway,” Chavasse said, “because she knew your secret.”
Sir George nodded gravely. “Yes, I’m very much afraid I would. The only reason I didn’t kill Steiner was because he told me about the Hauptma
“And you got two for the price of one,” Chavasse said. “Nagel as well. Now there’s only one living person who knows you intended to be one of the dirtiest traitors in English history.”
Sir George nodded and moved round in a half circle, the revolver never wavering for an instant. “Stand with your back against the rail, please,” he said sharply.