Page 43 of Echoes of Betrayal

Jack’s hackles rose, and the anger he’d felt when he discovered how the SOE wasn’t being informed of critical movements that endangered their French networks, washed over him again like a tidal wave. He breathed deeply, struggling to control himself. ‘We will need to discuss the flow of intelligence to Baker Street, but this matter is more urgent. I appreciate I may have stumbled onto something you didn’t expect me to find, but if that’s the case, I need to know who sanctioned this irregular situation. And if it’s not, we have a problem because I can’t ignore it. From where I’m sitting, this looks as though someone here is passing Eastern Front intelligence to Switzerland. Why would anyone do that unless they were a traitor?’

Gould snorted as if what he said was ridiculous, but Jack saw he had rattled him with his confident offensive.

‘I will warn you once more, King. Step away from the fire. This is classified way above your security clearance. If you continue to poke around, making unsubstantiated accusations, you will damage our operations. That’s all I can say.’

Jack stared at him, unsure what to do next. Was Gould a traitor? Good Lord, was there no one he could trust these days? Was the betrayal rooted this deep in the heart of Bletchley Park?

There was nothing more he could do at this moment, and he would need to think it through. A sheen of sweat appeared on Gould’s forehead as he dismissed him, saying his next meeting was about to begin. Jack reached the door, and Gould added, ‘Keep this to yourself, King. Not one word, or you could compromise everything we’re working for here. Don’t be a fool.’

The cool evening air hit Jack’s face as he emerged in the grounds, and it was a relief to be out of the oppressive office. His head ached from the swirling thoughts attacking his brain, and he couldn’t make sense of things.

Gould had as good as admitted he was covering something up. There was nothing odd about Britain feeding German intelligence to the Soviets. Churchill himself had ordered the intelligence services to help them, as there was always a fear they might switch sides again and make a pact with Germany. This was different, though, and it made Jack’s head throb.

As he reached his hut, he realised the real question was who was feeding intelligence to whom? What he and Lizzie had seen were intercepts containing precise German intelligence appearing in Swiss traffic, which could surely only mean one thing. Someone in their system was intercepting and covertly passing information to Switzerland.

What troubled Jack most of all as he tussled with the conundrum was why would that be?

CHAPTER 38

Ernst was still worried about his partner. After trying to convince him to reduce the number of gold and foreign exchange transactions for the Germans, he had met with another stone-cold refusal. Franz was intent on profiting as much as they possibly could, and didn’t seem remotely concerned about their plight if the Allies won the war. Following their last meeting, he had broached the subject again, tentatively reminding him of the recent London Declaration, officially called the Inter-Allied Declaration Against Acts of Dispossession Committed in Territories Under Enemy Occupation or Control.

The declaration was a formal warning to neutral countries—Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Argentina among them—that the Allies would not recognise property transfers in Axis-occupied countries and could declare such transfers invalid, even if they appeared to have legal documentation. Seventeen Allied governments in London signed the declaration, which was to prevent further looting by the Nazis and their Axis collaborators. Britain warned neutral countries being used to conceal stolen assets that after the war they would be judged complicit in the theft.

Ernst didn’t understand how his partner could ignore such a dire threat, but reluctantly he chalked it down to pure greed. Franz’s appetite for gold profits was greater than his common sense. Since that conversation, Franz had acted oddly around him. Ernst feared his partner suspected him and was watching his movements more closely in the bank.

Ernst lit his pipe and sighed as he considered what lay ahead. He’d placed himself in an extremely dangerous situation by cooperating with Miss Gale, and he worried about his wife and children if something happened to him. But doing nothing was no longer an option, and Ernst predicted the bank would pay a heavy price if he couldn’t show he had attempted to assist the Allies. That thought sustained him whenever he edged towards panic, which was frequently, as the web he was weaving grew ever more tangled. He had tried to enter the vault and copy more ledger entries, but each time he did, Franz seemed to appear out of nowhere as if he too needed to enter the vault.

The irony was that he and Franz had agreed to move the main ledger to the vault some time ago. Neither of them had specified why, beyond increased security needs, but their motive was implicit. They both knew the entries in their ledger would incriminate the bank in the laundering of Nazi mass theft of gold and other assets. Facilitating the Germans’ funding of their war machine would not be deemed an act of a neutral nation.

The vault also contained cash, gold bars, bonds, safe deposit boxes, and other important documents that their clients wished to keep in the safety of the private bank, such as deeds and contracts. Since their decision to move the ledger into the vault, there was a rigorous security protocol for updating it.

Ernst’s secretary had let slip that Franz had met with Kurt Voss recently. The news alarmed him further, and he wondered what they had discussed. He couldn’t ask him without revealing how much it disturbed him, so he kept it to himself. It crossed his mind that perhaps he wasn’t the only one preoccupied with the post-war fate of Switzerland, and Voss might investigate to prepare the government’s case.

The family photo of his son in uniform caught his eye, and his chest tightened as panic washed over him again. Ernst would do anything for his family, which was why he was cooperating with the British. One day in the not-too-distant future he would retire, and his son would take the reins of Brunner & Cie. His son had proved himself to be reliable and of moral character, and his army service made his father swell with pride.

In the daunting early days of the war, when the Swiss Army prepared to fight a German invasion, it had shown a noble spirit. Food and other materials were stockpiled; they fortified the Alps with explosives and trained their young men rigorously, preparing for the Reduit Strategy to block German forces and their plan to invade Switzerland with Operation Tannenbaum. Fortunately, Hitler recalculated. Ernst wasn’t sure whether that was because of the Swiss Army’s gorilla strategy to rebuff the Germans, or because the Führer realised Switzerland would make a far better friend than enemy. Either way, the Germans had backed down, and soon Switzerland was acting as their major banker.

Later that day, when Ernst’s secretary informed him she had learnt from Herr Hauser’s secretary that she had organised a business trip to Zurich for him the following week, it dawned on Ernst that this could be his chance to get all the proof Miss Gale had asked for. He wanted to bring his spying career to an end and didn’t intend to keep copying the ledger indefinitely. Now Franz knew he didn’t approve of their German alliance, and had his eye on his movements, and was even meeting with Voss; it had become far too treacherous. He was willing to risk so much, but he had no intention of ending up in a Swiss court charged with treason.

An idea had been forming in his consciousness, but he had ignored it, fearing that he lacked the courage for such a challenge. But now, it seemed clear, this could be his opportunity to bring his spying era to a close by giving Miss Gale everything she had requested and simultaneously saving the future of his bank and his grandfather’s prestigious legacy.

The thought spun around his mind like the perfect, terrifying solution, raising his blood pressure and causing his heart to slam in his chest. He downed a schnapps in one gulp and rose from his chair. There was no other option if he wanted to survive this debacle without killing himself or killing his life’s work by burying his head in the sand like Franz.

Ernst must smuggle Miss Gale into the secure vault.

CHAPTER 39

Brunner was waiting for Lizzie in the café the next time she went in a few days later. Ursula took her order, and they joked about how she always ordered the same food. When the friendly waitress had moved away from her table, Lizzie raised her eyes cautiously to where she’d seen Brunner sitting when she entered. He had a pen in his hand and was making an elaborate show of doing a crossword. That was their agreed signal when he needed to talk to her urgently. The crossword was a tricky way to communicate, so she acted normally as if they had nothing to hide. When she closed the gap between her table and his, she glimpsed the alarm in his eyes before he composed himself.

Lizzie greeted him so that anyone watching would see they were acquaintances, and she sat down on the chair opposite when he invited her to join him. ‘How good to see you again, Herr Brunner,’ she continued, and he played along with the charade. Glancing around, she saw no sign of Voss or anyone else watching them, and her shoulders relaxed.

‘May I get you a drink?’ Brunner said.

Lizzie declined politely, lowered her head and whispered, ‘What do you need?’

Brunner pointed to the crossword as if he was asking if she knew the answer to one of the clues and replied in a low voice she had to strain to hear, ‘I can’t take any more of this. I’m making myself ill.’

Lizzie realised he was panicking again, and that was why he hadn’t made a recent drop. It was disappointing when she thought she had inspired him to continue until the job was complete.