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Howard leaned forward and grasped Lucas’s hand. For seconds he held it as hard as he could, then let go and resumed his position in his chair. This was real. It must be faced.
“I’ll go and look for her,” he said firmly. “I have a better chance of disappearing in a crowd than you do. And I am a damn sight more up to date. But first I need to go and tell Newton’s family. I owe him that. He was…” He did not finish the sentence. It was only words, and they both knew them too well to need to say them aloud.
Slowly, Howard stood up, looking more than his forty-eight years. It was all the more noticeable because usually he looked less. Now he seemed beaten, just not yet completely aware of it. “I’ll tell you anything I learn about Elena, and I’ll get my best people to do whatever they can to find her and get her out of Berlin.”
Reluctantly, Lucas conceded. He was too old to be the best man for this. For all his passion and willingness to sacrifice himself if necessary, he no longer had the physical stamina, nor perhaps the mental agility, to succeed. He rose to his feet. “I know.”
Howard went out of the French door and across the garden to the back entrance.
Lucas found Josephine waiting in the hallway. She looked angry, but there was fear in her eyes.
“What is it?” she said without preamble.
“Howard? Oh, he’s—”
“Lucas, don’t lie to me!” she said sharply, real anger in her voice. “I know it’s bad. I can see it.”
“It’s…” he began, then stopped again. Up until a day or two ago, he had believed she knew only that his job during the war, and for a while after, had been secret, as her wartime job had been. She had never spoken of her work as a decoder and in turn had allowed him to think that he had his secrets still, when all the time it was her knowledge of him that was the real secret.
He was flooded with an overwhelming gratitude for her generosity of silence. The emotion robbed him of words.
But she was frightened now, and her fear was increasing with his refusal to tell her what was the matter. Perhaps just as deep a pain was her perception that he might not trust her.
“Elena,” he said. “One of the vilest of Adolf Hitler’s admirers has been assassinated. The man they nicknamed the Hyena because of his habit of mauling the already wounded, the vulnerable.” He spoke with a venom that surprised even him.
She was waiting, knowing that this was not the point.
“They are blaming British Intelligence for it, specifically Elena.”
“What? Lucas, is she in Berlin? She’s supposed to be in Paris!” She was not arguing with him. He saw that she believed him, that she was looking for an explanation and trying to understand.
“Yes, she went to Berlin. I know that because she went to the embassy and tried to warn them about the assassination.”
“Warn them? How did she know? What are you not telling me?”
In as few words as possible, he told her about Ian Newton and his death.
“Then why are they blaming her?” Josephine’s face was white now, her eyes glittering with rage and fear. “Who knew of Ian Newton’s instructions to go to Berlin, and who killed him on the train? It cannot possibly have been Elena. She’s obviously just got caught up in all this.”
“I know,” he agreed. “I fear we have a traitor and I think we know who it is. We have every intention of using him to feed his handlers false information. Right now all I care about is getting Elena back home.”
“Where is she? Do you know?” Even against her iron will, Josephine could not keep the slight tremor from her voice.
“No, except that she must be well hidden, because the German militia can’t find her either. So perhaps we have a little time.”
“Until what?” she asked.
He knew the answer, as she did, but he did not want to put it into words.
“Until it’s too late,” she answered herself. She seemed about to add something, then changed her mind.
“I have no idea where she is, but I still have contacts in Berlin,” he assured her, showing that he was no longer concealing anything. “People I trust, and who owe me. I’ll go and look for her.” He did not mention Howard. He, Lucas, would go, too, in spite of what he had said.
She took a deep breath, blinking her eyes to dispel tears. “No, you won’t, my dear. You are far too old for such things, and you have a twisted ligament in your ankle. Don’t argue with me, Lucas! You’ll get exposed if you’re caught, and worse.”
“B
ut Elena, Josephine! Do you have any idea what they could do to her?”
