baize bottom. Anne drew in heavily, saw Sutherland brightening in her vision.
‘Tell me more about Wilshere,’ she said, and as an afterthought, ‘please, sir.’
‘He’s a drinking man. Likes to…’
‘Does that mean he’s a drunk?’
‘He likes a drink,’ said Rose. ‘You do too, from the accounts of the Oxford do’s. Quite a strong head on you, they said.’
‘That’s different from being a drunk.’
‘Well, while we’re about it, he’s a gambler as well,’ said Sutherland. ‘The casino’s practically at the bottom of their garden. Do you…?’
‘I’ve never had that sort of liquidity.’
‘But you probably know something about probability, what with your maths…’
‘It’s not a particular interest of mine.’
‘What is?’ asked Rose.
‘Numbers.’
‘Ah, pure maths,’ he said, as if he might know something. ‘What drew you to that?’
‘A sense of completeness,’ she said, hoping that would do the trick.
‘A sense or the illusion?’ asked Rose.
‘We might be talking about a lot of abstractions but what links them, the logic, is very real, very strict and irrefutable.’
‘I’m a crossword man myself,’ said Rose. ‘I like to see into people’s minds. How they work.’
Anne smoked some more.
‘Crosswords have their own kind of completeness, too,’ she said, ‘if you’re any good at them.’
Things were digging into her. Her bra felt tight. Her waistband knotty. She wasn’t getting on with these two men and she didn’t know how it had happened. Maybe that first exchange and the last one really had been too cheeky. Perhaps they’d seen one thing, imagined and extended their idea of her and she’d revealed something completely different. Was she this difficult?
‘The thing about intelligence is that the picture is always incomplete. We deal in fragments. You, in the field, even more so. You might not always know what you’re doing, you might not always appreciate the importance of what you hear. There are no solutions and, even if there were, you wouldn’t have known the question in the first place. You listen and report,’ said Sutherland.
‘Something else for you to listen for in the Wilshere household, apart from people’s names, has some relevance to the endgame we were talking about earlier,’ said Rose. ‘To make the doodlebugs, or any rocket for that matter, the Germans need precision tools. To make those tools requires precision cutting instruments. They need diamonds. Industrial diamonds. Those diamonds are finding their way in here on ships from Central Africa. We have tried searching those ships when they put in at our ports, like Freetown in Sierra Leone, but a handful of diamonds is not so easy to find on a 7,000-ton ship. We think, but we have no proof, that Wilshere is bringing in diamonds from Angola and getting them into the German Legation, where they are sent by diplomatic bag to Berlin. We don’t know how he does it or how he gets paid for doing it. So anything you hear about diamonds and payment for them in the Wilshere household must be communicated, via Cardew, to us at once.’
‘How do you want me to do that?’
‘Wallis will look after that. You’ll see him and arrange things with him.’
He glanced at his watch.
‘Cardew had better take you up to the house now. It’s getting late. I’ve told him to brief you on Wilshere and his wife, but I’ve also instructed him to exclude certain details which, for the safety of your cover, it would be better for you to find out yourself. I don’t want you going in there knowing too much about the situation and not reacting correctly to…developments. You’re supposed to be asecretary. First time abroad and all that. I want you to be curious about everything and everybody.’
‘That doesn’t sound as if it’s going to be too difficult, sir.’
Sutherland grimaced. The brown column of teeth appeared again and shut down just as fast. He went to the door and called for
‘Tell me more about Wilshere,’ she said, and as an afterthought, ‘please, sir.’
‘He’s a drinking man. Likes to…’
‘Does that mean he’s a drunk?’
‘He likes a drink,’ said Rose. ‘You do too, from the accounts of the Oxford do’s. Quite a strong head on you, they said.’
‘That’s different from being a drunk.’
‘Well, while we’re about it, he’s a gambler as well,’ said Sutherland. ‘The casino’s practically at the bottom of their garden. Do you…?’
‘I’ve never had that sort of liquidity.’
‘But you probably know something about probability, what with your maths…’
‘It’s not a particular interest of mine.’
‘What is?’ asked Rose.
‘Numbers.’
‘Ah, pure maths,’ he said, as if he might know something. ‘What drew you to that?’
‘A sense of completeness,’ she said, hoping that would do the trick.
‘A sense or the illusion?’ asked Rose.
‘We might be talking about a lot of abstractions but what links them, the logic, is very real, very strict and irrefutable.’
‘I’m a crossword man myself,’ said Rose. ‘I like to see into people’s minds. How they work.’
Anne smoked some more.
‘Crosswords have their own kind of completeness, too,’ she said, ‘if you’re any good at them.’
Things were digging into her. Her bra felt tight. Her waistband knotty. She wasn’t getting on with these two men and she didn’t know how it had happened. Maybe that first exchange and the last one really had been too cheeky. Perhaps they’d seen one thing, imagined and extended their idea of her and she’d revealed something completely different. Was she this difficult?
‘The thing about intelligence is that the picture is always incomplete. We deal in fragments. You, in the field, even more so. You might not always know what you’re doing, you might not always appreciate the importance of what you hear. There are no solutions and, even if there were, you wouldn’t have known the question in the first place. You listen and report,’ said Sutherland.
‘Something else for you to listen for in the Wilshere household, apart from people’s names, has some relevance to the endgame we were talking about earlier,’ said Rose. ‘To make the doodlebugs, or any rocket for that matter, the Germans need precision tools. To make those tools requires precision cutting instruments. They need diamonds. Industrial diamonds. Those diamonds are finding their way in here on ships from Central Africa. We have tried searching those ships when they put in at our ports, like Freetown in Sierra Leone, but a handful of diamonds is not so easy to find on a 7,000-ton ship. We think, but we have no proof, that Wilshere is bringing in diamonds from Angola and getting them into the German Legation, where they are sent by diplomatic bag to Berlin. We don’t know how he does it or how he gets paid for doing it. So anything you hear about diamonds and payment for them in the Wilshere household must be communicated, via Cardew, to us at once.’
‘How do you want me to do that?’
‘Wallis will look after that. You’ll see him and arrange things with him.’
He glanced at his watch.
‘Cardew had better take you up to the house now. It’s getting late. I’ve told him to brief you on Wilshere and his wife, but I’ve also instructed him to exclude certain details which, for the safety of your cover, it would be better for you to find out yourself. I don’t want you going in there knowing too much about the situation and not reacting correctly to…developments. You’re supposed to be asecretary. First time abroad and all that. I want you to be curious about everything and everybody.’
‘That doesn’t sound as if it’s going to be too difficult, sir.’
Sutherland grimaced. The brown column of teeth appeared again and shut down just as fast. He went to the door and called for
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