‘Which was presumably Charles Falmer.’

‘If you say so… and she added they hoped to send another out soon. Then Bourne made a joke along the lines of killing two birds with one stone. She looked furious with him when he said that.’

‘Whatever does all that mean?’

‘I have no idea, Tom.’

‘What more can you tell us about this woman?’

‘Very assertive, I would say, Prince. I got the impression that she was calling the shots somehow.’

‘What did she look like?’

‘Very attractive, if I might say. Pretty face and good legs; had a refined air about her.’

‘Age?’

‘Difficult to say, but if you pushed me, I’d say early to mid-fifties.’

‘And he didn’t use a name?’

‘No.’

‘Any accent?’

‘Nothing discernible.’

‘You look as if you think you’re on to something, Prince?’

‘As you know, sir, in my last case I infiltrated a group of British Nazi sympathisers in an attempt to break the German spy ring we were investigating. There was a woman – an Englishwoman – I came across in Gerrards Cross who was part of that group. I next encountered her when she identified me at a pub in east London. As far as I’m aware, she’s never been traced.’

‘And your point?’

Prince shrugged. ‘Hard to say, sir, but the description Sir Roland gave sounds like her. And remember too, the main purpose of that case was to identify the Nazi spy known as Agent Milton. We established that he was Major Edward Palmer, but…’

‘…he disappeared too.’

‘Exactly. So when this woman said there are people in England that they want to help escape – you never know, she could have been talking about Palmer.’

The atmosphere altered as the room descended into silence, everyone in it absorbed in their thoughts. It was as if the temperature had dropped by a few degrees.

‘Good Lord,’ said Bentley, not normally a man given to such expressions. ‘I do think you may well be on to something here.’

Chapter 17

Berlin, November 1945

After years of blaming other people for his lowly status and what he saw as a run of constant bad luck, Kenneth Bemrose had come to realise it was up to him to pull himself together and do something about it.

Learning Russian was a case in point: he enthusiastically volunteered for Russian lessons and applied himself as hard as possible. He studied in his free time and sailed through the beginner’s course with such ease that one of the MI6 officers running the course asked him whether he’d be interested in the intermediate course, and would he also like to be considered for what he called ‘special duties’?

Bemrose said of course, and only two days ago he’d been asked to go to the fifth floor of the building where he worked, where one of the guards actually saluted him. He was then taken into a windowless room where a man who never actually gave his name said they were very impressed with his progress, and if he was prepared to sign up to staying in Berlin for another five years and continue to the advanced-level Russian course, he would be promoted to officer status and become a MI6 member of staff. It was only when the man stood up to indicate that the meeting was over that he mentioned – more as an aside than anything else – that Bemrose might be interested to know that he’d also passed through another level of security clearance.