Wilde was horrified. He guessed they used this space for smuggling goods from Sweden into Germany, but it certainly wasn’t suitable for concealing two adults and a child. Apart from the lethal cold, there was simply not enough space. An old English house party game came to mind – Sardines.

The sailor pushed Wilde forward.

‘You first. Quick. We have little time.’

Wilde knew he had no option, so he crawled into the hole and sat with his back against the icy metal of the hull. The sailor helped Sunny in after him and finally squeezed the child in. She was too exhausted to put up a fight, but her whimpering told Wilde everything he needed to know about the state she was in.

‘Now you be quiet,’ the sailor said. ‘I leave you the torch, but if you hear footsteps you switch it off – and you put these on.’ He handed them three gas masks.

‘You mean they’ll try to gas us out?’

‘It has happened to others. There may be dogs, but we place meat and pepper to confuse and distract them. Good luck. No talking, no coughing, no smoking.’

And with that, he replaced the panel, and the three of them were enclosed in a space in which they could not avoid physical contact.

‘We should all hug,’ Sunny said, putting her arms around Wilde and Klara. ‘For warmth.’

*

Charlie Jung was standing beside the captain on the bridge of the E-boat.

‘We need to get aboard that trawler.’

‘Impossible to get a boarding craft afloat in these seas,’ the naval officer said. ‘Or perhaps if I got a little closer you would like to take a chance and leap from deck to deck.’

Jung saw the mocking smile on Kapitänleutnant Flettner’s face.

‘Damn it, captain, don’t take that tone with me. I have information that there are dangerous enemies of the Reich on that vessel. Cross me and you will lose your command – do you understand?’

The naval officer understood only too well.

‘Well, we can shadow her if you like, until the storm eases.’

‘How long will that be?’

‘The shipping forecast says three more hours. Certainly two.’

‘We turn back for the German coast, then. You tell them to do the same.’

‘Are you sure? That will not be simple.’

‘Do as I damned well say!’

Kapitänleutnant Flettner had never been spoken to in such a way, not since he had taken command of his own vessel. No one spoke to a ship’s commander like that. But he bit his tongue; orders to help this civilian and to search for the Harald had come down from the Wolfsschanze itself, via the Oberkommando der Marine, without explanation.

‘Very well,’ he said. ‘Tell me exactly what you would like me to say.’ He offered Jung his loudhailer. ‘Or perhaps you would like to give them the command yourself.’