Rachel suddenly wrenched the gag away and spat it to the floor. ‘She said there would be new orders!’ she cried. ‘Big orders.’

‘What orders?’ I shouted back, but Larren and the other orderly were forcing us out. ‘Rachel!’ I tried to get to her, but Tibbot stopped me, taking hold of my arm. ‘Let me go!’

‘Leave her,’ he said in a quiet voice. ‘You can do nothing for her.’

‘Yes, listen to him,’ Larren said smugly.

One of the orderlies had her wrists, and another her ankles, as they wrenched her across the floor. She fought as well as she could, tearing one hand away to scratch at the burly man, drawing a line of red blood from his arm. He slapped her and she wailed into the gag. I tried again to reach her, but Tibbot put his body across mine. I knew what he was thinking – we were a hair’s breadth from being exposed. ‘Leave her alone!’ I shouted helplessly.

Larren snorted in derision. ‘Do what you have to do,’ he told the three men. They dragged her away, ignoring her cries as she twisted over and over, struggling like a beast in pain.

20

We found an empty carriage on the train back to London. You could tell by the leather seats that it had once been First Class, although those distinctions had been among the first casualties of the new order, and now we could all sit where we chose. Cheap and reliable transport for everyone was so important to the Soviets.

And yet the London transport system had proved more treacherous than they had expected. A few days after the first fence went up along what was to become the route of the Wall, hundreds of people sped beneath it from our side to the other in tiny, underground carriages. It wasn’t through the Tube – the Soviets had stopped those trains – but rather the little Post Office Railway, the network for delivering mail that the Reds knew nothing about until one of their friends in the Royal Mail ran to the Soviet HQ and told all. Their troops caught scores of people that day – men, women and children. They were lucky to get just a few weeks each in Brixton Prison – those who tried after, through the sewers or by climbing, usually got six months in solitary.

The Soviets learned from their mistake too. Instead of just closing the tunnels, they filled complete sections with rubble from the buildings that the Germans had destroyed during the relentless five-day bombardment that began their invasion. Most of those broken bricks had come from the East End – ‘a hotbed of Jews and Trades Unionists’, Mosley had informed the Nazi high command in advance. Well, those people had had their revenge in time, and Mosley’s body soon lay broken on the street, next to that of his vile wife.