Cover

Principal Characters

Richard Prince: Lincolnshire detective superintendent recruited to MI6, code name Agent Laertes

Aliases in Denmark:

Hans Olsen (from Esbjerg)

Jesper Holm (first ID in Copenhagen)

Peter Rasmussen (second ID in Copenhagen)

Ulrich Leuschner (German identity)

Pierre Breton (French slave labourer at Peenemünde)

Hanne Jakobsen: Agent Osric

Otto Knudsen: Danish businessman, code name Agent Horatio

Sophia von Naundorf: British agent in Berlin, code name Agent Blackbird

England

Tom Gilbey: Senior MI6 officer, recruits and runs Prince

Hendrie/Douglas: British intelligence officer, introduces Prince to Gilbey

Roland Bentley: MI6, Hendrie’s boss

Sir Roland Pearson: Downing Street intelligence chief

Lord Swalcliffe: Government scientific adviser

Frank Hamilton: Air vice marshal, head of RAF intelligence branch

Tim Carter: Wing commander, RAF intelligence branch

Long: From the Ministry

Wolfgang Scholz: ‘Andrew Martin’, German spy, code name Poacher

Lillian Abbott: Fascist in Peascombe St Mary

Oberleutnant Hofmann: U-boat officer

Llewellyn Tindall: SOE Danish section

Robert Webster: Lieutenant colonel, head of SOE Danish section

Greta Poulsen: Secretary to Tindall at SOE Danish section

Martin: MI6 trainer

Lieutenant Jack Shaw: Royal Navy escort

Bert Trent: Skipper, Northern Hawk

Sid Oliver: First mate, Northern Hawk

Jane Prince: Richard Prince’s late wife (d.1940)

Grace Prince: Richard Prince’s late daughter (d.1940)

Henry Prince: Richard Prince’s son

Evelyn: Richard Prince’s sister-in-law

Treslake: MI5/6 watcher

Group Captain Hanson: Commanding officer at RAF Tempsford

Flight Lieutenant Green: Halifax pilot

Prudence: Woman at safe house

Denmark

Niels: Danish resistance, Esbjerg

Marius: Danish resistance, Odense

Egon: Danish resistance on ferry

Jensen: Cycle shop owner

Browning: Ferdinand Rudolf von Buhler, German diplomat

Margrethe: Danish police officer at Kastrup airport

Jens: Danish police officer at Polititorvet HQ

Peder: Sailor on ferry to Rostock

Julius Oppenheim: Doctor in Copenhagen

George Weston: MI6 Stockholm (Sweden)

Germany

Bruno Bergmann: Horatio’s contact in Berlin

Albert Kampmann: Luftwaffe Oberst in Berlin, alias: Kurt

Frau Henlein: Old lady on train

Hans Hinkler: Waiter at Das Bayerischer Haus

Rudolf Hoffmann: Owner of Das Bayerischer Haus

Gruppenführer von Helldorf: President of the police in Berlin

Manfred Lange: Gestapo officer

Gunther Frank: Kriminaldirektor, Berlin Kripo

August: German communist at Neuengamme and Peenemünde

Émile: French slave labourer at Peenemünde

Alain: French slave labourer at Peenemünde

Karl-Heinrich von Naundorf: SS Brigadeführer, husband of Sophia

Konrad: SS Brigadeführer, friend of Karl-Heinrich von Naundorf

Chapter 1

Lincolnshire, September 1942

‘Come up now, get a move on… we can’t hang around here forever!’

It was Hofmann, the young Oberleutnant who’d been in charge of him with ill-disguised resentment ever since they’d left Kiel three long days before. For most of that time he’d been confined to a cramped bunk area next to the captain’s tiny cabin, not allowed any contact with the rest of the crew. When he was half asleep the previous night, he’d overheard a half-whispered conversation between the Oberleutnant and his captain.

‘We should be hunting Allied ships, Kapitänleutnant, not acting like a taxi service.’