The private room too was as Otto had described it: certainly large enough for eight people, the table with four place settings on it. The room was wood-panelled, stained rather inexpertly in dark brown. They sat down and waited for five minutes, neither saying a word. Eventually one of the panels opened – Prince had had no idea it was a door – and Bruno entered, followed by a taller man in his twenties wearing a long greatcoat and a peaked cap. Without speaking, he removed his hat and coat, revealing the grey uniform of a Luftwaffe officer. He sat down next to Bruno, opposite Otto and Prince.

Bruno made the introductions. ‘You already know my friend from Denmark… this is his colleague; I believe he has some questions for you. I am assured he is to be trusted absolutely. Unfortunately, he doesn’t speak German, but my friend will translate.’

Before either Otto or Prince could say anything, Kurt spoke, his voice sounding younger than he looked.

‘Let me anticipate your first question: why am I sharing all this information with you?’

Prince found himself inadvertently nodding even before Otto had translated. Kurt paused and looked at him slightly suspiciously.

‘You will have to be satisfied with this brief explanation. You know me as Kurt, which is of course not my real name, though I am an Oberst in the Luftwaffe. For the past eighteen months I’ve been attached to our scientific division. Over the last year almost all of our resources – money, equipment, people – have been diverted to the V-1 pilotless aircraft I was telling you about last time we met.’

He had a distinctive accent: as far as Prince could tell, it was a form of High German, possibly indicating he was from Bavaria or Austria.

Kurt nodded to Otto and paused for him to translate.

‘I’m going to be frank with you: many of us are frustrated beyond words about this. We have to devote everything to developing the V-1 when we have reservations about it; these are professional reservations, you understand. If I thought for a moment the V-1 could be developed quickly and at a low cost and could make a significant contribution to our war effort, I wouldn’t be sitting here now, I can assure you of that. But the technology is complex and at every stage of the development programme we’re facing major problems. It could take years to get this right. Your friend really speaks no German? He gives the impression of following what I say.’

‘He understands the odd word, really no more than,’ said Otto, before translating.