Chapters (38)
- Cover
- Also by Philip Kerr
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
“Not long after my abortive attempt to become the mistress of Monsieur Bourgès-Maunoury I received new orders to join an operation with two agents of the HVA I’d met in Berlin. Bernhard Gunther and Harold Hennig.”
“Bullshit,” muttered Hennig. “What is this?”
“Can you identify these men?”
“Yes,” she said flatly. “There they are.”
Anne duly pointed us out, just in case there was any doubt about who we were. This was one of the few times in the proceedings that she ever looked at me, but she might as well have been looking at the postman.
“Can you describe the HVA operation, please?”
“Yes. It had been something that was planned at the highest level in the HVA by Comrade General Mielke himself. In short, it was a covert black operation designed to entice MI5 into eliminating or at the very least neutralizing the deputy director general of MI5, Roger Hollis. To persuade the British secret service that one of their most efficient and loyal spymasters was in fact a long-term spy working for Soviet military intelligence—the GRU. Gunther was already working in a deep cover position as the concierge at the Grand Hôtel where, originally, it had been hoped he would help me carry through the honey trap for the French minister. But when this plan failed, the plan to discredit Roger Hollis—code-named Othello—went into immediate effect.”
“Can you explain how the plan was to work in detail?” said the monk.
“This is all a lie,” said Hennig.
“You’ll have a chance to speak,” said the monk. “Please allow Miss French to finish.”
Anne nodded patiently. “Thank you. Well, Comrade General Mielke’s idea was inspired by Shakespeare’s play Othello, he said. Iago sets about blackening the name and reputation of Desdemona, with a great show of reluctance and almost incrementally. Which was what was supposed to happen here. So, Harold Hennig arrived at the hotel posing as a businessman. His job was to blackmail Somerset Maugham with a compromising photograph featuring Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and Maugham himself. The photo had been sold to Anthony Blunt by the author’s nephew, Robin, and then stolen from Mr. Blunt’s flat in London, and sold to Hennig.”
“Stolen by whom?” asked the avuncular man with bad teeth.