She also had to get in touch with Moscow as soon as possible. She said that she would telegram her GRU contact in Berlin, who would then be able to radio her news to Moscow. Hopefully they would get some information back within a week. Lockhart would send another message via Stafford to London, but that might take time, if indeed London even replied.

For a few days, Lockhart could do little more than wait. Occasionally, the unit would receive news of the Allies’ advance, although Lockhart suspected that any news was heavily censored and manipulated. Nevertheless, a picture of the Allies’ success was emerging, especially with the news that Cherbourg had been liberated, thus providing them with a port. In the east, the Russians were making huge advances. If the Nazis were going to use sarin, thought Lockhart, then they would use it soon.

The news of these advances and the continued threat that they would soon be sent to Dresden made the men edgy. With the exception of Stafford, the non-fascists—Hull, Andreae, Marston, Allan, Malcolm and Nichols—were demanding to be sent back to their POW camps, whatever the consequences. Even the fascists—Maclaren, Catchpole, Simpkin, Smith and Prain—were getting flaky, and had said to Pugh, who they still regarded as their spiritual leader, that they too were uneasy; were there not jobs out of uniform that could be found for them?

For Lockhart, these stirrings were a mixed blessing. The men’s realization that being caught by the Allies as members of the BFC was hardly an attractive prospect meant that most would be more susceptible to his plan. However, it was likely that a mutiny might soon take place, which would doubtless ensure the demise of both the unit and Lockhart’s plan.

Strasser remained subdued, compliant. He spent most of his time preparing for the move to Dresden, an activity that depressed him because he knew that Lockhart would eventually put a halt to it. There were many days when he was tempted to break Lockhart’s hold over him, but he calculated that the risk was too great. If he had Lockhart shot, then that would certainly result in two things—the unit’s end, and Leni going to the SD. Just one of those events would be bad enough, but both would ensure his death, either in front of a firing squad, or somewhere on the ever-encroaching Russian front. He resolved to sit tight, although he was fearful of what Lockhart was going to ask of him, fearful that it would make him complicit, that Lockhart would make him a traitor. One night, when cleaning his gun, he thought about putting it to his head, but he stopped himself. Like Lockhart, he thought, he had too much of a will to live. Suicide was too cowardly. Part of him needed to see Leni again, but he knew that he couldn’t. It was best if he never contacted her again.