Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Noah
Noah rested his head back against the wooden chair where he’d been sitting for hours, barely able to stay awake.
The French police who’d taken him to the local gendarmerie and dumped him in a small room hadn’t returned—but they hadn’t bound him either.
His detainment had been rather civil, as Noah had willingly surrendered.
Their expressions when he’d explained they must have been mistaken about a traveling companion had been grim, though.
How long had it been? Five hours? Maybe more. The room was windowless, barely large enough to be a closet. Paint peeled from the plaster walls, and only a single bulb provided warm electric light that had been his companion and disturbed his attempts to sleep.
He shifted, his leg starting to ache from an old war wound that had left him with a limp for years.
Maybe he should have jumped with Jack. Of course, he wasn’t as young as he’d once been, and the truth was that he’d been anticipating this. Knight was bright. Keen on recruiting Noah. His tactics thus far had been friendly enough.
Noah hated to muse about what tactics Knight might turn to if Noah continued to refuse him.
A rustle outside the door drew his attention, and Noah held a breath as the knob turned. Then the door opened and Alain Roche entered, a stranger trailing behind him.
Tall and blond, with an angular jaw and a broad torso made of muscle, the stranger sat in the only other chair in the room, directly across from Noah.
In his hands he held a leather folio. The temperature in the room seemed to increase, the air thicker with the heat of three bodies inside such a crowded space.
“So this is the infamous Noah Benson I’ve heard so much about,” the man said, his accent English. He tossed some of the hair back from his wide forehead. A deep scar crisscrossed his left temple—likely a war wound of some type. Many of their generation had that in common.
“And you are?” Noah asked.
The man leaned forward, revealing a mildly crooked smile. “Clive Hower. Knight sent me.”
“I thought as much.” Noah bored his gaze into Hower’s. “As far as I know, it’s not a crime to take a holiday, Mr. Hower. We might start with that.”
Hower nodded. “That would normally be true, Captain Benson—but, as it turns out, the French have seen fit to revoke your transit visa. You’re a known anti-colonial and have ties to both the Arab and Irish nationalists.” He crossed one ankle over the opposite knee. “You can see the concern.”
Noah ground his teeth. Of course. That would be Knight’s first tactic. Cut off his feet. His ability to travel. Going through France had been a risk, but Noah’s contact at the border had come through with the paperwork. Had that been where they’d taken a misstep?
If so, it gave an alarming insight into just how large a net MI5 had begun to cast through Europe.
“And, yet, I’ve been traveling through France without issue the last decade.”
Roche cleared his throat. “The French government was recently made aware of your political leanings, Captain Benson. Do you deny them?”
Noah flicked his gaze toward Roche. Alastair had sent Jack to the man, which meant on some level—even the most basic—there had to be something about him worthy enough to make it onto a list of people Alastair would see fit to contact.
But a vast gulf existed between outright villainy and so-called “goodness” and Roche’s background intrigued Noah.
Jack had told him he was Levantine, born in Palestine—but a Catholic, not Moslem, with clear ties to the French government.
His loyalties would be interesting to test.
“What would you like me to say, Roche?” Noah replied smoothly.
“That the empire isn’t bleeding at the seams?
From India to Ireland, unrest shadows the lands.
Six weeks of riots followed the last clashes of the British authorities with the nationalists in Palestine.
Hundreds were injured.” He locked his eyes on Roche.
The man didn’t flinch, giving little away.
“I merely observe the changes. But you’d be grasping at straws to make the claim that I’ve done anything to aid a single nationalist movement. ”
“Regardless, I’m certain you can see why the French would want to be cautious with someone of your level of notoriety, Benson.” Hower pulled out a pair of glasses from his breast pocket and set them on his nose, then opened the folio. “You went absent without leave during the war—did you not?”
Noah shifted in his seat. “Everything in my file has been corrected to reflect what actually happened during the war. Yes—I went absent. But my superior officer was a spy working for the Germans who attempted to frame me for his crimes. Nearly succeeded too.” His eyes narrowed at Hower.
“I had to do what was necessary to survive and was honorably discharged.”
Hower held Noah’s gaze. After a beat, he glanced back at Roche. “Leave us.”
Roche nodded, then exited quickly.
As the door clicked shut, Hower closed the folio, then assessed Noah with a piercing gaze. “Let’s start with the basics. Where did Jack Darby run off to?”
“Why are you assuming I know anything of Jack’s current whereabouts?”
“He was with you on the train, wasn’t he?”
“If he was, I certainly wouldn’t know where he is now, would I?
I’ve been here for hours, Mr. Hower. Jack’s a resourceful man.
And, more importantly, I don’t think you or Knight really care where he is, do you?
That’s not the point of this exercise, is it?
The French revoking my visa is about as subtle a threat as a blow with a hammer. ”
Hower ducked his chin, his eyes simmering.
At least Noah had spelled it out clearly enough. He wouldn’t play games. He had no time for them. God help me if I choose wrong—and Ginger never forgives me.
After he’d returned from the war, they’d made promises to each other—promises he would never break.
No more secrets. No more lies. He would never embark again on any mission like he’d been forced to resort to when he’d needed to clear his name after Stephen Fisher had done his best to destroy him during the war—at least, without telling her, anyway.
Noah had nearly broken their marriage, lost her and Alexander as a result.
He would never risk her and his family. Ever.
A few beats sounded before Hower cleared his throat. “Work for us, Benson. We don’t want to make life difficult for you.” His face softened. “And you’d be doing your country a great service. You may not believe it, but we’re all on the same side here.”
Noah raised a brow. “And what side would that be?”
“The one opposing tyranny. You’re a father, Benson.
A husband. You may feel safe and unthreatened in the countryside of England, but I promise you, there are spies everywhere.
We must find out what we can about who our enemies are before we find ourselves in the midst of yet another conflict.
You were a young man in the last war. Another one might very well threaten your children. ”
Ice splashed through Noah’s chest, his gut coiling with tension. The idea of Alexander facing any of the horrors he himself had faced was enough to make him sick.
But Clara—sweet, innocent Clara, so like her mother with such an enormous heart for every sick and injured creature she came across—she would suffer too.
She’d once cried for days, as a young girl of six, when a lamb she’d been nursing to health had died overnight in the barn. She’d blamed herself. She’d sobbed into Noah’s neck, “If you’d only let me stay with him at night, Papa …”
More worrisome, though, was the fact that Hower had mentioned his children—almost in the same breath that he’d made a vague threat. Noah’s jaw clenched as he stared into the man’s face. “What is it you want?”
The hint of a smile in Hower’s eyes told Noah that the man felt his message had been received.
“Colonel Vernon Kell has dispatched us to put eyes and ears in necessary groups. Groups that need surveillance. Knight had hoped that with your subversive background you might make a valuable asset for us within the Communist circles in London—but I’ve since changed his mind. ”
Noah tilted his head, taking a closer look at him. Just who was Hower? He must be someone of influence if he had access to two men of such rank within MI5. “I’m not a Communist,” Noah said in a flat tone.
“No, we know that.” He said it with a confidence that nearly made Noah shiver.
“But it wouldn’t take much for you to convince others that you are, and that’s what matters.
But—as I said—I have other plans for you, Benson.
We need reliable men and women in Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt.
If we are to maintain any level of superiority in the air or at sea, that region of the world is vital to us. ”
Noah held his gaze. Hower wasn’t saying anything Noah didn’t already know. The Royal Air Force was growing rapidly. The Suez Canal was an indispensable area for British sea vessels. Vessels and aircraft that needed petrol. “Men and women for what exactly?”
“To befriend the locals. Procure invitations to meetings and gatherings with groups of interest to us.”
But a gap in logic still existed when it came to Hower’s plans for Noah. “I live in England.”
“But you travel to Egypt for the winter season occasionally. And are still involved with archeological pursuits, yes?”
Noah’s lips turned in a sardonic twist. “You apparently know quite a bit about me, Hower—who am I to dispute the facts of my life?”