Chapter 36
Lizzie sipped her morning tea in her apartment in the sky, and watched the sun rise slowly over the powdery white mountains. The dense snowline had melted with each passing day of March, gradually edging upwards to reveal more of the ground beneath and prepare the way for spring.
She contemplated recent events as she gazed out the window, thinking about her source. Did Brunner know his partner, Hauser, had met with Kurt Voss? And if so, did he realise he was gathering files of Jewish clients, at least some of whom had disappeared and their accounts marked as dormant?
Brunner had told her he was worried about his partner, but if she had to guess, she’d say he didn’t know Hauser was actively working with Kurt Voss.
What were the two of them up to in that meeting?
She’d have liked to be a fly on the wall, but even she knew when she had reached the upper limits of her time spying in the bank and had to leave whilst she still could.
The terrace wall had held no surprises for her the last couple of times she had checked, and she was growing restless again.
Brunner had said he would get her more evidence, specifically on the gold laundering, so what was holding him up?
Had Hauser somehow pressured him to back off or was it just as Brunner said—difficult to copy the ledger pages without being seen?
Dressing for work, she ran through what she would do that day.
At lunch she would visit the café in case Brunner wanted to meet.
That was their only other possible meeting place outside his office, and it was too soon for her to visit the bank again without arousing suspicion either from his partner or from her boss.
Pemberton was growing impatient with Brunner’s repeated amendments so the less he heard about them the better.
That reminded her, she wanted to have another look around Pemberton’s office when he was next out on one of his extended lunches.
If the opportunity arose today, she would do that too.
Tom had booked her for a cipher room shift, which she looked forward to and she may even get the chance to send a message to Jack.
Also, she wanted to check in with Tom. Since he collected the package for her, and mentioned his fears for The Lavender Network, they had begun confiding in each other.
Spycraft was a lonely business, and being able to talk to someone she trusted was a relief.
He was SOE and had helped her and Hannah in the past so she could trust him.
That didn’t mean they would tell each other more than they needed to know, but discussing their challenges was good for them both.
She appreciated Tom, who spent most of his time alone in the cipher room, doing critical behind-the-scenes work supporting the networks and helping construct escape routes for downed Allied airmen and SOE agents.
As she closed the apartment door and entered the caged lift to the ground floor, she decided she would also squeeze in another visit to the cathedral terrace to check the wall again.
If Brunner had left her a package last night, she couldn’t risk someone else stumbling onto it.
He was putting himself and his reputation on the line to help her, and she always took care of her people.
In the early days, she hadn’t understood what she had committed to, only that she felt an overwhelming urge to do something worthwhile to support the war effort like her brother and father.
Only later, as she undertook more missions and gained experience, did she realise the true weight of responsibility she had taken on for those who risked their lives to work with the Allies.
It was late morning when Pemberton asked her to take some papers over to the Old Town and get a signature.
Pleased not to have to make excuses to pop out, she embarked on the assignment immediately and took a different route back to the Legation so she could pass the cathedral.
The terrace was deserted, but several parents sat on the benches and watched their children play nearby.
People milling about benefited her, as eyes wouldn’t be drawn only to her if someone new arrived.
She wished she had taken up smoking again for this mission, as that would be an excellent cover for standing on the viewing platform near the wall, but it was too late to pretend she was a smoker now.
Instead, she dropped a coin and stooped as if to search for it.
With one hand moving across the ground in front of her, the other extracted a small package tucked into the crevice and popped it neatly into her pocket.
She continued the charade of looking for her lost coin for several minutes, just in case anyone was watching.
Then she picked up the coin, rubbed her hands on her coat, and righted herself before slipping away.
Ever more cautious, in case someone was following her, she performed her usual moves, but again no one appeared to be shadowing her.
With so many intelligence agencies based in Bern, Tom had said jokingly, it was a full-time job just spying on each other.
Lizzie had met a charming American at a diplomatic reception recently who, like her, was based at his country’s Legation.
Tom had whispered in her ear that he was with the OSS, the American intelligence service.
Such were the intrigues of wartime Switzerland, but Lizzie was grateful it was such a breeding ground for espionage because it took the heat off her.
Back at the Legation, she went straight to the cipher room where Tom was absorbed in a task, and she extracted the package from her pocket.
They were both wary of listening devices, no matter how often Tom swept the room.
He signalled to check she was alright, and she nodded and showed him the package in her hand.
Lizzie sat in the usual spot, ready for her shift, but before starting, she unwrapped the waxed paper carefully.
Each package symbolised the heart of her mission and why she was living alone in Bern in an apartment in the diplomatic quarter, working as a translator for the annoying Pemberton, instead of at home in London with Jack and her family.
She reminded herself that this war would not be won with guns and sabotage only, but required skilled espionage too.
Her breath snagged in her chest with anticipation as she withdrew the folded paper from its protective cover and smoothed it onto the table in front of her.
Another document was curled within it. Tom glanced over, curious, but then turned his attention back to his task.
He knew she would tell him what she could, and he had enough of his own work to juggle.
Lizzie had specifically asked Brunner to give her details of the looted-gold transactions.
The Allies were focused on strategic and economic war goals rather than stopping the horrific humanitarian nightmare the Jews were experiencing.
Little Liesel’s face rose in her mind again, and she thought of Hannah, who still didn’t know whether any of her family members had survived Kristallnacht, but she made herself concentrate on the paper in front of her.
This was not about the moral betrayal of a persecuted people, no matter how Lizzie wished it were.
Proof of dormant Jewish bank accounts, such as that of the Rosenthals, whilst potentially disturbing to the Allies, was not the evidence that would make a difference.
And she couldn’t think too deeply now about the gold ingots, or she would fall apart.
There would be time for that later, and she would make sure Hannah and Lev knew exactly what was going on.
Ultimately, Lizzie was sure they would make those who were complicit in the industrial murder of Jews pay when this was all over.
Lizzie was to provide evidence of the Swiss helping the Germans fund the war so Churchill could increase pressure on them to cut off the Nazi regime’s access to foreign exchange and currency.
They purchased their war supplies with Swiss francs and would be paralysed without the flow of stolen gold that fuelled the war machine.
The top document showed Brunner & Cie processed such foreign exchange transactions by converting the gold from the Reichsbank into Swiss francs.
This was clear proof in front of her, and the scale of it was enormous.
Her eyes scanned the small print of the first document and then moved to the next, which was a copy of a German purchase letter to a Swiss factory requesting a huge order of tungsten, ball bearings, and other materials.
Clever Brunner had gone one step further than the foreign exchange route and showed her the actual purchase the funds were used for.
This must be why he had taken longer to organise the dead drop.
Lizzie sat back in her chair, triumph surging through her.
She still needed more evidence to make an irrefutable case, but this was quite something.
The transactions connected the Swiss National Bank to Brunner’s private bank and directly back to the German military purchasing arm.
What more did she need before she could complete her mission and go home, knowing she had done all she could?
Tom paused again, and she moved slightly away from the table and indicated he could look at the papers.
This was so significant that she made the decision that Tom should know what was going on in Bern on his watch.
There were times to keep people in the dark, but this was not one of them.
They were gaining momentum to win this war, and this knowledge would help Tom spot the opportunity to gather more relevant evidence.
After he had read the papers, his expression was one of utter shock. He told her he had his suspicions, but he hadn’t realised the Swiss were in so deep in facilitating the funding of the Germans.
She asked if she could use the wireless, and he left the room, and she moved into his spot.
The biggest problem she now faced was that this precious evidence could easily go astray in the diplomatic bag, given the current precarious travel situation.
The Bern to London route was dangerous, and Lizzie read only yesterday how the Luftwaffe had shot down a civilian aircraft over the Bay of Biscay.
It made it even more important that she update London, so they knew what was happening, and hopefully the evidence would arrive safely.
Raven. Big developments here. Critical evidence obtained. Will send two new rounds at next opportunity. Did you receive previous yet? All well here. Seagrove.
She longed to write something more personal, but even though their engagement was no longer a secret, it would be frowned upon to include love notes in their transmissions.
The most she could do was put his mind at rest, and she consoled herself that peace of mind was worth a lot and he would sleep better at night after hearing from her.
Lizzie signed off, and Tom took care of her codebook. Then she hid the latest evidence behind a different painting, but also checked that the last piece she had received was still where it should be.
The proof was mounting, and she must despatch it to London without delay. When was the next diplomatic bag? If the papers were somehow intercepted, all her and Brunner’s hard work would be for nothing.