Chapter 37
Jack had tried to get a meeting with Gould several times throughout the day, but his secretary denied him entry repeatedly, using a variety of excuses. By late afternoon, he was determined to be fobbed off no longer and strode across the grounds back into the mansion.
The secretary looked uncomfortable when she saw him again. Clearly, she had been instructed to refuse him entry, and it was growing more difficult for her each time he returned.
‘How may I help you, sir?’ she said, as if he hadn’t been there just an hour earlier.
Jack’s dark good looks and masculine charisma usually worked miracles on the ladies, but this one seemed wholly unimpressed by his charms. She was a woman in her fifties, he estimated, with a spectacle chain around her neck, and she exuded an air of ultimate efficiency.
She was exactly the tough type you needed on your side when you were fighting the Germans, and she was more like a fierce guard dog than a welcoming secretary.
Whilst Jack understood the usefulness of her approach, it was a shame her prickly exterior was targeting him.
Tutting ever so slightly, so he barely caught the sound, he noticed her mouth pinch into a disapproving frown.
‘I’m afraid Mr Gould isn’t available. This is a particularly busy day, and he’s scheduled until late tonight in important meetings.’
Jack hovered near her desk. ‘I’ll wait then and catch him in one of his openings. I have nowhere more urgent to be, and I’m certain he’ll need a break at some stage.’
The secretary raised her head from where she had returned to organising files as if she had already dismissed him. ‘There’s really no point, sir. As I said, Mr Gould is booked solid and won’t have even a small window to see you.’
Jack knew when he was being handled, and it only made him more determined to get into Gould’s office and have it out with him.
He leant over her desk and whispered next to her ear.
‘It’s a matter of national security. I can promise you; your boss will not be pleased when he realises you’ve blocked me from seeing him. ’
A red blotch stained her cheeks, and he saw he had penetrated her professional veneer. She rose from her chair. ‘Very well, I will see if he has a moment. As it happens, someone just left a few minutes ago, so perhaps he can fit you in.’
‘Wonderful,’ Jack said, cynically thinking how convenient it was that Gould was not in a meeting at all, but there was no use in aggravating the woman further when she was simply following Gould’s instructions.
The secretary returned from her boss’s office, saying Mr Gould could see him now for a few minutes only, but disapproval still clouded her features.
‘That’s all I need. Thank you very much for your help,’ he said, the epitome of gallantry, despite her reluctance to honour his request. You never knew when you might need someone’s help again, and he had a feeling his seeking an audience with Gould could repeat itself.
Gould stood by the window and turned when Jack entered. ‘Ah, just stretching my legs, King. I have back-to-back meetings scheduled until late tonight.’
‘So I understand, sir. Good of you to fit me in. I won’t take more of your time than necessary, but something urgent has come to my attention, and I thought you should know without further delay.’
Gould returned to his desk, offered Jack a cigarette and a light, and then lit his own and took a thirsty drag as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and only nicotine could hold him upright.
‘A tough day, sir?’ Jack said. ‘Had a few of those myself, I don’t mind admitting.’
Gould sighed and inhaled again, as a film of smoke hovered in the air between them. ‘You seem like a decent sort, King, but get on with it, old chap.’
Gould’s tone irritated Jack, but he knew better than to rise to the bait. It was part of the officer’s strategy, and Jack must remain cool whilst he provoked Gould to let things slip, not the other way around.
‘Apologies for the interruption, but this is important,’ Jack said, his cigarette in one hand as he fixed Gould with a fierce stare, and the balance between them shifted.
‘Go on,’ Gould said, as though resigned to the interruption.
‘An important batch of intercepts landed on my desk yesterday but was revoked before I could finish with them. Something about my security clearance.’
Gould cleared his throat and reached for a file as if he were suddenly too busy for this conversation and must get on immediately.
His voice was matter of fact, as though Jack was wasting his time.
‘I’m afraid they were released to you in error.
It was a routine classification problem that had to be corrected.
Nothing to concern you, King. I hope that’s not what’s brought you over here. ’
Jack didn’t miss a beat. ‘I realise you are handling a lot. Perhaps you are unaware of the contents of the intercepts, but I believe we have a serious problem worthy of your attention. What I read yesterday revealed that our intelligence is being routed through a Swiss channel. And I had spotted this happening before, but thought I must have been mistaken. There seems to be a pattern, and one of our agents in the field noticed it recently too. What I would like to know is how this is possible?’
Gould returned his stare, unblinking, and said in a cool voice designed to shut Jack’s line of questioning down. ‘It’s already been handled, Captain.’
‘You know about this? It’s a serious breach of protocol.’
‘Let it go, King. You were given higher security clearance strictly to improve the flow of intelligence to Baker Street, and to handle your traitor. That is quite enough for you to concern yourself with, and I need you to forget what you read or think you read yesterday.’
Jack’s hackles rose, and the anger he’d felt when he discovered how the SOE wasn’t being informed of critical movements that endangered their French networks, washed over him again like a tidal wave.
He breathed deeply, struggling to control himself.
‘We will need to discuss the flow of intelligence to Baker Street, but this matter is more urgent. I appreciate I may have stumbled onto something you didn’t expect me to find, but if that’s the case, I need to know who sanctioned this irregular situation.
And if it’s not, we have a problem because I can’t ignore it.
From where I’m sitting, this looks as though someone here is passing Eastern Front intelligence to Switzerland.
Why would anyone do that unless they were a traitor? ’
Gould snorted as if what he said was ridiculous, but Jack saw he had rattled him with his confident offensive.
‘I will warn you once more, King. Step away from the fire. This is classified way above your security clearance. If you continue to poke around, making unsubstantiated accusations, you will damage our operations. That’s all I can say.’
Jack stared at him, unsure what to do next. Was Gould a traitor? Good Lord, was there no one he could trust these days? Was the betrayal rooted this deep in the heart of Bletchley Park?
There was nothing more he could do at this moment, and he would need to think it through.
A sheen of sweat appeared on Gould’s forehead as he dismissed him, saying his next meeting was about to begin.
Jack reached the door, and Gould added, ‘Keep this to yourself, King. Not one word, or you could compromise everything we’re working for here. Don’t be a fool.’
The cool evening air hit Jack’s face as he emerged in the grounds, and it was a relief to be out of the oppressive office. His head ached from the swirling thoughts attacking his brain, and he couldn’t make sense of things.
Gould had as good as admitted he was covering something up.
There was nothing odd about Britain feeding German intelligence to the Soviets.
Churchill himself had ordered the intelligence services to help them, as there was always a fear they might switch sides again and make a pact with Germany.
This was different, though, and it made Jack’s head throb.
As he reached his hut, he realised the real question was who was feeding intelligence to whom?
What he and Lizzie had seen were intercepts containing precise German intelligence appearing in Swiss traffic, which could surely only mean one thing.
Someone in their system was intercepting and covertly passing information to Switzerland.
What troubled Jack most of all as he tussled with the conundrum was why would that be?