Chapter 46
Tom stood in the doorway of her apartment, a sheepish smile on his face. ‘Good morning, Elizabeth. Sorry to call so early.’
The tension gradually left Lizzie’s body, and she stared at Tom, her heart still pumping. ‘Thank God it’s you,’ she whispered.
‘Why, who were you expecting?’
‘I’ll tell you all. Come in. Just give me a minute to get dressed.’
When Lizzie returned dressed for the office, she made tea and told Tom the saga of the apartment being tossed and her sleeping on the sofa, ready for another visitor.
‘Oh, my goodness, why didn’t you call me last night on the emergency contact number I gave you?’
Lizzie sipped her tea. ‘I didn’t think there was any reason to bother you. I thought it safer not to go out, and besides, the chances were slim they would return.’
Tom fixed her with a knowing stare. ‘Elizabeth Gale, you didn’t think I could protect you, did you? Me being just a lowly desk agent.’
Lizzie shrugged. ‘Well, I am trained for this sort of thing. Seemed pointless disturbing you to come and sleep in a chair when I was on guard, anyway.’
‘You make a good argument. My skills lie elsewhere, which brings me to the reason for my visit.’
‘Go on,’ Lizzie said. ‘Have you got my travel to London confirmed?’
‘That too, but first, you won’t believe what happened earlier.
I couldn’t sleep as I was on edge with all this going on, and I wanted to check for an overnight message confirming your pickup.
I was in the cipher room and sure enough, it had come in.
Then I went out to the back garden like I do when the weather’s fine and I was smoking one of my secret cigarettes when I noticed a movement in the cipher room out the corner of my eye. ’
Lizzie finished her tea. ‘Don’t tell me Voss’s men broke into the Legation too? Surely that would risk causing a major diplomatic incident, which is exactly what he’s trying so hard to avoid.’
‘No, not Voss’s men as such, but perhaps one of Voss’s men,’ Tom said, his tone cryptic.
‘Could you see what he was doing?’ Lizzie asked.
‘I edged close to the window and saw someone poking about behind the picture frames.’
Lizzie inhaled sharply. ‘Oh my God. Did he find the ledger copies?’
Tom nodded. ‘I watched as he removed both lots and stuck them in his pocket. Then I had to hide as he turned around and left the room.’
‘You didn’t try to stop him?’ Lizzie asked.
Tom raised one eyebrow and cast her a rueful glance. ‘I thought we established I’m not the violent kind. Anyway, I decided it was better to stand back and let him think he got away with it unseen.’
Lizzie nodded, contemplating the situation.
‘Yes, that was wise, actually. As long as I get the camera to London, we should have all we need. I was considering whether to risk taking the physical copies too, just in case there are any problems with developing the film, but that presents the considerable danger of me being searched at the border and someone discovering the documents.’
‘Your dilemma is no more, then, I’m afraid.’
‘Hold on, did you recognise the man?’ Lizzie asked.
Tom paused, then said, ‘That’s the really shocking bit. It was Pemberton.’
As Lizzie’s mouth gaped, she stared at Tom. ‘Pemberton! So, he’s been working with Voss all along?’
‘Seems so. You were onto him from the beginning, and I shrugged off your concerns. He always seemed like a superficial sort. I would never have suspected him of anything treasonous.’
Lizzie nodded as all the pieces of her early suspicions—the instinct to search his office and the way he was always entertaining Swiss bigwigs without taking his translator along—fell into place. ‘What a duplicitous bastard,’ she said.
‘He’s been in Bern for years, and no one suspected him until you arrived. No wonder he got in a panic when Voss told him you were poking about at Brunner & Cie. I bet he’s on the payroll of Swiss counterintelligence and his job is to smooth British and Swiss commerce along and not ask questions.’
‘He knew I was with SOE early on,’ Lizzie said, remembering their conversation.
‘I think it was he who tipped Voss off and warned him to keep you under surveillance.’
Lizzie shook her head in disbelief. ‘They played a clever game. I thought after the initial standard surveillance period that they’d backed off.
I congratulated myself on being viewed as an unimportant woman and as such able to waltz into the bank vault undetected.
And all the while they’ve been watching me. ’
‘Voss will have known about the dead drops, and if I had to put money on it, I’d say that’s why the diplomatic pouch never reached London, and the latest one hasn’t turned up here at all.’
‘Pemberton,’ Lizzie sighed. ‘He has access and must have decided it was safer to sabotage the pouch rather than have it arrive in London without the Baker Street package. What do you plan to do about him?’
Tom screwed up his forehead. ‘I’m still deliberating, but I think our best strategy is to get you out of Switzerland as if all is just as it should be, and we don’t know he’s a traitorous toad. Then, once you are safely back in London, you can report him, and I will back you up.’
‘What will happen to him?’ Lizzie said.
‘Well, for starters, his cushy little number in Switzerland will be up. They’ll recall him to London and deal with him there.’
Lizzie sat at her desk in the commercial attaché section for the last time, tidying loose ends and preparing to leave on the train to Basel that afternoon.
Tom had offered to drive her, but they agreed that may draw attention to her as if she had something to hide, rather than leaving with her tail between her legs.
Pemberton would expect her to travel as she had come, by train. The less he knew the better until she was safely beyond his and Voss’s reach.
Later that morning, Pemberton made a big show of being sorry to lose her. ‘You’re the best translator I’ve had, and you will be awfully difficult to replace. I hope London will send me someone just as efficient, but that’s highly unlikely, my dear.’
‘It’s been wonderful working with you, sir. I am sorry to have to leave so suddenly, but urgent family matters call, I’m afraid.’
‘Family first for you ladies,’ he said. ‘Just as it should be.’
Lizzie gritted her teeth and smiled at his condescending statement as though she didn’t have the urge to wind him with a sharp blow to the stomach.
What a lying, worthless piece of work he was.
The Allies were fighting for their lives, losing people every day, and here he was dining on lavish lunches and betraying his country.
She hoped he met a horrible, sticky end.
‘Thank you, sir. It’s good of you to be so understanding,’ she said.
Lizzie wondered where he had hidden the ledger copies and was tempted to investigate, but that would prioritise revenge over escape.
She must board the train to Basel that afternoon and let Voss and Pemberton both believe they had outwitted her, and she had left the country with nothing to show for all her efforts.
The last vital part of her mission was to smuggle out the camera as a courier from under the conniving pair’s noses and place it in Val’s hands at Baker Street where she would deliver it to Churchill.
Letting the insufferable Pemberton think he had stitched her up without her knowing he was involved would make her revenge far sweeter in the long run.
He would imagine she’d look for the copies and have no idea who had stolen them.
He must think she and Tom believed the pouch had simply gone astray, and that she had been thwarted in the vault by Voss and had completely failed in her mission. He seemed rather pleased with himself.
Well, Mr Pemberton, enjoy it whilst you may, because your day of retribution is coming.