Chapter Fifteen #3
‘The field. Meaning Germany?’
‘Quite possibly,’ he said. ‘The current appeasement policy is only forestalling the inevitable, despite what our leadership believes. Work for me, and maybe we’ll gain an edge on events. It will be vital work, Miss Sparks. It may also be dangerous.’
‘I like a little danger in my life,’ she said. ‘I haven’t found any in the basement here.’
‘There’s something else you should know up front before you commit,’ he said.
‘Which is what?’
‘You’re a very pretty girl,’ he said, looking her over. ‘That can be an asset for certain types of operations. If you come aboard I may ask you do certain things that conventional society would consider a moral compromise.’
An image flashed across her mind. Her hand holding a Buck’s Fizz in salute as Kevin Pickard smirked from across the breakfast table.
‘That won’t be a problem, sir,’ she said. ‘I’m well acquainted with those.’
London, 1947
Carruthers slowed the car down to a halt short of the gate. The Brigadier looked up from his newspaper.
‘Damn,’ he said.
‘Still want me to shoot her?’ asked Carruthers.
‘No,’ said the Brigadier. ‘Besides, she has Bainbridge with her.’
The two women were standing in front of the gate, their arms folded. Carruthers killed the engine, then got out.
‘How is it going to be, Sparks?’ he said.
‘We’ve come to negotiate, so we’ll behave,’ said Sparks.
‘There is nothing to negotiate, Sparks,’ said the Brigadier as he got out. ‘It’s done. Go home.’
‘Parham needs to know more to charge her,’ said Sparks.
‘She’s going to be released tonight,’ said the Brigadier. ‘The orders have already gone through. She’s too valuable an asset to waste.’
‘After what she did? You really want a psychopath like her working for you?’
‘She’s perfect, Sparks,’ said the Brigadier. ‘In the span of a few short days she improvised a plan to seduce a man she’d just met into committing a murder for her, and there is nothing about it that can be traced back to my department.’
‘You said you weren’t trying to kill Danforth,’ said Sparks.
‘We weren’t,’ said the Brigadier. ‘But we were not unhappy with the result. Danforth in the Foreign Office poses a genuine and immediate threat to our operations. Now at the very least he’ll be out of commission for some time.
If he’s still keen on continuing his career, we’ll be watching him even more closely. ’
‘You weren’t trying to kill him,’ said Mrs Bainbridge. ‘But you knew she was Bruce Cater’s younger sister, didn’t you? You knew about the connection between Cater and Danforth.’
‘I did,’ said the Brigadier.
‘So you recruited her specifically to put her in a position where she could exact vengeance upon him,’ said Mrs Bainbridge. ‘And then waited to see what would happen. Like a stupid little boy playing with a chemistry set seeing if he might set off an explosion.’
‘What are you going to do with her now?’ asked Sparks.
‘Train her further, find another mission for her particular set of talents,’ said the Brigadier. ‘She’s going to be the operative you never could have been, Sparks. Do you know why?’
‘Tell me,’ she said.
‘Because she lacks the flaws that held you back,’ he said. ‘You had a conscience and a sense of remorse. She doesn’t.’
‘She’s still young,’ said Sparks. ‘She may still develop them. If she does, they will break her. They broke me.’
‘I know, Sparks,’ he said. ‘Otherwise I would have made more of an effort to keep you. Go home. Parham has a criminal to charge, Lowle vanishes into a new identity, everybody gets what they need.’
‘Not everybody,’ she said.
‘Everybody who matters,’ he replied.
‘We won’t be doing you any more favours,’ she said. ‘Be clear about that.’
‘And if you attempt to punish us for that, we have left letters detailing this shambles of an operation with someone we trust,’ added Mrs Bainbridge. ‘Not Mr Danielli.’
‘No, he would be too obvious a choice,’ said the Brigadier. ‘I’ll be sending a man to collect Lowle’s records from The Right Sort tomorrow. We’re through, ladies. Goodnight.’
He stepped between them, opened his gate, then went inside.
‘I could give you a lift home,’ offered Carruthers.
‘We already beat up two of your colleagues today,’ said Sparks. ‘Would you like to be the third?’
‘Some other time,’ he said.
He got back in the Bentley and drove off.
They returned to work the next morning, trying to match people who they hoped wouldn’t end up in any criminal conspiracies. Around two thirty, they heard footsteps ascending the staircase. Then Carlton Edwards appeared in the doorway.
‘How are you feeling?’ asked Mrs Bainbridge with concern.
‘Still woozy, no thanks to you,’ he said.
‘You’re off hospital duty, at least,’ said Sparks.
‘Yeah, the boss wasn’t exactly thrilled with my performance yesterday,’ he said. ‘I let two women get the drop on me.’
‘It was a good thing you did,’ said Sparks.
‘He sent me to collect her files,’ said Edwards. ‘Wouldn’t even give me a day to rest up.’
‘I have her file here,’ said Sparks. ‘Oh, and you’ll need the index cards.’
The two women each rifled through their boxes of eligible women and pulled out Lowle’s cards. Sparks clipped everything together and handed them to him.
‘Are you up for that drink?’ she asked.
‘That was a serious offer?’
‘I’m always serious when it comes to drinking,’ she said.
‘Not today, Sparks,’ he said. ‘Have to wait for the noggin to ease up.’
‘Some other time, then,’ she said.
‘See you around, Sparks.’
He left.
‘Are you all right?’ asked Gwen.
‘You know me,’ said Iris. ‘I am sustained as always by my innate cheerfulness.’
‘That was the last part, wasn’t it? I guess we’re done.’
‘Not quite,’ said Iris.