A New Kind of War (30 page)

‘Yes.’ The intentness misted up suddenly. ‘But it was a bridge that got you in the end, wasn’t it? The Volturno bridge was it—the eighth wonder of the world?’

Fred was conscious of his hand for the first time that day. ‘You know a lot about me.’ He amended the question to a statement as he spoke.

‘I know
everything
about you, major. Except how your hand is today—how is it?’

‘It’s okay. Almost as good as new.’ Thinking about the damn thing always made it ache. ‘It does most things adequately.’

‘You’ve learnt to point with your left hand?’

The bastard really
did
know everything, right down to that one particular crooked index finger. ‘I use my right hand to point round corners, actually. It does that very well.’

‘Good.’ Clinton accepted the tart reply without offence. ‘I have an acquaintance in the gunners who maintains that all sapper officers are mad: Would you agree with that?’

It sounded like an exam question. ‘I have an acquaintance—no, a friend … who says that gunners are people who have just enough maths to pass School Certificate—just enough. If they were cleverer they’d have become sappers. But they aren’t—’
Damn
! he thought suddenly, as he realized that he’d missed the correct answer—the required answer? Was there time—

‘Actually, he didn’t say “mad”—he said “stark staring mad”.’ Clinton smiled his terrible thin-lipped smile again.

But that was obliging of him, thought Fred: it offered that second chance on a plate. ‘Then I have the necessary qualification for joining this unit, obviously. Apart from my banking connection, that is … Everyone’s been telling me, ever since I arrived, that everyone else is stark staring mad—or stark
raving
mad … everyone from Colonel Colbourne himself downwards … ’ He had gone too far—?

‘Downwards to young Audley? Your fellow spy?’

Something inhibited Fred from shopping young Audley, whose own big mouth caused him enough trouble as it was. ‘Captain Audley is an exception to the rule, I rather think.’

‘ “In more ways than one”?’ Clinton quoted the young man’s words cruelly. ‘He’s certainly poor, I grant you. But that comes of having a father addicted to fast women and slow horses before the war, which has mortgaged him to the hilt. Although we can’t blame him for that, poor boy. Any more than we can praise
you
for your great expectations, major.’

For the first time Fred crossed the man’s stare with one of his own with a sense of steel sliding against steel, even though he knew it was anger and not courage which animated him. ‘Oh no?’

‘Oh
yes
, major—I also know
all
about Captain Audley. And all about Colonel Augustus Colbourne.
And
all his other officers. Which I should know, because each one of them has been hand-picked by me—each one, including you, major.’ He paused. ‘Or perhaps not
quite
all. And there’s the rub.’

The coldness of those final words utterly extinguished Fred’s anger: from fancying himself as a duellist he saw himself for the rabbit he was.

‘Now—straight questions and short answers, major. You’ve talked to young Audley. And you’ve travelled with Driver Hewitt. And neither of them possesses the gift of silence … though Audley’s still young enough to learn, I hope. But between them they must have told you what they think TRR-2 is doing, eh?’

Kyriakos had given him the answer to that one, long ago and long before Audley or Hewitt had talked. ‘You are man-hunters.’

‘Don’t say “you”—say “we”. What sort of men do we hunt?’

‘Germans.’ But then what the devil were they doing in Greece on the Eve of Scobiemas? So that answer wasn’t quite adequate. And then he remembered the group picture Audley had shown him—and, much more vividly, ‘Corporal Keys’ inability with a simple uniform. ’Civilians—scientists—?‘ But then he remembered the heavily-laden lorry. ’But also machinery, too—equipment.‘ But then he thought also of what Audley had said. ’But that may be a cover. Is it?‘

‘Partially. But not wholly. And, in fact, our chief cover has been Colonel Colbourne’s celebrated obsession with him—’ Clinton pointed upwards ‘—and with the final resting place of General Quinctilius Varus and the men of the XVIIth, XVIIIth and XIXth Roman Legions … whose bones are most likely scattered over many square miles of the Teutoburgerwald.’

‘And they—the Americans—actually believed that?’

‘For a time, perhaps. They, the Americans. And also they, the French. And they, the Russians, major. Because it happens to be a real obsession of Colbourne’s—an obsession in an otherwise extremely clever and well-balanced man. And one shared by a great many otherwise clever and well-balanced German professors and scholars down the years, also. But there’s nothing strange in obsessions, major—a lot of us have them. And at least Colbourne’s is an innocent one, which doesn’t hurt anyone.’

Coming from such a cold fish, that was a surprisingly warm defence. Or maybe there was more to Brigadier Clinton than met the eye? ‘It just makes them—
us
—
a laughing-stock—? But that was what you wanted, of course!’

‘Yes.’ Clinton looked up at Hermann for a moment, who was safely frozen in stone, before coming back to Fred. ‘Except that it didn’t require Augustus Colbourne’s private obsession to make a laughing-stock of us. Us, the British. Because we were that already, in this particular field of operations.’

Lucky Hermann
! ‘We were—?’

‘And not just among our loyal allies. Among the Germans, too—perhaps among them, above all … our defeated enemies, major. The only difference is that their laughter must be bitter as well as incredulous, watching us make such fools of ourselves.’

That was what the Crocodile had said. But he hadn’t really understood it then, and he didn’t now. ‘What d’you mean?’

‘Yes—of course.’ Clinton cocked an eye at him. ‘You’ve been too busy disporting yourself happily at Vouliagmeni beach with Colonel Michaelides’ cast-off mistresses.’ The eye became knowing.
‘I know all about you, major’
, it reminded him. ‘Well, we haven’t had much time for that in Germany. Because we’ve been discovering just how clever the Germans really were, major, you see.’

‘I never thought they weren’t clever, sir—’

‘I don’t mean German sappers.’ Clinton paused. ‘Although they did have some new plastic explosive which might have surprised you unpleasantly … But then they were way ahead of us in so many fields—synthetics, and optics, and radar and rocketry, and aircraft design—I’m told that even their aircraft-testing technology was years ahead of ours … In fact, I don’t think some of our chaps really understand what they’re looking at half the time—like a bunch of savages trying to make sense of a screwdriver. And that isn’t the end of it—and don’t,
pray don’t
, say to me now, as one very senior officer did quite recently, “
By George, Freddie! If half you say is true, then we ought to have lost the jolly old war! But we didn’t now, did we.’

‘I wasn’t about to say such a thing, sir.’ Fred hastily amended his thoughts. ‘I was going to say … but we are
here
anyway.’ He remembered the lorry again.

‘Huh!’ For the first time Brigadier Clinton emitted something like the sort of explosive sound brigadiers usually made in Fred’s experience of them. ‘That is the other half of it, Major Fattorini: too late and too little, as well as too incompetently, is our story. I can’t call it a “policy”—it would be bad enough if it was an actual policy … But there isn’t any policy, so far as I can discover. So we’re actually ten times worse than even the Americans, at picking up German technology and the men who can explain it to us. And they’re slower than the Russians, and Americans are … because the Yanks have some Jewish officers, and some Jews in their State Department, who are at least decently concerned about shaking hands with Nazis who haven’t yet even had time to wash the blood off theirs—
that
is at least understandable … Or, it would be if the Russians weren’t making deals with everyone they can lay
their
hands on—which is easy enough for them, because their deal is “Work for us, and we’ll look after you, and your family, and no questions asked … or we’ll shoot the lot of you … except your daughter, who is pretty.” In which case, it isn’t
too
difficult to reach a sensible decision … And the French—
they
have an even better sales story: “Come and live in France, where it is warmer, and much more
civilized
…
and serve your time with us, like a soldier in
La Legion etrangere
, also with no questions asked, but with better pay and better food, and finally become a Frenchman like us!” And who would refuse
that
offer, in Germany in 1945? Would you, major—if you were hungry, and had a Nazi record as long as my arm?’

After that ‘huh’ … that was the longest and most uncharacteristic speech Fred had heard from any senior officer, anywhere, in all his years in uniform. But then this brigadier’s experience of Germans went back longer than most, he remembered: he had been sucking German eggs since … 1937—?

So he could afford to jump the obvious answer. ‘So what are
we
doing then, sir?’

‘You may well ask, major—you may well ask!’ Clinton stared at Hermann’s inscription this time: ‘
Arminius liberator haud dubie Germaniae
—
’ So Fred waited patiently to be liberated in his turn.

‘We started out … trying to pick up certain of the pieces, much too late … amongst other things. But now we’re living on borrowed time, I fear—even after last night’s famous victory.’ Clinton continued to study the inscription.

Fred waited again, until his patience exhausted itself. ‘How so, sir?’

Clinton turned quickly, to his surprise. ‘Don’t be downcast, major. Last night did go according to plan … except for your poor devil.’

Fred thought for a moment. ‘And he was set up as a target?’

‘Not a target, as such.’ Clinton shook his head. ‘But there was a risk, I cannot deny that. But in this instance I did not expect it. And … there was always the chance that they would miss.’

Fred didn’t know quite how much of that to believe. ‘Who would miss?’

‘The Russians, major.’ Clinton nodded, as though this had been the expected answer. “The Americans didn’t need to, because they had the men on the spot to take what they wanted. And, to be fair, their well-developed sense of self-interest … or patriotism, as it used to be called … is not yet so ruthless. Even though I seem to recall that it was an American who first said ”Our country, right or wrong“ … yes, it was. But not here, not now, and not yet, I think. And the French …
they
are undoubtedly capable of anything, since the very mention of ”France“ obviates the need for moral debate … But in this instance they are safely out of the picture—they’re much too busy pursuing their own very successful enterprises.‘ He nodded, at first almost to himself but finally at Fred. ’You see, major, there have been a great many people—and interests … and commercial interests as well as national, too—concerned with acquiring the details of German technical and industrial and scientific development. And with getting their hands on it before anyone else. Which you can call ”loot“ if you like … or ”spoils of war“. But strictly speaking it’s ”reparations“. And it’s really the only worthwhile reparation that’s to be had here—
knowledge
.‘ He paused deliberately, as though to let the word sink in. ’Oh … I know the Russians are carrying off whole factories. And you can’t really blame them for that. And, in spite of what the bomber fellows say, because they claim to have destroyed everything, there’s still a lot to carry off. In fact, there’ll still be a lot
after
they’ve had their pick … So there is equipment. But it’s the research that really matters. And some of it’s so damned far in advance of anything we’ve done that we need the researchers themselves to go with it, to explain it. Do you see?‘

‘The savages need help with the screwdrivers?’

‘Huh!’ Clinton repeated his brigadierial growl. ‘The trouble is, some of
our
savages don’t believe in the existence of the screwdriver: they think it’s some sort of blunt chisel. And some of our chiefs don’t want to know. Or they can’t bring themselves to talk to the screwdriver-makers, anyway, either because of their stupidity, or because of their tender consciences.’

‘Because the screwdriver-makers are Nazis?’ The unplesant truth beneath the imagery made Fred uneasy in spite of the Brigadier’s earlier honest recognition of it. ‘Is that so wicked—not to want to do business with Nazis?’

Clinton’s coldest stare returned. ‘Are you about to lecture me on the nature of Fascism, major? And what our attitude should be?’

‘No, sir. But—’

‘I should hope not. Because I’ve forgotten more about that subject than you are ever likely to know.’ The stare continued. ‘So what were you going to say?’

Fred felt himself backed into a corner. The wide circle round the Hermann monument was silent and empty behind him, and the forest was silent and empty behind that—empty even of birds, judging by its silence. And the whole of Germany might be ruined and empty behind the forest. But he was nevertheless in a corner. And the bugger of it was that he hadn’t even had the chance of taking Kyri’s good advice, he had simply had the soldier’s choice of no choice at all. And Devenish had summed that up for him.

The thought of Kyri reminded him of Audley’s words in Greece. ‘It’s a new kind of war. And I can’t say that I like it. I suppose I expected it to be different, that’s all. But now I shall have to get used to it, just like I did with the other kind.’

Clinton considered that non-answer in a silence which lengthened uncomfortably out of time. ‘Well, I suppose that’s as much as I have any right to expect from you. Although you are almost entirely wrong, major, as it happens.’

‘I am?’ After that silence the man’s not-unkind tone surprised him. ‘Almost?’

‘Yes. It’s exactly the same war, in essence. And you must
never
get used to it—
never, never, never
, major.’ The stare became uncompromising. ‘You must hate it with all your heart—always, no matter how long you have to soldier in it.’ This time the silence was mercifully shorter. ‘Do you know where I was eight years ago?’