Partisans (29 page)

‘Good for you, Jamie,' Petersen said approvingly. ‘You got one thing right there. She
is
a fine actress. But she's not gullible, she doesn't tell lies – well, maybe one or two little white ones – and she didn't come to help us.'

Both Harrison and Sarina stared at him in astonishment. Harrison said: ‘How on earth can you say that?'

‘Intuition.'

‘Intuition!' Harrison, was, for Harrison, being heavily sardonic. ‘If your intuition is on a par with your judgment you can mothball the two of them together. And don't try to side-track me. Hasn't it struck you as ironic that when you and your precious
etniks' – Harrison was very fond of the word ‘precious' and used it, always in its most derogatory sense, with telling effect – 'were receiving arms and payments from the Germans, Italians and Nedi
's quisling Serb régime, that you were simultaneously receiving arms and payments from the western allies – this, mark you, at a time when you were fighting along with the Germans, Italians and Ustaša in an attempt to destroy the Partisans, Britain's only real allies in Yugoslavia?'

‘Have some more wine, Jamie.'

‘Thank you, George.' Harrison shook his head. ‘I confess myself to being totally baffled and, when I say that, I mean baffled all round. By you
etniks and by my own people. Can it really be that there are none so blind as will not see? Are you so gagged and blinkered by your all-consuming and wholly misguided sense of patriotism, by your blind allegiance to a discredited royalty that your myopic eyes are so reduced to a ten-degree field of tunnel vision that you have no concept of the three hundred and fifty degree of peripheral vision that lies beyond? Are my people in London similarly affected? They have to be, they have to be, for what else could explain the inexplicable, the incomprehensible idiocy of keeping on sending supplies to Mihajlovi
when they have before them incontrovertible evidence that he is actively collaborating with the Germans.'

‘I'll bet you couldn't say that again,' Petersen said admiringly. ‘All the big words, I mean. As you say, Jamie, it's all probably reduced to a factor of vision, what lies in the eye of the beholder.' He rose, crossed over to the fireplace and sat down beside Sarina. ‘This is not really a switch, we're talking about the same thing. How did you enjoy your tête-à-tête with the Colonel this morning?'

‘Tête-à-tête? I didn't have any tête-à-tête with him. Michael and I just reported to him. You told us to. Or have you forgotten?'

‘I've forgotten nothing. But I think you have. Walls have ears. Not original, but still true.'

She glanced quickly at Michael then back again. ‘I don't know what you're talking about.'

‘Walls also have eyes.'

‘Stop brow-beating my sister!' Michael shouted.

‘Brow-beating? Asking a simple question is brow-beating? If that's what you call browbeating maybe I should start beating you about the brow. You were there, too, of course. You got anything to tell me? You have, you know. I already know what your answer should be. Your truthful answer.'

‘I've got nothing to tell you! Nothing! Nothing at all!'

‘You're a lousy actor. Also, you're too vehement by half.'

‘I've had enough of you, Petersen!' Michael was breathing quickly and shallowly. ‘Enough of your bullying my sister and me.' He jumped to his feet. ‘If you think I'm going to stand –'

‘You're not going to stand, Michael.' George had come up behind Michael and laid his hands on his shoulders. ‘You're going to sit.' Michael sat. ‘If you can't keep quiet I'll have to tie and gag you. Major Petersen is asking questions.'

‘Good Lord!' Harrison was or seemed outraged. ‘This
is
a bit thick, George. A bit high-handed, I must say. Peter, I don't think you're any longer in a position to –'

‘And if
you
don't keep quiet,' George said with a trace of weariness in his voice, ‘I'll do the same thing to you.'

‘To me!' No question, this time the outrage was genuine. ‘Me? An officer? A Captain in the British Army! By God! Giacomo, you're an Englishman. I appeal to you –'

‘Appeal is denied. I wouldn't hurt an officer's feelings by telling him to shut up, but I think the Major is trying to establish something. You may not like his military philosophy but at least you should keep an open mind. And I think Sarina should too. I think you're both being foolish.'

Harrison muttered ‘My God' twice and subsided.

Petersen said: ‘Thanks, Giacomo. Sarina, if you think I'm trying to hurt you or harm you then you are, as Giacomo says, being foolish. I couldn't and wouldn't. I want to help. Did you and the Colonel have or not have a private conversation?'

‘We talked, if that's what you mean.'

‘Of
course
you talked. If I sound a bit exasperated, it's pardonable. What did you talk about? Me?'

‘No. Yes. I mean, among other things.'

‘Among other things,' he mimicked. ‘What other things?'

‘Just other things. Just generally.'

‘That's a lie. You talked just about me and, maybe, a bit about Colonel Lunz. Remember, walls can have both ears and eyes. And you can't remember what you said when you sold me down the river which is where I am now. How many pieces of silver did the good Colonel give you?'

‘I never did!' She was breathing quickly now and there were patches of red high up on her cheeks. ‘I didn't betray you. I didn't! I didn't!'

‘And all for a little piece of paper. I hope you got your due. You earned your thirty pieces. You didn't know that I'd picked up the paper later, did you?' He brought a piece of paper out from his tunic and unfolded it. ‘This one.'

She stared at it dully, looked at him equally dully, put her elbows on her knees, her face in her hands. ‘I don't know what's going on.' Her voice was muffled. ‘I don't know any more. I know you're a bad man, a wicked man, but I didn't betray you.'

‘I know you didn't.' He reached out a gentle hand and touched her shoulder. ‘But I know what's going on. I have done all along. I'm sorry if I hurt you but I had to get you to say it. Why couldn't you have admitted it in the first place? Or have you forgotten what I said only yesterday morning?'

‘Forgotten what?' She took her hands from her face and looked at him. It was difficult to say if the hazel eyes were still dull for there were tears in them.

‘That you're far too nice and too transparently honest to do anything underhand. There were three pieces of paper. The one I gave to the Colonel, this one I'd made out before leaving Rome – I never picked anything up after your talk with him – and the one Colonel Lunz had given to you.'

‘You
are
clever, aren't you?' She'd wiped the tears from her eyes and they weren't dull any more, just mad.

‘Cleverer than you are, anyway,' Petersen said cheerfully. ‘For some inexplicable reason Lunz thought that I might be some kind of spy or double agent and change the message, forge a different set of orders. But I didn't, did I? The message I gave the Colonel was the one I received and it checked with the copy Lunz had given you. Paradoxically, of course – you being a woman – this annoyed you. If I had been a spy, a sort of reconverted renegade who had gone over to the other side, you would have been no end pleased, wouldn't you? You might have respected me, even liked me a little. Well, I remained an unreconstructed
etnik. You were aware, of course, that if I
had
changed the orders that Mihajlovi
would have had me executed?'

A little colour drained from her face and she touched her hand to her lips.

‘Of course you were unaware. Not only are you incapable of double-dealing, not only are you incapable of thinking along double-dealing lines, you're not even capable of thinking of the consequences to the double-dealer who has overplayed his hand. How an otherwise intelligent girl – well, never mind. As I've said before, in this nasty espionage world, leave the thinking to those who are capable of it. Why did you do it, Sarina?'

‘Why did I do what?' All of a sudden she seemed quite defenceless. She said, almost in a monotone: ‘What am I going to be accused of now?'