Jackson said, ‘So far as we know, he is now locked up somewhere very safe in the States.’
‘Then they’ll know if he told Frank anything.’
‘Yes,’ Jackson agreed. ‘They will. They’re not telling us, but the obvious implication is that he did.’
‘My God. It could be about the Bomb.’
‘Or rocketry, or biological warfare,’ Natalia said. ‘The Americans call themselves the last guardians of democracy, but some of the things they have been working on are – terrible.’
‘The Americans want Frank Muncaster,’ Jackson said baldly. ‘Our man has managed, to a limited degree, to gain his confidence. Muncaster has of course never seen the inside of a place like that before and apparently he’s terrified of what they might do to him.’
‘What sort of thing?’
‘Electric shock treatment, or worse.’
David shook his head.
Natalia said, ‘We may be able to get him out.’
Jackson sat down again, looking at her. ‘Possibly. But we have to be careful just now, not draw attention to him. Of course if he does tell them whatever secrets Edgar may have blurted out they may just dismiss it all as lunatic ravings, but if he then disappears it might put a different complexion on things.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘The doctor in charge of the hospital, Wilson, fortunately isn’t the brightest spark in the medical profession but he seems to have taken some interest in Frank. He’s also related to a senior civil servant under Church, the junior health minister.’
David looked up. ‘Isn’t Church the one who’s pushing through the bill to sterilize the unfit?’
‘Yes, he’s an old eugenicist. Introduced a bill back in 1930. But not a great pro-German, apparently, a believer in the independence of British institutions.’ Jackson gave a hollow laugh. ‘Still doesn’t realize that battle is long lost. Now, our man says Muncaster is very withdrawn. Wilson hasn’t been able to get him to talk. He needs a friend to take an interest in him.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘And it seems, from his conversations with our nurse, that the only person he might trust is you.’
David felt a weight descending on him. ‘Doesn’t he have friends in Birmingham?’
‘He seems to have been very isolated. I don’t think his department considered him much of an asset. And the Americans want his brother Edgar kept out of it.’
‘I always thought Frank might go off the rails in the end,’ David said quietly. ‘But not like this. And weapons research . . .’ He looked at Jackson. ‘Does our government know anything about what happened?’
Jackson looked at him. ‘Do you think Muncaster would be sitting peacefully in a mental hospital if they did?’
David ran a hand through his short curls. ‘Jesus.’
Natalia leaned forward. ‘Will you help him now? Go up there, see him, re-establish yourself as a friend.’
David looked between them. ‘Then what? What happens to him?’ His eyes fixed on Jackson’s. ‘Surely the Americans will want him dead.’
Jackson shook his head. ‘No. Actually they say they want him alive, so they can question him. And this operation is under our control.’ He smiled wryly. ‘And if we wanted him dead, he’d be dead already. Our man is a nurse, with access to drugs.’
David leaned back in his chair. Even if Frank was safe – for now – Jackson’s words still chilled him.
Natalia looked at him. ‘We will not let him be killed. Not unless there is an immediate risk of the Germans getting him. And if they get him, then—’
David finished the sentence. ‘He’d be better off dead.’
‘Our man at the hospital has been trying to persuade Muncaster to contact you,’ Jackson said. ‘If we give him the word, tomorrow night you will get a telephone call from Frank, asking for help to get him out of the hospital. Then we want you and Natalia – and I think Geoff Drax, too, if he was a friend – to drive up and visit him. On Sunday. That’s visiting day. Get his confidence, give us some assessment of the state he’s in. You’d give false names to people who let you in, and pretend to have known Frank at school. Our man is making sure the hospital authorities don’t know you’re coming. You’ll be given false ID cards, you may be asked to show those at the asylum gates.’
David took a deep breath. ‘This is something big, isn’t it?’
Jackson nodded. ‘Potentially. Our instructions come from the very top. It’s not dangerous, not in the early stages.’ He smiled, a crinkly, confiding smile. ‘They’re showing a lot of confidence in you.’
David laughed mirthlessly. ‘The man on the spot.’
‘It happens. Once you join us. Do you think you can do this?’ Jackson asked.
‘What about my wife?’
‘She doesn’t need to know anything, any more than she does about what you do for us at work. You’ll just have to make something up to explain your absence on Sunday.’
David thought of Frank facing some SS interrogator. In the last two years he had sometimes thought of facing that himself. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I’ll visit Frank.’
‘Thank you.’ Jackson stood up. ‘I must make some calls. And I’ll speak to Drax tomorrow. I’ll meet you both at the club tomorrow morning.’ He smiled, genuine gratitude in his eyes, as he pulled on his gloves.
‘Geoff didn’t know Frank nearly as well as me. He might be surprised to see us both.’
‘You could say Geoff offered to drive you, say your car is broken down.’ He turned to Natalia. ‘You could pretend to be Drax’s girlfriend. Good cover. It would help to have a second view about how he is.’
Jackson turned back to David. ‘Don’t ask Muncaster about what happened with his brother, just encourage him to talk and see where he goes. That’s important. Assess his state of mind. Natalia, by the way, is in operational charge on Sunday. If anything unexpected happens, you take orders from her. She will have a gun, just in case of trouble.’ He smiled. ‘And she’s a crack shot.’
David looked at Natalia; she nodded quietly.
‘Everyone all right, then?’ Jackson spoke with forced cheerfulness. ‘See Muncaster, then take a look at his flat, our man will get hold of the key. Then phone me from a call-box.’
‘All right,’ David said. ‘Poor old Frank,’ he added.
‘Indeed.’ Jackson nodded. ‘It’s up to us to help him, sort this out.’ He paused, then spoke again, changing the subject. ‘I see Beaverbrook met with Speer and Goebbels in Berlin today.’
‘But not Hitler,’ Natalia said.
‘No.’ Jackson smiled grimly. ‘Last year, I went with an FO delegation to Germany, visiting the opening of the Fuhrer’s new art gallery at Linz. All this wonderful stuff, art treasures looted from all over Eastern Europe. Someone told me Hitler had been for a private view the day before, they saw him trundled along in his wheelchair, shaking so much from his Parkinson’s disease he could hardly focus on the pictures properly, let alone give the Nazi salute.’ His face clouded. ‘I met him once, you know.’
‘Hitler?’ David asked.
‘Yes. I was with the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, when he visited him in 1937. He had terrible bad breath, and kept breaking wind. Loathsome man. Big mad eyes. Could see him using them to work a crowd, though.’
‘Maybe he was ill even then.’
‘Yes.’ Jackson smiled tightly. ‘And badly ill now. And we have Stevenson elected in America. Perhaps things are starting to change at last.’ He walked to the door, got ready to leave; they always left separately. ‘It’s very cold again. I do hope we don’t get bad fog this year. Well, goodnight.’ He went out and moments later David heard his heavy footsteps descending the stairs.
David stood up. He had never been alone with Natalia before. She said, ‘Mr Jackson is so English. Always a comment about the weather.’
‘Yes. He is. Very public school, as we say.’
‘His life is extremely dangerous.’ She must have caught the note of dislike in David’s voice.
‘Yes.’
‘I am sorry for your friend. I knew someone who was ill in that way. He lived in great pain.’
David sighed. ‘Frank wasn’t always unhappy. He just didn’t—’
‘Quite belong in this world?’
‘Yes. But he has a right to be in it. All of us do. That’s what we’re fighting for.’
‘Yes, it is.’ He saw a tear form in the corner of her eye and he had a sudden urge to go over to her, take hold
