Here Be Monsters

'And Latimer is gunning for David.' That didn't need confirmation either. But the next statement did. 'But he reckons David might be - no, David is… clever enough to muddy the waters if he was in charge - ?'

'Right again.' He nodded. 'Fatso wants David out. But with David in charge… anything could happen.' He stopped suddenly. 'Look, Elizabeth… I know David pretty well. He recruited me - '

'He recruited me, too,' Elizabeth heard herself snap.

'So he did. But you're the '82 vintage. I'm the '74, and I know how his mind works.

Everyone thinks he's devious - that he's a meticulous planner. And it just isn't true.

Because what David likes, and what he does best and enjoys most, is working from hand-to-mouth in an emergency, improvising and botching up and making good.' He frowned at her. 'It's like… he's like - have you ever heard of the Sopwith Camel, Elizabeth - Miss Loftus?'

'The - what?' It took her a second to adjust from David Audley's idiosyncrasies to Paul Mitchell's. 'It was - it was a First World War aeroplane, wasn't it?' She was only doubtful for another half-second: with Paul it had to be that war. 'It was. But what - '

'It was. And it wasn't very fast. And it had no rate-of-climb worth talking about. And it was a little bugger to fly, spinning pilots into the ground if they gave it half a chance.' He leered at her ghoulishly. 'But in combat it could turn on a ha'penny. And when the Hun bounced it… if a Camel pilot got one second, to pull his stick, no one on God's earth - or in God's sky - knew where the Camel was going. The Camel pilot came down on his tail, out of nowhere.' He stared at her. 'And that's David - to the bloody life!'

It wasn't loyalty, thought Elizabeth. And it wasn't admiration, either: it was something much more complicated, which she didn't have time now to explore.

She didn't have time! 'But I'm not a Sopwith Camel, Paul. And David will still have time to -

to pull his stick, or whatever - ' She floundered in the midst of a metaphor she didn't fully understand.

'That's right - exactly right.' He evidently understood his own imagery. 'But he's escorting you, don't you see? If anything goes wrong - if you fail abysmally, or if you get shot down… and you are his recruit - his pupil - as well as his responsibility… Christ! If there's dummy2

one thing Jack Butler would never forgive - one thing that would discredit David finally and for all time - it would be that. And Oliver St John Latimer knows it. Because he's an Audley-watcher too. And he's watched him longer than I have. And he knows what he wants. And… he's not stupid, is our Fatso - he's bloody good.' He gave her another dreadful smile. 'And that's half the trouble, of course.'

Half the trouble? If that was half … ? But that was another thing to think about tomorrow.

'So he's done everything right, you see.' Paul had the bit between his teeth now. 'Jack Butler won't be able to fault him when he gets back from his leave, whatever he may suspect privately. Because - Item One - that American was on the Debrecen List - the Americans' list, which is in the file… and I've been busy checking off some of the English names, so I know. And I don't doubt he's acquired some evidence that that 'tragic fall' was

- ' He gave her an innocently-raised eyebrow ' - an efficient shove, maybe?'

So that had been Major Turnbull's function, she understood: to confirm legitmate suspicion and justify further action -

'Yes.' He read her face too easily, 'So - Item Two - take appropriate action?' The eyebrow remained raised. 'One dead Debrecen American. But two recent entries in the Debrecen file. So let Loftus, Elizabeth Jane win her spurs. It's time she did a bit of field-work, to get experience and earn her keep. But give her David Audley, who is elderly and should be responsible, and who was her 'recruiting-sergeant… and who knows all about Debrecen -

Good thinking, Mr Deputy-Director. Defence of the Realm properly secured, essential training of promising staff advanced, and duty well and truly discharged.' The eyebrow lowered. 'And Fatso's back well and truly protected while he inserts his poniard into David Audley's back - see how it works, Elizabeth Jane? Because David can't refuse to help you - see?'

What she saw was a Paul she hadn't seen before - not so much cynical as strangely bitter.

But then the curtain scraped on its runners again.

'Right, then!' Tom sucked his toothless gums noisily.

'Buzz off, Tom.' Paul continued to stare at her. 'You're too late. You're too late and I'm too late. We have to go-'

'Oh yus?' Tom advanced nevertheless, until Elizabeth couldn't ignore him. 'Got 'is measure, 'ave you, Miss?' He flashed an irreverent eye at Paul Mitchell. 'Looks like 'e's lost's sixpence, an' found a dud shillin'.'

'If you don't buzz off this minute, Tom - ' Paul spoke with quite uncharacteristic malevolence ' - I'll have the Old Bill object to the renewal of your licence next time, if it's dummy2

the last thing I do on this earth.'

He was so obviously serious that she found herself looking at him again compulsively, and the scrape of the curtains closing was a distant sound in a much larger silence.

'I'll tell you one thing about David, that I do know… when he really gets himself into trouble.' He fixed the malevolent look on her. 'And one thing about the Debrecen file - the thing he has in common with it.'

She had read the file, but it was suddenly a blank in her mind as she thought about David Audley, with whom she had only worked once. Only that had been -

'They both kill people, Elizabeth - Elizabeth Jane… Miss Loftus.' He stumbled over the confusion of names. 'Or… people end up dead, one way or another, when they get