A New Kind of War

ultimate disqualification, until all its implications had been assimilated. ‘We don’t know the full story yet, major . . . although Colonel Colbourne has been very frank with us, so we do have the beginings of it, I think. And we have to talk to our people in Palestine before we can draw the picture with any certainty . . .

from Bum-Titty Bay in ’43.‘

Bum-Titty – ? Suddenly Fred was hideously back in the Teutoburg Forest, gaping at RSM Levin, not at the gunner colonel. ‘ P-P-Palestine, sir?’

‘Haifa. On the beach at Haifa, major.’ The fact that Stocker understood his astonishment, and sympathized with it, didn’t make his slow smile more acceptable.

dummy4

‘Colbourne and RSM Levin went up there – Major Colbourne and CSM Levin then – to a leave-camp, after El Alamein . . . which was well-deserved, after what they’d achieved in the desert, between them.’ He gave Fred a slow nod. ‘“Bum-Titty Bay” – all those pretty Jewish girls in swim-suits on the beach . . . and most of them were already in the Haganah, of course.

And some of them were in the Irgun Tzvai Leumi – in the ETZEL . . . which is already killing our men out there, in the cause of an independent Jewish state.’ The nod steadied. ‘And ... it seems possible that one particularly beautiful girl named Rachel may have picked up Company Sergeant-Major Levin, as she picked up other Jewish officers and senior NCOs. And, if she did, then it’s tolerably certain that she introduced him to a man whom we know as “Ze’ev”, who is a link-man between ETZEL and the Soviet Union. Because the Russians are strong supporters of what is already being called “The State of Israel”. Not because they like Jews, but because they see us as supporting all the Arab states, against the Jews.’ His lips twisted as he spoke, but he watched Fred just as sharply as Clinton had ever done as he did so. ‘What ETZEL thinks

“Ze’ev” is doing is getting them arms and ammunition.

But what we think is that he’s also taking orders from Moscow. And in ’43 Colbourne was marked down for special assignments in Europe, because of his record in the desert. And Levin had been his right hand, through dummy4

thick and thin, in operations in Syria and Iraq, long before El Alamein. So they were a winning team already.‘

God! thought Fred. Syria and Iraq . . . and Palestine –

they were all a far cry from the Teutoburg Forest!

Almost the only thing which united them was that they had all once been parts of the Roman Empire, almost –

almost two thousand years ago, when both were trouble- spots!

‘We know that “Ze’ev” has made other deals, you see, major: Russian arms in exchange for treason – and the promise of air-lifted material, from Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, through an airfield somewhere in Syria, where the locals have been bought off – Druse, probably ... we don’t know for sure.’ Nod. ‘But once Levin was committed ... because “Ze’ev” would have fed him with true horror stories of what was happening in Germany and Poland – even before he arrived here in Germany Stocker looked sidelong at Clinton as he spoke.

‘Yes.’ Clinton accepted the look. ‘Levin was a damn good warrant officer – almost the perfect warrant officer, I would have said: brave and intelligent. And he knew King’s Regs to the last letter of the small print.’ He threw the look at Fred. ‘So maybe he argued himself into splitting what belonged to the King of England from what he thought was due to the Promised dummy4

Land . . . But, thanks to Gehrd Schild, that’s one thing we’ll never know now, Fred.’

And perhaps there were some things it was better not to know? thought Fred. But then he remembered Amos de Souza. ‘So what do we know?’

The wind gusted between them, smelling only very slightly of hot engine oil and aircraft fuel. And he knew that it had been blowing over them fitfully all the time while they had been testing him, even though he hadn’t noticed it until now . . . just as he knew, beyond certainty, that they were both relaxing as he hardened his heart, as they had both long ago hardened theirs to the loss of all those simplicities of their old war, which Professor Schmidt and Number 16 had tried in vain to avoid, and which had killed Amos de Souza and Number 21 in failing to do so. And RSM Levin, too.

Clinton caught his glance down the runway, across grey concrete to the grey sky. ‘We know that it’s going to be a bad time, for all of us. Because nothing is going to be easy for us any more – not when good men like Levin betray us for reasons which seem honourable to them . . . reasons which may even be honourable. Apart from others who are already working for the Russians

– ’

All this was only what Kyri had said, showing his teeth under his brigand’s moustache. Long ago, thought Fred. So ... he couldn’t say that he hadn’t been warned, dummy4

anyway. But what he missed now was the Greek’s cheerful sense of good-and-evil, and his trust that the first would always outweigh the second in some final reckoning.

‘More to the point – we have to get back to Germany, major,’ snapped Stocker. ‘Because we have work to do.’

‘Sir – ?’ He felt the man take command. But he also felt Clinton’s envelope in his pocket. ‘You don’t want me to find the exact site of the battle of the Teutoburgerwald, I hope?’

‘No.’ Stocker’s face hardened. ‘I shall be going on to Berlin with Major McCorquodale tomorrow. You will be staying behind, ostensibly to pull the rest of them together before they follow me.’

‘Yes, sir.’ It hadn’t been a very good joke, at that. But the thought of Sergeant Devenish at his side raised his spirits. Also, reaching Berlin finally had always been the height of his military ambition, ever since 1939.

For then the war would be truly ended, he had foolishly believed. ‘I’ll do my best to get them to you as quickly as possible.’