A New Kind of War

friend?’ Now they were very close to the bone, as well as the appointed hour. ‘Why didn’t you tell me all this the night before last?’

‘The night before last?’ Audley’s memory seemed momentarily to desert him.

‘Yes.’ There was only one thing remaining. ‘You had your orders, David. You were supposed to tell me what was happening.’

Audley made one of his ugliest faces. ‘I get so many orders. And . . . hell! First, you were late – and then we were pretty damn busy, blundering around in the dark . . . then superintending the death of some poor-bloody- totally-inoffensive German – or Pole, or Ukrainian DP –I don’t know, damn it!’ The boy’s square chin lifted, and he looked down on Fred from the height of his extra inches, and then looked around as though he really didn’t give a damn.

Good boy! But that didn’t change anything. ‘And – ?’

The chin came down slowly, and Audley relaxed slightly, as though he was reassured by what he had seen. ‘And I didn’t enjoy that very much, actually.’

That wouldn’t do. ‘And I asked you a question, David.

So answer it, please.’

The sharpness of his tone reclaimed Audley’s attention.

And his face did the rest. ‘Christ, Fred! I know we met in Greece that time – and I know old Matthew – ’ The dummy4

wide mouth opened and shut on Matthew, like some great ugly deep-sea fish’s jaws trawling the sea-bed.

And then it opened again and closed obstinately. ‘But we’ve had a lot of bad luck, you know. And I don’t really know you –now do I?’

Good boy! Because that was as eloquent as anything else Audley might have said to prove that his mouth wasn’t always too big. ‘And who the hell was I? When you’ve had all the bad luck you’ve had – all the way from Greece, even?’

Still nothing. So more than that: so Clinton was right about Audley being old for his years when it came to the crunch. So now was the moment for truth.

‘Yes, David – you are quite right.’ He nodded without disengaging Audley’s eyes. ‘There is a traitor in the camp. And if you didn’t know it for sure before, then you know it now.’

Audley studied him for a moment. Then he slowly nodded his acceptance of all those words implied. ‘So you really are the Brigadier’s inside man?’

‘Yes.’ More than Audley’s acceptance, this was his own acceptance of that loyalty for the working day, whatever came after. ‘I am Clinton’s man. And so are you, David –no matter what. Because we have to know who the traitor is. Nothing less will do. So this is a trap, today.’

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Audley continued to stare at him. And it was also slightly comical to see the boy’s hand move up uncertainly to his webbing holster, and then drop down to wipe the palm on his leg beside it.

‘Oh . . . shit!’ Then Audley looked quickly across the meadow, and finally towards the vehicles up the track, where Sergeant Devenish had been walking up and down and Driver Hewitt had been leaning on the jeep, smoking one of his inexhaustible supply of dog-ends, neither able to communicate with the other. ‘What about them?’

He had got it all, in that one brief exchange: all Clinton’s logic about the sufficiency of the bait, all his certainty about the traitor’s hard-driven determination to take Number 16 from them now, at the last, with all his murderous delaying tactics finally stretched beyond safety, and Major Fattorini here to make the final contact. So perhaps it wasn’t unreasonable that his trust, even in his own men, should weaken with these final certainties.

‘They’re all right. They’re both Clinton’s men from way back, David – ’ He remembered that Audley too was in some sense Clinton’s man from way back, before TRR-2 had been called into existence ‘ – from France, anyway –’

‘I know that, damn it!’ Audley made a face and shook his head simultaneously. ‘Hughie’s been babying me dummy4

halfway across Europe – I should know that. Devenish too – ’ The ugly features twisted as he glanced back up the track again for a moment. ‘ – how does it go: “He was my servant, and the better man” – ?’

Fred floundered momentarily in his turn. ‘Then . . .

what do you mean?’

From being questioning, the look became haughty. ‘I mean, you’ve just told me exactly how the land lies.

And I can accept that . . . because it explains a lot of things ... a lot of things I haven’t quite understood. All the way from Greece, like you’ve just said – a whole lot of things, yes!’ From being haughty, the look blanked out into nothing. ‘But how much do they know

– my men?’

It only irked Fred for a second that he had misread the original question. But then he understood that Audley was still a subaltern at heart, and a well-taught one. So it was no shame on him that he should think of his own subordinates before he risked their lives in some madcap venture. And yet, by the same token, it was time that he got his priorities right. ‘D’you think anyone’s going to catch Sergeant Devenish with his trousers down?’ The memory of Devenish on the ridge above Osios Konstandinos, and Kyri’s estimation of the man, gave him confidence. ‘You let him take his chances now, David. Just as we’re about to take ours –

okay?’

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‘Mmm . . .’ Audley had been looking round even before he had finished condemning the other ranks to their destined fate, taking in the rocks, and the lake and the encircling forest with what must be a tank commander’s eyes, which was all the experience he had from that other August, a year ago. But with nothing to see, he had to