'Still, you'd think they would have cottoned on by now to the fact that we're catching the buggers.'
'Ah-but when we catch 'em, we make sure the Germans don't know we've caught 'em.'
'All the same, I hope our spies aren't using counterfeit Reichmarks.'
'I shouldn't think so. We take Intelligence rather more seriously than they do, you know. I wish I could say the same about tank tactics.' Vandam's secretary knocked and came in. He was a bespectacled twenty-year-old corporal. 'Package from the paymaster, sir.' 'Good show!' Vandam said.
'If you'd sign the slip, sir.'
Vandam signed the receipt and tore open the envelope. It contained several hundred pound notes.
Jakes said: 'Bugger me!'
'They told me there were a lot,' Vandam said. 'Get a magnifying glass, Corporal, on the double.'
'Yes, sir.'
Vandam put a pound note from the envelope next to one of the photographs and looked for the identifying error.
He did not need the magnifying glass.
'Look, Jakes.'
Jakes looked.
The note bore the same error as the one in the photograph.
'That's it, sir,' said Jakes.
'Nazi money, made in Germany,' said Vandam 'Now we're on his trail.'
Lieutenant Colonel Reggie Bogge knew that Major Vandam, was a smart lad, with the kind of low cunning one sometimes finds among the working class; but the major was no match for the likes of Bogge. That night Bogge played snooker with Brigadier Povey, the Director of Military Intelligence, at the Gezira Sporting Club. The brigadier was shrewd, and he did not like Bogge all that much, but Bogge thought he could handle him.
They played for a shilling a point, and the brigadier broke. While they played, Bogge said: 'Hope you don't mind talking shop in the club, sir.'
'Not at all,' said the brigadier.
'It's just that I don't seem to get a chance to leave m'desk in the day.'
'What's on your mind?' the brigadier chalked his cue.
Bogge potted a red ball and lined up the pink. 'I'm pretty sure there's a fairly serious spy at work in Cairo.' He missed the pink. The brigadier bent over the table. 'Go on.'
Bogge regarded the brigadier's broad back. A little delicacy was called for here. Of course the head of a department was responsible for that department's successes, for it was only well-run departments which had successes, as everyone knew; nevertheless it was necessary to be subtle about how one took the credit. He began: 'You remember a corporal was stabbed in Assyut a few weeks ago?'
'Vaguely.'
'I had a bunch about that, and I've been following it up ever since. Last week a General Staff aide had his briefcase pinched during a street brawl. Nothing very remarkable about that, of course, but I put two and two together.'
The brigadier potted the white. 'Damn,' he said. 'Your shot.'
'I asked the paymaster general to look out for counterfeit English money. Lo and behold, he found some. I had my boys examine it. Turns out to have been made in Germany.'
'Aha!'
Bogge potted a red, the blue and another red, then he missed the pink again.
'I think you've left me rather well off,' said the brigadier, scrutinizing the table through narrowed eyes. 'Any chance of tracing the chap through the money?'
'It's a possibility. We're working on that already.'
'Pass me that bridge, will you?'
'Certainly.'
The brigadier laid the bridge on the baize and lined up his shot. Bogge said: 'It's been suggested that we might instruct the paymaster to continue to accept the forgeries, in case he can bring in any new leads.' The suggestion had been Vandam's, and Bogge had turned it down. Vandam had argued-something that was becoming wearyingly familiar-and Bogge had had to slap him down. But it was an imponderable, and if things turned out badly Bogge wanted to be able to say he had consulted his superiors. The brigadier unbent from the table and considered. 'Rather depends how much money is involved, doesn't it?'
'Several hundred pounds so far.'
'It's a lot.'
'I feel it's not really necessary to continue to accept the counterfeits, sir.'
'Jolly good.' The brigadier pocketed the last of the red balls and started on the colors.
Bogge marked the score. The brigadier was ahead, but Bogge had got what he came for.
