story could be told to Abdullah's credit at last.
Damn.
A wife brought a white European shirt. Wolff stood up and took off his torn and bloody shirt. The wife averted her eyes from his bare chest. Abdullah said: 'He doesn't need it yet. Give it to him in the morning.'
Wolff took the shirt from the woman and put it on.
Abdullah said: 'Perhaps it would be undignified for you to sleep in the house of an Arab, my friend Achmed?'
Wolff said: 'The British have a proverb: He who sups with the devil must use a long spoon.'
Abdullah grinned, showing his steel tooth. He knew that Wolff had guessed his plan. 'Almost an Arab,' he said.
'Good-bye, my friends,' said Wolff.
'Until the next time,' Abdullah replied.
Wolff went out into the cold night, wondering where he could go now.
In the hospital a nurse froze half of Vandams face with a local anesthetic, then Dr. Abuthnot stitched up his cheek with her long, sensitive, clinical hands. She put on a protective dressing and secured it by a long strip of bandage tied around his head.
'I must look like a toothache cartoon,' he said.
She looked grave. She did not have a big sense of humor. She said: 'You won't be so chirpy when the anesthetic wears off. Your face is going to hurt badly. I'm going to give you a painkiller.'
'No, thanks,' said Vandam
'Don't be a tough guy, Major,' she said. 'You'll regret it.'
He looked at her, in her white hospital coat and her sensible flat-heeled shoes, and wondered how he had ever found her even faintly desirable. She was pleasant enough, even pretty, but she was also cold, superior and antiseptic. Not like-
Not like Elene.
'A pain-killer will send me to sleep,' he told her.
'And a jolly good thing, too,' she said. 'If you sleep we can be sure the stitches will be undisturbed for a few hours.'
'I'd love to, but I have some important work that won7t wait.'
'You can't work. You shouldn't really walk around. You should talk as little as possible. You're weak from loss of blood, and a wound like this is mentally as well as physically traumatic-in a few hours you'll feel the backlash, and you'll be dizzy, nauseous, exhausted and confused.' 'It will be worse if the Germans take Cairo,' he said. He stood up. Dr. Abuthnot looked cross. Vandam thought how well it suited her to be in a position to tell people what to do. She was not sure how to handle outright disobedience. 'You're a silly boy,' she said.
'No doubt. Can I eat?'
'No. Take glucose dissolved in warm water.'
I might try it in warm gin, he thought. He shook her hand. It was cold and dry.
Jakes was waiting outside the hospital with a car. 'I knew they wouldn't be able to keep you long, sir,' he said. 'Shall I drive you home?' 'No.' Vandam's watch had stopped. 'What's the time?'
'Five past two.'
'I presume Wolff wasn't dining alone.'
'No, sir. His companion is under arrest at GHQ.'
'Drive me there.'
'If you're sure..'
'Yes.
The car pulled away. Vandam said- 'Have you notified the hierarchy?'
'About this evening's events? No, sir.-
'Good. Tomorrow will be soon enough.' Vandam did not say what they both knew: that the department, already under a cloud for letting Wolff gather intelligence, would be in utter disgrace for letting him slip through their fingers.
Vandam, said: 'I presume Wolffs dinner date was a woman.'
'Very much so, if I may say so, sir. A real dish. Name of Sonja.'
'The dancer'
'No less.'
They drove on in silence. Wolff was a cool customer, Vandam thought, to go out with the most famous belly dancer fn Egypt in between stealing British military secrets. Well, he would not be so cool now. That was unfortunate in a way: having been warned by this incident that the British were on to him, he would be more careful from now on. Never scare them, just catch them.
They arrived at GHQ and got out of the car. Vandam said: 'What's been done with her since she arrived?'
