“I’ll move them to another handler and leave you the ones in France,” Jasper decided. “Get me their details and I’ll decide who will be best to oversee them.”
“I don’t know if they will work for someone else,” Bill protested, sitting back in his chair.
“They won’t have a choice. Bill, my mind is made up. After the meeting I’ve just had, I’ll need you to be solid and at the top of your game for the entirety of this war. I won’t have that if you continue at this pace. And before you start to point fingers as I can see you’re about to, I’m also making some changes to my own schedule.”
Bill stared across the desk at him, then sighed.
“All right. I’ll have Wesley gather the details together for you.”
“I appreciate it. We’ll make the transition as smooth as possible for the agents. Don’t worry.” He made no move to get up. “Have you had any further communication from Jian?”
“Not since last night. She acknowledged the instructions to make her way to Namsos.”
“Do you have a schedule for her to check in?”
“No. I think it’s rather dependent on whether or not they can get a signal out. I don’t know what they’re using for a radio, but it’s not one of ours.”
Jasper was quiet for a long moment, then he raised his eyes to Bill’s.
“If she’s captured by the Germans, the Gestapo will turn her over to the SD, along with everyone she’s with. We’ll lose our only eyes and ears in Norway.”
“I’m aware of the stakes, Jasper, and so is she.”
“GC&CS has been intercepting more and more coded messages from the Germans coming into England.” Jasper shifted in his seat and recrossed his legs. “They’ve been passing them on to MI5.”
Bill frowned. “That sounds ominous. That sounds as though they still have agents in England; agents that we haven’t located yet.”
“It does, doesn’t it? That’s what MI5 thinks as well. We all thought that we’d turned all the ones the Jerries sent over, but now they’ve got us wondering. MI5 has been busy setting up more security nets to try to catch any that might come in.” Jasper hesitated, then sighed. “It’s inevitable that Hitler will send over more spies. I was surprised at the amount of traffic GC&CS has been intercepting, though.”
“This was the first you’ve heard of it?”
“Yes. You know Vernon doesn’t like to share his information with us. That isolationist view is also embraced by all of his officers.”
“What happened to change that?”
Jasper smiled wryly. “They came across something that pertains rather significantly to us.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“They believe they’ve discovered the codename for our mole here in London.”
Bill stared at him and Jasper’s smile grew at the look of astonishment on his face.
“I thought that would get your attention,” he said.
“I should think so! Who is the bastard?”
“We don’t know yet, but this moves us further ahead than we’ve been. GC&CS have been decoding messages coming through on a regular basis to a man called Henry. MI5 are convinced that Henry is right here in London. There have been one or two incidents where something was mentioned in the message that was quite obviously referring to landmarks here in the city. But the references were such that it was more likely directed to a resident, rather than someone who comes in to visit from the country.”
“And you think it’s our spy?”
“I do. After being informed of the existence of the messages, I demanded to see all of them. One of the earlier ones makes reference to information passed on to Oslo.”
“That could be anything.”
“The message was intercepted on November 5th, the day after Jian arrived in Oslo. In that message, they referred to something, or someone, called Rätsel. In February, there was another mention of the name.”
Bill frowned thoughtfully. “Rätsel? That’s German for mystery, isn’t it?”
“Or enigma, but yes. MI5 thinks it’s a reference to a person rather than to their coding system, and that’s why they finally passed the information on to us. After going through the messages, I believe it’s what the Germans are calling Jian.”
“If it is, then Henry is the one who alerted them to her presence in Oslo in November.”
“Yes.”
“Are there any clues to his position in London?”
“None. MI5 can’t discern anything about the man other than the fact that he resides in London.”
Bill was silent for a moment, then he pushed back his chair and got up restlessly.
“And we know that he holds a position of some note within the government,” he said slowly. “It’s not much, but it’s something. As you say, we’re further along than we were.”
“When Jian gets back, make sure that she’s aware of the development as well as the name.” Jasper stood up. “The more people we have looking for Henry, the better.”
“And MI5?”
“They’ve passed the whole thing over to us. GC&CS will forward all future messages to me.” He turned towards the door. “In the meantime, continue to keep all Jian’s operations as close as possible. Once we’re sure he’s as much in the dark as everyone else, we can begin releasing false information and see where it leads us. But let’s make sure we’ve plugged all the holes before we start flooding the boat.”
Bill nodded. “I will.”
“Now, for God’s sake, get out of here and go to dinner with your wife. There’s nothing more that can be done for any of them today.” Jasper paused at the door and looked over at him. “If anything comes in from Norway, you’ll be notified immediately?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He opened the door. “The rest is in the hands of Providence, then.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
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Somewhere near Leinstrand, Norway
April 11
Evelyn grimaced as she thrust her hands into the freezing water of a small stream that ran across the corner of the clearing. She cupped up water and splashed it on her face, shivering violently as the icy water hit her skin.
“At least it is clean water,” Anna said beside her.
They were kneeling next to the
