“Remind me,” Mason said. “What do we call you these days?”
“Sanders, sir. Josef Sanders.”
“Yes, of course. You did very well on your Russian course. Your tutor says you speak more fluently than he does.”
“He kept telling me that I’d never learn the grammar of Russian because I didn’t know the grammar of my own language.” Josef smiled. “I never could work out the difference between accusative and dative.”
“Ah, yes.” Mason looked embarrassed at the frankness, or the ignorance. It was hard to tell which. He shifted uneasily in the big leather armchair. “I’d like to put a suggestion to you if I may.”
“Whatever you want is OK with me, Mr. Mason.”
“Kind of you, I’m sure. Let me explain first before you agree. I—we—would like you to be put on a more official, more substantial footing. You have done valuable work for us in your own modest way and there is much else that we would like you to do that could not be done by a civilian.” He paused and shuffled his body again. “Briefly, I am authorised to offer you a commission as a full lieutenant in the army.” He sat back slapping his thighs with both hands as if he was glad to get done with a rather dubious proposition.
“I don’t know anything about soldiering, Mr. Mason.”
“Of course not. Of course not. You wouldn’t have to do any of that. It’s just a device—a way—of making you official, giving you some proper standing in the service.”
“I don’t understand, Mr. Mason. What service are we talking about?”
“Who do you think you’re working for?”
“Major Johnson said it was a small government department that was interested in what is going on in the Soviet Union.”
“And you didn’t wonder why a government department should be interested in those things?”
Josef shrugged. “No. It’s not my business.”
“Well. I suppose that’s a point of view.” He paused. “A very practical point of view if I may say so.” Mason leaned forward awkwardly. “We’re a department that is responsible for collecting intelligence about the Soviet Union.”
“You mean research?”
“It’s rather more than that, Josef. The government doesn’t like what’s happening in Russia.”
Josef laughed sharply. “A lot of Russians don’t like it either.”
“Exactly,” Mason said. “And I understand from the major that you don’t like it either. The things they did to your family. Is that so?”
Josef nodded. “Yes.”
“There are others involved in this but you’ve got an advantage over them. You know all about it from the inside. You’re a very valuable man to us and we want to make you even more valuable.”
“Like I said, Mr. Mason. I’ll do whatever you want. You don’t need to persuade me.”
When Johnson talked to him about his meeting with Mason he had obviously been amused at Josef’s description of the encounter. He sat down heavily in the cane chair and looked at Josef.
“You know, my friend, it’s time you changed.”
“Changed what?”
“Every bloody thing. You’re not a cabin-boy on an old tub of a boat now. What old Mason said is right. You’re a valuable man.” When he saw the smile on Josef’s face he said sharply, “Grow up, Josef. This isn’t just a job, this is a career. Make something of it. Don’t be so bloody humble. You said you wanted to fight those bastards who killed your wife and you just go on like a maiden aunt.”
When Josef didn’t reply Johnson said, “I’ve recommended that you should do three months’ basic training in the army before you’re commissioned.”
Josef just shrugged.
Johnson’s hunch about how to stiffen up his protégé was not arrived at without a lot of thought. He knew too much of Josef’s background not to realise that you don’t come out of an orphanage to being a cabin-boy on an old tramp steamer with any great confidence in yourself or the world. And what had happened after must have been like a dream turning into a nightmare. But his ploy worked. Josef came out of his three months’ training a different man. A new self-confidence, no longer the humble orphanage boy. Johnson had given him a copy of the official warrant for the King’s Commission. He was now, despite his civilian clothes, Lieutenant Josef Sanders, General Service.
Lieutenant Sanders tackled his work with the groups with authority when he went back to Paris, and his instructions from London were now more demanding. It was no longer just a matter of listening to the information that came out of the groups’ contacts in Russia but passing on demands for specific information. Gradually the groups were turned into cells of actual intelligence gathering. The information that they produced was low-level but it covered a wide spectrum of the political and economic life in the Soviet Union. And it was almost the only intelligence available to London.
His visits to Berlin became more frequent and more important. By 1933 the rise of the Nazi Party had made Moscow put pressure on the Cheka to try and recruit the Russian counter-revolutionaries in Germany with pardons for past defections. Sanders worked actively against the Cheka recruitment of any of his contacts and was largely successful. Both in Paris and Berlin his guidance was respected and he was seen as a man of authority. And although his new official status was never revealed it was taken for granted that his authority flowed from official sources in London.
When it became obvious that the Berlin groups were more active and purposeful than those in Paris, Josef was moved to Berlin. Johnson had wondered if past events in Berlin would lead to objections from Josef but when he put the suggestion of the move to him it was clear that Josef welcomed the challenge.
By 1938 Josef was a major in the Intelligence Corps and was now spending more time in London. SIS was now
