During the Wednesday morning he went through and revised the spare parts listings in the report to what they should be and drew up tables to give to Emerson’s replacement. A temporary secretary arrived for Mr Griffiths at about 10.00 hours and, after meeting with him, didn’t appear to be happy with her assignment. In the afternoon, the temporary replacement for Emerson arrived and was briefed by Griffiths. Introduced to Corporal Hill, he appeared cautious in his conversation with him. Andy spent the afternoon briefing him on the SAM system so that he was ready to work with the defect analysis reports and the assessed spare parts needs the next day. The ‘sick’ public servant that John Douglas had replaced would be back at his desk on the Monday.
During his lunch break, Andy purchased a postcard of London and posted it to Alice, letting her know when he would leave London — and that he missed her.
In the afternoon office mail, there was an envelope for Corporal Hill. In it was a memo from Hamilton with advice on how to contact John Douglas. There was also a congratulatory sentence in the note as well. Douglas had been released from hospital and was resting at home. He had a small apartment in Westminster and after 17.00 hours Andy caught the underground to Victoria Station and walked to the address given. The door was opened by a MI5 operative who was protecting John Douglas. He was introduced as Dave Johnson and he headed out to get some take-away food for the three of them. John Douglas had his arm strapped up so that his shoulder would have a chance to heal. “Good to see you, Andy. What have you heard?” John said.
“Only that Emerson and St John won’t be going back to work in Air Ministry. What do you know?” Andy asked.
“Well,” said John, “it turns out that Emerson was recruited by the Communists while he was working with them in Yugoslavia and acted as a mole until he was in a position to be of use. St John was in love with Emerson and did what he wanted with the promise that they would be able to buy a nice house in the home counties and get married if she helped him with the drops. At her age the biological clock was really ticking and she agreed to his suggestion. As Griffiths’ secretary, she had access to his minutes of meetings and passed relevant information to Emerson. The man you called ‘Enderby’ proved to have a cyanide capsule in a hollow tooth and under administration of Sodium Pentothal we learned his real identity and that he is from Moscow. The other man had the same treatment and is working for Russian intelligence. Sadly, Moscow won’t get our list of information but we have plugged the leak. Our bosses are pleased.”
Andy smiled his agreement and said, “Griffiths isn’t happy. At least he wasn’t snooty with me this morning. I return to my unit on Thursday afternoon.” He thought, “Well, at least that is the last of Enderby for me.” Shortly afterwards, Dave Johnson arrived with the food and they settled down to eating. An hour later, Andy took his leave of them and headed back to Stanmore Park. He had made a friend who told him that any time he was in London he could stay at his apartment.
***
Late Thursday afternoon, Corporal Hill drove out of RAF Stanmore Park and drove back to RAF West Sanby. He arrived during the evening and reported back to his section the next morning (Friday). Routine orders showed that there was to be a station commander’s parade on the Saturday morning (29th) and that the JSTU would be working that day. There would also be a domestic site inspection by the officers responsible for each barrack block. That meant that everyone not on duty would be cleaning and polishing their rooms and their equipment. Andy knew that he had to let a disappointed young lady know that he wouldn’t be able to attend the charity ball with her.
The domestic site inspections were at 08.30 hours. By 09.30 hours, personnel had formed up and were marching to the parade area. Since there was no parade ground, the station personnel, along with the squadron and JSTU, paraded on the hard-standing in front of the squadron hangar. The day dawned with a clear sky. Overnight the temperature had dropped as the cloud cover had been driven inland by a cold continental wind. Fortunately, personnel were not carrying rifles for this parade and were able to wear gloves. Even so, the woollen gloves of the NCOs and airmen were not enough to prevent the hands getting cold. Having marched onto the parade area, personnel were stood at ease awaiting
