A Bridge of Magpies

Jutta stood by me at the wheel-watching the silvery splash from the hawser as it dipped and tightened-dipped and tightened. In the confined space the sweet slept-in woman's clothing smell of her stirred my senses. The fact that my attention was on her made it all the more remarkable that my subconscious should have thrown up something about Kaptein Denny.

‘Jutta! For crying out loud! He said, U-1601' '

Who?'

`Kaptein Denny, of course. He said, U-1601'

'Why shouldn't he?'

'There at the grave- U-160!'

'After all, he knew it:

'But he didn't, Jutta! That's what I'm saying! He was aware that the City of Baroda had been sunk by a U-boat. A U-boat. He didn't know specifically which U-boat! Then, before he has heard your tape which identifies it-he comes up with U-160. Not any old U-boat, but a particular one, What a give-away

'I don't get you, Struan;

'What I'm saying is that if Kaptein Denny knew the U-boat's number he wasn't at the Bridge of Magpies that wartime 106 oight, just fishing as he'd have us believe. He's playing a very deep game. He must have been part of that spy operation. Don't you see what I'm driving at?'

'Yes, I do now. That he came to the Bridge of Magpies knowing all about U-160 and her rendezvous to pick up one spy and land another.'

`His function may have been to ferry the Jap Tsushima from Luderitz under cover of his fishing; then take back to port the man they landed-what was his name?'

'Swakop. It jells, Struan! Then everything came unstuck for him when U-160 tangled with the liner and Gousblom. Maybe that's why Swakop had to make his way across the desert to Luderitz. Frau Hager said he was nearly all in when he arrived.'

`Kaptein Denny's liner rescue act could have been a blind. He'd have been obliged to provide a very sound reason for being around that night. He'd also have had Tsushima on his hands after he'd missed the U-boat. That's why he remained so unbelievably modest about the whole business. Jt was a gigantic bluff!'

'He even dodged the warships.'

'With reason, if he had a Japanese spy aboard. But all that doesn't really concern us, Jutta. What does, is the fact that he's back here now-as he's been every winter for thirty years, on his own admission. What's the drawing-card? Loot from the lost city? Loot from U-160? Whatever it is can't be easy to get at, because he keeps coming back. And only at one season of the year, when conditions must be favourable for his operations'

'I wasn't going to tell you-Struan, but he wouldn't charge for bringing me here.'

Ah! How did he react when you first approached him about chartering his boat?'

'Surprised. Pleased.'

'He wasn't worried about operating in forbidden territory?' '

He laughed it off. I was touched by his willingness to help.'

'We're beginning to discover why.'

`He's kept his nose clean up to now. He didn't object when you ordered him off the shore.'

'With reservations. He still wasn't going to shift from his boat, remember.'

'It doesn't add up, Struan! If he wanted you out of the way-why has he made such an effort to bring you back again? Why risk his neck in the storm? It would have been an easy enough excuse to say he couldn't find us. Why be in such a hurry to get back to Possession?'

'Koch's no-good ship seems to have complicated the issue.' '

Look, there she is!'

We broke clear of the wisps of fog and I realized immediately where we were-off Elizabeth Point's ghost town. There were only about four miles of open water now between us and Possession. In the channel, somewhat to the south of the usuaJ anchorage, as though avoiding the huts ashore, was the ship.

'Sure, that's no trawler.'

The vessel was too far away for me to make out her name but my glass showed a low black hull with a whaleback fo'c'sle, a straight up-and-down outmoded cutwater, and a single, high, old-fashioned stack with a white band painted round it. Two very tall ventilators towered almost as high as the marking. She had a very square bridge and a box-like structure in the stern which on a warship would have been a radio or radar shack. But she wasn't a warship. Her masts were squat and sturdy, with heavy booms and derricks, their strength out of keeping to her size. No crew was visible.

`She looks… sort of slnister, Struan.'

'All black ships do. I'll find out soon enough. go aboard once we've tied up.'

Possession advertised its presence in its usual nostril-assaulting manner. The two cutters plugged slowly across the sea to the anchorage. They were white with salt-as if they'd taken a pasting on the Iceland cod run. We remained visible for miles but there was no sign from the stranger that she'd sighted us. Her decks remained empty of men.

'Where the devil's Breekbout?' I asked irritably. 'He should be getting out the whaleboat to fetch us.'

Jutta took a look through the binoculars.

'Not a sign. Having breakfast in bed, perhaps-while the cat's away.'

I tried to relax.

'Baths are on the house today.'

She smiled back. 'Think of all that lovely drinking water 108 going down the drain.'

'You tempt me to rush in on you and switch off the tap? '

Possession chivalry to ladies-in-the-nude.'

I wanted more of her in that mood. We'd taken up where we'd left off in Alabama Cove, but the business of making the two cutters fast cut across it, and Kaptein Denny bad us rushing backwards and forwards in the process of manoeuvring up to the mooring buoys.

When it was done we went aboard Gaok.

'They haven't hung out the flags for our return, Kaptein Denny.'

'Breekbout I could understand: Dr Koch puzzles me.'

I'd come prepared to read anything into his words but they were neutral enough.

'I'd have expected him to be chewing his nails waiting for us to heave over the horizon, the way you spoke.' 'He was, when I set out.'

All the time his eyes were scanning the anchorage, the channel, the black ship, the shoreline and the island. There was no smoke from the bunkhouse chimney and a gobbledygook of bird noises floated across the water. The place had a never-never air, like a stage with props but no actors. They might all have been there for ever. The Sperrgebiet has that trick of making time scales wobble.

After ten minutes' waiting I'd had enough. The others were uneasy too.

'We'll use your dinghy,' I told Kaptein Denny. Even the splash of oars sounded unnaturally loud as we rowed to the jetty. So did our footsteps on the concrete path leading to the bunkhouse door.

I threw it open.

'There's no one here. You two scout around. Koch may have left a note for me. I'll take a look-see at the cottage.'

The door was half-open and Breekbout was sitting at the radio transceiver. His eyes were half shut and his mouth had the beginnings of a silly grin, as if lied shaken loose a laugh out of hls own death.

His head was smashed open like a pomegranate.

The radio was also wrecked and bits of its innards lay around like Breekbout's brains.

I wanted to puke. But I had enough remaining sense not to leave before I'd taken a look at the remains of the radio. 109

The transceiver switch was on 'Send'. The dial pointer stood at the Silvermine frequency. No one on Possession besides myself knew that frequency. I crashed my rifle butt into the dial's face so as to make it unreadable.

I went back to the bunkhouse. .. he had three ghost lights burning,' Kaptein Denny was telling Jutta when I entered.

'It didn't help him,' I said. 'Besides, ghosts don't bash in heads with sealing clubs.'

'Oh God I' she'd seen my face.

Then hot and cold sweat chased one another across my face and body and reaction shakes set in.