Bletchley nodded. Joe shook his head.
That must be Liffy's Third Law, said Joe. I guess he didn't have time to mention it. Only the things you care about go up in smoke.
He took another drink from the flask and they both fell silent, gazing out at the river.
***
What were you thinking about just now? asked Joe.
The front. El Alamein.
Will it hold, the way you see it?
I hope so. In any case it has to. The tide has to turn and it has to turn now or people will lose hope.
Yes. And in the meantime, what will you be doing with that good-luck charm in your hand, do you think?
I'll carry it with me for a while, said Bletchley, and someday, if things work out that way, I'll give it to someone.
Who?
Bletchley glanced at him and looked away.
Did you know there was a child, Joe?
Whose child? What do you mean?
Eleni and Stern. Did you know they had a child?
Joe was stunned.
What? Is that true?
Yes.
Are you sure?
Yes. Stern told me about her. She's a young woman now.
Joe whistled softly.
But that's just astonishing. Who is she? Where is she? Oh my God.
She's Greek, said Bletchley. She was born in Smyrna but later on she grew up in Crete. Eleni's uncle, Sivi, had relatives in Crete. His father came from there, from a little village up in the mountains.
I know that.
Well that's where she grew up when Eleni could no longer manage. Stern took her there as a child.
Joe whistled very softly.
That's just astounding. What else do you know about her?
Very little, that's all really. It came up in an odd way about a year ago, just after Crete fell. Stern said he had an agent there who could do certain things by posing as a collaborator with the Germans. But I thought the agent, as he described her to me, was much too young to do what he had in mind. I didn't think we could trust someone like that in such a sensitive role, and that's when Stern told me she could be trusted because she was his daughter. I was as surprised as you are. Of course, she doesn't carry his name. She uses the Greek name of Sivi's relatives.
That's just amazing, said Joe.
Something crossed his mind and he thought for a moment.
Here now. Don't I recall that it was from an agent posing as a collaborator that Stern found out how Colly died in Crete? That time Stern made a special trip there, after Colly was killed?
Yes. She was the one.
Joe smiled.
What a wonder of a trickster Stern was, always another surprise yet to come. Do you realize I never even knew about Eleni until that last night we were together in the bar? And now it turns out there's a child. Absolutely astonishing, that's what. Does anybody else here know about her?
I doubt it. In fact I'm quite sure no one does. It seemed to be one thing he wanted to keep very close to himself. He asked me never to tell anyone.
Why? Did he say?
Not directly, but it was obvious it had to do with his work. That and the fact that he didn't want to endanger her in any way.
Yet she could have left Crete before it fell, said Joe, or probably even after it did. Stern could have arranged that. Why didn't he?
I had the impression she didn't want to leave.
Oh.
Joe shook his head.
And despite all the things he told me that last night, he never even hinted at this. Why, I wonder? Why?
For the same reasons he never told anyone else? Not even Maud?
Yes, I suppose. Still, it does seem strange. . But don't you know anything else about her?
No, I truly don't. He really wouldn't say much of anything, other than who she was and where she was.
Joe was silent for some moments. All at once he touched Bletchley's arm, startling him.
But Stern also asked you not to tell anyone about her. Why did you?
Bletchley moved around where he was sitting. He seemed uncomfortable.
Because you're leaving. And since no one else knows but me, and since something could always happen out here, well, I felt. .
Bletchley's voice trailed off. He glanced at his watch.
The time's getting on. We should be starting for the airport soon.
In a moment, said Joe. I think there's something we haven't quite covered yet.
That's not so, I've told you what I can. There are certain matters. .
I know, but I wasn't referring to certain matters. I mean something between you and me.
It's getting on, said Bletchley. We ought to. .
Bletchley moved as if to rise but Joe put his hand on Bletchley's arm, stopping him.
It's just this. What was the real reason you picked my name out of Stern's file?
I told you. Because you'd known Stern well in the past, and because you cared for him, and because you seemed to have the experience and the temperament that were needed for the assignment.
Yes. Go on.
But that's all.
Joe smiled.
No it's not.
It's not?
Joe shook his head, still smiling.
No, of course it's not. That's what got put down on paper and that's what London understood, but that's not all of it.
I've told you the truth, said Bletchley, his voice defiant.
Yes, and you've always done that, and I appreciate it. It's just that you've also left things out here and there, bits and pieces along the path. And we both know that's the cleverest way to hide things, from others or from ourselves. But now that I am leaving, why don't you go on for once and say those things to yourself? Not hide them anymore?. . So then. You studied Stern's file and chose me. Why? What's the rest of it?
Suddenly Bletchley pulled away from Joe, freeing his arm. He seemed both angry and hurt as he stared out at the river, an empty expression on his scarred face, his eye wide and bulging. When he spoke his voice was harsh with resentment.
The rest of it?. . I don't know what you mean.
Oh yes, said Joe softly, and what does it matter here and now between the two of us? And why does it ever matter anyway? I'm leaving and what's more I'm disappearing, and I'll never be able to talk about any of this. . so then. Why not the rest of it?
Bletchley looked confused, even frightened. His resentment was gone and his voice was little more than a whisper.
Do you mean. . Colly?
Yes, said Joe. . Colly. I mean him.
***
Bletchley gripped his bad hand again, covering it.
Well I knew him. I knew him, of course. I'd worked with him.
Much?
No, not really. Just since the war started, before he was killed. And I didn't know him well the way some of the others did, the Colonel at the Waterboys, say, Harry's superior. He'd worked with Colly all through the thirties, so he knew him very well. But I wasn't around here much then, I was mostly in India.
So I never really saw that much of Colly, although I'd always known about him, by reputation.
And admired him?
Well naturally. Everybody admired him. He was such a talented man and he always seemed to do things with so much dash.
And more than that, said Joe softly, you envied him, didn't you?
Bletchley glanced at Joe and looked back at the river, his eye round and empty, confused.
I suppose I did, he said in a low voice.
Joe strained forward.
Because he seemed to be everything you never could be, wasn't that it?
In a way, perhaps. But I don't see how any of this. .
Just everything, said Joe. A hero in the last war and a grand one, a hero who survived it intact and all of a piece, in his body and his mind, without a ripped-up face and a crippled hand and maybe crippled other things. Who was so famous as a young man he could afford to go and enlist in the Imperial Camel Corps as just plain Private Gulbenkian. Who was so sure of himself and who he was he never had to worry about ranks and titles and positions, or even about his own name, just imagine that. Who could even be an A. O. Gulbenkian on camelback, anonymous to all appearances, and still be famous wherever it counted because beyond and beneath it all, no matter what name he used and what disguise he put on and no matter where he went, he would always be Our Colly.