‘They will talk in time.’
They fell silent as the young couple sauntered past. A pair of swans glided along the canal. It reminded Conrad a little of the Cherwell back in Oxford. He wondered about the bend in the waterway. ‘Was this a moat once, do you think, Theo?’
‘Yes. They call it the Singel. There is one in Amsterdam, you know.’
‘You are quite the Dutch expert.’
‘It’s the place to be, these days, in our business.’
‘Your business,’ said Conrad. The couple were safely past. ‘So if it wasn’t the British who planted the bomb, who was it?’
‘They’ve arrested someone at the Swiss border. We are pretty sure he is responsible. What we don’t know is who he was working for, if anyone.’
‘So it wasn’t you chaps? Canaris and Oster?’
‘Definitely not. The current favourite theory in the Abwehr is it was a set-up. The Gestapo. It was pretty extraordinary that Hitler just happened to leave ten minutes before the bomb went off. He’s calling it Providence. Interesting how he uses the word “Providence” rather than “God”, isn’t it? It’s almost as if even he can’t believe that God would be on his side.’
Conrad could feel one of Theo’s philosophical digressions coming on, but he wasn’t in the mood. ‘What about the invasion of Holland and Belgium next week? Is that still going ahead?’
‘The weather forecast isn’t good. Halder is trying to persuade Hitler to postpone.’
‘So there won’t be a coup, after all?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Theo. ‘This Venlo business has rattled them. I hope they hold their nerve. But that’s all it is, just hope.’
Conrad could sense Theo’s impatience. The year before, his friend had risked his life to stop Hitler; they both had. It was understandable that he should be frustrated by a lack of courage from the men who were supposed to lead him.
A frustrated spy. A frustrated enemy spy.
‘Who is Charles Bedaux, Theo?’
Theo, who had been staring at the swans, turned sharply to Conrad. ‘How do you know about Bedaux?’
‘Stevens told me. He said that you had been meeting him in Holland. He said he was a shady American businessman who lives in France.’
‘He is,’ said Theo.
‘Does he have anything to do with Schämmel?’ Conrad asked.
‘Nothing at all,’ said Theo.
They sat in silence for a few moments. Conrad’s instinct was to wait. Let his friend think.
‘You know I’m an Abwehr officer?’ Theo said eventually.
‘Yes,’ said Conrad.
‘So most of my job is to try to uncover British secrets and to use them to help Germany win the war?’
‘Yes,’ said Conrad again. There was something in Theo’s voice which told him to shut up and listen.
Theo sucked his lip. ‘Sometimes I wonder if that would be a good thing.’
‘What would be a good thing?’
‘That Germany win the war.’
Conrad nodded. He knew how important that statement was to Theo. Because even when Theo was at his most rebellious, even when he was declaiming socialist theories to his fellow undergraduates, his patriotism was at his core. It was his duty to serve his country, as it had been for all his ancestors.
‘If Hitler beats the British and the French, then Germany will rule Europe and there really might be a thousand-year Reich. And that would be a disaster for the human race. For the Germans as well as all the other peoples we will have subjugated.’
‘You’re right. It would.’
‘Someone needs to investigate Charles Bedaux, Conrad.’
‘All right,’ said Conrad. ‘I will tell the secret service when I get back to England.’
‘Not your secret service,’ said Theo. ‘Someone else. You.’
‘Me?’ Conrad shook his head. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’m an officer in the British Army. A real soldier, not some spy. What’s wrong with the secret service? It’s not entirely compromised, is it? I thought it was just The Hague?’
‘No, it’s not that. It’s something else. You have to trust me on this.’
‘Why?’
‘Because if someone doesn’t do something pretty soon, you are going to lose this war.’
‘What? How?’
‘Check out Bedaux and you will find out.’
‘Theo, stop playing games! Tell me what’s going on here.’
‘No!’ Theo’s vehemence startled Conrad. ‘I’m not playing games. If I tell you all of what I know, then you will have to tell the authorities in Britain and I will be betraying my country. Instead of that I would prefer to point you in the right direction and leave you to discover what you are going to discover.’
Conrad was tempted to ask Theo if that wasn’t betraying his country anyway, but he kept quiet. Theo had carefully drawn a line for himself beyond which he would not go. Conrad didn’t want him to change his mind and redraw that line.
‘It’s going to be difficult for me as a serving officer,’ said Conrad.
‘You’ll work out a way,’ said Theo. ‘I know you.’
Conrad frowned. How would he clear it with Van? How could he persuade Van, or even himself, that the best thing wasn’t just to tell Major McCaigue and let the secret service get on with it?
Theo seemed to read his mind. ‘You have to trust me on this, Conrad. Investigate Bedaux yourself. Find out what he is up to. And stop him.’
Conrad sat on the bench by the ‘Singel’ for twenty minutes, while Theo went wherever Theo was going.
Conrad had obtained clear answers to Van’s questions. He was booked on a flight back to London at noon the following day. All he had to do was kill time until then. He had left his small suitcase at the station luggage office, postponing the decision about where he stayed the night.
But what about Charles Bedaux?
Conrad and Theo had been through a lot together. Theo had a cool head and sound judgement. If he said Bedaux should be investigated, he should be investigated. In theory this could be some clever Abwehr stratagem to waste the British secret service’s time. Perhaps feed them dud information. Mislead them. Yet Theo had insisted that Conrad look into Bedaux himself, and not tell the secret service.
It could be a fiendishly clever bluff or double bluff. Conrad knew enough about Admiral Canaris to know he was capable of all sorts of devious tricks.
But Conrad knew Theo wasn’t bluffing him. In fact, Conrad was pretty sure that the Abwehr wouldn’t approve of what Theo had just told him.
So he had to trust Theo. Then what?
Conrad stood up and made his way out of the Botanical Gardens, through the Academy’s iron gates, and out into the street. He crossed a little bridge over the canal and wandered through a maze of old back alleys and red-brick courtyards.
The more he thought about it, the more sure he became that he had to find out about Charles Bedaux. And he had to do it soon, because once he returned to London, he would be sent back to his battalion. There would be little he could do stuck in Tidworth.
Where to start? Conrad checked his watch. It was just after four o’clock. Conrad had spent several years researching obscure historical subjects in libraries in Oxford, London, Berlin and Copenhagen. He needed a library.
He doubled back to the Rapenburg, and a building he had spotted earlier, on the other side of the canal from the Academy. Sure enough, it was the university library, and fortunately it was open on Saturday, but only until five o’clock.
He found a friendly librarian who spoke German and just had time to locate a couple of Dutch business directories. There was an Internationale Bedaux NV listed at Spuistraat 210 in Amsterdam. The business was marked ‘Management Consulting’.
Conrad headed back to the station to catch a train to Amsterdam.