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"Hallo - yes - what?" A squeaky voice spoke agitatedly froed "When? - Oh, ht away"
She put back the receiver
She said to Tommy:
"That was Maureen"
"I thought so - I recognized her voice from here"
Tuppence explained breathlessly:
"I'o round to this friend of mine She's fallen and twisted her ankle and there's no one with her but h
er little girl, so I et hold of soive me"
"Of course, Mrs Beresford, I quite understand"
Tuppence s over the sofa, slipped her ared
Touest
"Don't go yet," he said
"Thank you" The other accepted the glass He sipped it for a moment in silence Then he said: "In a way, you know, your wife's being called away is a fortunate occurrence It will save time"
Tommy stared
"I don't understand"
Grant said deliberately:
"You see, Beresford, if you had come to see me at the Ministry, I was empowered to put a certain proposition before you"
The colour came slowly up in Tommy's freckled face He said:
"You don't mean -"
Grant nodded
"Easthaested you," he said "He told us you were the man for the job"
Toh
"Tell me," he said
"This is strictly confidential, of course"
Tommy nodded
"Not even your wife must know You understand?"
"Very well - if you say so But orked together before"
"Yes, I know But this proposition is solely for you"
"I see All right"
"Ostensibly you will be offered work - as I said just now - office work - in a branch of the Ministry functioning in Scotland - in a prohibited area where your wife cannot accompany you Actually you will be somewhere very different"
Tommy merely waited
Grant said:
"You've read in the newspapers of the Fifth Coluhly at any rate, just what that term implies"
Tommy murmured:
"The enemy within"
"Exactly This war, Beresford, started in an optimistic spirit Oh, I don'tere up against - the efficiency of the eneth, his deadly determination, and the co-ordination of his well-planned war ood-hearted, muddle-headed democratic felloho believes what he wants to believe - that Gere of revolution, that her weapons of war are made of tin and that her men are so underfed that they'll fall down if they try to , as the saying goes
"Well, the war didn't go that way It started badly and it went on worse The ht - the -outs But there was ement and unpreparedness - the defects, perhaps, of our qualities We don't ar, haven't considered it seriously, weren't good at preparing for it
"The worst of that is over We've corrected our ht place We're beginning to run the war as it should be run - and we can win the war - make no mistake about that - but only if we don't lose if first And the danger of losing it coht of Germany's bombers, not froe points froer of Troy - the wooden horse within our walls Call it the Fifth Colu us Men and wohly placed, soenuinely in the Nazi ai to substitute that sternly efficient creed for theliberty of our democratic institutions"
Grant leant forward He said, still in that same pleasant unemotional voice:
"And we don't knoho they are"
Tommy said: "But surely -"
Grant said, with a touch of impatience:
"Oh, we can round up the sh But it's the others We know about thehly placed in the Admiralty - that one must be a member of General G-'s staff - that there are three or more in the Air Force, and that two, at least, are ence, and have access to Cabinet secrets We know that because it e - a leakage from the top - of information to the enemy, shows us that"
Tommy said helplessly, his pleasant face perplexed:
"But what good should I be to you? I don't know any of these people"
Grant nodded
"Exactly You don't know any of them - and they don't know you"
He paused to let it sink in and then went on
"These people, these high up people, know most of our lot Information can't be very well refused to them I was at my wits' end I went to Easthampton He's out of it all now - a sick ht of you Over twenty years since you worked for the Department Name quite unconnected with it Your face not known What do you say - will you take it on?"
Tonitude of his ecstatic grin
"Take it on? You bet I'll take it on Though I can't see how I can be of any use I'm just a blasted amateur"
"My dear Beresford, amateur status is just what is needed The professional is handicapped here You'll take on in place of the best man we had or are likely to have"
Tommy looked a question Grant nodded
"Yes Died in St Bridget's Hospital last Tuesday Run down by a lorry - only lived a few hours Accident case - but it wasn't an accident"
Tommy said slowly: "I see"
Grant said quietly:
"And that's e have reason to believe that Farquhar was on to so somewhere at last By his death that wasn't an accident"
Tommy looked a question
Grant went on:
"Unfortunately we know next to nothing of what he had discovered Farquhar had beenup one line after another Most of them led nowhere"
Grant paused and then went on:
"Farquhar was unconscious until a fewWhat he said was this: N or M Song Susie"
"That," said To"
Grant smiled
"A little ht think N or M, you see, is a term we have heard before It refers to two of the ents We have come across their activities in other countries and we know just a little about then countries and to act as liaison officer between the country in question and Germany N, we know, is a man M is a woman All we know about theents and that in a codeof the war there occurred this phrase - Suggest N or M for England Full powers -"
"I see And Farquhar -"
"As I see it, Farquhar ot on the track of one or other of the Susie sounds very cryptic - but Farquhar hadn't a high class French accent! There was a return ticket to Leahaestive Leaha Bourneuest houses Ast them is one called Sans Souci -"
Toain:
"Song Susie - Sans Souci - I see"
Grant said: "Do you?"
"The idea is," Too there and - well - ferret round"
"That is the idea"
Toain
"A bit vague, isn't it?" he asked "I don't even knohat I' for"
"And I can't tell you I don't know It's up to you"
Tohed He squared his shoulders
"I can have a shot at it But I'm not a very brainy sort of chap"
"You did pretty well in the old days, so I've heard"
"Oh, that was pure luck," said Tommy hasti
ly
"Well, luck is rather e need"