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I shook this treacherous woman’s hand and said coolly, en français pour que l’Hauptsturlish puisse nous comprendre, ‘I’lanced over at von Linden, who stood deferentially at her shoulder

‘Pourquoi?’ she demanded of hiot all the salish ‘Why can’t I know her name?’

She looked back down at ht I adjusted my scarf and assumed the casual pose of a saint stuck full of arrows, hands linked loosely behind my back, one foot turned out before the other with the knee slightly bent, my head cocked to one side

‘It’s for my own protection,’ I said ‘I don’t want my name publicised’

What TOSH I suppose I could have said, ‘I a –’ Don’t knohat she’d have made of that I wasn’t even allowed to tell her what branch of the ave me a chair as well, next to Miss Penn, away froel hovered subordinately Miss Penn offered a cigarette to von Linden, aved it away in disdain

‘May I?’ she said, and when he shrugged politely, she took one herself and offered another to el wanted one

I said, ‘MerciO mein Hauptstur the cigarettes and announced in her brisk, straightforward French, ‘I don’t want to waste anda It’s my job and I’ for truth Je cherche la vérité’

‘Your accent is frightful,’ I answered, also in French ‘Would you repeat that in English?’

She did – taking no insult, very serious, through a pall of s for verity’

It’s a bloody good thing he let arette because otherwise I don’t kno I’d haveout her own DAMNED PACK OF LIES

‘Truth,’ I said at last, in English

‘Truth,’ she agreed

Engel ca no ashtrays) I’d sucked the whole cigarette down to the butt, in five or six long drags, colish, and exhaled every last asped: ‘"Truth is the daughter of time, not authority"’ And: ‘"This above all, to thine own self be true"’ I gibbered a bit, I confess ‘Verity! I ahed so wildly then that the Hauptsturmführer had to clear his throat to remind me to control myself ‘I am the soul of verity,’ I repeated ‘Je suis l’ésprit de vérité’

In aia Penn very kindly handed arette

‘Well, thank goodness for that,’ she said in ive lanced up at von Linden ‘You knohat they call this place?’

I raised

‘Le Château des Bourreaux,’ she said

I laughed rather too loudly again, crossed s and examined the inside of my wrist

(It is a pun, you see – Château de Bordeaux, Château des Bourreaux – Bordeaux Castle, Castle of Butchers)

‘No, I’d not heard that,’ I said And I honestly haven’t – perhaps because I am so isolated most of the time Shows you how distracted I am that I didn’t think of it myself ‘Well, as you can see I am still in one piece’

She really looked at me hard for a second – just one second I smoothed my skirt down over my knee Then she became businesslike and produced a notebook and pen while a pale Gestapo underling who looked about 12 years old poured cognac (COGNAC!) for the three of us (the THREE of us – vL, GP and ME – not Engel) out of a crystal decanter into snifters as big as my head

At this point I became so deeply suspicious of everyone in the room that I could not remember what I was supposed to say Alibi, Alibi, is all I could think of This is different, I don’t knohat’s going on, he wants to catch ed, why have they lit the fire and not the chandelier, and what does the talking cockatoo have to do with it?

Wait, wait, wait! What else is there to get out ofit for weeks Pull yourself together, lassie, you’re a Wallace and a Stuart!

At this point, I purposefully put out ainst my own palm Nobody noticed

To hell with the truth, I told oing to get it

I asked if we could speak in English for the interview; it felt el there to translate, the Hauptsturmführer did not ood show

He did not want iven him – certainly not about the, ah, stressful circuhed them up – nor that the eleven wireless sets in Maddie’s Lysander were all destroyed in the fire when she crashed (They showed ements from the pilot’s cockpit ca to describe theic of what I could or couldn’t tell the American broadcaster, since if she cared to she could have easily found out from anyone in Ormaie about those destroyed radio sets, but perhaps no one has told British Intelligence yet and the Gestapo is still playing the radio ga to play back my compromised codes and frequencies on one of their previously captured wireless sets

(I suppose I should have written about those pictures, only I couldn’t – literally couldn’t – it was during those days when I had run out of paper But I won’t now either)

I said I was a wireless operator, parachuted here in civilian clothes so I ht because I made a cultural blunder – we chatted a bit about the difficulty of being a foreigner and trying to assiely in agree toit to von Linden