Dead Man's Land (29 page)

‘It’s a fuckin’ exercise, you daft cunt.’

‘Oi,’ said the treeman, waving the bayonet. ‘Wha’ you call me?’

A whistle blew, marking the end of the manoeuvre. The two men relaxed and, after a moment, punched each other on the shoulder. The treeman even gave something that could be interpreted as an apology for his over-enthusiasm. The sniper took out a field dressing and mopped up the trickle of blood staining his collar.

Watson, flanked by Churchill and his aide-de-camp Captain Edmund Hakewill-Smith, the young officer who had blown the whistle, watched as a dozen men emerged from the battered Ploegsteert woods, all outlandishly dressed in various outfits of deception.

‘What do you think, Watson?’ asked Churchill. ‘Not quite Savile Row. But the finest that the
Section de Camouflage
in Marne can supply. They are working on fake heads for us, too. Stick up above the parapet, draw fire. Might get m’self one for the House. Eh?’

‘Impressive,’ said Watson, as a soldier appeared to emerge from a tree trunk, like a wood-goblin sprung to life.

‘The trees are remarkable,’ said Churchill, who was clearly enjoying himself. ‘Metal skin, with wood and papier-mâché over them. Fool anyone at close range.’ He tossed away the stub of his cigar. ‘Hake, can you debrief the men? The major has something he wants to ask me.’ He turned back to Watson. ‘Isn’t that right?’

‘It is, sir.’

While Hakewill-Smith gathered the men, corralling them into place with his sharp South African bark, they began the walk back to Maison 1875, where Watson had stabled his horse.

‘I know it looks like playing silly buggers, all this dressing as trees, but we have to take the fight to the Germans. All this Big Push nonsense that Haig spouts about is just that – nonsense. They haven’t grasped one simple fact. If you send over a hundred thousand shells on one sector, then the Germans bloody well know where you are coming across. Might as well send them a telegram
: Hope you don’t mind, Fritz, thought we’d try and take the Wytschaete Ridge tomorrow
. Madness. The war has become too static. As I told you at Somerset, we need small, mobile units, to tackle their snipers, take out their machine gunners, take prisoners. There should be no such thing as no man’s land. It must be our man’s land.’

He turned and looked back at the soldiers, huddled around Hakewill-Smith. ‘Hence the training. I’ll whittle them down to six or seven men. An élite squad. Tough little Scots, mostly. We’ll be out there within a day or two, sniper hunting. We will own no man’s land.’ He tossed aside his now expired cigar.

Churchill fetched a bullet from his pocket. ‘When you told me about the tower and the sniper, I was sceptical, Watson. Very sceptical. What you called logic, I thought was guesswork. But that was one hell of a wound in the sentry. So we searched the rubble of the church. We found a Mauser and a large number of these.’ He held the steel-and-brass projectile between thumb and index finger. ‘I have sent several to the Royal Small Arms Factory for analysis. But we fired a round through the Mauser. Remarkable effect. If we could duplicate that explosive power for shells . . .’

‘You’d copy it?’

‘Of course. Illegal as bullets, maybe, but scaled up . . . That’s not to say I won’t complain about the fact it breaches the Geneva Convention. Although I intend to grab myself a few more snipers first, see if this is common issue by the Hun.’

‘You? Surely you won’t go out there?

Churchill stopped walking, put the bullet away and took another cigar from his top pocket, which he shoved into the corner of his mouth. ‘Why do people keep asking me that? I’ll be back in London one of these days. Perhaps in the Cabinet once more. I don’t want them saying that Winston spent his time at the front shuttling between the bordellos of Armentières and the wine cellars of Bordeaux. I don’t want them to think that the man who can order an attack on the Dardanelles is too cowardly to get out there and show some real leadership.’

He screwed his face into a grimace. Watson could see why he had a reputation as a tricky customer and a hothead, out for personal glory. In this case, though, it appeared there was the need for a kind of redemption, a purging of the soul, too. Those men slaughtered on the beaches at Gallipoli would weigh heavy on any man’s mind, no matter what degree of bravado he presented to the world.

‘Even so, sir—’

‘What?’

Watson realized he had displeased Churchill. He wanted an admiring slap on the back. Not reservations about the wisdom of chasing around with men half his age.

‘It’s your decision.’

‘Glad you think so.’

This was an argument he wasn’t going to win. ‘When we met previously you mentioned something about a case that might be of interest.’

‘Ah.’ Churchill brightened. ‘Yes. Is that why you are here?’

‘No. But if you care to give me details, I will think on it.’

‘Not much to tell. I told you,
The Case of the Man Who Died Twice
. It was a distant cousin of Clementine’s. A subaltern. Roddy Blunt. Deserted his post under fire. Left his platoon to be overrun. All of whom fought to the last, I might add. Not one left standing. Well, there was no option but to court-martial him. Excuse me.’ He turned his back to the wind and lit the cigar. ‘There have been grumblings about differential treatment of men and officers. Disproportionate amount of death sentences for other ranks is what they say. What they don’t take into account is that any fleeing junior officer is likely to get shot by his commanding officer out of hand.’ Churchill’s piggish eyes narrowed conspiratorially. ‘Happens more than you think. So, there’s a court martial and before Clemmie hears of it, he’s been shot at dawn. Quite right too.’

‘Seems very straightforward,’ Watson said, knowing there was more to come.

‘Ah,’ said Churchill, his bad mood now completely forgotten. ‘I said it was called
The Case of the Man Who Died Twice
, didn’t I?’

‘I believe you did.’

‘The execution was some months ago. Four weeks back, a body turned up in Wiltshire. Under a hedgerow, where he had been living rough like some gypsy. It was identified as Roddy Blunt.’

‘And how long had he been dead?’

‘No more than two days.’

Watson fetched his cigarettes and lit one. He and Churchill turned back and looked over the uneven field, towards the scattered farmhouses that formed the Royal Scots Fusiliers’ reserve positions, and the marks of distant trenches – coils of wire and posts for the most part – where two armies were literally keeping their heads down. In the very far distance there was a speck ascending slowly into the sky. A German observation balloon.

‘Curious,’ said Watson at last.

‘Have you any thoughts?’

He smoked on for a while, watching a distant biplane of indeterminate nationality. Dark puffs of ack-ack explosions bracketed it for a while, until it gained height and was lost to the clouds. ‘Where in Wiltshire?’

‘Idmiston.’

Watson smoked on, revelling in the moment. ‘Then I do believe I have a solution.’

‘Really?’ Churchill asked.

‘But first, I would like to ask a favour.’

Churchill narrowed just one eye this time. ‘Ever thought of going into politics, Major Watson?’

‘I can’t say I have,’ he replied.

‘Pity. It’s only blackmail with stricter rules. So what is this favour?’

Watson explained the deaths and the possibility that poison gas might be involved. He was concerned, he said, about the secrecy that surrounded the whole project. Churchill listened patiently.

‘Well, between you and me, Watson, if I go back to Westminster, I suspect it will be as Minister of Munitions. The gas will be mine to control. Not that I have any objection in principle. But in the meantime, I can give you a letter asking for all co-operations as you are investigating on my behalf. Not worth the paper it’s printed on, of course, but the Churchill name might still have some currency.’

The man knew damned well it did. ‘I am sure it has considerable weight. Thank you.’

The observation plane he had seen earlier now dropped from its cloud cover and began circling the observation balloon. It was too far away to see the details, but the gas-filled envelope began to descend quickly, as it was frantically winched in. He imagined the observer raking it with bullets from his Lewis gun as it went. Having been suspended under such a canopy, even if only for a few brief minutes, he felt an affinity with the horribly exposed observers.

‘You have time for a brandy before you go?’

Watson looked at his wristwatch and the sun, already beginning to fall, and the temperature along with it. ‘A quick one, perhaps.’

Churchill slapped him on the back. ‘Excellent. And the solution to my problem?’

‘Before I took the opportunity to come out here to preach the gospel of blood transfusion, I was offered a position on the home front. At a place called Porton. It is where the War Department Experimental Ground is based. My role would be to investigate the effects of poison gas on soldiers and possible protective measures and antidotes. I am afraid I refused because I suspected such work might involve human guinea pigs. And besides, I wanted to be closer to the front.’

The dull crump of an explosion reached them, and they turned to see a dark column spiralling up into the sky. A trench mortar at work.

‘Although perhaps not this close. Sir, what if a soldier, under a death sentence, is given an alternative? You can live, but you have to help with top-secret war work. It will involve changing identity, not getting in touch with your family. At the end of the war, some cover story will be released to say that you were acting under the Defence of the Realm Act, and that the story of you being shot was bogus.’

Churchill looked doubtful. ‘That is all very Buchan-ish.’

Watson continued with his conjecture. ‘But once you are at the Experimental Ground, you realize the truth. You will be experimented on—’

‘By your own side?’

‘The man was a coward,’ Watson said, playing devil’s advocate. ‘Deserved to be shot. You said so yourself.’

‘Shot, yes. Tortured, no. But really. The British wouldn’t do such things.’

‘I am afraid there are scientists who would. Scientists for whom the ends always justify the means. Men who are certain they will not be answering to any higher power for their actions. I should imagine that he escaped and was hunted. He died at Idmiston, not far from Porton, hiding under a hedgerow. Exposure, I would wager, exacerbated by any effects from the chemicals.’

Churchill had gone quite puce. He puffed on his cigar, releasing a plume of smoke. ‘How can you be certain?’

‘It’s just a theory. But it fits the facts.’

‘It sounds impossible.’

‘No. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever else remains, however unlikely, must be the truth. Is it possible he died twice? No. So who would have use of a “dead” man in Wiltshire? The scientists who need live bodies to test their theories.’

‘If this outrage is true . . .’ Churchill’s jowls wobbled as he shook his head.

‘As Minister of Munitions, you’d be able to find out.’

More furious puffing. ‘I will, Watson, I will.’ They had reached the house, and both men returned the salute of the sentry. ‘Come, there’s that brandy.’

‘And my letter,’ Watson reminded him.

‘Yes, and your damned letter.’

Watson paused as a thought struck him. ‘And one other thing.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Can you get me the post-mortem notes from Wiltshire?’

Churchill waved the cigar as if it were a magic wand. ‘I’m sure I can. Why?’

‘I want to know if Blunt had turned blue.’

Those who saw the figure of Dr Watson racing through the hospital grounds turned and watched, some in admiration at his turn of speed, others in concern for the man’s heart. It was thumping in his chest, that was true, but not all of that was from his exertions.

Sister Spence, who was standing with a cup of tea outside her tent, attempted to check his progress. ‘Major Watson—’ she began, but he didn’t slow his pace.

‘Later, Sister,’ he managed to gasp. ‘I have some most urgent business.’

Watson didn’t catch her reply.

He took the steps up to the Big House two and three at a time, marvelling at his burst of energy. He might pay for it later, but he didn’t care. If he was right, this would be worth a few aches and pains.

He burst into the room, grabbed the magazine he had been sent and collapsed back on the bed, the air rasping in his throat and his heart pounding at double-time. It was a few seconds before he could pick up a pencil and begin.

Watson couldn’t wait any longer. Along the top of the page, he wrote down the sequence of letters he had circled.