Spook's Gold (10 page)

Schmidt shrugged.  “Too early to tell, the reports are too haphazard to get a coherent picture.  Some are talking of having the invaders entirely pinned down on the beaches; others are talking of total collapse of our defences and fighting going on well inland.”

Boris leaped up suddenly and suggested they walk up to the Majestic Hotel on nearby Avenue Kleber, this being where the MBF – the military high command, had installed itself.  “I have a couple of friends there who....”

But Marner was already heading out the door.  “You go Boris, and I’ll catch up with you later.  I have something really urgent to attend to!”  He bounded down the stairs to the lower level and obtained a car from Vorner, who could tell by the look on Marner’s face that this was no time to argue about regulations and restrictions on vehicles and fuel. 

Chapter Ten

As they pulled out of the parking area and into Foch, Marner was amazed that this most military of French streets showed no outward sign of the incredible events taking place just a few hundred kilometres away.  The majority of people were, like him, in German military uniform, many of them on their way to their offices and possibly not yet aware of the invasion in Normandy. 

He could only conclude from the tide of events that was happening across Europe that German domination was now, undeniably, coming to an end.  The signs were all there, not least of which was the almost permanent retreat in the east, which was an incredible reversal after having marched up to the very gates of Moscow.  News from the eastern front, always up to date from Boris, was that the Russians were rolling almost unchecked across a front that was nearly two thousand kilometres long, from north to south.  Marner had never seen active combat service and could not even begin to imagine the scale of such a military operation, the sheer numbers of combatants, vehicles and armour, plus the logistical support trailing along behind in the wake of mud and chaos, bodies and wounded. 

In Italy the Allies had been steadily advancing towards Germany’s exposed southern flank since their Axis ally had thrown in the towel and now the enemy had placed their feet onto the European mainland in the west.  The only front that had seemed to have been holding solid, the so called ‘Atlantic Wall’, was right at this very moment being battered down by the Allies. 

He clamped down on the inevitable question that tried to stampede through on the heels of these thoughts: what was going to happen next, what was his own future?  He closed it down, slammed the door shut and bolted it.  He would leave it until he had dealt with the current urgency and when the events happening in Normandy were confirmed and concrete. 

He forced his mind to turn to the task in hand, to his tactics.  One option was simply to tackle whoever was trailing Lemele, in much the same way that he had dealt with el-Kalifa, but hopefully this time with better results.  After some deliberation he decided against this strategy; he did not know for sure how many people were watching her and taking on even one man in broad daylight on a busy thoroughfare in front of the prefecture was not going to be as easy and discreet as it had been yesterday.  In particular, he was fully aware of his lack of solid information or leads.  He desperately needed to gain something out of this situation that would give him a link to the next step in the chain, towards whoever was pulling the strings. 

He instructed his driver to cross the Seine via the Pont de la Concorde and then take the Boulevard Saint Germain.  As they drove along at high speed, Marner suddenly jerked forward and clamped his hand on the driver’s shoulder, yelling at him to stop.  The Opel fishtailed and slithered to a halt, passers-by swivelling to stare at the sudden screech of tyres.  Marner jumped out and dashed back along the boulevard to where he had seen a mens haberdasher.  If the shop owner was surprised to see a German officer in his premises, the shock quickly evaporated as he realised that he had a paying customer.  Doubly pleased when Marner purchased a full outfit of trousers, jacket, shirt, over-coat (in summer!) and not just one but two hats.  Marner decided to stick with his own boots, since the trouser cuffs could be pulled down over the boots; besides, his boots were comfortable and the prices in the shop were way above his means.  Who in war-time Paris had the money to pay these exorbitant amounts, he wondered? 

When presented with the bill, he was visibly taken aback.  The shop keeper saw Marner’s double-take and was concerned that this German might try some strong arm tactics or threats to obtain a discount. However, Marner was in too great a hurry to haggle or reconsider and he handed over the full amount, much to the man’s surprise, using the wad of money that he taken from el-Kalifa yesterday.  Since he had not reported the incident, there had been no opportunity to hand it in.  He assuaged his conscience about using the money for these clothes by telling himself that it was for genuine and official business.  He kept the new clothes on, scooped up his discarded uniform and cap, not even taking the time to fold them and hurried back to his waiting car. 

They turned north into Boulevard Saint-Michel and stopped fifty metres from the bridge that would take Marner onto the Île.  He dismissed the driver, giving him instructions to deliver his uniform back to his office.  Marner crossed the bridge and approached to within a hundred metres of the main entrance of the prefecture but saw no sign of watchers on the street.  He ducked into a Bureau de Poste on the opposite side of the street from the prefecture and used his identity card to demand the use of a telephone at the reception desk.  Lemele answered immediately, a hint of concern in her voice; she had been worried that he was not coming. 

“I had to make a stop en-route in preparation.  Everything is fine now and I’m in the Poste just across the street,” he reassured her.  “I want you to leave by the front entrance in two minutes and turn north towards Pont au Change.  As we did yesterday, I will be behind you trying to identify who is following.  Do exactly the same as before; make some turns, keep at a slow pace but also make a few stops to look in shop windows and remember to keep to busy streets with plenty of people.  Make your way towards Place de la République, which will give me time to evaluate what we are dealing with, then find a café and sit inside, away from the window.  I will let you know what the next move is.”

Lemele confirmed that she understood and rang off.  Marner moved to the window and looked along the street towards the entrance of the prefecture.  When Lemele emerged, Marner saw nothing of note for thirty seconds and then suddenly a shadow detached itself from the inside of a doorway twenty metres further along, on the same side as the prefecture entrance.  Lemele passed by, followed twenty seconds later by her tail, who was young – late-twenties perhaps, dressed in a plain grey suit with a matching colour hat pulled low on his head.  The man walked on the opposite side of the street to Lemele, casually and at ease and Marner had the immediate sense of someone more professional and practiced at this game than el-Kalifa. 

Marner counted to twenty and stepped out of the building, crossing the road immediately to be on the same side as Lemele and then picking up the same pace.  This angle meant that Lemele would often be blocked from his view by the pedestrians between them, but it afforded him a good view of the tailing man on the other side of the street, there being little traffic on the road. 

As they progressed and Marner relaxed into the pace, sure that he was not going to lose them, he began to look around for any other followers.  Due to the large number of people now on the streets at the end of the working day, it was not until they had crossed the Seine and made two turns and one sudden stop by Lemele to look in a shop window that Marner spotted the second man.  This one was on the same side of the street as him and Lemele, approximately mid-way between them and dressed in a light brown over-coat, despite the warm day. 

Marner was already feeling the heat in his own over-coat, selected because it gave him the option of putting it on and taking it off intermittently to change his ‘look’, it being dark blue whereas his jacket was light grey.  The same logic lay behind his purchase of two different hats.  Anyone looking around for a tail on these busy streets would take in only his outward appearance, the style and the colour.  With him working this operation alone, the ability to change appearance was invaluable, but this would only work a couple of times; eventually his two ‘looks’ would become familiar to anyone who was regularly checking for his presence. 

Fortunately, he had so far not received a backward glance from either of Lemele’s followers.  They were reasonably skilled at tailing, especially the first man in the grey outfit; the second in the overcoat was clumsy and had been thrown when Lemele had executed her window stop, halting suddenly when she did and so causing someone behind him to crash into his back.  It was this that had drawn Marner’s attention and revealed him.  Marner had to give Lemele credit: she was very cool and calm, no backward glances, not even to verify that he was truly there protecting her. 

The group continued their progress, following Lemele’s meandering ramble through the markets of Les Halles, and then switching north-east towards République.  Marner spotted no one else in front and so took the opportunity of enforced stops at busy junctions to check behind him.  He had learned his skills from his partner in Berlin, an old time cop who made up in street savvy what he had lacked in investigational expertise.  Marner satisfied himself that no was behind and could be reasonably certain these two were all that he needed to worry about. 

At the junction of Gravilliers and Beaubourg the man in the grey suit made a backward glance directly towards Marner whilst checking to cross the road.  Marner continued smoothly without hesitation, peering leisurely into a passing shop window as he walked, making no acknowledgement of the man’s glance, no connection.  He was confident that he had not been spotted as being out of the ordinary, just another businessman on his way home.  But he considered that he had used up his luck with the overcoat and so cast it and his first hat into an alleyway as he passed, donning the second hat, verifying that his pistol was secure in the inside pocket of the jacket.  His only concern was that without the overcoat the bulge of the gun was immediately visible from a few yards; he should have picked a larger, looser size of jacket. 

Marner was also regretting having specified a destination so far away to Lemele, but at the time he had not known how long it would take him to pick out the shadowers.  He had had to walk a fair distance in an unseasonably warm overcoat and was sweating heavily; he did not lament the absence of the coat, but the act of throwing away something that had cost so much seemed utterly wasteful. 

They were now passing from Rue des Gravilliers into Rue Pastorelle and the pedestrians suddenly thinned out.  This was part of the Jewish quarter.  Those few residents still living in these streets kept indoors, out of sight.  Lemele seemed to hesitate, perhaps having realised her error, but she was also clearly intent on not looking or turning back.  The problem was that they were close to the defined destination, with only limited options to get to République, all of them now on narrow cobbled and quiet streets like this one.  Marner hoped that she would keep straight ahead until they were back onto the busier avenues, even though it meant deviating away from the direction of République, but she was the making the decisions and all of them had to follow. 

Marner saw the man in the grey suit glance across at his partner and nod, the first sign that he had seen of any recognition or communication between the two.  Suddenly they both increased their pace, accelerating instantly from the slow plodding that Lemele had dictated, to a fast lope that was almost running.  Marner reacted immediately, but he was still only moving at the same pace that they were and therefore still a constant fifty metres behind them, whereas they were closing rapidly on the oblivious Lemele.  He sensed the danger and wanted to break into a full run, but that would certainly draw attention to him in this street with few people, crowded by solid buildings that would cause his boot steps to thump and resound. 

The men reached Lemele just as she was passing an archway opening into a yard on the right.  She became aware of their presence at that moment, whirling around to face them as they drew level with her.  They parted to pass, one on each side of her, scooped her up under her armpits and dragged her into the archway.  Marner’s last view of her was an ‘O’ of surprise on her mouth, and a gasp of shock that echoed down the street towards him.

Chapter Eleven

Now he broke into a run, struggling desperately to wrestle the pistol from the inside pocket of his sweaty, rumpled, unfamiliar jacket, cursing as the edges of it caught in the too-tight pocket lining. 

He arrived at the opening of the archway still moving at full speed, gasping and sucking for air.  Such was his speed that he swerved through the archway opening in a smooth parabolic arc that caused him to glance off the interior wall as he raced through, jarring his left shoulder but without slowing his velocity or destabilising him.  The darkened tunnel of the archway opened into a courtyard, barely wider than the arch but at least there was some daylight leaking into it from above.  He passed doors on either side, some of solid wood, others with glass panels that showed only dark behind and so he allowed his legs to continue pounding forward unabated, almost a detached observer riding along atop his sprinting body.  The courtyard was fifty metres long and he could see that it ended in large double gates that were closed.  There was no possibility that they could have reached that far with Lemele, so he continued scanning the doors on each side as he thundered on, his boots sending loud ‘thwaps’ echoing off the walls around him. 

Then he saw the door, fifteen metres ahead on the left side, being pushed the last few centimetres shut.  Without breaking step he veered across to the wall on the right and then curved back towards the door.  This allowed him to negotiate an arc without slowing, one that delivered him up to the door not quite head-on, but sufficiently square to let him leap, hurl his body, full speed, full weight, turning his right shoulder into the impact, yelling out to fully release the aggression and adrenaline into the motion.