Harald wondered what to say. He could not think of a plausible lie, but he feared the truth would be more incredible than anything he might invent. In the end he simply took the little cylinder out of his pocket and gave it to Heis.
Heis took out the roll of film and held it up to the light. “This looks like some kind of newfangled radio installation,” he said. “Is it military?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you know what it does?”
“It tracks aircraft by radio beams, I think.”
“So that’s how they’re doing it. The Luftwaffe claim they’ve been shooting down RAF bombers like flies. This explains it.”
“I believe they track the bomber and the fighter that has been sent to intercept it, so that the controller can direct the fighter precisely.”
Heis looked over his glasses. “My God. Do you realize how important this is?”
“I think so.”
“There’s only one way the British can help the Russians, and that’s by forcing Hitler to bring aircraft back from the Russian front to defend Germany from air raids.”
Heis was ex-army, and military thinking came naturally to him. Harald said, “I’m not sure I see what you’re getting at.”
“Well, the strategy won’t work while the Germans can shoot bombers down easily. But if the British find out how it’s done, they can devise countermeasures.” Heis looked around. “There must be an almanac here somewhere.”
Harald did not see why he needed an almanac, but he knew where it was. “In the physics office.”
“Go and get it.” Heis put the film down on the laboratory bench and lit his pipe while Harald stepped into the next room, found the almanac on the bookshelf, and brought it back. Heis flipped through the pages. “The next full moon is on the eighth of July. I’d bet there will be a big bombing raid that night. It’s twelve days away. Can you get this film to England by then?”
“It’s someone else’s job.”
“Good luck to him. Olufsen, do you know how much danger you’re in?”
“Yes.”
“The penalty for spying is death.”
“I know.”
“You always had guts, I’ll give you that.” He handed back the film. “Is there anything you need? Food, money, petrol?”
“No, thanks.”
Heis stood up. “I’ll see you off the premises.”
They went out by the main door. The night air cooled the perspiration on Harald’s forehead. They walked side by side along the road to the gate. “I don’t know what I’m going to tell Moller,” said Heis.
“If I might make a suggestion?”
“By all means.”
“You could say we were developing dirty pictures.”
“Good idea. They’ll all believe that.”
They reached the gate, and Heis shook Harald’s hand. “For God’s sake, be careful, boy,” said the head.
“I will.”
“Good luck.”
“Goodbye.”
Harald walked away in the direction of the village.
When he reached the bend in the road, he looked back. Heis was still at the gate, watching him. Harald waved, and Heis waved back. Then Harald walked on.
He crawled under a bush and slept until sunrise, then retrieved his motorcycle and drove into Copenhagen.
He felt good as he steered through the outskirts of the city in the morning sunshine. He had suffered some close shaves, but in the end he had done what he promised. He was going to enjoy handing over the film. Arne would be impressed. Then Harald’s job would be done, and it would be up to Arne to get the pictures to Britain.
After seeing Arne, he would drive back to Kirstenslot. He would have to beg Farmer Nielsen for his job back. He had only worked one day before disappearing for the rest of the week. Nielsen would be annoyed-but he might need Harald’s services badly enough to hire him again.
Being at Kirstenslot would mean seeing Karen. He looked forward eagerly to that. She was not interested in him romantically, and she never would be, but she seemed to like him. For his part, he was content to talk to her. The idea of kissing her was too remote even to wish for.
He made his way to Nyboder. Arne had given Harald the address of Jens Toksvig. St. Paul’s Gade was a narrow street of small terraced houses. There were no front gardens: the doors opened directly onto the pavement. Harald parked the bike outside fifty-three and knocked.
It was answered by a uniformed policeman.
For a moment, Harald was struck dumb. Where was Arne? He must have been arrested-
“What is it, lad?” the policeman said impatiently. He was a middle-aged man with a gray moustache and sergeant’s stripes on his sleeve.
Harald was inspired. Displaying a panic that was all too real, he said, “Where’s the doctor, he must come right away, she’s having the baby now!”
The policeman smiled. The terrified father-to-be was a perennial figure of comedy. “There’s no doctor here, lad.”
“But there must be!”
“Calm down, son. There were babies before there were doctors. Now, what address have you got?”
“Dr. Thorsen, fifty-three Fischer’s Gade, he must be here!”
“Right number, wrong street. This is St. Paul’s Gade. Fischer’s Gade is one block south.”
“Oh, my God, the wrong street!” Harald turned away and jumped onto the bike. “Thank you!” he shouted. He opened the steam regulator and pulled away.
“All part of the job,” the policeman said.
Harald drove to the end of the street and turned the corner.
Very clever, he thought, but what the hell do I do now?
18
Hermia spent all Friday morning in the beautiful ruin of Hammershus castle, waiting for Arne to arrive with the vital film.
It was now even more important than it had been five days ago, when she had sent him on the mission. In the interim, the world had changed. The Nazis were set fair to conquer the Soviet Union. They had already taken the key fortress of Brest. Their total air superiority was devastating the Red Army.
Digby had told her, in a few grim sentences, of his conversation with Churchill. Bomber Command would commit every plane it could get off the ground to the biggest air raid of the war, in a desperate attempt to draw Luftwaffe strength away from the Russian front and give the Soviet soldiers a chance to fight back. That raid was now eleven days away.
Digby had also talked to his brother, Bartlett, who was fit again, back on active service, and certain to be piloting one of the bombers.
The raid would be a suicide mission, and Bomber Command would be fatally weakened, unless they could develop tactics for evading German radar in the next few days. And that depended on Arne.
Hermia had persuaded her Swedish fisherman to bring her across the water again-although he had warned her that this would be the last time, as he felt it dangerous to fall into a pattern. At dawn she had splashed through the shallows, carrying her bike, onto the beach below Hammershus. She had climbed the steep hill to the castle, where she stood on the ramparts, like a medieval queen, and watched the sun rise on a world that was increasingly ruled by the strutting, shouting, hate-filled Nazis she so loathed.
During the day she moved, every half hour or so, from one part of the ruins to another, or strolled through the woods, or descended to the beach, just so that it would not be obvious to tourists that she was waiting to meet someone. She suffered a combination of terrible tension and yawn-making boredom that she found strangely wearying.
She diverted herself by recalling their last meeting. The memory was sweet. She was shocked at herself for making love to Arne right there on the grass in broad daylight. But she did not regret it. She would remember that all her life.
She expected him on the overnight ferry. The distance from the harbor at Ronne to the castle of Hammershus was only about fifteen miles. Arne could bike it in an hour or walk it in three. However, he did not show up during the morning.
This made her anxious, but she told herself not to worry. The same thing had happened last time: he had missed the overnight boat and taken the morning sailing. She assumed he would arrive this evening.