London Match

by Len Deighton

  ‘I was young and very stupid. It wasn’t so much the little black-market deals. Everyone was frightened that I’d been forced to reveal military information too. I never thought of it like that at the time.’

  ‘Not Dad,’ I said. ‘Dad would have trusted you with his life.’

  Ted grunted to show how silly I was. ‘Your dad signed the note for the enquiry. I could have kept it covered up until your dad found out. Your dad packed me off to London to face the music.’

  For a moment I felt sick. Ted was not only a very close colleague of my father, but a friend of the family. He was always in and out when we were living at Lisl Hennig’s place. Ted was one of the family. Our German maidservant would keep a spare set of cutlery and a napkin handy just in case Ted arrived for dinner unannounced. ‘I’m sorry, Ted. I had no idea.’

  Ted gave another grunt. ‘I don’t blame your dad; I blame myself. Your dad made no secret of what he did to staff who broke the rules, and I was senior staff. Your dad did the only thing he could do. He made an example of me, I bear him no grudge, Bernard.’

  His voice was that of the slim young officer who’d so effortlessly hoisted me onto his shoulder and galloped down the corridor to put me into the bath. But in the gloom I could see that the voice was coming from a fat disappointed old man.

  ‘Dad was bloody inflexible,’ I said. I went and sat on the bed. The tired old springs groaned and the mattress sagged under my weight.

  ‘God rest him,’ said Ted. He stretched out and touched my arm. ‘You had the finest father anyone could wish for. He never asked us to do anything he wouldn’t do himself.’ Ted’s voice was strained. I’d forgotten that Ted was one of the sentimental breed of Irishmen.

  ‘Dad was something of a Prussian at times,’ I said to ease the tension. Ted was getting to the kind of maudlin mood in which he’d start singing ‘Come back to Erin, mavourneen, mavourneen…’ in the tear-jerking baritone that he always produced at the Christmas parties we used to have in the office in Berlin.

  ‘Many a true word is spoken in jest,’ said Ted hoarsely. ‘Yes, your father was like some of those Prussians…the ones I liked. When the enquiry was held, it was your father who came to London and gave evidence on my behalf. If it hadn’t been for what your dad said, I would have been kicked out of the service without a pension.’

  ‘Is that what happened to Lange?’

  ‘Something like that,’ said Ted, as if he didn’t want to talk about it.

  ‘Was Lange on the take?’

  Ted took his hat from his eyes in order to look at me and smiled. ‘Was Lange on the take? Lange was on the way to becoming the king of the Berlin black market by the time they booted him off to Hamburg.’

  ‘And my father didn’t know?’

  ‘Now you’re comparing me with Lange. That’s like comparing a first-time offender with Al Capone. I was just a kid; Lange was an old newspaperman who knew the ways of the world. Did you know that Lange was granted a personal interview with Hitler back in ‘thirty-three when the Nazis first came to power? Lange was a mature sophisticated man. He knew how to cover his tracks and he could sweet-talk anyone into anything. Even your father came under his spell. But Lange was frightened of your father. It was only when your dad left Berlin for London that Lange pulled out all the stops. Rumours say he put a million marks into the bank.’

  ‘So much for rumours,’ I said. ‘Go and visit him now and you won’t see much sign of it. He’s living in a dilapidated dump off Potsdamerstrasse and drinking homemade wine. I felt so bad about him that I fiddled a small departmental payment for the information he gave me. Rensselaer saw the docket and started quizzing me about what Lange had said.’

  ‘Save your tears, Bernie. Lange did some terrible things in the old days – things I wouldn’t like to have on my conscience.’

  ‘What things?’

  ‘Lange’s black-market friends were armed, and I don’t mean with can openers. People got hurt, some even got killed. Lange stayed clear, but he knew what was happening when those toughs raided warehouses and hijacked Army trucks. And the crime figures prove it. When Lange went to Hamburg, things suddenly improved in Berlin.’

  ‘Was that why Lange was sent to Hamburg?’

  ‘Sure. It was the only way they could prove his guilt. After that he never got a really good job again.’

  We sat there in silence, drinking. In an hour it would be finished and done with. I’d be in the car with Ted, roaring down the London road, and we’d be enjoying that slight hysteria that follows risky little games like this one.

  I changed the subject. ‘So how is Erich Stinnes and his radio?’

  ‘It all worked out just fine, Bernie. He listens to Radio Volga every morning.’

  ‘Radio Volga?’

  ‘For the Soviet Armed Forces in Germany. It broadcasts all day every day up to ten o’clock at night, at which time all good Russian soldiers switch off and go to bed, except Saturday when it goes on until ten-thirty.’

  ‘It doesn’t sound likely that the Army would be sending radio messages to a KGB officer.’

  ‘No, but until five o’clock every afternoon Radio Volga is relaying the Moscow Home Service Channel One. That could contain any messages the KGB ordered.’

  ‘What time?’

  ‘As I say, he tunes in each morning. Or perhaps I should say that the timer you put on the electric plug shows electricity being used each morning at eight-thirty. Then he does his exercises and has a couple of cups of coffee before the interrogator comes.’

  ‘Is that the only station he listens to?’

  ‘No, he plays with the buttons. It’s a lovely toy, that little shortwave receiver. He amuses himself with it. East and West, Russian language, German language, and all sorts of Spanish-speaking stations, including Cuba. Of course, the only evidence we’ve got is the way he leaves the radio’s tuning memory. Is he on the level, Bernie?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I’ve seen quite a few of them over the years that I’ve worked for the Debriefing Centre.’ He sat up, resting his elbow, and drank some of his whiskey. Ted was a serious drinker; he didn’t just sip it, he gulped it down. ‘They’re all a bit nervous. Some were terrified, some were just a little restless, but they were all nervous. But Stinnes is different. He’s a cool customer, as calm as anything. The other morning I tried to ruffle his feathers. I put a glass of water and a slice of dry bread in front of him and told him to pack his bag, he was going to the Tower of London. I said we’d tumbled him. He just smiled and said it was bound to happen eventually. He’s very cool.’

  ‘You think he is really still working for Moscow? Do you think it could all be an elaborate act to feed us misinformation? And we’re swallowing it just the way he wants?’

  Ted gave me a very slowly expanding smile, as if I was trying to put one over on him. ‘Now you’re asking me something. That’s what they call the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. You’re the brains now, young Bernard. You’re the one who’s supposed to be giving me the answers to questions like that one.’

  ‘He’s handed us some good stuff,’ I said.

  ‘Like the one tonight? Your man said we’ll be able to pick up a whole network with the stuff we’ll get out of that filing cabinet across the road.’

  ‘I don’t like it, Ted. It’s not our job, and Five know about it. If we get into hot water, there’ll be precious little help from those bastards at the Home Office.’

  ‘Breaking and entering and stealing a couple of files? We’ve both done it plenty of times over there, Bernie. The only difference is that now we’re doing it in England. It will be a piece of cake. I remember the time when you would have done a job like this in half an hour and come back looking for more work.’

  ‘Maybe,’ I said. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be reminded.

  ‘Remember when I was sent back to Berlin to break into that big house in Heinersdorf? When you got the maid to let you wait in the front room? A Russian colone
l’s place it was. The dog took the arse out of your trousers when you climbed down from the bathroom window holding that box of photographs. And you rode the bike all the way back so that no one would see the hole in your pants. Your dad gave me hell for letting you do that.’

  ‘I was the only one thin enough to get through the window.’

  ‘Your dad was right. You were only a child. If those bastards had caught you and found out who your dad was, God knows what might have happened to you.’

  ‘It would have been all right. In those days no one could have guessed I was anything but a German kid.’

  ‘The things we did before they built that Wall! Those were the days, Bernie. I often think what a crazy childhood you had.’

  ‘We should get going,’ I said, looking yet again at my watch. I went to the window and opened it. It let cold air into the room but I could see better and hear better that way. I didn’t want some squad of Special Branch detectives creeping up to grab Ted and show us what happened to people who poked their noses into Home Office territory.

  ‘We’ve plenty of time, Bernie. No sense me hanging about in the doorway before the locksmith has got the door open. That’s the way accidents happen.’

  ‘You shouldn’t be doing this sort of job any more,’ I said.

  ‘I can do with the extra money,’ said Ted.

  ‘Let me do it, Ted. You do backup!’

  He looked at me for a long time, trying to decide if I was serious. ‘You know I can’t let you do it, old son. Why do you think your boss selected me to do it? Because Ted Riley has no reputation to lose. If the law grabs me, I’ll do my act in court and the reporters won’t even bother to ask me how I spell my name. If you got caught over there with your hands in the files, it might end up with questions in the House for the Prime Minister. I’d sooner get nabbed for doing it than answer to Mr Rensselaer’s fury at letting you do it for me.’

  ‘Then let’s go,’ I said. I didn’t like what he was saying but he was entirely right. ‘The locksmith will be standing on the doorstep within three minutes.’

  Ted got to his feet and reached for his two way radio. I did the same thing. ‘Is that okay?’ I said into the microphone.

  Ted had put the earplug in one ear and covered the other ear with his flattened hand. It was too dangerous for the loudspeaker to be switched on while he was working.

  I repeated my test and he nodded to tell me he was hearing through the earpiece. Then he said, ‘Seems okay, old lad.’ His voice came through my handphone.

  Then I changed the wavelength and called the car that was to collect him. ‘Taxi for two passengers?’ I said.

  Although I had the volume turned right down, the more powerful transmitter in the car came through loudly. ‘Taxi ready and waiting.’

  ‘Have you got everything?’ I asked Ted. He was at the sink. The pipes made a loud chugging sound as the water flowed. Without removing his hat, he splashed his face and dried himself on the little towel hanging under the mirror.

  Wearily he said, ‘Holy Mother of God, we’ve been all through that at least five times, Bernard.’ There were voices in the corridor and then sounds of two people entering the room next door. There was a clatter of the wardrobe door and the harsh swishing sound of coat hangers being pushed along a rail. The wardrobe backing must have been very thin for the sounds were loud. ‘Relax, son,’ said Ted. ‘It’s a couple renting the room for an hour or two. It’s that sort of hotel.’

  Yes, I was even more nervous that he was. I’d seldom played the part of backup man and never before to someone I knew and liked. For the first time I realized that it was worse than actually doing the job. It was that parental agony you suffer every time your children want to bicycle in the traffic or go away to camp.

  Still in the dark, Ted buttoned up his coat and straightened his hat. I said, ‘If the lock proves difficult, I’ll send the big cutters over to you.’

  Ted Riley touched my arm as if quietening a frightened horse. ‘Don’t fuss, Bernard. Our man was in there only two days ago. He’s a damned good man, I’ve worked with him before. He identified the type of filing cabinet and he’s opened three of them since then. I watched him. I could almost do it alone.’

  ‘You’d better go now. You call me first, as soon as you’re ready for the check calls,’ I said. I didn’t watch him go, I went to the window to watch the street.

  The rendezvous went like a training-school exercise. Our tame locksmith arrived exactly on time and Ted Riley crossed the street and entered the door without a pause in his stride. The locksmith followed him inside, pulled the door closed, and fixed it so that it would remain firm against the test of any passing policeman.

  He wouldn’t be able to use the lift, so it was a long walk upstairs. But Ted was a pro: he’d make sure he didn’t arrive out of breath, just in case there was a reception committee. Even using my pocket binoculars I couldn’t see any sign of them entering the office. Ted would make sure they both kept away from the windows as much as possible. It was bad luck that the filing cabinets were on this outer wall.

  They’d been inside a couple of minutes when Ted called me up. ‘Come back with hair on…’ he sang softly.

  ‘…you bald-headed bastard,’ I replied.

  There had been no agreed identification, but more than once Ted had used his parody version of ‘Come Back to Erin’ as recognition.

  ‘It’s going to be a piece of cake,’ Ted whispered.

  ‘Street clear,’ I said.

  It was more than three minutes before Ted called again. I was watching the time, otherwise I might have thought it was an hour or more. ‘Slight snag…but all okay. Add three.’

  ‘Street clear. Departure time add three.’

  The car was parked very close by, a few minutes this way or that wouldn’t make much difference to them. I decided not to call the car crew until we were nearer to the rendezvous time.

  It was five minutes before Ted came on the air again. I wondered what the hell was happening over there, but I knew how annoying such calls could be so I kept silent.

  ‘It’s not the same lock,’ said Ted. ‘The inside has been changed. We’ll have to add ten.’ He sounded very calm and matter-of-fact, but I didn’t like the sound of it.

  ‘Cutters any good?’ I offered. They could try going in through the back of the cabinet if all else failed. We had cutters that could go through almost anything.

  ‘Not yet.’

  The rain continued. It was what Ted called ‘a soft day’: steady drizzle that went on without end. There were not many pedestrians on the street and even the cars were infrequent. This was a good night to stay in and watch TV. That bloody Cambridge Constabulary car passed down the street again. Was it the same car showing interest in our target or was I seeing a succession of different cars on their way to and from the police station? I should have noted the registration.

  ‘We’ve got suddenly lucky,’ said Ted’s voice. He didn’t enlarge on it. He kept the button pressed while he watched the locksmith working at the filing cabinet. I could hear the faint sounds of them working, sweating and straining to shift the cabinet: ‘We’ll just look at the back of it.’ And then Ted was speaking to the locksmith: ‘Watch the wiring…it’s wired! Holy mother of…’

  I was straining to see through the windows of the dark office. For a moment I thought they’d switched on the lights, for the two windows of the law offices lit up to become bright yellow rectangles. Then came the sound of the explosion. It was a deafening crash and the force of it clawed at me through the open window like a gale.

  The law office windows dissolved into a shower of debris that, together with pieces of the two men, was rained out into the street.

  ‘Taxi. Go. Go. Negative.’ It was the official way to say to scram to save yourself, and the car crew came back immediately with a reply.

  ‘Please confirm.’ The voice was calm but I heard the engine start.

  ‘Go. Go. Negative. Out.’

&nb
sp; I heard someone at the other end mutter ‘Good luck’ as I switched off my radio. It was bad procedure but not one that I’d feel inclined to report: I needed all the well-wishers I could find.

  From somewhere over the other side of town I heard a police siren start up. I leaned out of the window and then threw the radio as far as I could towards the office. The windows were now dark again, except for the faint flicker of fire.

  I buttoned my coat, put on my cap, and looked quickly around the room to make sure there was nothing there left to compromise us. Then I went downstairs to watch the police and fire service arrive.

  The firemen arrived immediately after the first police car. And then an ambulance. The noise of their heavy diesel engines throbbed loudly. Batteries of headlights burned through the continuing drizzle of rain and reflected upon tiny bits of broken glass that were strewn all over the roadway and sparkled like ice. There were black pieces of charred paper and broken bits of wood and things that I didn’t care to inspect too closely. The fire engine’s ladder moved slowly until it was positioned against the office windows, where a red glow was still to be seen. A fireman climbed it. There was a terrible smell of burning and enough smoke for the firemen to be using breathing gear.

  The whole street was brightened as everyone drew back their curtains to watch the activity. By now the front door of the offices had been opened. The ambulance men pushed through the little crowd that had formed and went inside to look around. They didn’t take a stretcher with them. They guessed they wouldn’t be needing one.

  It was three o’clock Sunday morning by the time I’d collected the car and driven back to Bret Rensselaer’s place in Berkshire. Bret was fully dressed when he came to answer the door to me – he was quick to tell me that he’d never gone to bed – but he’d changed his clothes; he was now in a roll-neck cashmere sweater and matching blue poplin pants. He’d been waiting for the phone call that would tell him everything had gone smoothly.

  But when the phone call came, it told him that an explosion had killed two men in an office in Cambridge. The story was on the wire services. It was too late for the Sunday papers, but the national dailies would probably carry it on Monday. If a TV crew had got pictures, it might be on the evening bulletin.