A Bitter Field

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The initial contact when buying those light machine guns, given to him by a Spanish republican envoy, had been a ministerial aide called Janek. He had a Catalan wife and worked at the offices of the Czech Finance Ministry as an aide to the minister.

To carry out the trade had involved Cal in several secret meetings with him, before he was passed on to others, but the notion of just calling at his home and saying hello was not one to contemplate. This was an operation in which there was no way of knowing where it would lead; he could not involve the man’s family or jeopardise his livelihood.

Nor could he visit him at the ministry without raising questions about an association that was supposed to be for that one transaction only and had been kept within a strict circle of those who needed to be consulted and squared politically, both to process the payments and call in the necessary documentation to transport the guns out of the country. What had been done might have had the nod from above, but it was illegal and thus stood as a career risk to those who had participated.

Cal did, however, know the cafe at which the man took a cup of morning coffee before going to work and he was there before him, keeping his face hidden until Janek walked in, a clutch of morning papers under his arm. For someone not versed in the craft of the intelligence game, Milas Janek was good; there was no startled reaction, indeed no apparent reaction at all.

He made his greetings to the habitual morning crowd and indulged in the usual banter of well-worn jokes, probably about weather and wives, though being in Czech they were a mystery to Cal. He exchanged normal pleasantries with the staff and in every respect acted as if a man who could threaten his continued employment was nowhere to be seen.

It was instructive, though, to see him light up a cigarette, to notice the ever so slight tremor in the hand that held the match as it went to the tip, as well as the deep concentration he gave to his newspapers as he flicked through the pages. Having seen him in this place before, at another time and on other prearranged business, Cal was aware Janek was nervous.

There was nothing he could do to make him immediately less so, as he had no intention of speaking to him in public. The wait for him to finish was longer than normal; Janek was taking his time, no doubt wondering if Cal would go away, but eventually he had to make moves to leave. He would be due at his desk, just outside the office of the finance minister.

Cal was on his heels as he exited the cafe, heading out onto a bustling street made noisy by the volume of traffic and the passing of screeching tram wheels, in which getting to Janek’s shoulder presented no problem other than the fact that he might be jostled by those hurrying in the opposite direction, and when he spoke, in German, his voice was low.

‘I need to be put in touch with Moravec.’

Janek did not turn his head, staring straight ahead as he replied. ‘Why?’

‘For the good of Czechoslovakia.’

‘Easy to say.’

‘I’m not here to buy weapons this time.’

‘Just as well, we need all the guns we have got for ourselves.’

‘Moravec can answer certain questions I want to pose.’

Janek actually sounded surprised. ‘You want to pose?’

‘To which I need answers,’ Cal hissed, deciding to take a flyer and make a claim that was way outside his brief. ‘And so does the British Government.’

That broke his stride a little, but they walked on in silence for some twenty paces before Janek spoke again. ‘That bench ahead, you see it?’

‘Yes,’ Cal replied, his eyes flicking to the named object some twenty yards along on the edge of the pavement, a double back-to-back seat shaded by a tree.

‘I am going to sit facing the street.’

Cal immediately killed his pace — Janek had been walking quite fast — to open a gap between them and watched as his man did as he had said, dusting the seat with a flapping hand then easing himself down and opening one of his newspapers to cover his face. Cal sat with his back to him facing the shopfronts, crossing his legs and adopting the air of a curious bystander.

‘Talk.’

There was no time for long explanations as Cal outlined what he was after and why. ‘The only person who has the information is Moravec, but I doubt it is safe to just turn up at the Interior Ministry desk and ask for him.’

‘You’re right, the place is crawling with German agents, not all of them from the border areas.’

‘The ministry, you mean?’

‘The whole city!’ Janek spat. ‘Even I might be being followed.’

Cal glanced back to where Vince was standing, idly looking at shoes in a shop window. He was without a lit cigarette, a sign that he had spotted no one taking an excessive interest in either Cal or Janek.

‘As far as I can tell you are not.’ Cal spun and used the back of the bench to lever himself up, surreptitiously dropping a card into Janek’s lap as he did so. ‘Get Moravec to call me at this number and ask to be put through to room number 47.’

‘What name?’

‘He doesn’t need that. Make it a personal visit and don’t you speak to him on the phone. After that you are out of it.’

‘A piece of advice.’

‘What?’ Cal replied, bending to retie his shoelace.

‘Speak English on the streets even if you are not understood, it will be better for you. Your German sounds too good, too natural and nothing like the accent of a Sudetenlander or a German resident of Prague. Even they know it’s considered unpatriotic to speak the language of our enemies right now and use Czech in public. My fellow countrymen are not too fond of real Germans at the moment.’

‘Just get Moravec to call.’

Cal walked back the way he had come, passing Vince without saying a word. His minder waited for ten seconds, then began to follow, his eyes ranging over those between them looking for things he had noticed before: an item of clothing, particularly distinctive shoes, they being the one thing, unlike a coat or a hat, which could not be quickly changed.

The voice sounded different on the phone, soft and near to a whisper. He did not know the man that well anyway, having met him only briefly, but Moravec spoke in heavily accented English and got his tenses all wrong. That nailed him.

‘St Vitus’s Cathedral at the rear of the high altar, three o’clock.’

Cal put the phone down without responding; there was no need to, though he did wonder at such an obscure location, as well as the need to meet in such secrecy in what was his contact’s own backyard. Still, Moravec was head of Czech counter-intelligence and perhaps being clandestine was a habit more than a necessity. Besides, he could do what he liked; it was Cal who needed him, not the other way round.

Gathering up Vince he took him to a restaurant in the old town, and when he ordered some food and a couple of beers, he took Janek’s advice and spoke loudly in English, like a tourist, though there were precious few of those around these days, which guaranteed them a great deal of attention.

As usual, there were locals who overheard him and were eager to talk, either to practise their own language skills or to find out what his country might do to assist their own, not a conversation in which he could give them much of a positive nature without telling outright lies.

As they left, a card was pressed into Cal’s hand with a guttural smiling invitation from the proprietor to return soon. Then it was a slow walk for Cal, Baedeker guide in hand, like a sightseer, through the old town and across the Charles Bridge, admiring the statues that lined it at intervals, flicking through the book to get the names of the various saints, with Vince his usual several dozen paces behind.

As Vince pointed out with a chuckle as they reunited in the cathedral entrance, if anyone was trying to tail Cal they must be going mad with the stopping and starting he had been doing. The upriver breeze had been welcome on what was a hot Central European day but the effect had faded by the time they had progressed uphill to Hradcany castle and the massive cathedral that lay within its walls.

Like all great churches St Vitus’s imposed a degree of silence on all those who entered; no one spoke above a whisper as they examined the plaques in the walls as well as the statuary, most of which were in the high arched nave.

As Cal made his way to the rear of the high altar Vince had already dropped back, seeking to look inconspicuous, but both suspected that Moravec, if he was going to all this trouble, would have some of his people watching and that in itself provided what security was required to cover the meeting. Cal stopped when the voice spoke from behind a stone pillar.

‘Mr Moncrief.’

Addressed by the name he had been using previously to buy those Spanish weapons, Cal responded in the affirmative.

‘Or should I say Mr Jardine?’

‘Either will do, General,’ Cal replied.

But he did not add the name he was using on the passport he had acquired from Snuffly Bower, just as he had not vouchsafed it to Janek, on the very good grounds that he had no idea what this meeting would produce.

He had taken to Moravec on that first meeting earlier in the year but the man was the head of Czech Foreign Intelligence and he had fish to fry that Cal knew nothing about. Just as Moravec would not vouchsafe to him things he did not need to know, neither would Cal be entirely open in return.

‘I never expect you to meet again.’

Moravec had chosen to speak in English, when they would have both been more comfortable in German; Cal felt he had no choice but to do likewise.

‘Nor I.’

‘Our contact me tells, you are this time not in Prague on behalf of Spanish Republicans.’

‘No.’

‘If as he me tells, you are British Government representing, why not through the embassy work?’

‘I only said that to get to you. I am not representing the British Government and have nothing to do with the embassy. I doubt the need to explain that to someone in your position, and besides, I am here for a quite different purpose to anything they might be acting on.’

‘Only thing they acting on is seeking number of Jews to process, many out of the country trying to get. You would think they would London advise best way to deal with exodus is to tell to keep within own borders the Germans.’

‘On pain of another war.’

‘Exact!’ Moravec responded, so loudly it produced a slight echo, showing a natural frustration at the lack of open support from the democracies. ‘Instead in the London newspapers we read is we who in not give Hitler what he wants are unreasonable being.’

Justified as it was, Cal did not want to listen to condemnation of his own government or the stories Downing Street was feeding to the press to soften up opinion. ‘The last time we spoke, you made mention of doubts in certain German minds regarding Hitler’s intentions.’

‘I did.’

‘I wondered if you had any more intelligence on that.’

‘Is that why you here?’

‘The only way certain parties can see to aid Czechoslovakia is to bring to the attention of the British Government just how strong that opposition is, perhaps with enough power to alter the course of German ambitions.’

‘Depose Hitler the only way that to do.’

‘If it could be established that by standing up to him such an outcome could be achieved it might alter the nature of those press reports you have just mentioned. It might stiffen the resolve of those in power to oppose him.’

‘Who you represent real, Mr Moncrief?’ Again Cal found the use of that name slightly jarring, but he was left with no time to consider it. ‘You have made plain it not truly the British Government by your own words.’

‘Are there people in Prague, General Moravec, who think it would be best to let Hitler have the Sudetenland for the sake of peace?’

‘Few only, but yes.’

‘Then accept there are those in London who disagree with the way things are being carried out by our government and want to do something to stop it.’

‘Names.’

‘Some you will know, General, for they have the capacity to be open, and those you don’t I will not divulge because they do not.’

Moravec did not reply and Cal supposed he needed time to think on what had just been said. He was leaning against one of the long stone pillars that supported the high arched roof, and even if he was not a churchgoer, he had often wondered at the effort and artistry that had gone into such constructions as these great cathedrals, many of which he had stood in with something approaching awe: Notre Dame, Canterbury, Chartres, Bourges.

Masons had chipped away at stone for decades to produce these smooth blocks that lay on each other and seemed to be bereft of mortar, had carved the gargoyles and decor, exactly reproducing the same design again and again, and then had come along men with lead, glass and vision to create the great stained glass window which now dimly lit the place where he stood.

It was not too fanciful to see that shattered, to see the great pillars break and tumble. In Spain, Cal had seen the effect of aerial bombardment. If the Luftwaffe was let loose over this jewel of a city then they would do to Prague what the Condor Legion had done to Guernica and tried to do to Madrid — destroy it — and that thought was in the mind of everyone who lived in the city.

‘You suggesting,’ Moravec said, eventually, ‘we can something get with my help?’

Amazing though this wonderful building was, Cal had to again ask himself: why here? Why all the subterfuge? And then he recalled what Janek had said that morning. ‘Why are we meeting in such secrecy, General?’

The sigh was audible and seemed to fit the surroundings in which they had met. ‘Even in my own city, safe from the eyes of my enemies I am not.’

‘German agents?’

‘Those, yes, and traitors, like those you ask about.’

That induced an unpleasant thought: if there were forty thousand Jews in Prague there had to be, in what until twenty years ago had been part of a German-speaking empire, at least that number of Germans who had made their homes here during the rule of Vienna.

There might well be Czech traitors, but it also meant that spies, particularly those of an Austrian background, bilingual in Czech from having lived in the city all their lives, and prepared to back the Nazis, could operate in the city almost with impunity.

‘Few, you said.’

‘Too many if who are they we not know. Most nationals German do not Hitler want, not even all in the borderlands. They from their contacts over border know what he brings, but some are seeing for themselves a good chance to rise.’

‘Do you have agents inside Germany?’ Moravec just laughed softly; the answer was too obvious to require a reply. ‘And perhaps contacts with those who oppose Hitler?’

‘You want I should you tell, I think.’

‘Yes.’

That brought a laugh that was loud enough to create another slight echo. ‘Not safe for them, not safe for me.’

There was a definite truth in that; if the head of counter-intelligence felt he had to be cautious in his own bailiwick, how much more must he show that quality in dealing with his contacts inside the Reich, where the slightest suspicion of disloyalty was paid out with a bullet to the skull — and that was if you were lucky. To this man he was an unknown quantity in what he was up to at present and hardly worth immediate trust.

The problem for Cal was, without the help of someone like Moravec he was pissing into the wind. The more he had thought about it, the more he had seen the answer lying outside Czechoslovakia but he could not just go stumbling about Germany looking for contacts. If he did it was he who would get the bullet, but to just allow himself to be fobbed off having gone to the trouble to get this far was not an option either.

‘Look, General, this is not about whether the people of whom we speak will act, it is about the notion that my government thinks they will do so if they are given encouragement. You are right that I do not represent either Downing Street or the Foreign Office but I do act on behalf of some very powerful people indeed.’

He paused to let that sink in, wondering what else he could offer.

‘I also have access to funds, if needed, to both help and encourage those who might rise up, and something tells me, with the beginning of the Nuremberg Rally and what might emerge from that, we do not have long to make a case for the democracies of the West to act.’

‘The first day of October, a month from now, Mr Moncrief, the day the Germans will invade.’

‘You know this?’

‘Told I have been, by those who have the orders read.’

Clever, Cal thought, though he was not surprised. He had rated, even on a very short meeting, that Moravec was as sharp as a tack and now he had just shown it. Without the use of a name or a title, he had just told him how high were his contacts in Germany. Orders like that had to be of the highest secrecy level, shown only to very few people, and they had to be trusted to keep their mouths shut. But someone had not.

‘Have you told your allies?’ He meant the French and the Soviets.

‘Of course, and we also Major Gibson told, your SIS man at British embassy.’

Who would have surely passed that back to London and it would have been given to those at the very top of the Government, which made Cal wonder why he was here. That did not last long; it was like those envoys Vansittart had talked of — it had either been discounted or not even rated as true.

‘Force levels?’

‘Foolish to attack without men enough.’

Was Moravec being cagey or did he have those facts too? Alone, that should have been enough to show the likes of Chamberlain that Hitler was talking rubbish when he claimed he wanted a peaceful solution. Yet Vansittart had described the PM as vain and convinced of his own political genius and leading a cabinet that would not challenge him. He needed more.

‘I have lived in Germany, General Moravec, and I know, as do you, that to overturn the Nazi state will not be easy — too many ruthless people have a stake in its continuance. Likewise, those who might act will not do so unless they know it will have an effect. The ordinary Germans do not want war any more than the ordinary Czech or Briton, they suffered too much in the last show.’

Cal waited for a response, but none came.

‘You do not have the ability to get them to act, otherwise you would be doing so. I mean no insult when I say that to those people your country is of no consequence. Only the threat of an attack in the West will give Hitler pause…’

Moravec finally responded with another laugh. ‘You understand not, Mr Moncrief. An attack in West Hitler expects.’

‘He doesn’t have the manpower.’

‘But,’ Moravec replied, finally changing to German. ‘Hitler is a madman. He believes all he needs is the will and success is guaranteed. Is that not how he rose to power in the first place? Go back to the hotel and wait. I need to think.’