Deaken’s War

Prologue

Home leave had been the reward for the original concept and then for all the training and preparation, but he had been away so long that they were practically strangers and it had not been the success they hoped. She had wondered if he would mention it, to bring it out into the open, but he had not. She stood just inside the bedroom door, watching him pack, and wished she could feel greater regret at their parting. He was a good man and she wanted to love him. But his ambition frightened her: it seemed to consume him.

“How long will it take?” she asked-a recurring question.

“I’ve allowed for two months,” he said. “But it could be much shorter: maybe just weeks. It depends on their reaction being what I predict.”

“I hope it’s short,” she said.

“Frightened?”

“Of course,” she said. “Shouldn’t I be?”

“This could establish me completely… mean a lot to us.”

“It is going to mean a lot to us,” she said heavily. He hadn’t always been a callous man.

“Sergei’s place at the academy will be automatic,” he said, anxious to stress the advantages.

“He is clever enough to have got in anyway,” she said.

He looked around the small apartment. “And it’ll be nice to get somewhere bigger.”

She came farther into the room, wondering how long it would take her to get to know him again, when he was back permanently. All his documentation was on the bed beside his suitcase. She picked up the South African passport, smiling at the stiff official picture. “Rupert Underberg,” she said. “That’s a good name.”

“He’s got a boy, just like us,” he said. “Two years younger.”

She frowned, imagining something she didn’t know. “You’ve met him?”

He shook his head. “Just borrowed his identity for the last year.”

They walked to the door together.