El6ne thought: I’ve done it, I’ve guessed the game, I’m in control. She saw Wolff look at his wristwatch. Suddenly she stood up. They both stared at her. She lifted her arms then, slowly, she pulled her dress up over her head, threw it to one side, and stood there in her black underwear and stockings. She touched herself, lightly, running her hands between her thighs and across her breasts. She saw Wolff’s face change: his look of composure vanished, and he gazed at her, wide-eyed with desire. He was tense, mesmerized. He licked his lips. Elene raised her left foot, planted a highheeled shoe between Sonja’s breasts and pushed Sonja backward. Then she grasped Wolff’s bead and drew it to her belly. Sonja started kissing Elene’s foot. Wolff made a sound between a groan and a sigh, and buried his face between Elene’s thighs. Elenc looked at her watch. It was midnight. 23
Elene lay on her back in the bed, naked. She was quite still, rigid, her muscles tense, staring straight up at the blank ceiling. On her right was Sonja, facedown, arms and legs spread all ways over the sheets, fast asleep, snoring. Sonja’s right hand rested limply on Elene’s hip. Wolff was on Elene’s left. He lay on his side, facing her, sleepily stroking her body. Elene was thinking: Well, it didn’t kill me. The game had been all about rejecting and accepting Sonja. The more Elene and Wolff rejected her and abused her, the more passionate she became, until in the d6nouement Wolff rejected Elene and made love to Sonja. It was a script that Wolff and Sonja obviously knew well: they had played it before. It had given Elene very little pleasure, but she was not sickened or humiliated or disgusted. What she felt was that she had been betrayed, and betrayed by herself. It was like pawning a jewel given by a lover, or having your long hair cut off to sell for money, or sending a small child to work in a mill. She had abused herself. Worst of all, what she had done was the logical culmination of the life she had been living: in the eight years since she had left home she had been on the slippery slope that ended in prostitution, and now she felt she had arrived there. The stroking stopped, and she glanced sideways at Wolff’s face. His eyes were closed. He was falling asleep. She wondered what had happened to Vandam. Something had gone wrong. Perhaps Vandarn had lost sight of Wolff’s car in Cairo. Maybe he had had an accident 268 TIM KEY TO REBECCA 269
in the traffic. Whatever the reason, Vandam was no longer watching over her. She was on her own. She had succeeded in making Wolff forget his midnight transmission to Rommel-but what now was to stop him sending the message another night? Elene would have to get to GHQ and tell Jakes where Wolff was to be found. She would have to slip away, right now, find Jakes, get him to pull his team out of bed . . . It would take too long. Wolff might wake, find she was gone, and vanish again. Was his radio here, on the houseboat, or somewhere else? ‘nat might make all the difference. She remembered something Vandam had said last evening-was it really only a few hours ago? “If I can get the key to the Rebecca code, I can impcrsonate him over the radio … it could turn the tables completely. . .” Elene thought: Perhaps I can find the key. He had said it was a sheet of paper explaining how to use the book to encode messages. Elene realized that she now had a chance to locate the radio and the key to the code. She had to search the houseboat. She did not move. She was frightened again. If Wolff should discover her searching . . . She remembered his theory of human nature: the world is divided into masters and slaves. A slave’s life was worth nothing. No, she thought; I’ll leave here in the morning, quite normally, and then I’ll tell the British where Wolff is to be found, and they’ll raid the houseboat, and- And what if Wolff had gone by then? What if the radio was not here? ‘nen it would all have been for nothing. Wolff’s breathing was now slow and even: he was fast asleep. Elene reached down, gently picked up Sonja’s limp hand, and moved it from her thigh on to the sheet. Sonja did not stir. Now neither of them was touching Elene. It was a great relief. Slowly, she sat upright. The shift of weight on the mattress disturbed both of the other two. Sonja grunted, lifted her head, turned it the other 270 Ken Follett