Wolff took another look at the girl. She seemed about fourteen years old. He turned his attention back to the papers. He read the first, then with growing incredulity leafed through the rest. He put thein, down. “Dear God,” he said softly. He started to laugh. He had stolen a complete set of barracks canteen menus for the month of June.
Vandam said to Colonel Bogge: “I’ve issued a notice reminding officers that General Staff papers are not to be carried about the town other than in exceptional circumstances.” Bogge was sitting behind his big curved desk, polishing the red cricket ball with his handkerchief. “Good idea,” he said. “Keep chaps on their toes.” Vandam went on. “One of my informants, the new girl I told you about–” 4″ne tart.” “Yes.”. Vandam resisted the impulse to tell Bogge that “tart” was not the right word for Elene. “She heard a rumor that the riot had been organized by Abduflah-” “Who’s he?” “He’s a kind of Egyptian Fagin, and he also happens to be an informant, although selling me information is the least of his many enterprises.” “For what purpose was the riot organized, according to this rumor?” “Theft.,’ “I see.” Bogge looked dubious. “A lot of stuff was stolen, but we have to consider the possibility that the main object of the exercise was the briefcase.” “A conspiracyl” Bogge said with a look of amused skepticism. “But what would this Abdullah want with our canteen menus, eh?” He laughed. “He wasn’t to know what the briefcase contained. He may simply have assumed that they were secret papers.” “I repeat the question,” Bogge said with the air of a father patiently coaching a child. “What would he want with secret papers?” “He may have been put up to it.” 68 Ken Follett
“By whom?” “Alex Wolff.” 1.11′”o?”
“The Assyut knife man.” “Oh, now really, Major, I thought we had finished with all that.” Bogge’s phone rang, and he picked it up. Vandam took the opportunity to cool off a little. The truth about Bogge. Vandam reflected, was probably that he had no faith in himself, no trust in his own judgment; and, lacking the confidence to make re;il decisions, he plaved one-upmanship, icoring points off people in a smart-alee fashion to give himself the illusion that he was clever after all. Of course Rogge had no idea whether the briefcase theft was significant or not. He might have listened to what Van&m had to say and then made up his own mind: but he was frightened of that. He could not engage in a fruitful discussion with a subordinate, because he spent all his intellectual energy looking for ways to trap you in a contradiction or catch you in an error or pour ~:corn on your ideas: and hv the time he had finished making himself feel iuperior that way the decision had been laken, for better or worse and more or less by accident, in the beat of the exchange. Rogge was saying: “Of course, sir, I’ll get on it right away.” Vandam wondered how he coped with superiors. The colonel hung up. Ue said: “Now. then, where were we?” “The Assyut murderer is still at large,” Vandam said. “It may he ignificant that soon after his arrival in Cairo a General Staff officer is robbed of his briefcase.” “Containing canteen menus.” Here we go again, Vandam thought. With as much grace as he could muster he said: “In Intelligence, we don’t believe in coincidence, do we?” “Don’t lecture me, laddie. Even if you were right-and rm sure you’re not-what could we do about it, other than issue the notice you’ve sent out?” “Well. I’ve talked to Abdullah. He denies all knowledge of Alex Wolff . and I think he’s lying.” “If he’s a thief, why don’t you tip off the Egyptian police about him?” And what would be the point of that? thought Vandam. THE KEY TO REBECCA 69
He said: “They know all about him. They can’t arrest him because too many senior officers are making too much money from his bribes. But we could pull him in and interrogate him, sweat him a little. He’s a man without loyalty, he’ll change sides at the drop of a hat-” “General Staff Intelligence does not pull people in and sweat them, Major—-” “Field Security can, or even the military police.” Bogge smiled. “If I went to Field Security with this story of an Arab Fagin stealing canteen menus I’d be laughed out of the office.” “But–21 “We’ve discussed this long enough, Major-too long, in fact.” “For Christ’s sake–2′ Dogge raised his voice. “I don’t believe the riot was organized, I don’t believe Abdullah intended to steal the briefcase, and I don’t believe Wolff is a Nazi spy. Is that clear?” “Look, all I want–2′ “Is that clear?” “Yes, sir.” “Good. Dismissed.” Vandarn went out. 6