As soon as he got back to Cairo he would send a message to the Secret Intelligence Service station in Lisbon. They could check the English-language bookshops in Portugalthere could not be very many-and try to find out where the book had been bought, and if possible by whom. At least two copies would have been bought, and a bookseller might remember such a sale. The interesting question was, where was the other copy? Vandam was pretty sure it was in Cairo, and he thought he knew who was using it. He decided he had better show his find to Lieutenant Colonel Bogge. He picked up the book and stepped out of the truclL Bogge was coming to find him. Vandam stared at him. He was white-faced, and angry to the point of hysteria. He came stomping across the dusty sand, a sheet of paper in his hand. Vandam. thought: What the devil has got into him? Bogge shouted: “What do you do all day, anyway?” Vandam said nothing. Bogge handed him the sheet of paper. Vandam. looked at it. It was a coded radio signal, with the decrypt written between the lines of code. It was timed at midnight on June 3. The sender used the call sign Sphinx. The message, after the usual preliminaries about signal strength, bore the heading OPERATION ABERDEEN. Vandam was thunderstruck. Operation Aberdeen had taken place on June 5, and the Germans had received a signal about it on June 3. Vandam said: “Jesus Christ Almighty, this is a disaster.” “Of course it’s a bloody disaster!” Bogge yelled. “It means Rommel is getting full details of our attacks before they bloody beginl” Vandam read the rest of the signal. “Full details” was right. The message named the brigades involved, the timing Of various stages of the attack, and the overall strategy. “No wonder Rommel’s winning,” Vandam. muttered. “Don’t make bloody jokes I” Bogge screamed. Jakes appeared at Vandam’s side, accompanied by a full colonel from the Australian brigade that had taken the hill, and said to Vandam: “Excuse me, sir–2′ Vandam said abruptly: “Not now, Jakes.” ThE KEY TO REBECCA 145
“Stay here, Jakes,” Bogge countermanded. “nis concerns you, too.” Vandam handed the sheet of paper to Jakes. Vandam felt as if someone had struck him a physical blow. The information was so good that it bad to have originated in GHQ. Jakes said softly: “Bloody hell.” Bogge said: “They must be getting this stuff from an English officer, you realize that, do you?” “Yes,” Vandam said. “What do you mean, yes? Your job is personnel securitythis is your bloody responsibilityl” “I realize that, sir.” “Do you also realize that a leak of this magnitude will have to be reported to the commander in chief?” The Australian colonel, who did not appreciate the scale of the catastrophe, was embarrassed to see an officer getting a public dressing down. He said: “Let’s save the recriminations for later, Bogge. I doubt the thing is the fault of any one individual. Your first job is to discover the extent of the damage and make a preliminary report to your superiors.” It was clear that Bogge was not through ranting yet; but he was outranked. He suppressed his wratb with a visible effort, and said: “Right, get on with it, Vandam.” He stumped off, and the colonel went away in the other direction. Vandam sat -down on the step of the truck. He lit a cigarette with a shaking hand. The news seemed worse as it sunk in. Not only had Alex Wolff penetrated Cairo and evaded Vandam’s net, he had gained access to high-level secrets. Vandam thought: Who is this man? In just a few days he had selected his target, laid his groundwork, and then bribed, blackmailed or corrupted the target into treachery. Who was the target; who was giving Wolff the information? literally hundreds of people had the information: the generals, their aides, the secretaries who typed written messages, the men who encoded radio messages, the officers who carried verbal messages, all Intelligence staff, all interservice liaison people … Somehow, Vandam assumed, Wolff had found one among those hundreds of people who was prepared to betray his country for money, or out of political conviction, or under 146 Ken FoHett