that he treated like an old family retainer. I paid for them, and Ferdy laid into his brandy and soda as though he didn’t want to risk it being knocked over. ‘What’s the difference,’ he said, after draining it. ‘It’s obvious the bloody Yanks are going to close us.’
‘You’re wrong there,’ I told him.
‘Time will tell,’ he said portentously.
‘No need to wait. I can tell you that they are pumping a couple of million into the Studies Group over the next six months. We’re going to have five hours a day computer time, including Saturdays and Sundays.’
‘You can’t be serious.’
But Ferdy knew that I was in a position to tell him. ‘Scenarios,’ I said. Instead of the studies, we were going to do projections forward: strategic guesses on what might happen in the future.
Ferdy is only a few inches taller than me but he is able to make me feel like a dwarf when he leans forward to murmur in my earhole. ‘We’d need all the American data – the real hard stuff,’ he said.
‘I think we’re going to get it, Ferdy.’
‘That’s pretty high-powered. Scenarios would be top level security. Joint Chiefs level! I mean we’d be running alive with Gestapo! … plastic credit cards with our photos, and Schlegel looking at our bank balances.’
‘Don’t quote me, but …’ I shrugged.
Ferdy tucked into his brandy and soda. ‘OK,’ Ferdy muttered, ‘industrial action it is then.’
As if on cue Schlegel came into the saloon bar. I saw him look round for us. Systematically he checked everyone along the counter and then came through into the public bar. ‘I’m glad I found you,’ he said. He smiled to indicate that he’d overlook the fact that it was still office hours.
‘Brandy and soda for me,’ said Ferdy. ‘And this is a Barley Wine.’
‘OK,’ said Schlegel; he waved his hand to indicate that he’d understood. ‘Can you do the Red Admiral tomorrow for some visiting firemen from CINCLANT?’
‘Zap, pow, wallop,’ said Ferdy.
‘How’s that again?’ said Schlegel, cupping his ear.
‘Bit short notice,’ said Ferdy. He shuffled his feet and bit his lip as if trying to work out the difficulties involved, although we all knew that he’d have to do it if Schlegel asked.
‘So was Pearl Harbor,’ said Schlegel. ‘All I’m asking for is a simple ASW run-through, to show these idiots how we work.’
‘Anti-Submarine Warfare run-through,’ said Ferdy patiently, as though encountering the expression for the very first time. It was easy to understand why Schlegel got angry.
‘Anti-Submarine Warfare run-through,’ said Schlegel, without concealing the self-restraint. He spoke as if to a small child. ‘With you acting as the C-in-C of the Russian Northern Fleet and these NATO people running the Blue Suite to fight you.’
‘Which game?’
‘The North Cape Tactical Game, but if it escalates we’ll let it go.’
‘Very well,’ said Ferdy, after stretching his silence to breaking point.
‘Great!’ said Schlegel, with enough enthusiasm to make some of the Welsh Rugby club stop singing.
He looked at the two of us and gave a big smile. ‘There’ll be Admiral Cassidy and Admiral Findlater: top brass from CINCLANT. Well, I’ve got a lot to do before they arrive.’ He looked around the pub as if to check on our associates. ‘Don’t be late in the morning.’
Ferdy watched him all the way to the door. ‘Well at least we know how to get rid of the bastard,’ said Ferdy. ‘Ask him to buy a round of drinks.’
‘Give it a rest, Ferdy.’
‘Oh, don’t think I don’t see what’s going on. You come out and buy me a drink and soften me up for him.’
‘OK, Ferdy,’ I said. ‘You have it your way.’ Just for a minute I was about to blow my top, the way I would have done in the old days. But I had to admit, I was Schlegel’s assistant, and it could have looked like that. I said, ‘Just four beats to the bar, Ferdy. Remember?’
‘Sorry,’ said Ferdy, ‘but it’s been a bloody awful week.’
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘I’m sure they are watching the house again.’
‘Who?’
‘Our burglary last May; could be the same people.’
‘Oh, burglars.’
‘Oh yes, I know you all think I go on about it.’
‘No, Ferdy.’
‘You wait until you’ve been burgled. It’s not so damned funny.’
‘I never said it was.’
‘Last night there was a taxi outside the house. Driver just sat there – nearly three hours.’
‘A taxi?’
‘Say it was waiting for a fare. Ask me if the meter was on – it was on. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a burglar. What’s a cab doing out there in the mews at three o’clock in the morning?’
It was a good moment to tell Ferdy about my visit to number eighteen. I’d have to tell someone sooner or later and so far I’d not even told Marjorie. It was then that I remembered that I’d not seen Mason – the one who’d identified me – in the office lately. ‘Do you remember that little creep named Mason? Did the weather printouts. Had that tiny dog in his office some days, the one that crapped in the hall and that Italian admiral trod in it.’
‘Mason, his name was.’
‘That’s what I said: Mason.’
‘He’s gone,’ said Ferdy. ‘Doubled his salary, they say. Got a job with some German computer company … Hamburg or somewhere … good riddance if you ask me.’
‘How long ago?’
‘While we were on the trip. A month or so. You didn’t lend him any money did you?’
‘No.’
‘That’s good, because I know he went off only giving personnel twenty-four hours’ notice. Personnel were furious about it.’
‘They would be,’ I said.
‘He came to us from Customs and Excise,’ said Ferdy, as if that explained everything.
The best way was probably to mention the number eighteen business to Ferdy like this, over a drink. What was the alternative: suspect everyone – paranoia, madness, sudden death, and into the big King Lear scene.
‘Ferdy,’ I said.
‘Yes.’
I looked at him for a full minute but didn’t speak. Confiding is not one of my personality traits: it’s being an only child, perhaps. That’s Marjorie’s theory, anyway. ‘Brandy and soda, wasn’t it, Ferdy?’
‘That’s it, brandy and soda.’ He sighed. ‘You wouldn’t want to come back while I look at that programme again?’
I nodded. I’d already told Marjorie that I’d have to stay. ‘It will be quicker if both of us do it.’
When I finally left the Centre I didn’t drive directly home. I went over to Earl’s Court and cruised past my old flat. At the end of the road I parked and thought about it for a minute or two. For a moment I wished I had confided in Ferdy and perhaps brought him here with me, but it was too late now.
I walked back on the other side of the street. It was a fine night. Above the