Part 30 (2/2)
In furious frustration he slammed his fist down on the table.
The bottle fell.
Champagne soaked the lamp. The lights fizzed and the club plunged into chaotic darkness. It was, Jack often reflected later, a fitting end to his reunion with Darius.
A week later and Jack had the lead he'd been praying for. His unit had picked up an unidentified transmitter in the Gezira/ Zamalek area. ”We've picked it up a few times now,” his signals officer said. ”It's broadcasting in code. Must be our guy, don't you think?”
”It's some b.a.s.t.a.r.d up to no good. How long is he on-air?”
”Not long, sir. Too short a time for us to be able to pinpoint his exact position. We'll just have to hope he soon gets a bit chattier.”
Later that afternoon Jack drove out to Gezira Island deep in thought. Until now he had been working on the a.s.sumption that top secret information was being transmitted by a German. It had been the only scenario that had made sense, but Gezira Island was one of the most elegant and expensive areas of Cairo, making it the very last place for a n.a.z.i to hide.
Dominating the southern end of the island was the sporting club and it was inconceivable that anyone could be transmitting from there. Also on the southern end of the island were a hospital and a delightful area of tree-lined avenues boasting palatial houses, their residents mainly British officials connected with the emba.s.sy. It was where Petra and Sholto lived. It was where every British diplomat lived if they didn't have a residence in Garden City.
Jack took the road that rounded the island's southern tip. On his left-hand side was the Nile, glittering myriad shades of green under the hot rays of the afternoon sun. On his right were the little-visited Khedive Ismail gardens, where meandering gravel pathways were flanked by acacias and shaded by flowering jacarandas.
As he motored up the west side of the island he came to the bridge leading to Giza and the pyramids. Known as the English Bridge, it marked the beginning of a whole line of houseboats. He slowed to a standstill and lit a cigarette. A houseboat would make a good hideaway-but not for a German. In a place such as Gezira's houseboat community, everyone would know one another. A stranger would stand out, particularly a stranger with an accent.
Determining to have every houseboat searched Jack stubbed out his cigarette and put the jeep into gear again.
Within minutes he was driving along the western boundary of the sporting club. Beyond were the botanical gardens and with the botanical gardens behind him he was in the residential district of Zamalek. Here, several palatial houses faced the Nile, though this time, from the names on their high, carved gateways, it was clear that the owners were rich Egyptians and not British.
He stopped and smoked another cigarette. Had he been barking up the wrong tree? Was it a royal aide he should be seeking? But would a royal aide have access to British military plans?
Jack drove the quiet streets and then headed in the direction of the Bulaq Bridge. Here and there were a few more houseboats and the area they were in was far more deserted than the area of houseboat mooring adjacent to the English Bridge. Resolving that in the morning he would also have those searched and their owners questioned, he continued down the east side of the island until, once again, he was at the Kasr el-Nil Bridge.
Driving past the two bronze lions that guarded the entrance to the bridge he reflected that if his signals officer was correct, the German transmitter was in the area he had just circled. Though the homes of rich and influential Egyptians couldn't be checked without far more evidence than he presently had, the houseboats could be searched and his gut feeling was that such a search would be successful.
That evening he met with Brigadier Haigh and the commander of the Egyptian police force. Later he had dinner with Davina. It always amused him that she still looked like an English schoolgirl. Her pale blond hair was held away from her face by a dark-blue velvet headband and she was wearing a gray pleated skirt and pastel-blue twinset, her jewelry a single string of pearls.
”It's so absolutely wonderful to have you in Cairo, Jack,” she said when they had ordered from the kind of menu people in rationed Britain could only fantasize about. ”We've hoped you would be posted here. I haven't seen Fawzia since you arrived-Queen Farida monopolizes all her time-but she must be over the moon to see you.”
He'd ordered a bottle of Chablis Premier Cru and as the waiter filled their gla.s.ses he said, ”I thought your mother might have brought you up-to-date where Fawzia and I are concerned.”
She shook her head. ”Things are so manic at the hospital that apart from phone calls I haven't spoken to my mother for an age.”
Jack waited till the waiter had left and then said, ”Fawzia and I will be getting divorced, Davina. Our marriage never had very deep roots. We both had expectations of each other that neither of us could fulfill and she's now into a love affair that's far too important to her for her to consider ending it.”
”But she can't be!” Davina looked shocked. ”Fawzia loves parties of course-and there are lots of parties in Cairo. But if she had met anyone, word would have spread. Cairo thrives on gossip. Besides, I don't know when she would have found time for an affair. She's nearly always at the palace, visiting Queen Farida.”
He shot her a wry smile. ”You're right about her being always at the palace, but it's not the Queen she's with when she's there. It's the King.”
Davina gasped. ”You can't mean it! King Farouk's got an awful reputation-but King Farouk and Fawzia?”
”Why not?” he said reasonably. ”She's exceptionally beautiful. She's Egyptian and from a good family. Zubair Pasha is a member of the Senate and he's served as a minister in one cabinet or another for more than thirty years. Farouk will have seen Fawzia at the palace several times when she visited with her father. When she returned to Cairo from London she must have come to his attention almost immediately. And from Fawzia's point of view there's a lot at stake. Farouk is one of the richest men in the world, and, knowing Fawzia, I'm pretty sure she already has a fabulous collection of jewels safely squirreled away. If he's led her to believe he may divorce Farida and marry her, Fawzia might become Queen of Egypt.”
”But she'll be a divorced woman! And she is a Copt! The King will never marry her!”
”He isn't a British king, Davina. He can't be forced to abdicate like King Edward. I must admit he is unlikely to marry her, but Farouk's never given a d.a.m.n about convention.”
”And what if he doesn't marry her? What will happen to her then?”
”Then he'll provide for her.”
Despite the hard certainty in his voice she said, not understanding, ”But how can you be so sure? No one can make Farouk do what he doesn't want to. Not his prime minister. Not Sir Miles Lampson. No one.”
Suddenly his face hardened. It was the expression of a man who could be very tough. And who intended to be very tough indeed.
”Farouk will provide for her-and provide for her lavishly-because I'm going to make him,” he said grimly. ”Fawzia and I have too much shared history for me to see her being treated shabbily. I may not be able to cite the King in my divorce action, but I can still put the fear of G.o.d into him. And I'm going to, Davina. Trust me.”
She looked so unhappy that he abruptly changed the subject.
”Tell me about the little boy you are going to adopt. What is his name? Angus? Alfred?”
”Andrew,” she said, the sparkle back in her eyes. ”At the moment he's at s.h.i.+bden Hall and your father is checking on him. I think Andrew is going to love it in Cairo. I know when I was a child I would have adored spending time onboard the Egyptian Queen.”
”The Egyptian Queen?”
”Darius's houseboat at Zamalek.”
The trio had been playing slow waltzes in order that as many couples as possible could squeeze onto the dance floor. Now they began playing something more up-tempo.
Jack couldn't have cared less what they were playing. In his mind's eye he was seeing again the handful of houseboats moored in the quiet area north of the Bulaq Bridge. In a matter of hours members of the Egyptian police force would enter every one. If there was anything remotely suspicious on the Egyptian Queen it would be found.
And he pa.s.sionately hoped that the Egyptian Queen would be as clean as a whistle.
TWENTY-EIGHT.
Jack's tension the next morning, as he oversaw the large search operation he had put in place, was enormous. When many hours later it was concluded, crus.h.i.+ng disappointment and overwhelming relief swamped him in equal waves.
His disappointment was because despite every houseboat having been rigorously searched, no radio transmitter was found. His relief was that Darius was as in the clear as every other houseboat owner.
”How many bearings indicated the transmission you picked up was sourced on Gezira?” he demanded of his signals officer. ”Could your triangulation have been wrong?”
”No, sir. I've got three different bearings on it. It's so accurate that next time sonny boy starts transmitting our monitoring unit stands a chance of being able to jam his messages.”
Jack drummed his knuckles on his desk. Jamming the messages was all very well, but the German listening station would tell the radio operator transmitting that he was being jammed and then there would be no more transmissions-and no hope of catching the spy supplying the information. All that would happen was that when transmissions began again, they would do so from a different locale. Alexandria, possibly. Or the desert. Rommel would continue to get vital British military information and any chance of the tables being turned on him would be lost.
It was that chance of turning the tables that was so vitally important. If they could capture the radio operator in the act of transmitting-if they could get hold of his codebook-then they could broadcast false information to Rommel, which might mean the difference between winning or losing the war in the Western Desert.
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