The Dardanelles Conspiracy by Alan Bardos (best ereader for pc TXT) 📗

it’s better than the trenches, but not by much.’

‘Why would he choose the most insubordinate man he possibly could to be his servant?’

‘Thinks he can knock some discipline into me – oh, the arrogance of it. He took my stripes an all for threatening to bayonet him!’ Williams grimaced. ‘I’m supposed to be following you, see what you get up to, but couldn’t let you drink alone now could I?’

‘He’s probably testing your loyalty.’

‘I don’t care. I’m not having it, not any more. You have to get me out.’

‘How do you expect me to do that? Look at me, I don’t even have a decent uniform.’

‘Don’t talk daft, man. You work in HQ.’

‘That doesn’t mean I have any pull. Do you think I want to be stuck here when I should be at the front?’

‘He misquotes Nietzsche and Darwin at me while I’m polishing his boots,’ Williams said, wringing every ounce of pathos from the words.

Johnny took a long pull on the pipe, watching the water bubble up in clouds of sweet aromatic smoke that sent the blood rushing through his head and soothed away the hubbub of the day.

‘Alright I’ll try, but I warn you it’s bloody boring.’

Johnny heard a gasp and for a moment he went numb. Gabrielle was glaring at him with her hands on her hips. It was the first time they’d seen each other since he’d been marched off to his court martial.

‘Hello there?’ was all Johnny could think to say as she came towards him. ‘You still look angelic in your uniform.’

‘Pfff.’ Gabrielle made a dismissive sound through rolled lips and clenched teeth.

Williams laughed, ‘I’d like to say he’s not normally this much of a bloody fool, but he’s had a bit to drink.’

Gabrielle smiled at Williams. ‘I know Lieutenant Swift.’

‘Oh, I see, Myfanwy those jet eyes, what clouds thy brow. I’ll leave you to it then sir, I need to report back to Dawkins,’ Williams left with a grin.

‘So this is where you ended up?’ Johnny asked, trying to make some semblance of conversation.

‘I’m being posted to the Sicilia.’ She said and sat down at the table, picking up William’s glass and sniffing it with disgust.

‘You’re going to a hospital ship?’ Johnny asked.

‘Obviously,’ Gabrielle said, raising a scornful eyebrow and called to the waiter. ‘Coffee.’

‘Did you get my letter?’ Johnny asked.

‘Yes, I got your letter.’ Gabrielle blushed slightly. ‘It caused quite a stir. It’s not every nurse who gets a letter from her sweetheart, with the Imperial German Eagle embossed on the envelope.’

‘So I’m your sweetheart?’

‘Pfff,’ Gabrielle made the dismissive sound again. ‘I couldn’t stay there. Everyone thought I was a spy and so Doctor Glencoe organised a new posting. As far away as he could send me.’

‘It’s nice that was here.’

‘Yes, very nice.’

The waiter brought the coffee and made a great show of pouring it out, for a beautiful woman. When he left, Gabrielle made the pfff noise again, making it sound like a growl of disgust. ‘You took your time writing to me.’

‘I was on secondment, performing special duties,’ Johnny said, hoping that might impress her.

‘Special duties, very convenient.’ Gabrielle looked decidedly annoyed.

‘Yes, it was quite dangerous in fact,’ Johnny said, slightly offended that she would doubt him.

‘So you escaped the firing squad, but let me think you were dead and when you did write, you did so on the back of a drinks bill.’

‘Restaurant bill.’

‘Thank you for clarifying that.’ She smirked, ‘I’m glad they didn’t shoot you, Johnny.’

Johnny wondered if her sardonic demeanour was in fact elaborate foreplay. ‘Yes, so am I. I’m sorry, it must have been rather rough for you, when I was taken away.’

‘Pfff. What is one more dead lover?’ Gabrielle said matter-of-factly.

‘Yes fair point. I might still be killed.’

‘You’ll be taking part in the invasion?’

‘Not exactly I’m currently working in logistics at HQ, for Sir George Smyth. The person who got me the reprieve from the firing squad. He won’t have much use for me when the invasion starts and I doubt he’s just going to let me walk off into the sunset.’

‘Why don’t you run away?’

‘I suppose I’ll have to eventually. I have a plan to get some money out of Sir George, but I suppose the point is I’d like the charges against me dismissed and be returned to my unit.’

‘What is your plan?’ She seemed genuinely interested.

‘Trick him into signing a bankers draft then book a passage to Tunisia or somewhere and join the French Foreign Legion.’

Gabrielle snorted, ‘Very romantic. Why don’t you have him sign something incriminating and then persuade him to do as you want?’

‘What like a confession to being a pompous ass?’

‘You say you work in supply? I can’t walk down the street without being approached for morphine. There is clearly a black market in it. Perhaps you could prepare a document transferring morphine supplies to the wrong place.’

Johnny grinned, ‘Or someone who has no business having it.’

‘The important thing is to make your Sir George look like a black marketeer so he can be compromised.

‘It could work reputation is everything to him.’ Johnny’s mind was racing, anymore scandal would compound his current state of disgrace. ‘More to the point people would believe it, Sir George’s family used to trade in opium. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and all that.’

Johnny took out Crassus’s list and wondered if he could kill two birds with one stone. ‘Perhaps we could send the morphine to an infantry unit?’

‘But it’s already issued to the infantry.’

‘In tablets.’ Johnny had administered it many times at the front. ‘What if we sent it in powder form, a couple of pounds should do? It would certainly mean the officer who signs for it would