The Oslo Affair (Shadows of War, #2) by CW Browning (read after .txt) 📗

she stammered, glancing at Bill in confusion. “My father worked for MI6? But...that’s impossible!”

“Why do you think it’s impossible?” Jasper asked.  “Haven’t you been in a training course with us for the past six months? Why would you think it was impossible for your father to do the same?”

“Well, to begin with, because he was my father!” Evelyn exclaimed. “I mean, that’s not something one thinks of when one thinks of their father. He was a family man, and one of the most forthcoming and honest men I’ve ever known. Why, we would have known!”

“Would you?” Bill asked softly. “He didn’t have any idea that you were working for me. Does your brother know? Your mother? You’ve managed to hide your association with me and with MI6 from your family for over a year now. What makes you think your father wouldn’t do the same?”

Evelyn stared at him, her mind spinning. He was right of course. For her to think that they would have known anything about their father if he didn’t want them to was absurd. But a spy? Her father?

Suddenly, a whole new rash of questions began to fill her mind. If he had been gathering intelligence for MI6, who were his contacts? How many of them could be trusted? He was in Poland when the German army invaded. Was that intentional? Had one of his contacts cleverly planned that?

“I can see you’re starting to realize the complexity of Robert’s death,” Jasper said, watching her face. “Before you get too carried away, let me make one thing very clear. Robert’s trip to Warsaw was arranged by the foreign office, no one else. It’s just bad luck that that’s when Hitler decided to invade.”

Evelyn looked at him, her cheeks flushing. “How did you know —”

“My dear, it was written all over your face,” he replied. “You’ll have to learn to guard your expressions much more carefully.”

She swallowed and rubbed a hand across her forehead.

“I’m sorry. It’s just such a shock.”

“Believe it or not, I do understand.” Jasper’s voice softened and he stood up, moving to a tall wooden cabinet on the side wall. “To learn that someone you’ve known all your life wasn’t exactly what you thought they were is never an easy thing.”

He opened the cabinet to reveal a shelf with a variety of bottles and glasses. Lifting a decanter with a light amber liquid inside, he poured two fingers into a glass and turned to carry it over to her.

“Here. Have some brandy. It’ll help.”

Evelyn took the glass thankfully. It was a superior brandy indeed, and as it burned a path down her throat, she felt herself begin to relax.

“Evie, you mustn’t think that Robert didn’t want to tell you,” Bill said slowly. “While he didn’t know that you were working for me, I think he began to suspect in the spring that you were involved with something. He remarked to me once that he wouldn’t be at all surprised if you were recruited because of your linguistic skills, and he wished he could advise you and tell you what he’d been doing for the past few years. I think it troubled him greatly that he couldn’t tell anyone.”

“You don’t have to explain. I understand,” Evelyn said. “For the same reason my brother has no idea that I’m not really a bona fide WAAF, Dad had to keep this from me. From us all.”

“Precisely.” Jasper went back to his seat behind the desk. “No one must ever know, not about your father and most definitely not about you. Especially now, it’s far too dangerous.”

“Why have you told me?” Evelyn asked, looking up from her glass of brandy. “Why tell me this now?”

Jasper and Bill shared a look and the silence was almost deafening. Evelyn looked from one to the other with a growing sense of apprehension.

“While your father was in Poland, he met with one of his regular contacts. It’s a man who’s been feeding us a steady stream of reliable intelligence over the course of the past three years,” Jasper began. “For the first two years, he was known as Shustov.”

“A Russian?” Evelyn asked, startled.

“Yes. Last year, he finally agreed to allow your father to share his true identity with us, on condition that it not be revealed in any official documents. His name is Vladimir Lyakhov, and he’s an NVKD agent. The information he’s been able to pass us about Moscow has been invaluable. Vladimir made contact shortly before Robert went to Poland, saying that he had urgent intelligence that he had to get out of Russia as soon as possible. Robert arranged to meet him in Warsaw while he was there. As far as we know, Vladimir gave him the information before your father fled the German invasion.”

Evelyn raised her eyebrow. “And?”

“We had one of our men go through Robert’s hotel room after his death. We found no trace of anything from Vladimir, nor was any of the information he had collected in Warsaw in his rooms. All of his diplomatic papers were intact, as were his personal effects. Only the intelligence he gathered from Russia and Poland was gone.”

Evelyn swallowed heavily and lifted her glass of brandy to her lips, taking a healthy swig.

“What was the information?” she whispered.

“We have no idea,” Bill said, pulling a cigarette case from his jacket. “We’ve managed to make contact with Vladimir since, but he refuses to meet with anyone but your father.”

“But that’s impossible,” she pointed out with a frown. “Didn’t you tell him he’s dead?”

Bill opened his cigarette case and got up, offering her one. She took it gratefully and waited while he fished for a lighter in his other pocket.

“Of course we did,” Jasper said, sitting back in his chair. “It makes no difference. He refuses to meet with any other contact.”

“Then it would appear that you’ve lost your source within the Kremlin,” Evelyn murmured, bending her head to light her cigarette with the offered lighter.

“Not quite,” Jasper said.

Evelyn looked up with raised eyebrows.