Josephine went out of the door, closing it softly behind her.
Toby moved a little further onto Stoney’s feet and settled himself.
“I think someone is using MI6 to collect money for Hitler. Specifically, the Nazi-led Fatherland Front. They’re the people who say we must never again fight a war, that we can’t do it again, and half of us agree with them.” He looked at Lucas. “But the other half don’t. Not at the price they’re prepared to pay. Not using MI6, without their knowledge, to finance it secretly, and—”
“Whose money is it?” Lucas interrupted.
“Donors,” Stoney replied. “From all over. Some of them even British. People who think Hitler is the answer. Good men—and bad—who think we can appease our way out of another war.” Stoney’s voice cracked for a moment, and his hand tightened in Toby’s thick fur. “But what I can’t bear is that they are using the men of MI6 without t
heir knowing it. At least, I think they are.” He was pleading with Lucas to contradict him, only he could not say the words.
Lucas’s mind raced. He did not have enough knowledge to confirm such a hideous thing, nor did he have sufficient cause to deny it.
“It’s MI6, Lucas,” Stoney said so quietly his voice was barely audible. “Our men.” He stopped. The rest did not need to be said. The shared memories were there: the all-night planning sessions, the waiting for word, any news at all, whether they had succeeded, who was lost. Occasionally, they had gone on operations themselves. Lucas could recall the cold, the danger, the casualties, the endless waiting, and the grief for those who had been killed. The job of having to tell their families, the half-truths, the courage, the cost, but not the reason, not the details.
Josephine came back into the room and found them silent. Toby, in his own way, was also communicating with Stoney, leaning heavily against him. She glanced at Stoney, then at Lucas.
“Why don’t you stay?” Lucas said to her. “You can use my cup. The cake’s very good.” It had nothing to do with tea or cake, and she understood that. Even Toby understood. He had heard the word “cake” but ignored it.
Josephine sat down without speaking.
“Then we must find out,” Lucas continued, as if there had been no interruption. “Is it all in the figures? Or do you have something else?”
“Someone broke into my home,” Stoney told him.
“What’s missing?”
“Nothing I didn’t have copies of,” Stoney said, as if realizing that fact only now. “But they were searching for something, turning out my desk drawers and other places I keep books and papers. Bookcases and so on.”
“But nothing is missing?” Lucas pressed.
“No, not that I’ve found…yet. They want to know what I have; they don’t need to copy it.”
Lucas wanted to be as gentle with him as possible, but so far there was nothing to grasp on to. “If nothing was missing, what makes you sure that it was searched? Couldn’t you have caused a mess in your own search for something?” He did not add that Stoney was extremely untidy. It seemed unkind and would serve no purpose. Stoney knew his own faults.
“I…it’s hard to explain.” Stoney shook his head, as if that might clear his thoughts. “It doesn’t look like it, but I do know what I’ve done with things. I can always find them. Except now I can’t.” He leaned forward, frowning. “Lucas, I know I forget things. I tell jokes I’ve forgotten that I’ve told before. I forget people’s birthdays, I even forget their addresses, but I know where the address book is. I pay my bills on time. I’m not…I’m not losing my grip. Somebody searched my things!”
Lucas felt a stab of pity, sudden and unexpectedly deep. Stoney was growing old, and he was painfully aware of it. Gradually, piece by piece, things were eluding his grasp. Would Lucas come to that himself soon? Had it already begun, and he had not noticed? Was Josephine protecting him from knowing it? There was no one to protect Stoney. “What would they be searching for?”
“Proof that I know about the money, who it came from, and where it is going to. Proof of the ways it is hidden, and who is doing it.” He bit his lip, and his face was white.
Josephine moved a fraction forward and then stopped, knowing she should not interfere.
Lucas said nothing.
“Knowing who was implicated, who would be ruined if it came to light,” Stoney finished. “I think the good and the bad are too hard to tell apart. If this matter is exposed, it’ll bring down the whole of MI6.”
“And if it isn’t?” Lucas asked.
“We’ll be riddled with corruption, so we can’t tell the good from the bad, and eventually we’ll help stoke another war…which we may not win.”
The enormity of it washed over Lucas like a wave with the weight of an endless ocean behind it.
Josephine spoke for the first time. “You came to Lucas because he would understand what it is you have seen?” she asked.
Stoney turned to look at her. “Yes. And because he might believe me…and…and I know he wouldn’t be involved.”
“Who else would understand it?” she went on.