“Give him time.”
“I’m not sure we’ve got any time.” Peter still faced forward, as if seeing something ahead in the bright distance. “I’m waiting for word from someone I have embedded. The Fatherland Front is getting stronger. I’ve lost my best news from there, at least most of it.”
Lucas stopped. “What’s happened?” He did not guess; it was too serious a matter to stab at in the dark.
“His handler has disappeared, so I can’t reach my man.”
“Do you know anything?” Lucas asked. It was a situation they had faced many times before. Too often, the answer was tragic.
“Very little,” Peter answered. “I think he’s still alive, but I have to assume his cover is blown, and I’ve got to get him out.”
“Send someone…”
Peter stared across the shaven fields. There was a small place where the harvesters had missed the poppies, scarlet as a splash of blood. Perhaps they had fought in the trenches, and the poppies were left on purpose.
Lucas waited.
“If I send someone…” Peter began, watching where he was putting his feet, rather than facing Lucas.
“You’ll have to be very discreet,” Lucas thought aloud. “If your man’s cover really is blown, it will be dangerous to contact him. Don’t send anyone…” He was giving a warning he realized was too late. “I hope it isn’t anyone who will draw even more attention to your man.”
Peter walked in silence for a while.
Lucas kept pace with him, waiting for him to continue. “Why did you want to tell me?” he asked finally. “I don’t know that area very well. I don’t think I’ve got anything useful to add. Are you expecting something bad to happen?”
Peter looked up at him quickly, surprise in his face.
Lucas shrugged. “I listen to the news. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Hitler has his eyes on Austria. It would be natural. He is Austrian, isn’t he? From Linz, or somewhere?”
“Yes, near Linz, but like anyone who doesn’t really belong, he’s more German than the Germans, God help us.”
“You’re evading the question, Peter.”
“I sent Elena.”
Lucas stopped walking, his body tense. “And how is she going to know this agent of yours, in deep cover?” He was puzzled. “Photographs are hardly enough. He should have altered his appearance to some degree. How long has he been there?” He resumed walking.
“About six years. Just after you left. He’s good…”
Lucas frowned. “You’re saying he wasn’t clumsy? That he was betrayed somehow?”
“I don’t know.”
Lucas was concerned now. “Elena’s bright, but she’s had very little training. Aren’t you expecting too much of her?”
“She’ll know him,” Peter said with certainty. “And he’ll know her, and trust her.”
Lucas caught Peter’s arm and forced him to a stop, causing him to turn round. “What are you not telling me, Peter?”
Peter met his eyes, unflinchingly now. “It’s Aiden Strother. He was never a traitor to England. He was a deep plant when he left. We branded him a traitor and gave him steady information to leak to the Germans. Harmless, or false, but we got good material back, a little at a time. That’s how we know how bad the situation is. There’s a strong pro-German tide in Vienna that is rapidly getting stronger.”
Lucas froze inside. “You…sent Elena to find and rescue Strother?” He could hardly believe what Peter was telling him. It was as if he had suddenly ripped off a mask and found somebody totally different underneath.
“She’s the best person to do it,” Peter said. He did not flinch; he looked straight at Lucas, but there was pain in his eyes. “It’s very important that we get this information, even vital. It could have to do with the rise or fall of Dollfuss, and the fate of Austria. Not to mention getting him out safely. She’s the only person we’ve got who knows him by sight.”
“She knows him as a traitor!” Lucas said hotly, his memory going back to that awful episode and Elena’s grief that he could do nothing to ease. He would have taken on her suffering himself if he could, but that was never possible.
“She knows now that he is not,” Peter interrupted his thoughts.