Echobeat by Joe Joyce Read Free Book Online Page A

Germans?’
    McClure shook his head. ‘Not that they’re sharing with us. Their priorities are different anyway.’
    ‘Can we pick up Goertz?’ Duggan asked.
    McClure leaned back in his chair and fixed him with an inquisitive look.
    ‘I mean,’ Duggan continued, fearing that he was going out on a limb. While McClure never treated him as an underling and encouraged him to speak his mind, he was moving into unexplored waters here. ‘There are rumours. That Goertz is being allowed to remain free. That it’s no accident that he’s always one step ahead of us.’
    ‘Tell me more,’ McClure ordered.
    ‘Just that,’ Duggan said. ‘That that’s why he keeps giving us the slip. Why he’s never in the place that’s raided. Has always just left.’
    ‘Someone’s tipping him off.’
    Duggan nodded, relaxing a little. ‘More than that. That the powers that be want him on the loose. As an unofficial channel to the Abwehr, the Wehrmacht. In case we need it.’
    ‘If the British invade?’
    ‘Yes.’
    McClure put his hands behind his head and stayed silent for a few moments. ‘How widespread are these rumours?’
    Duggan shrugged. ‘I’ve heard it hinted at a few times. Nobody saying it directly.’
    ‘Around here?’
    Duggan nodded.
    ‘And outside?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Duggan said, restraining himself from pointing out that he spent little time outside the army or even G2.
    ‘Your uncle?’
    ‘I think so.’
    ‘Meaning? What did he say?’
    Duggan searched his memory for what Timmy had said. ‘Nothing directly,’ he said. Typical Timmy. As slippery as an eel. Everything was nods and winks. ‘But the idea didn’t seem to be a surprise to him.’
    ‘So, it’s in the political system too.’ McClure straightened up behind the desk and lit himself another cigarette. ‘It could work,’ he said after a moment.
    Duggan waited for him to elaborate but he didn’t. Instead he picked up the phone and asked for the Department of External Affairs. McClure nodded to dismiss him while he waited to be put through.
    Duggan was almost at the door when McClure said, ‘By the way, the colonel says it’s not true. We’re not just going through the motions looking for Goertz.’
     
    Duggan was hardly back in his office when McClure called and told him they were going to External Affairs. A gentle flurry of small snowflakes settled on the windscreen as he drove, turning into drops of water so quickly that they seemed like an illusion. Government Buildings was more alive this time, lights everywhere, sounds of typing behind closed doors, the corridors feeling used. Ó Murchú, however, looked like he hadn’t moved since they had seen him last, still at the edge of his pool of light. He didn’t bother with the perfunctory handshake this time.
    ‘The Secretary is meeting the Germans in a couple of hours,’ he said as they sat down. ‘Fortunately, it’s the German Minister himself, Herr Hempel. A much more civilised man to deal with. However, he’s going to be looking for the details they requested. When they can fly their men into Foynes. So …’ He held out a hand, palm up, passing an imaginary baton to McClure.
    ‘As I said on the phone,’ McClure accepted the baton, ‘I believe that Hermann Goertz could be used as a counterweight to their demands.’
    Ó Murchú nodded. ‘Let’s go through it. See where it takes us. You are sure, for a start, that this man Goertz is a spy?’
    ‘Without doubt. He served a sentence for spying in England during the 1930s. We’ve found irrefutable evidence here of his activities.’
    ‘And that he has been in contact with the German legation?’
    ‘Yes,’ Duggan said. ‘We know he attended their victory celebrations last June in Herr Hempel’s own house. Shortly after he arrived here.’
    ‘And since then?’
    ‘We don’t know. But it would seem probable.’
    ‘So we are bluffing if we complain about him?’
    ‘To an extent, sir,’ McClure said. ‘Herr Hempel