Greenfly (Commander Shaw Book 18)

by Philip McCutchan

  “Let’s hope you’re right! Anyway – the firing was inhibited in time, thanks to you. After that the word went out from Northwood … Danish co-operation was asked for, and the RAF Nimrods went into action with their sonabuoys and pin-pointed you for the escort group.” Max grinned. “The rest was easy enough.”

  I asked, “What about the Kremlin?”

  Max grinned again. “What would you expect?”

  I said, “Tight lips. Dead silence.”

  “Correct. A complaint about one of their peace-loving, harmless submarines being attacked, of course. But no explanations of anything at all. Obviously, there’d be a muzzle inside the USSR as well as externally. The ordinary comrades must never know what was planned. But I’ve no doubt we’ll get some snippets through in course of time. I dare say we’ll hear there’s been a pogrom, a purge of Greenfly … “

  I said, “It’s those women I’m worried about. The Ladybirds. They’ll be out on a limb now, even supposing they’re still alive. We owe them everything, Max.”

  Max agreed, but didn’t comment further. In this game, there were always the sacrificial lambs. I thought about Olga Menshikova and her girls in that lonely, snow-bound cottage, of all the people, men and women, who had helped to frustrate Greenfly. Of course the Ladybirds had been patriotic enough, had never acted against Russia, only against those who had wanted to force the Kremlin into war. But they had assisted a Western agent and a number of underground Greenflies might linger on, undiscovered. There would be bitter enmities and scapegoats would be looked for. But there was nothing I or anyone else in Britain could do about it. Only try to forget. Forget, and know that before long Max would be sending for me again with another mission in the offing.

  I got to my feet and put a hand on Felicity’s shoulder. I said to Max that I was going to get blotto and he nodded understandingly, making a gesture of dismissal. We left Focal House and picked up a taxi and went to a small drinking club off St James’s Street where we could get a meal as well as drink. If we felt like it later, there was going to be a lot of work to be done on my flat.

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