Read A Bridge Of Magpies Online
Authors: Geoffrey Jenkins
Since your day we've built up at Silvermine an Intelligence service which we modestly think is
as
good as the Yanks used to have during the war at Pearl Harbour. In the code-busting game you never get more than ten to fifteen per cent of any signal straight the rest is
a
lot of inspired deduction from 220
isolated word groups. You also learn to know the "fist" of your opponent–every radio operator has his own way of transmitting. It's an individual as fingerprints. And my men recognized the "fist" of
Sang. A's
operator. He'd been Admiral Gorshkov's–head of the Soviet Navy–own choice for a new type of super-cruiser called the
Kara.
To be in
Kara
he would have to have been lops. We'd spotted the
Kara
on her maiden shakedown voyage south of the Cape.
'All this was mighty interesting, but it still didn't tell us what
Sang A was
up to or where she was bound for. Then, by chance, I myself came in on the code-busting.
Sang A
got off
a
long message–most of it was lost on us–but my team picked up the words
U-160.
It meant nothing to them. It meant everything to me. After that I was prepared to put my head on a block that her destination was the Bridge of Magpies.'
Jutta said, in a distant voice, as if she were still frozen inside by the disaster she'd witnessed, 'It's history repeating itself.'
The C-in-C gave her a considering glance and went on. '
That's when I decided that you were the man for the job. The lost city was a blind-of course ..
I found myself another drink and said dryly, 'I had come to that conclusion myself. '
'You wouldn't have been the man I thought you were if you hadn't.'
He went on, brushing aside the interruption, 'If the Bridge of Magpies hadn't been
Sang A's
destination, no harm would have been done: Koch would have kept stringing you along. You nearly blew us sky-high when you recognized the picture of the fresco. It
was
Santorin's, of course. Koch louched it up a little. He is quite genuinely a midden-hunter, although he's on Silvermine's Intelligence muster.'
'Was,' I corrected. He stared at me and his face darkened. '
If you take your binoculars you can see his grave next to a burnt-out Land-Rover ashore?
I told him about it and how Kenryo's gang had killed him and Breekbout.
When I'd finished he said very quietly, 'I'd like to have been able to shake Kaptein Denny by the hand, for what he did at the end.'
After that he also got himseJf another drink and went to 221
the porthole and stared out for a long time. Then he swung round on Jutta and said in a matter-of-fact tone:
'You're the only piece of the jigsaw which doesn't fit. You're not a relic of a vanished civilization.'
I rushed to her defence and he gave me an amused manto-man look.
'I'd like it better in her own words!
'My father ., . .' she began; and told him of her search and researches. As she went along I watched his attitude change. Until now it had been brisk and business-like–with a shade of apprecialion–over
Sang A.
Now it softened, if a face hewn by war, sea and command could be said to soften. He went and sat on the arm of a chair next to her and swirled his drink round and round-his
eyes fixed
on the spinning liquid as if it were a crystal ball which was mesmerizing him by conjuring up the past. He never looked up until she had finished.
She added, 'J missed my chance to speak to you about it when I didn't get to Luderitz. But my own business has been completely lost sight of in these other terrible things that have happened. If it's worth anything now, my file's still open.
The C-in-C stood up and looked down at her with a curious, unexpected compassion. She met his eyes, startled and questioning. He held out both his hands to her and she raised herself to her feet.
'I think I have a final notation for your file,' he said. He put his arm round her shoulders. 'Come. This is for you alone. It may be something of a shock . .
He opened the door and led her out on to the deck and as he did so the sun came out and shone on her bright hair. 222