‘Well! Miss Rose, you have outdone yourself!’ exclaimed C, with a delighted chuckle. ‘Sit down and make yourself comfortable while I admire it. My word – The Red Dragon at last. So full of malevolence – really, quite horrifying!’
Lil took the chair opposite his desk, glancing around her as she always did when she was in C’s office. There were so many intriguing things to look at – the enormous gramophone in the corner, currently booming out a Glinka opera, the big map studded with pins and coloured flags, and the elaborate ink stand, filled with the bright green ink that the Chief always used.
‘Carruthers!’ C called out.
Almost at once, the office door banged open and C’s secretary came in. Captain Carruthers was a tall thin young man, with horn-rimmed spectacles and a rather sour expression.
‘Ah, Carruthers – you’ll like this!’ the Chief went on genially. ‘Look what clever Miss Rose has delivered to us! Isn’t she splendid? Now then – if you would take it, see it’s wrapped properly, and put it into the safe? Very good – careful with it now, there’s a good fellow!’
Carruthers threw Lil a glance that suggested he thought her anything but splendid, nodded to the Chief, picked up the painting and stalked back out of the room. As usual, C did not seem to notice his assistant’s bad temper: he was busy rummaging amongst one of the tottering piles of paper on his desk. After a moment, he found the document he was looking for, and set it before him with a flourish.
C placed a large green-ink tick beside the words ‘The Red Dragon’ and scribbled beside it ‘found in the possession of Sir E. Grenville’.
‘So Sir Edwin must be a member of the Fraternitas Draconum,’ said Lil.
‘It would seem so,’ said the Chief. ‘What about the other fellow – the man you saw him with. Was he anyone you recognised?’
Lil shook her head. ‘I’m afraid not.’ There hadn’t been much to distinguish him – just a smart, middle-aged man with grey hair. ‘But I did wonder if Sir Edwin was going to show him the painting. That might have been how he discovered it was missing so soon. Which would suggest that the other man is Fraternitas too, wouldn’t it?’
‘Very likely,’ said the Chief, scribbling this down. ‘This is most pleasing, Miss Rose. You’ve done an admirable job for us. Now, if you will see Captain Carruthers on your way out, I’d appreciate it if you could give him a description of the second man. Also the location of Grenville’s safe, and the combination of course. You never know when that might come in handy! Then off you go and enjoy a well earned rest.’
A rest? ‘Don’t you need me to do anything else?’ Lil asked, her eyes flicking to the other paintings on the Chief’s list, marked ‘under investigation’ or even more tantalisingly, ‘unknown’.
But the Chief just smiled blandly and said: ‘Nothing for the moment, Miss Rose. You’ll hear from us again as soon as we have a new assignment for you.’
Lil got to her feet, but before she left she had to ask the same question she always asked whenever she came to the Bureau – even though she knew she wasn’t really supposed to. ‘Have you heard anything from Sophie lately? Is she all right?’
The Chief gave her a kindly smile. ‘Miss Taylor? Of course, my dear. Nothing to worry about on that score. Now then – run along. Good day!’
Lil left the Chief humming along to his music. She suspected he thought it was sentimental and a little silly, the way she asked about Sophie; and yet she always felt reassured to hear that all was well. She knew she shouldn’t expect to get letters or messages from Sophie while she was travelling undercover – after all, she herself hadn’t been allowed to send any when she’d been in Arnovia – but it was good to know she was all right and that her assignment was going according to plan.
Outside the Chief’s office door, she found not Carruthers, but instead Captain Harry Forsyth – tall, bronzed and handsome. Forsyth was one of the top agents of the Secret Service Bureau, and it wasn’t long since he and Lil had been on assignment together in Paris and Arnovia. Now he gave her a charming smile: ‘Oh hello, old girl! Didn’t realise it was you in there with the Chief. Ripping to see you, as always!’
‘Hello, Forsyth,’ said Lil cheerfully. ‘Isn’t Carruthers back yet?’ For once, the secretary’s desk was empty.
‘Not in the least idea, I’m afraid. I s’pose he must have popped out on some errand or other. Well, I’d simply love to chat, but I mustn’t keep the old man waiting!’ He gave her a quick wink, then swaggered forward into C’s office, without knocking. Inside, Lil heard the Chief say warmly: ‘Ah, Forsyth! In you come – I’ve a great deal to acquaint you with!’
For a moment, Lil lingered by the door. She knew that the Chief took Forsyth into his confidence, sharing with him many details of the confidential operations of the Bureau. She and Sophie, on the other hand, were kept at arm’s length, knowing nothing of the Bureau’s bigger plans beyond their own assignments. It was frustrating when she knew that she was just as smart and dedicated as Forsyth – who as a matter of fact had spent most of their last assignment in Paris enjoying the city’s night spots. Now, she wondered if she might catch a few words of their conversation, but she could hear nothing except the vague buzz of voices, and the hum of the gramophone. She gave up and wandered to the window: Carruthers would surely be back at any moment, and if he returned to find her listening at the Chief’s door, she knew he would be simply unbearable about it.
She flopped down into Carruthers’ chair to wait for him, glancing around at his typewriter, his notebooks, and the stubs of pencils that littered his desk. She helped herself to a biscuit from his tin, and then leaned back, putting her feet up on his desk in the style of Carruthers’ usual pose. ‘Oh, it’s you,’ she practised saying, in what she thought was rather a good imitation of his sardonic manner.
As she did so, she noticed something interesting. On the wall, just beside Carruthers’ chair, there was a small air vent with a slatted metal cover – except three of the screws that should have held the cover in place were missing. Experimentally, she gave it a little push: at once the cover smoothly pivoted to the side. To her amazement, she realised that through the open vent, she could now hear, quite clearly, Forsyth and the Chief talking in the next room.
Well! Lil grinned as she settled back more comfortably in Carruthers’ chair. How jolly intriguing! Perhaps like herself, Carruthers did not care to be excluded from important conversations and had found his own way to listen in.
The Chief was saying: ‘I’ve had a message from our man in Hamburg. His report is ready.’
‘That’s the fellow known as Ace?’ Forsyth asked. There was the flick of pages, as though he was looking at some paperwork. ‘The one who sent all that information on shipbuilding that Admiral Stevens was so keen on?’
‘That’s the one. He’s one of our most valuable overseas agents. But he’s got some concerns about getting the report out of Germany. A couple of Ziegler’s spies have been sniffing around.’
Lil listened intently, as she absent-mindedly crunched another of Carruthers’ biscuits. She knew she shouldn’t be eavesdropping, but she was fascinated. She’d had no idea the Bureau had agents stationed in the German Empire – although now she saw that if the German spymaster Ziegler had agents gathering intelligence in Britain, then of course the Chief would want his own agents doing the same in Germany.
‘I can’t risk losing Ace. You know that our top priority is to give the government advance warning when war breaks out – and I’m relying on Ace and his counterparts elsewhere in Germany for that information,’ C was saying.
‘But we don’t know for certain that there will be a war, do we, sir?’ asked Forsyth.
‘Of