Page 128 of Fire Must Burn

Sparks stared in surprise as he walked out of the office and closed the door. Then she turned back to the Brigadier.

‘What is this?’ she asked.

‘Direct question, right to the point,’ said the Brigadier. ‘What do you think it is?’

‘You have a military title but you’re not in uniform,’ she observed. ‘You look too young to be retired—’

‘Thank you,’ he said drily.

‘So some branch of Intelligence?’

‘Soundly reasoned, Miss Sparks,’ he said. ‘Anything else?’

‘Your name isn’t Thomas Meredith,’ she said. ‘The initials on the cigarette case on that table are S.P. Unless you stole it.’

‘Or unless I meant for you to see it and assume that,’ he said. ‘You came to the Foreign Office a few months ago.’

‘Yes, after graduating—’

‘From Newnham College,’ he said. ‘With top marks and a reputation for both a brilliant mind and a somewhat reckless approach to university life.’

‘You’re only young once,’ she said.

‘Multilingual,’ he continued, walking towards her. ‘And you spent a term in Berlin.’

‘Yes, at the—’

The slap came from his right. She blocked it with her left hand, the report tumbling to the carpet by her feet. He nodded approvingly.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘I also was given to understand—’

This time, it came from the left, but she was anticipating something of the kind and merely stepped back as his hand passed safely in front of her face.

‘—that you’ve had some self-defence training,’ he continued calmly as if nothing had happened.

‘Yes, sir. Care for a spar?’

‘Not at the moment,’ he said. ‘I’m recruiting, as you no doubt have guessed by now. Depending on how your training goes, I could keep you here analysing what information comes in or I might send you out into the field.’

‘The field. Meaning Germany?’

‘Quite possibly,’ he said. ‘The current appeasement policy is only forestalling the inevitable, despite what our leadership believes. Work for me, and maybe we’ll gain an edge on events.It will be vital work, Miss Sparks. It may also be dangerous.’

‘I like a little danger in my life,’ she said. ‘I haven’t found any in the basement here.’

‘There’s something else you should know up front before you commit,’ he said.

‘Which is what?’

‘You’re a very pretty girl,’ he said, looking her over. ‘That can be an asset for certain types of operations. If you come aboard I may ask you do certain things that conventional society would consider a moral compromise.’

An image flashed across her mind. Her hand holding a Buck’s Fizz in salute as Kevin Pickard smirked from across the breakfast table.

‘That won’t be a problem, sir,’ she said. ‘I’m well acquainted with those.’

London, 1947

Carruthers slowed the car down to a halt short of the gate. The Brigadier looked up from his newspaper.