Page 6 of Fire Must Burn

‘A few days after you were forced to sign the Official Secrets Act after our last unexpected adventure.’

‘I did that to protect you.’

‘I know you did,’ said Iris, grasping her partner’s hand for a moment. ‘I’m grateful. But it also put us in a precarious position. I have a feeling that the other shoe is about to drop directly on our heads.’

‘Oh, dear,’ said Gwen. ‘I had been hoping they had forgot about us. It’s been three months.’

‘It could have been three years or three decades. We’re still beholden to them, and they never forget.’

The Heroes of Alma was tucked away at the end of Alma Square in a little nub end of the street, two buildings on each side before it butted up against a wall separating it from a house on the other side. The door was in the centre, flanked by windows with strips of narrow red and white striped awning. Some small round tables were set up outside with wooden folding chairs surrounding them. Three men were drinking at one, discoursing on the problems of the world and offering their own competing solutions. Another man sat alone at the other table, reading theTelegraph. The first three men raised their glasses in salute as the women passed by them to the door. TheTelegraphreader barely glanced at them.

He’s the bodyguard, thought Iris, wondering if he had a weapon at the ready behind the newspaper.

The interior of the pub was not much bigger than a regular front parlour, with four square oak tables and a small bar at one side. A plump, middle-aged woman sat on a stool behind the bar, nodding at the two as they entered. The only other customer was an older, balding gentleman seated at one of thetables, a partly smoked Dunhill in his left hand, a small glass of whisky in front of him, a grey trilby resting on the centre of the table.

‘It’s that man again,’ said Sparks when she saw him. ‘The Minister of Aggravation and Mysteries at the Office of Twerps.’

‘Miss Sparks, Mrs Bainbridge,’ acknowledged the Brigadier. ‘Good to see you both. Hetty, we’ll be in back. What will you be drinking, ladies?’

‘Do you actually have shandy here?’ asked Sparks.

‘We do,’ said Hetty.

‘I’ll have one.’

‘The same, please,’ said Mrs Bainbridge.

The Brigadier stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, stood, gathered his drink and his hat, then led them through a door in the rear and down a narrow hall to the back where there was a kitchen with a small table and some chairs. He motioned for them to sit. Hetty appeared a moment later with two pint glasses of shandy which she placed in front of the ladies, then vanished, closing the door behind her. The Brigadier waited for a moment, then opened the door a crack to make certain she had gone back to her post behind the bar.

‘Good,’ he said, closing the door and locking it. ‘I won’t be keeping you long.’

‘Nice of you to pick a spot in our neighbourhood,’ said Sparks.

‘I like this pub,’ said the Brigadier. ‘It’s quiet, out of the way, and you can see who is coming with plenty of warning.’

‘And you have the use of the kitchen,’ observed Sparks. ‘Well, to absent friends.’

They held up their respective drinks for a moment, then drank.

‘Refreshing,’ commented Sparks. ‘Now tell us why we’re here.’

‘I need something done by someone outside of my department,’ said the Brigadier.

‘Why aren’t you using someone in your department?’ asked Sparks.

‘Because I am increasingly concerned about infiltration bycommunist sympathisers and double agents,’ he said. ‘The number of people in whom I have faith drops by the day.’

‘You have faith in me? That’s news,’ said Sparks.

‘I have faith in you, Sparks, because you quit the office rather than join in a project which in retrospect would have been a massive error had it been put into action,’ said the Brigadier. ‘My apologies for not elaborating, Mrs Bainbridge, but Sparks knows what I’m talking about.’

‘I’d rather not know any more than I already do,’ said Mrs Bainbridge.

‘And I have faith in you, Sparks, because of your willingness to throw yourself into situations that have occasionally run up against our own policies, and each time you have proved yourself in the right,’ continued the Brigadier. ‘Which is why I have protected you as much as I could.’

‘But you also found it useful to maintain my reputation as a renegade, haven’t you?’ asked Sparks.

‘I have,’ said the Brigadier. ‘That, along with your leftist background from your university days, and your contacts with a Soviet Intelligence operative last year, means that anyone looking into you might assume you had been turned, or are at least capable of turning.’