Chapter 265
Four days later, on the 18th, Felix was again sitting in the same little room, only that that today he was the one waiting for someone to arrive. He had a strong hunch that today he would get little in the way of information that was of any use, but with the original UXB Team having fallen off the edge of the Earth there was preciously little that could be done, and Felix strongly disliked the idea of having to report failure in this particular case. He knew that Ian felt similar and this was probably their last chance to get a handle on them, because if one knew where to look it was easy for someone to discard one's identity papers and get new ones for a different name through the shady side of the American Community and the pre-existing British underworld. Traitors may still be seen as the lowest scum in HM Prisons, but on the outside no one refused fresh Pound Notes.
When Hoffman came into the room Felix was prepared for the 'sorry, we couldn't find anything' that was probably the most likely answer, but instead Hoffman carried an attaché case and after a few minutes of pointless small talk asked Felix to follow him outside.
“Donovan is more than willing to help, Felix. Say what you want about Roosevelt, but at least the upper echelon knows that they depend for more on you than you on us. You will have to move fast though.”
“Tell him my thanks, will you?”
With that Felix gave his thanks back.
Back at the Office Ian's first comment was what had worried Felix too over the last few days.
“You know mate, technically this could all be a sham.” Ian said while he gestured at the case on the desk that Felix yet had to open.
“True that, but I know Hoffman well enough to tell you that he isn't part of the Harvard Five, and from what I've heard about Donovan he isn't either. Somehow I can't see either of them working for the Reds.”
“Probably true.” Ian replied. “Sitting around won't help us, so let's get cracking.”
Inside the case they found folders from the department of the former Embassy that assisted the immigrating Americans with all the Red Tape of the 'reverse Mayflower' as some had called it, even though since the war had begun what had been a flood had become a trickle, and most of those went no further then Canada these days.
Felix quickly looked them over and at first he couldn't find anything out of order.
“'twas the Night before Christmas....”
“Hmm?”
“Oh nothing,” Felix said, looking up from the papers. He held up an issue of Action Comics #1, printed in 1939[1] and said: “I used to collect those as a kid. Back then it was mostly Wild-West and World War One stories, and my dad gave me an issue I had been looking for for years on my last Christmas in the US.”
He pocketed the Comic Book, not knowing that decades later it would be found and loaned to a museum in spite of it being worth a small fortune by then and the two then went on to examine the files.
“Well lookie here...” Felix said after a while. When Ian looked at him without saying anything Felix went on. “Get this. All but one of them changed their names after they arrived here.”
“Good Show. But then again, that's hardly something special.”
“I grant you that, but how many of them not only come from the same area of Colorado, but also how many brothers end up in the same UXB team?”
“None, not after these four Brothers died on that Destroyer in the Med.”
“What's more, how often would you find two brothers and someone else come in from the same city in the United States, each one week after the other and change their names into a group of names where the last names read like an Alphabet substitution code?”
“Wha?”
“Well, John McNamara became John Noman, Karl Osterhagen became Karl Sandhoven, Micheal Osterhagen, became Micheal Saywer. All of them have an Engineering background and all of them were of course asked if they wanted to join the Engineers.”
“When did that happen...” Ian asked and looked for the date in one of the files. “March '39? Bloody hell, that's some sleeper operation!”
Felix nodded. “One thing that's puzzling me though is what can they hope to gain? If they knew anything about our mentality then they'd know that we'd only fight harder after all of this.”
“Well, I could put it all down to Commie irrational thinking, but the best chance to know is to find these blokes and ask them.”
“Righto then.”
Over the next half hour they decided that most likely the men were slipping back to their old identities before arranging to leave the country, most likely to Ireland and then into the budding Irish Merchant marine that was virtually exploding with British-built Liberty Ships and that therefore tended to ask fewer Questions than most other government institutions. Within seconds after that Ian was on the phone with Admiral Edwards and the Admiral, after listening to their reasoning for a minute arranged for quiet and unobtrusive surveillance of the ferries that crossed the Irish Sea.
“The Brothers are probably in the area around Glasgow, so we'll have to leave it to our people there for the moment,” Ian said, “but the third guy lives in Norwich. If we move fast we can be there to pick him up before the locals do.”
Felix nodded even as Ian called for a Car.
The Bentley 3.5 Litre Sports Saloon raced along the roads south of Norwich for hours later. Ian had driven all the way with a parade example of a lead foot to make as much of the distance before they had to slow down on the blacked out roads, and as they entered Norwich the blackout and cloud-reinforced darkness was enough to swallow the rest of the world except two small beams of light coming from the front of the Sports Car. As they passed through the centre of the city towards their destination on the northern edge of the same, the clouds receded and the Moon shone it's light onto the streets.
After asking a patrolling ARP warden for directions and finding that they were only a few blocks from their destination, Ian shut off the lights and slowly moved the car through the dark streets. The stakeout consisted of three Special Branch Officers in a Butcher's Van that was parked outside a garage as to simulate the wish of the owner to have it converted to gas at last, as petrol was as hard to come by as ever.
Ian and Felix approached from the corner as to minimize their exposure to anyone watching the road, and knocked at the door. The door opened after a few seconds. Ian and Felix had taken off the caps of their Naval Uniforms, but the men looking at them were as obviously Special Branch as it was dark, and once Ian and Felix had identified themselves they were let in.
“Would you gents like a cup of tea?” asked the DS in charge.
“Don't mind if I do, it was a bloody long drive from London.” Ian replied while Felix just nodded.
Metal mugs with steaming hot wartime Tea were passed around.
“We've been watching that house for a couple of hours now since we went on duty. Basically no one has come or gone.”
Felix sipped from his Tea and pulled out a photograph.
“This is the bloke we are after.”
“What for?”
“Oh, it's just that their Lordships would like to have a little chat with him.”
“Interview without Tea and Biscuits, eh?”
“In a way, Sergeant.”
With that they settled down for a long and cramped night, but at leasts the small cooker supplied them with enough Tea to last things through.
In the morning just after Dawn Felix was the one watching. The rest had decided to catch some sleep before in half an hour the local plod sent some Officers around to pick the man up.
“Gentlemen, I think we have a problem.” he said and woke everyone up with that.
Ian glanced out and saw that the man they wanted to grab had opened a side door and now the front of a van not unlike the one they were sitting in was nosing out.
“Bloody hell, he's bugging out!”
“It's a fair chance he spotted the Stakeout. Ian, let's get cracking.”
The DS at first wanted to protest, but when he saw the determination on the faces of the two Naval Officers he stopped.
“Sergeant, I'd be very obliged if you called your Office and told them not to try and apprehend him. If they ask why is that we want to know who he is working for. Tell them....” Ian paused and made a decision on the spot that had the potential of being a career ender in peacetime. He had no ambition to rise any higher anyway so he went on: “Tell them that it is extremely important.”
With that Ian and Felix hopped out of the back of the van and ran down the road to where they had parked the car. The engine of the Bentley caught immediately and off they went.
Keeping a respectable distance they followed him out of Norfolk on a south-westerly heading road...
[Notes: Comments, Questions, rotten Tomatoes?]
[1] No Superman, no Superheroes in the sense we know them. Instead what we would call Dieselpunk pulp, which will take the place of Superhero comics ITTL, even though of course the term will be different. Why? Because 1) I absolutely love 1930s pulp and Dieselpunk in general and 2) because it's as good as anything else.