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Suspension, suspension.. Don't you know it's bad for the heart? You should be ashamed sir, ashamed I tell you.. :D

Apart from that, I love both updates.. Sometimes, you're not as satisfied with your own work, as you could be, but that do not necessarily mean that said work is bad.. ;) you are yourself, your hardest critic and that goes for us all.. :)
 
To celebrate 20k views that came much earlier then I expected this chapter will reveal the target of Pinie. Hooray!


Chapter 45

westminster-ground.jpg

January 9th, 1939

Cemaes, Wales, 0:12 AM

Maclean was more than surprised to see Philby there. They hadn't talked to each other since Philby had recruited him, and when Maclean saw him walking down the street he was very short of running away. Luckily he did not, but rather talked with Philby in a hushed voice. Fleming signaled the others to move in. He had enough to arrest them both, at least for questioning. They needed to move carefully, the least sound could scare them away. In the time since Philpy's arrival it had started to snow heavily and the ground was already covered with a thick layer of finest powdery snow, that in other times would have elated Fleming, a passionate Skier. But today he would curse it. Had it not been snowing he would have seen the small twig on the ground, but he could not until it made a noise that seemed as loud as a gunshot in the silence of the winter roads. Philby turned around, saw Fleming and instantly recognized him from Hyde Park. The Fleming realized they had been had and yelled for his team to move in. Maclean, who was still puzzled about what happened did not resist arrest, but Philby ran and had rounded the corner before Fleming could reach him. He followed Philby around the corner, drawing his Webley revolver in the process. When he had finally rounded the corner he aimed the gun at Philby and yelled: “HALT, STAY WHERE YOU ARE!” Philby ignored this warning and ran on. Fleming moved the hammer back and fired a single round into the air in order to stop Philby in his tracks. Philby did not stop, quite the opposite in fact. He drew his own hand gun and returned fire, forcing Fleming to get to cover. When Fleming peared around the bench he had taken cover behind he could see Philby running into the general direction of the bus stop where the busses were parked to be prepared for the next day. Fleming could not let him excape, but he did not want to kill him either, so he took aim carefully. Philby was about twenty to thirty yards away, well within the effective range of the gun, and when the third shot of the night rang out Philby was hit in his left leg, just above the knee and went down hard. Fleming, panting heavily, stood up and started to walk over to Philby who was in considerable pain, holding his leg in an effort to stop the bleeding. Fleming kicked the gun away and used a handkerchief to crudely bandage the wound. Behind him he could hear the rest of his group approaching and turned around. He could see Leiter up front, his trademark Colt M1911 drawn with the safety off, behind him two more NID members dragging Maclean along with them. “You allright?” Leiter asked. “I'm in a considerably better state than our friend here, but I could surely use a good cup of tea just about now, old boy.” “Damn Limey. Gets shot at in the middle of town and what does he think of first? Tea!” Leiter laughed hard while he handcuffed Philby and started to move the captives back to the cars, past a slowly gathering crowd.


Webley-Mark-IV-p1030061.jpg

Ian Fleming's revolver, a Webley Mark VI .455 service revolver, made in 1936, currently on display in the Imperial War Museum​

January 15th, 1939

Headquarters of NID Special Section, London

The last two days had been rather tiring for Fleming and Leiter. After arresting the two spies they first had to explain to the local constable that they were indeed entitled to carry firearms, and yes, they had arrested two sailors who had jumped ship and had been on their way to Ireland ( a thin cover story, but Fleming's mind was too tired to come up with something better. ) The then had driven back to the Tube Alloys centre to phone the Admiral in London of their success. The Admiral had been rather pleased, although he still dressed Fleming down for being so reckless, but in the end the Admiral had said that the mission had been carried out to his satisfaction. Now here they were, back in the ramshackle warehouse, interrogating the two spies. Philby had denied everything at the beginning, claiming that he had thought Fleming was about to rob him and that he had fired at him because of that, but after he had cracked after Fleming had confronted him with the evidence. Maclean on the other hand was more talkative, admitting that he had been spying for Moscow for several years now. Fleming could hardly believe his ears when Maclean had told them the names of the agents of his ring, dubbed “The Cambridge Five” by a rather tired Leiter, as they had all been recruited by Philby during the early 1930s at Cambridge University. The initial estimate that Fleming had presented to the Admiral so long ago had spoken of perhaps one or two active agents, but five, and all of them placed in fairly high positions was a cockup of immeasurable proportions. Now that he had finally notified MI5 the Admiral was happy to report that after screaming blood and murder for a few minutes Sir John, the head of SIS had agreed to let the NID handle the matter. The less he had to do with this embarrassing affair the better. He had some 'housecleaning' to do anyway. Fleming strongly suspected that in the next few months a lot of suddenly unemployed civil servants would flock the streets of London. They had spent the last few days tracking down those members of the Cambridge Five that were in London and would arrest them soon. Still, they had needed to find out who the control-officer for the group, and despite their efforts to get Philby to talk, either he did not tell them everything or he genuinely did not know who it was. Fleming and Leiter had discussed everything in detail over the past day and they agreed that most likely Philby was telling the truth.

They had had Philby's two drops under surveillance, hoping the controller would make another drop, but so far no luck. Philby had told them that he wasn't due to report in until he had made contact, so Leiter and Fleming had suggested to the Admiral to turn Philby into a double Agent of sorts, using him to feed false or outdated information to Moscow, in that way influencing the intelligence Moscow had on the British Empire by a large degree. The Admiral said he would consider it, and Fleming understood that a decision like this needed to be made on a higher level. “And you're sure this is going to work?” Leiter asked during one of their rare lunch breaks. “No Idea actually, but I think that if it does the Reds will never guess it if MI6 plays it well.” Leiter shrugged and said: “And you trust them to handle everything correctly?” Fleming shrugged and took a bite of his bread. “Not at all, but the NID is too small to take over Intelligence altogether. Some things can't be helped I guess.” With that the telephone rang, cutting their lunch break short, something that happened far too often lately, and if Fleming's hunch was right, and he almost always was, then it wouldn't be the last time for many many weeks. “Fleming....yes, Sir. Indeed, but he hasn't said anything about it yet.....they want him to do WHAT? Yes, Sir. But Sir, may I ask who..Yes, Sir.” Fleming placed the receiver back in its cradle and said to Leiter: “It seems that the Ivan is for some reason interested in the whereabouts of the Duke of Windsor, and the Admiral has told us what to feed them for this time. The Information the NKVD and the Abwehr want suggests an assassination or abduction attempt, and they want to set them a trap. It seems that the Gentlemen were right after all.” Fleming said, referring to the conversation he had had with the Admiral and M when he had taken over the section. Leiter gulped down the rest of the coloured water the British referred to as Coffee and said to his friend: “Well, that may be so, but what could they possibly gain from something this stupid? I mean it must be clear to them that they will be the first suspects!” “Apparently Hitler and Stalin think otherwise. The Admiral wants us to talk to Philby and round up the rest of the Cambridge Five as soon as possible, before we deal with that Jerry op.”


The_Duke_of_Windsor_1945.jpg

The Duke of Windsor, about to become a victim of International power plays?​

[Game Notes: Before you all go: Omg! Wy?2????, let me tell you that I a) I can't stand the guy, b) a start to make things more complicated in the Anglo-Axis relations and Anglo-others ( the next big secret :p ) relations, c) as the Germans will try to blame it on the Brits to unite them even more behind Winston and his administration]
 
Excellent update(s)! Quite the mess, it seems.
So, can I get my medal for guessing the correct victim yet? ;)
 
Excellent update. I would have shot Philby a bit above the knee, but it's fine enough, too. :D

trekaddict said:
[Game Notes: Before you all go: Omg! Wy?2????, let me tell you that I a) I can't stand the guy

Who? Philby, Skorzeny, the Duke of Windsor?
 
Eams *pins medal to Eams' chest* There you go. It's quite a mess, allright, but imagine how messy this world will be once the war starts....

Kurt_Steiner Fleming can be lucky that he hit Philby at all, the conditions weren't exactly perfect.


As for why: I was referring to the Duke.
 
Also a good friend of mine joined the Estonian Army today. Let's all hold thumbs so that he doesn't run into too many Ivans. :)
 
trekaddict said:
Fleming can be lucky that he hit Philby at all, the conditions weren't exactly perfect.
Well, I think Flemming must have been a great shot. To hit a moving target at that distance with a hand gun requires skill (and luck I suppose :) ).
 
trekaddict said:
As for why: I was referring to the Duke.

Poor Edward. From admiral to third mate of an American tramp, as they used to say in those days. :D

Dunno why, but I like the good old duke.
 
Kurt_Steiner said:
A good reason, indeed. Hard to swallow and to explain, but this would take us out of topic, so let's leave it here ;)


Indeed. :)
 
I am asking for your opinion on something.

I had planned to develop Leiter's background some more before starting to bring Pinie to its conclusion, and I am wondering if there is any interest in Mr. Leiter's family?
 
trekaddict said:
I am asking for your opinion on something.

I had planned to develop Leiter's background some more before starting to bring Pinie to its conclusion, and I am wondering if there is any interest in Mr. Leiter's family?
As long as there is any relevance to the story/game to make it worth while.
His dad could have been secretly member of the previous American Goverment Intelegence Agency and got some pretty important info for the British on the new American Goverment.

:D
 
ShadowWarrior said:
As long as there is any relevance to the story/game to make it worth while.
His dad could have been secretly member of the previous American Goverment Intelegence Agency and got some pretty important info for the British on the new American Goverment.

:D
Well, I plan to use it to describe the situation of the American exiles in more detail, its going to be a two parter if I can make it believable enough. Besides, see it as a little relaxation from the Spy game.
 
that does sound good.

regarding pinie, now that you've revealed it are we to assume that it wont succeed? i was looking forward to reading about the actual assassination from the germans' perspective, and the aftermath.
 
BritishImperial said:
that does sound good.

regarding pinie, now that you've revealed it are we to assume that it wont succeed? i was looking forward to reading about the actual assassination from the germans' perspective, and the aftermath.

Well, it's not out yet who will succeed. But rest assured, no matter if he dies or not it's going to be both close and soon.
 
I do worry about Wallis Simpson though...I hope she isn't hurt in the melee.
 
Bafflegab said:
It will be interesting to see whether you write the scenario where the duke is saved, or whether he conveniently gets written out of this AAR's future... We must read on to find out!!!

Indeed you will have to. I have decided how it'll go, but haven't written or even drafted it yet.
 
trekaddict said:
Indeed you will have to. I have decided how it'll go, but haven't written or even drafted it yet.
The suspense is killing me, stop comenting and start wrighting, we must have an update! :D