The man emphasized his words with a curt nod, and then looked at Group Captain Ball.
"This tears it!" he said in a flat voice. "Knocks the blasted props right out from under the whole thing. He was the main link. Everything depended on the messages he could get through to me. That he was caught, and brought back here so that we could confirm his death, means.... Well, it must mean that they've been onto him for some time. Perhaps, even, that he sent me information that they wanted him to send. Blast the Nazis, anyway!"
No one said anything for a moment or two, Markham, Dawson, and Freddy Farmer being completely in the dark, kept their mouths shut for obvious reasons. Group Captain Ball didn't say anything because he was deep in thought weighing Colonel Trevor's words. Presently he stuck out his lower lip and gave a little half shake of his head.
"Possibly, Colonel," he said and fixed his thoughtful eyes on the distant horizon. "And then again, possibly not. You forget that we checked everything through other channels, and found it to be true. I fancy the Nazis sent him back ... this way ... in the hope that you would take just that attitude. Would come to that conclusion at once."
The Intelligence officer frowned in perplexity and dragged a thumbnail along the angle of his jaw.
"Then they don't know how much he sent through, eh?" he murmured, as though summing it up to himself. "Then this is a trick to make us believe they've had him under their eye all along, when actually they only unmasked him in the last day or so?"
"Frankly, yes," Group Captain Ball said. "Consider the matter in this light, Colonel. If they have known about him for some time, what was there for them to gain by giving him rope, and letting him send through all that information? They couldn't possibly guess what our objective might be, for the plain reason we haven't yet made up our own minds. No, the risk would be too great, for them. He held too high a position in the Nazi Gestapo. Once caught the obvious thing would be to shoot him on the spot. An old Nazi custom, by the way. Certainly, shoot him and let British Intelligence worry as to what's happened to him. But, no. They shot him and brought him over here so that we could be sure he was dead. Why? Because they don't know what he was up to. By doing this they hope to convince us they know all about it. You follow me?"
Colonel Trevor nodded slowly, and a tiny glimmer of hope seeped into his eyes.
"Thank you, sir," he said quietly. "I guess the shock sent my brain into a bit of a spin. Right you are. We'll carry on as we planned. Your squadron office a good place where we can talk, Markham?"
The O.C. of Eighty-Four started slightly at the sudden question popped at him, then nodded.