V for Vengeance (41 page)

‘I agree,' declared Kuporovitch, ‘but how about Communism? Much could be done, I believe, if a campaign could be launched to foster Communism in the German Army. In the last war it was the spread of Communism by the German troops, who had been indoctrinated with it during their garrisoning of the territories that they overran in Russia, which contributed just as much as the British Blockade to the final collapse of Germany. I've always maintained, too, that in the present war, if Stalin did decide to come in against Germany, it would not be by force of arms. He would send over the Red Air Force with millions of leaflets, and thousands of German-speaking parachutists would be dropped to raise the
German workers against the Prussian military caste who have always been his nightmare. Of course, Stalin would not attempt anything of that kind until Germany appeared to be actually on the point of collapse and the occupied territories already in a state of revolt; but if he ever attacks Germany at all I'm certain that is the way he will do it.'

Gregory grinned. ‘You've sabotaged your own suggestion by saying that he would never do it until Germany is already on the verge of anarchy. In the meantime, what hope have we got of spreading Communism in the German Army on a scale large enough to do any good?'

‘I'm afraid I must leave you now,' said Madeleine, standing up. ‘I must get off to my job at the nursing-home. But I do feel terribly strongly about this, Gregory, and when you get back to London please talk it over with all the cleverest people you know. It's infinitely more important than things like this little revolt in Iraq, or even the slaughter that's going on in Greece just now. Some way
must
be devised to deal a really mighty blow against Hitler and the Nazis during the coming year, or by the time that the British are really strong enough to come to the rescue of all the wretched millions in Europe it will be too late.'

When they had seen her off and settled down again Kuporovitch said with a sigh: ‘Poor darling! She would give her own life without hesitation, I believe, if she could bring the downfall of the Nazis even one day nearer. It is strange to see such bitterness and fanaticism in one so young and beautiful, but her fiance's death made a terrible impression on her, and just as I was beginning to hope that she was becoming a little less obsessed with her desire for vengeance above all else, her mother dies of cold. That, too, of course, she puts down to the Nazis, although they were only indirectly responsible. God knows I hate the brutes enough myself, but to overcome a wild beast one must keep calm, and I dread this spirit in Madeleine, fearing always that it will land her one day in some awful danger. After all, what the freedom-fighters have been doing is not so bad, and it's no good crying for the moon. This desperate urge of hers to precipitate some form of crisis is not only impracticable but damnably dangerous.'

‘On the contrary, Stefan, she's right,' said Gregory quietly.
‘I'm sorry to say that back in England we have far too many complacent people, who believe that just because we won the Battle of Britain last autumn we've only got to sit tight now, and in due course Hitler will bust himself.

‘He won't bust himself—why should he? Since his extraordinary victories of last summer the German Army and people have been behind him as never before, and now that he controls such a vast area of territory our Blockade may still prove a nuisance, but that alone can't possibly overcome him. Whoever may have to go short of things you may be quite sure that the Germans will be the last to suffer. You can bet too that by this time their agricultural experts are hard at it all over the place planning to raise bumper crops next summer. They've masses of labour, more than they know what to do with, now that the Armies of the countries they have overrun have been disarmed and disbanded. Too many people are saying that time is on our side—it's not any longer, at least not as far as rescuing the people of Europe from their oppressors is concerned.

‘That's where Madeleine has hit the nail on the head. By the time the Germans themselves are down to really short rations, so that our bombing will reduce them to a state where they find themselves properly up against it and start to squeal for peace, everyone else in Europe will have died from starvation.

‘It may have been that belief which caused our Government to send troops into Greece with the idea of establishing a new front in Europe. I don't know, but in my view it was very wrong and completely futile. The few divisions that we could send can't possibly stand up against the vast weight of the German Army, so they'll only be slung out again with a further loss of prestige for Britain, and a useless sacrifice of highly trained personnel and valuable material. Total War is Logical War, and chivalry is not logic, so by the Greek adventure we are only making our position worse than it was before; but because our people have gone the wrong way to work it doesn't alter the fact that we dare not sit still. Unless the war is to drag on for ten years and end in the utter exhaustion of both sides with a peace of compromise, something has got to be done to give it an entirely new orientation.'

‘I admit that you convince me,' Kuporovitch murmured. ‘Here I have been too close to things, and with no one to, talk to who understands the wider aspects, so as a result of the last few months I have become a cabbage. Are you very tired, or shall we talk some more? It is only by hammering these things from every angle that one sometimes gets somewhere.'

‘No, I'm not tired,' Gregory said. ‘These last few months I've stored up enough sleep to do on quite small doses for a while, but I'd like another drink.'

‘Right then.' Kuporovitch stood up, and going down to the cellar returned with two more bottles. They talked then of the High Direction of the war, going round the world and back again, staring for hour after hour at a map which Kuporovitch had pinned up on the wall of the dining-room, as they tried to forecast what Hitler's next move might be; and assessed the chances of one country or another coming in against or with him. Both of them were extremely well informed on military matters and had a first-class knowledge of history and geography; so, allowing for the ingenuity, speed and determination with which the Nazis always struck, they were able to assess within a reasonable degree the possible result of new moves upon the vast chessboard.

It was after four o'clock in the morning when they had reached the conclusion that there was only one move on the board which would mean checkmate to Hitler within a foreseeable period, and that upon whether it was made or not hung the lives of all the millions that Hitler had enslaved.

The difficulties of creating such a situation as would force that move to be made were immense, but these two men had never allowed difficulties to deter them from any project upon which they had agreed, and when they at last went up to bed they had already decided upon the measures which they must take in the hope of bringing about the desired move.

For the next few days there was nothing that Gregory could do, as before he could initiate his plan he had to see Lacroix and secure the Colonel's agreement and co-operation, so he spent most of his time wandering about Paris talking to casual acquaintances that he picked up in the bars and getting a line on the feeling of the population of Paris for himself.

As most people had foreseen, affairs in Greece were going
badly. The small but gallant Imperial Army was being forced back by sheer weight of men and metal. All organised resistance in Yugoslavia had already been overcome, and the Greeks too were now in a bad way. On April the 22nd their Army of the Epirus, consisting of a quarter of a million men who had covered themselves earlier in the year with such undying glory in Albania, was forced to surrender through lack of supplies and being cut off from its bases.

It was on that day that Lacroix again arrived in Paris, and Kuporovitch was notified by Ribaud of a meeting which was to be held that night. A few minutes before ten, with Gregory beside him, he entered the house in the Avenue d'Orléans.

Lacroix welcomed Gregory with the utmost enthusiasm, congratulating him on his escape from death and the excellent recovery he had made. The conference then took place, and when it was over Gregory told Lacroix that he and Kuporovitch wished to talk to him in private; so the three of them went into a small library adjoining the big room in which the meetings were held, and when they had sat down Gregory put forward his proposals.

The little Colonel listened patiently, his hands folded on his stomach and his wisened face turned down in an attitude of contemplation, so that they could not see the reactions in his quick dark eyes. When Gregory had finished he looked up and said:

‘There is much in what Madeleine Lavallière says,
mon ami.
We are but poor mice nibbling at the great beast's cloven hoof, and for many months to come I see no hope of our inflicting any wound that will really be felt upon it; but what you propose is a most desperate gamble. By doing as you wish I stand to lose the services of many of the best members of my organisation. It is almost certain, too, that some of them, or at least their nearest and dearest in their places, would be arrested and find themselves in a German concentration camp. If I were certain that you could bring it off I would agree. Your reasoning is sound and the idea is magnificent. It would be the greatest coup in history, but the odds are too big against its succeeding. No—I cannot give my consent to this amazing plan that you have hatched.'

When Gregory had once made up his mind about a thing
he would never take ‘No' for an answer, even from this great little man whom he admired so much. He had brought the map with him, and taking it from his pocket he spread it out on the table: then he proceeded quietly and clearly to go over the various possibilities of the future so far as they could be foreseen, just as he and Kuporovitch had done together a few nights before. In the end he produced the same conclusion: his proposal was the sole hope of bringing about the one and only move in the board which might prevent the war dragging on for years of ever-increasing horror, and save the 140,000,000 captive people of Europe from a creeping death by undernourishment and its attendant diseases.

For two hours they argued and wrangled; then at last Lacroix stood up. ‘You win,
mon ami
; you have convinced me against my will. I will say that it is sheer madness, but it is our only hope, and for that reason I am prepared to gamble the lives of those who trust me and who are the principal support of our whole movement here in Paris on it.'

So, the great decision was finally taken.

During the course of the winter Lacroix had been able to improve enormously his underground travel system in both Occupied and Unoccupied France, so that with the aid of his hundreds of new adherents he and his helpers were able to move swiftly and safely between Vichy and Paris, or to most other parts of the country.

For the success of Gregory's plan it was necessary that he should secure the full co-operation of his friends in London, so it was agreed that he should return there immediately; but there was no longer any necessity for him to undertake a perilous journey, trusting to his own wits and a great deal of luck to get him across the Channel. Lacroix guaranteed him swift transit to the Spanish border, and as he was carrying in the sole of his shoe papers which would ensure him priority on the Lisbon plane to London, he hoped to be back inside a week.

In consequence, he remained with Lacroix, who was returning that night to Vichy, while Kuporovitch, having wished him an affectionate good-bye, left the professor's house and made his way back across Paris to Luc Ferrière's house.

Since Madeleine had been doing night duty she had been sleeping each day from her return in the early morning until lunch-time. As soon as she was awake on the day after the meeting Kuporovitch told her that her outburst on the night of Gregory's arrival had had the effect of really starting something. They had evolved a plan, which, if it were successful, would alter the whole course of the war.

Naturally, she was most eager to hear about this great idea which had been inspired through her own burning desire to
exact swift vengeance on the Nazis; but Kuporovitch said that, much as he would have liked to do so, he could not possibly give her any idea of what was intended. As it was, the freedom and lives of many of her friends must be placed in jeopardy, and although he trusted her without limit personally, it had been decided by Lacroix, Gregory and himself that on no account must they let anyone into this secret except Sir Pellinore and the people whose help it would be necessary to have in London.

She at once accepted the situation and pressed him no further; then he told her that, in order to make a start upon the part which had been allotted to him, he needed a typewriter with a special set of characters and as many different varieties of plain and hotel notepaper as she could get for him. She said that she had no idea at all where he could get the sort of typewriter he wanted, but she promised to speak to Madame de Villebois about the paper, as she felt sure that the Marquise and her daughter, who were still able to move freely about Paris in the daytime, would easily be able to obtain a good variety for him.

On discussing the matter of the typewriter with Pierre, Kuporovitch learned that typewriters of any kind were now extremely difficult to obtain in Paris, as none were being imported from the United States, the French factories no longer had the materials to make them, and the Germans had commandeered great numbers for the use of their various departments which controlled the whole national life of the people in Occupied France. However, Pierre told him where he could find several shops which normally dealt in typewriters.

That evening the Russian made a tour of the shops Pierre had suggested. Two of them he now found shut and untenanted; like so many small businesses they had been bankrupted by the Occupation. A third and fourth had nothing to offer him, and it was not until he tried a fifth, the last on his list, that he found exactly the thing he wanted, because it happened to be a type of machine which was of little use to the Germans.