I hoped that I would be summoned to see Wilkinson again, but no word came, and I did not know where to find him; the Foreign Office denied having any such person in the building, and he seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. Eventually I decided that that particular adventure was over; I suspected Lefevre had been so scathing about me that, whatever the reason Wilkinson had had for choosing me, he had changed his mind. I was unsuitable.
I had almost forgotten about the whole thing when it started all over again. Another summons, another letter, another meal.
'I hope you're not going to ask me to be your delivery boy again,' I said after the preliminaries were dealt with. 'I'm still paying for the last time. They haven't let me out of London for more than a year because of you.'
'Oh, dear. I am sorry. But it really wasn't my fault. It's not as if I asked you to go off gallivanting around France,' he said. 'Mixed messages, I'm afraid.'
'Maybe. But before I met you I was a banker with a fine career in prospect, and a few months later I was spending my life in miscellaneous disbursements.'
'A little bored, are you?'
'Very.'
'Good. Why don't you come and work for me?'
'You must be joking.'
'I mean it. Your friend in Paris spoke highly of your skills, if not of your character.'
'I would rather starve in the gutter,' I said disgustedly. 'Besides, I was not impressed by the play-acting of M. Lefevre, or whatever his name is.'
'Mr Drennan.'
'Pardon?'
'Mr Arnsley Drennan. That's his name. He doesn't use it much any more, but there is no reason why you shouldn't know it. He is an American. He came to Europe when his side lost in their war. You were saying?'
'Play-acting,' I repeated crossly. 'Hanging around in bars, listening to tittle-tattle. A waste of time.'
'You could do better?'
'Easily. Not that I'm going to. I won't have anything to do with Lefevre. Or Drennan.'
'You wouldn't have to. Mr Drennan, ah, found a more lucrative post elsewhere.'
'Really? Isn't that . . .'
'Difficult, yes. I'm afraid he was most awkward about it. He knows so very much about things, you see. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find him to talk things over.'
'I can't imagine he ever found anything very useful for you anyway. I thought his antics were quite ridiculous.'
'Did you?'
'Yes.'
'So what would you do differently?'
And this was the moment that changed my life forever, for with a few words I then took the first steps which made the imperial intelligence system a little more coherent – I would say professional, although that would be considered an insult. I should have kept my mouth shut and walked out. I should have decided that Wilkinson was someone with whom I would not associate. But I wanted to give in. Ever since I had seen Lefevre – or Drennan – deal with Virginie I knew I could do better, and I had found the whole business exhilarating.
Besides, I had realised that Henry Wilkinson did not preside like a spider in the middle of a vast web of intelligence officers spread out across the Empire, constantly alert for dangers and opportunities, as I had assumed. Far from being all-seeing and all competent, he was virtually blind. He had no department, no budget, no authority whatsoever. The safety of the greatest empire the world had ever known depended on a bunch of friends and acquaintances, crooks and misfits. The flow of intelligence depended on favours and requests. There was no policy, little direction and no obvious aims. It was amateurish and all but useless. They needed me, I decided with all the arrogance that a twenty-seven-year-old could muster. Far more than I needed them.
So I summarised my understanding of imperial intelligence. Wilkinson seemed quite pleased with the description.
'Yes, yes,' he said cheerfully, 'I think that sums up the current situation quite nicely. And if I did not inform you of all this, I'm sure you understand the reasons why perfectly well. If I cannot have the substance of proper organisation, then the appearance of one is the next best thing.'
'So how does all this work?'
'As best it can,' he replied. 'The Government does not believe such activities to be necessary, and in any case couldn't persuade Parliament to provide money for them. Some sort of body might be set up using funds voted to the army or navy, but neither sees the need. For the last fifteen years I have been operating without any legal basis or funding whatsoever. We have people collecting information throughout the Empire, in India and Africa and in Europe, but there is no co-ordination at all. I have to ask to see anything they have. I cannot order them to comply or even say what they should be looking for. At the moment, for example, the Indian Army is not on speaking terms with us. I'm still not certain why. They won't answer my letters.'
'So you know as well as I do that all this running around in France, collecting gossip in bars is useless.'
