Double Cross in Cairo

Read Double Cross in Cairo for Free Online

Book: Read Double Cross in Cairo for Free Online
Authors: Nigel West
proposal over. But she has a natural disposition for the risk and had been finally convinced by Paul’s assurance that there would be good money for them both in the venture.
    She had noticed that Paul was always anxious that she should not be in or near his flat between about 7.30 and 10 o’clock in the evening. One night early in July, however, he had called her to look at his wireless receiver – on which they had been in the habit of listening to the radio programmes together and which she had never suspected to be anything but an ordinary domestic apparatus. Having locked the door of the room he had pulled back a false panel from the apparatus and shown her that it was a transmitter as well as a receiver. Unlocking a door, he had produced a Morse key; and then, to her further surprise, had suspended an aerial from nails already inserted in the walls near the ceiling.
    All this had been done with an air of mysterious importance and great nervousness. At just after half past seven he had begun to tap out something that she could not understand on the Morse key. He had worn earphones and she could faintly hear the note of the signals. After about twenty minutes he had ceased tapping and had produced paper and pencil and began to write as he listened.
    When the proceedings were finished he turned to her and remarked: ‘Now you know exactly what I’m up to.’ Then he told her the whole story of his nightly communication with the enemy and had proposed that they should work as partners. She had hesitated once more; but once more she had been persuaded by her own disposition for adventure and by Paul’s assurance that it would make their joint fortune and assure their safety and honour when – he was certain, the genuine Rommel entered Cairo.
    Paul had taught her to decipher the messages received from the German Intelligence Service and thereafter she had occasionally helped him in this;she had found it very difficult however, and Paul had sometimes been impatient with her when she had made mistakes. She had also made some effort to learn Morse, but that had been a tedious business; Paul had given her a test a few days ago, and had been quite angry when he had found how little she knew. Since that time she had assisted Paul mainly in the collection of military information.
    Following the collapse of Greece in April 1941 the level of political infighting and scheming among senior politicians and the senior military hierarchy rivalled any play, and the mutiny of April 1944 among the ratings at Alexandria and Port Said was a manifestation of the discontent felt within the Royal Hellenic Navy when activists among the sailors on the lower decks demanded the government-in-exile be reconstituted to allow the participation of the Communist-controlled National Liberation Front (EAM). Their intervention was opposed by the officers and NCOs, usually anti-Communist ELAS supporters, who were placed under arrest by so-called Revolutionary Committees aboard the destroyer
Terax
and the corvettes
Apostolis
and
Sachtouris
. The mutiny was eventually crushed by the expedient of denying the ships food and water, but the bitterness would re-emerge during the postwar civil war. One destroyer, the
Pindos
, threw their officers overboard and, after a voyage to Malta, reached Italy where it surrendered to the local Communist Party. Seven members of the Royal Hellenic Navy were killed in Alexandria as officers led 250 volunteers over HMS
Phoebe
to reach the mutineers. Among the vessels involved were the repair ship
Hyphaistos,
the destroyer
Criti
, together with some minesweepers and auxiliaries. The last to give up in Port Said were men aboard the battleship
Georgios Averof,
six destroyers and the submarine
Papanicolis
. Finally the rebels who had seized control of the recruitment office in central Alexandria surrendered, bringing the episode to a close in Egypt. Meanwhile, the trouble spread to Malta where

Similar Books

The Wrong Track

Carolyn Keene

Sea of Shadows

Kelley Armstrong

3: Fera - Pack City

Carys Weldon

The Island of Destiny

Cameron Stelzer

Congo

David Van Reybrouck

Land of Shadows

Rachel Howzell Hall