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By Root 705 0

Division had been formed late the previous summer, on Kendrick’s recommendation. Its job was to coordinate the various pieces of specialized technical information that came the way of British Intelligence. At this early stage, the Division consisted of around a dozen officers and half a dozen scientists. It was the first organization that linked the two groups (officially, at any rate). Military technology was becoming more and more advanced by the day: only a specialist could hope to really understand cryptography, radio technology and electromagnetism. Field operatives continued to radio in even the slightest thing they felt was important. The SID read everything that was picked up by radio operators in Bletchley, both intercepted German messages and information sent by field agents. Aerial reconnaissance was producing hundreds of photographs every day. Millions of pieces of information were being collected, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to understand what the Germans were developing, predict when it would be ready and work out a defence. The SID was designed to deal with the unknown weapon, the unexplained German radio signal and to report directly to the War Cabinet. The military officers came from all three services, the scientists only from the finest universities and private research labs, from all the Allied countries. Forrester and Cwej had been brought in from abroad, from South Africa and Canada respectively, or so the SID thought.

‘Hartung’s defection might in itself be enough to turn the tide of the war.’

Roz bit her lip. This was something big. Was this what the Doctor was looking for? She pondered this for a moment, then, ‘Couldn’t it be a bluff? He could be a double agent or might not want to defect at all.’

George shrugged. ‘That, Roslyn, is the question.’

The phone rang, surprising Chris.

‘It’s only the telephone, Cwej. Hello?’ George listened intently for a second, then put the handset back. ‘Kendrick wants a word, won’t be long.’

George got up and left the room hurriedly.

‘He seemed worried,’ suggested Chris. Roz was having none of it.

‘Will you please explain what is going on? What are these islands, who is this Hartung and what on Earth has his Jewish grandmother got to do with anything?’

Chris looked pleased with himself. ‘You shouldn’t skimp on your research, Roz, we learnt that last time. The Channel Islands are a small group of islands off the French mainland

— they belonged to the Normans about two thousand years ago, the Great British held them for virtually the whole of the Second Millennium, although they were briefly held by the Germans, and that’s the period we’re in now. Later, they were captured by the Spanish in the Gibraltan War. They’re part of the Undertown now, of course. Spaceport Seven, I think.’

‘Thank you, Lieutenant Database. They’re not exactly the centre of the universe, though, are they?’

‘No.’

‘Have you heard of Hartung?’

‘Not at all. I mean, to be fair, I’d not heard of Franco, Mussolini or Stalin until we came here.’

Forrester only recognized two of the names. How could the Doctor leave them in such a temporal backwater? This was a full millennium before they were born, an age when radar and rockets were state of the art. There were still cavalry regiments, for Goddess’s sake. How could anything important happen here?

George came back through the door, and he looked flustered. Kendrick came in right behind him. Behind him was a pipe-smoking civilian, in a tweed jacket: Eric Lynch, the research scientist from Cambridge. Roz and Chris saluted.

‘I have just received word from one of our top agents on Guernsey. Hartung is conducting tests there of a new aerial weapon. Our agent doesn’t know what this weapon is, but has established that the tests involve the frigate Vidar.

Hartung has been seen a number of times on Guernsey, but we believe that he is based at the airfield just outside of Granville.’

George nodded thoughtfully. Kendrick continued. ‘The team working on the problem, that’s Davis and young Lynch here, suspect that the Germans have a