Doctor Who_ Just War - Lance Parkin [44]
She was a pleasant companion, although chess seemed a little beyond her grasp.
Now Steinmann had joined them in the first-floor room that had become the Doctor’s study. It had a good view, a packed bookcase, even a gramophone. There was a limited selection of music, all composed by Germans. The Doctor had selected a Beethoven symphony. The music drifted across the room to where the Doctor stared out across the harbour. Ulrilda smiled at him when she knew Steinmann wasn’t looking, and the Doctor gurned back at her. Ulrilda stifled a laugh.
The German officer sipped from his coffee cup. ‘This is very civilized, isn’t it, Herr Doktor?’
‘On a microcosmic level, yes.’ A column of tanks wound their way across the seafront.
‘Again, you have a cosmic view. Just like the Nazis, my friend.’ Steinmann paused before speaking again. ‘Doktor, you tell me that you know what Hartung is building.’ The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it again.
‘Would you like to meet him?’
The Doctor kept his expression neutral. ‘Yes. I’d love to see how close he has got.’
‘Close? My dear Doktor, both have been built already.
What do you know of jet propulsion?’
‘Enough to fill a series of books on the subject,’ the Doctor said matter of factly.
‘Is that why you came?’ Steinmann had finished his coffee. Ulrilda hurried to refill his cup.
‘Not specifically.’
‘But you have seen the plans?’
‘Which plans?’ The Doctor was puzzled. Ulrilda had moved over to the Doctor and poured him a fresh coffee.
Now she began adding sugar.
Doktor, there is no need to pretend, you are among friends here. Three weeks ago, the SID managed to a acquire a set of plans.’ Steinmann gestured around magnanimously, almost knocking his mug over.
‘I knew nothing of this.’ The Doctor thanked Ulrilda, who returned to her seat by the window.
‘No? Doktor, I am prepared to concede that the plans are almost complete. It might not be enough for the British to build a whole engine for themselves, but they will know what Hartung has built. That, of course, is why we let them have the plans.’
‘I still have no idea what you are talking about.’
Steinmann’s face fell. ‘You mean that, don’t you?’
‘I do,’ the Doctor admitted, furrowing his brow.
‘The SID sent you over here, but didn’t tell you, an expert in the field, about the plans they had. It must be the single biggest coup in the history of espionage.’
‘I never said that I worked for the British. I certainly didn’t mention the Scientific Intelligence Division.’
‘Oh, Doktor, if you know what the initials stand for, then you must be working for them.’ Steinmann fixed him with those piercing eyes of his.
‘An interesting theory, if a little simplistic. For one thing, you know what the initials stand for. Logically, that means that you work for the British.’
Steinmann laughed. ‘Ha! I sometimes wonder whether I do, you know. I feel an affinity with good old Arthur Kendrick.
We have so much in common, we have the same concerns, are experts in the same fields. We are doing the same job, we face the same problems, we just happen to be on different sides. You are a scientist. You must feel some camaraderie with the scientific community in Germany.’
‘I think that the German scientists should have made a moral stand. Under the Nazis, science has been perverted.’
‘Really? You don’t believe that science is objective?’
‘Of course not. Science is a tool, a way of modelling the universe. What a scientist chooses to model reflects his or her concerns.’ The Doctor was losing track of where this conversation was heading.
Steinmann sipped at his coffee before answering. So you agree that the scientist himself is part of the object which he investigates? Science is part of culture, not a universal truth?’
‘Yes, of course. So much scientific research on this planet is