The Hornet's Sting_ The Amazing Untold Story of World War II Spy Thomas Sneum - Mark Ryan [75]
As Thomas Sneum had also discovered, the war put terrible strains upon relationships that once had been positive, productive and even loving. And it was adept at creating distance between those who had previously been very close.
Oblivious to the extraordinary possibilities being discussed by two of the world’s greatest brains in the self-same city, Tommy was already building relationships which would eventually lead him to that same mysterious field of scientific warfare.
On 13 October, Birgit Valentin celebrated her twenty-sixth birthday with a small party, to which Tommy was invited. The new arrival seemed to be the center of the birthday girl’s and her mother’s attentions all evening, and Sneum knew that it would be dangerous to favor one over the other. To give too much attention to Birgit, the woman closer to his own age, risked arousing jealousy in her mother, which was the last thing he wanted. After all, Emmy was effectively his landlady. She took care of all the apartments in the building, which belonged to a countess called Elna Trampe. Since the countess was rarely in residence, Emmy treated the house as her own, and handpicked the tenants accordingly. If you upset her in any way, you would be asked to seek accommodation elsewhere. Emmy’s trusted friends, on the other hand, knew they were safe. Until recently, the most frequent visitor had been Hans Lunding, and it was he who had arranged Tommy’s accommodation, because of his special relationship with Emmy. According to Tommy, they had once been lovers: ‘She met him on a train, on a skiing holiday to Norway. They did more fucking than skiing. Her husband was German Consul in Kalundborg, in the north-west of Zealand. I think they had only just got married, but she had already left him to live in Copenhagen.’ But to favor Emmy would antagonize Birgit, and Tommy wasn’t sure how much the younger woman knew about why he was there. Whatever the truth, it would be advantageous to keep her on side, too. The last thing he needed was the threat of a security leak fuelled by pure petty jealousy.
So there were various complications attached to the sexual adventures Tommy Sneum was contemplating. And that wasn’t the only reason why he felt it wise to get out of the building and take plenty of fresh air each day. ‘I couldn’t just stay in all day because that would arouse suspicion,’ he explained. ‘I had to behave like any other local, and that meant going out.’
For a spy in Copenhagen, the location of the St. Annaegade lair was ideal. Christianshavn was a trendy area, situated quite near the Danish parliament, the Rigsdag. Boersgade and a big old bridge called Knippelsbro were all that separated the two. And yet the island of Amager, of which Christianshavn was a part, had an identity all of its own. It was essentially split in two by the picturesque Christianshavns Canal. The old Snorresbro, an ancient bridge, arched across the canal to link those halves. There was nothing very beautiful about the modern block which included the five floors of 15 St. Annaegade. The building’s light brown brickwork pointed to the fact that it had been built only in the previous decade. Although neat and smart, it hardly seemed suitable for an aristocrat. Sneum’s new base lay between the canal and the tall, green-blue tower of Vor Frelses Kirke, or Our Savior’s Church. Just over the Snorresbro was the old Staerkodder Café, a dark, smoke-filled pub full of simple tables and hard drinkers. Down the road lay the warehouses and offices of the East India Company, handily situated around the harbor itself. The people of Christianshavn were friendly and downto-earth, and along their narrow stretch of canal they had created a unique disctrict of Copenhagen.
Before he allowed himself to feel too at home, Tommy headed off to re-establish contact with one of his earliest resistance associates, Christian Michael Rottboell. No one had seen Rottboell for some time in Copenhagen,