The Key to Rebecca - Ken Follett [107]
We could all be saved, he thought.
If I catch Wolff.
PART THREE
ALAM HALFA
20
ONE OF THESE DAYS, VANDAM THOUGHT, I’M GOING TO PUNCH BOGGE ON THE nose.
Today Lieutenant Colonel Bogge was at his worst: indecisive, sarcastic and touchy. He had a nervous cough which he used when he was afraid to speak, and he was coughing a lot now. He was also fidgeting: tidying piles of papers on his desk, crossing and uncrossing his legs and polishing his wretched cricket ball.
Vandam sat still and quiet, waiting for him to tie himself up in knots.
“Now look here, Vandam, strategy is for Auchinleck. Your job is personnel security—and you’re not doing very well.”
“Nor is Auchinleck,” Vandam said.
Bogge pretended not to hear. He picked up Vandam’s memo. Vandam had written out his deception plan and formally submitted it to Bogge, with a copy to the brigadier. “For one thing, this is full of holes,” Bogge said.
Vandam said nothing.
“Full of holes.” Bogge coughed. “For one thing, it involves letting old Rommel through the line, doesn’t it?”
Vandam said: “Perhaps the plan could be made contingent on his getting through.”
“Yes. Now, you see? This is the kind of thing I mean. If you put up a plan that’s full of holes like that, given that your reputation is at a pretty damn low point around here at the moment, well, you’ll be laughed out of Cairo. Now.” He coughed. “You want to encourage Rommel to attack the line at its weakest point—giving him a better chance of getting through! You see?”
“Yes. Some parts of the line are weaker than others, and since Rommel has air reconnaissance there’s a chance he’ll know which parts.”
“And you want to turn a chance into a certainty.”
“For the sake of the subsequent ambush, yes.”
“Now, it seems to me that we want old Rommel to attack the strongest part of the line, so that he won’t get through at all.”
“But if we repel him, he’ll just regroup and hit us again. Whereas if we trap him we could finish him off finally.”
“No, no, no. Risky. Risky. This is our last line of defense, laddie.” Bogge laughed. “After this, there’s nothing but one little canal between him and Cairo. You don’t seem to realize—”
“I realize very well, sir. Let me put it this way. One: if Rommel gets through the line he must be diverted to Alam Halfa by the false prospect of an easy victory. Two: it is preferable that he attack Alam Halfa from the south, because of the quicksand. Three: either we must wait and see which end of the line he attacks, and take the risk that he will go north; or we must encourage him to go south, and take the risk that we will thereby increase his chances of breaking through the line in the first place.”
“Well,” said Bogge, “now that we’ve rephrased it, the plan is beginning to make a bit more sense. Now look here: you’re going to have to leave it with me for a while. When I’ve got a moment I’ll go through the thing with a fine-toothed comb, and see if I can knock it into shape. Then perhaps we’ll put it up to the brass.”
I see, Vandam thought: the object of the exercise is to make it Bogge’s plan. Well, what the hell? If Bogge can be bothered to play politics at this stage, good luck to him. It’s winning that matters, not getting the credit.
Vandam said: “Very good, sir. If I might just emphasize the time factor... If the plan is to be put into operation, it must be done quickly.”
“I think I’m the best judge of its urgency, Major, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And, after all, everything depends on catching the damn spy, something at which you have not so far been entirely successful, am I right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll be taking charge of tonight’s operation myself, to ensure that there are no further foul-ups. Let me have your proposals this afternoon, and we’ll go over them together—”
There was a knock at the door and the brigadier walked in. Vandam and Bogge stood up.
Bogge said: “Good morning, sir.”
“At