"The Lieutenant spent the first part of the morning interrogating some suspects."
"Is he still here?" said the Doctor impatiently.
"You have just missed him, Herr Doktor. Just a short time ago, he took a squad to raid a suspected centre of resistance activities." With some distaste the Colonel added, "A place known, I understand, as Ma Barker"s Caff."
8: TRAPPED.
"Here we are, love," said the fat woman.
She had led Ace through a maze of twisting back streets, and now they had stopped outside a shabby little cafe. It had been formed by putting a big front window and a door over the front of a disused railway arch.
The whole place reeked of seediness and decay. The once bright green paint was shabby and peeling, and the lace curtains over the steamed-up windows were grimy and tattered. Above the door was a notice board, ornate letters in cracked gold paint: THE COSY CAFE: PROP H. BARKER.
The fat woman saw Ace looking at the sign.
"That aitch was my "Arry," she said. "Captured with the rest at Dunkirk, never saw him again. I keep the place going, just in case. Come on inside."
She led the way into a murky curved-ceilinged room, like a sectioned-off bit of tunnel. Rickety wooden chairs and tables filled the main body of the room, and there was a counter across the far end. The place felt warm and cosy, and curiously safe.
Behind the counter was a steaming tea urn and a tall white-haired old man.
He was polishing the counter with a grimy duster and he looked strangely familiar.
"Ullo, Ma," he shouted. "Let you aht, "ave they?"
"Got caught up in one of them random Freikorps sweeps, didn"t I? Just the old routine check-up nonsense. Round up the usual suspects. Dunno why they bother."
Ace came to a halt. "Hang on a minute." She turned to the fat woman.
"You"re Ma Barker, and this is your cafe?"
"That"s right, love."
"You own the place I was looking for - and we just happen to finish up on the same truck?"
"Life"s full of little coincidences, ducky," said Ma Barker placidly.
"Yeah? Well, this little coincidence is too big for me," said Ace. "I think I"ll just leave."
"Oh, I don"t think you can do that, ducky," said Ma Barker. "Not till we"ve had a nice little chat. Can she, Pop?"
"I"m afraid it"s out of the question, my dear young lady," said the old man.
His voice had altered, and he had a huge service revolver in his hand.
Ma Barker waddled to the front door, locked it, turned the hanging sign round to CLOSED and bustled Ace up to the counter. "Get the young lady a nice cuppa, Pop. One for me and you as well."
The old man poured three cups of tea into thick china mugs, and nodded to a tin sugar bowl on the counter. Close to it, chained to the counter, was a sugar-encrusted spoon.
Ace took a swig of tea. It was hot and strong and it really tasted of tea.
Ma Barker slurped her tea with noisy satisfaction. "Anythink for sandwiches?"
"Got some real b.u.t.ter and a nice bit of ham under the counter," said Pop.
"Fell off a Freikorps lorry."
From under the counter he produced a chunk of ham, a long thin knife, a loaf of bread and a packet of b.u.t.ter. He put down the revolver within easy reach easy for him, not for Ace took a bread knife from a drawer and began cutting the bread.
Ma Barker took the long knife and started slicing the ham.
"Now then, ducky," she said. "Who are you - and what do you want "ere?"
Ace nodded towards the old man. "You asked me here - at the Festival.
You were painting some railings that didn"t need painting."
"Well, I asked your friend, didn"t I?" said Pop. "Little feller in the funny hat. What"s happened to him?"
"He"s busy," said Ace. "That"s why he sent me instead."
"Ah, but to do what?" said Ma Barker.
Ace tried to remember the Doctor"s instructions. They weren"t much help.
"Just talk to them, Ace," he"d said. "You can"t tell them who we are and where we"ve come from, they"d never believe you. You can"t say what we"re really after, they"d never believe that either. Just say we"ve come to help.
Find out all you can about what"s been happening here, since the war started, and since England lost. See if you can find any suggestion of alien interference - anything that tastes of Timewyrm." He"d paused and added sternly, "And don"t give them any nitro-nine."
Ace became aware that Pop and Ma Barker were looking at her expectantly. She looked at the gun close to Pop and the long knife in Ma Barker"s hand, and realized that she was talking for her life.
"The Doctor and I come from somewhere far away," she said. "Don"t ask me where, I can"t tell you."
"America?" asked Pop. "That blue box was never made in this country."
"Canada?" suggested Ma Barker. "The government in exile?"
"Never mind," said Ace. "Believe me, you don"t need to know." With a sudden inspiration she added, "And what you don"t know they can"t make you tell." To her relief her audience nodded agreement. "We"ve come here to see if we can help you," she went on. "But to do that we need to know what things have been like here since the war."
The two of them looked at her in suspicious silence.
"Look," said Ace desperately. "I"m not asking for any secrets, all right? I don"t want to know anything the n.a.z.is don"t already know, no names, no places. I just want to know all the everyday stuff about what"s been going on here. All the things you know and we don"t because you"ve been here and we haven"t."
Pop and Ma Barker looked at each other.
"Don"t see the harm in it," said Ma Barker.
Pop said, "May as well go along with it - for the time being."
They began to talk. They told her of the lightning invasion, the German troops in Whitehall before anyone realized what was happening.
"Soon after that they signed the Anglo-German Treaty," said Pop. "Just another name for surrender, that was."
"Then they put him back on the throne," said Ma Barker. "And her, that American bird he run off with!" She sniffed. "Queen Wallis!"
"Go on," said Ace. "What happened after that?"
Apparently there had been instant arrest for anyone reckoned even a potential danger to the Reich.
"Civil servants, ex-officers, trade unionists, lawyers, any MP"s who didn"t get away," said Pop. "They"d got blacklists all ready - they made a pretty clean sweep."
"And I don"t "ave to tell you what happened to the Jews," said Ma Barker.
"And the Gypsies and the invalids and anyone else they thought was useless."
Next had come the ma.s.s deportations.
"The Voluntary Labour Force," said Ma Barker. "Voluntary - that"s a laugh."
"Every able-bodied male between seventeen and forty-five was just scooped up and taken away," said Pop.
Ace remembered how, apart from the occupying forces and their hangers-on, they"d seen only women and children and old people. "What happened to them?"
"Sent to the Continent - slave labour," said Pop. "They"re strengthening Fortress Europe, helping to build New Berlin. Pretty well worked to death, so I hear. Anyway, no one ever comes back. "
"Women too," said Ma Barker. "Only the blue-eyed blondes though. Sent to Race Centres to have kids by those SS b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. The idea is to educate the kids in Germany and send them back here when they"ve grown up into good n.a.z.is."
"Just about everything of any value was shipped back to Germany," said Pop. "Art treasures, industrial equipment, the lot. They"ve left a poor and empty country full of old people, most of "em half starved and worked to death. Soon as they"ve killed us off, they"ll colonize the place with nice pure-blooded Aryans. The English people will have ceased to exist."
"What about you lot, then? asked Ace. "You seem to be keeping your end up."
"We do what we can, ducky," said Ma Barker. "Bit of thieving, bit of sabotage."
"Bit of knocking off n.a.z.i officials and chucking them in the river?"
suggested Ace.
Pop cut another slice of ham with the long thin knife. "We got a tip some n.a.z.i bigwig was coming over to tighten things up. It seemed a good idea to discourage him."
"You mean murder him."
"Not murder, war," said Pop.
"But you"re a civilian."
"On the contrary," said Pop in his different voice. "I"m a Major in the British Army -at least I was, when there still was a British Army. I was one of Colonel Gubbins" Auxiliary Units, ordered to go underground after the invasion. I never surrendered. As far as I"m concerned, the war"s still on."
He pa.s.sed Ace a ham sandwich.
She sat there munching, wondering if she"d learned anything the Doctor would find useful. "Did anything weird or odd or unusual happen, during the invasion?"
Pop looked puzzled. "Not that I can think of. There was a battle and we lost. Once the Army"d been captured in France we"d got practically nothing left to fight them with."
"And there was nothing else?" persisted Ace.
He frowned. "I"m not really sure what you"re getting at."
"Neither am I," confessed Ace. "It"s just that I was specifically told to ask about anything weird or offbeat."
"What about all that black magic stuff? suggested Ma Barker.
Pop snorted. "Lot of superst.i.tious nonsense."
"Tell me," demanded Ace.
Ma Barker lowered her voice. "Around the time of the invasion, some people were saying Hitler couldn"t lose because the devil was on his side.
He was supposed to have these black magicians working for him. They caused all them freak storms what wrecked the Navy, and fixed the fine weather for the invasion, put a jinx on our leaders, stuff like that. They were called the Black Coven."
"Lot of silly rumours," insisted Pop. "Soon died out, didn"t they?"
"Only because they made sure they did."
"Who made sure?" asked Ace.
"Them Nasties. Any mention of the Black Coven was subversive talk, punishable by death. No wonder people shut up about it!" Ma Barker lowered her voice with a sort of ghoulish relish. "They"re supposed to be in Germany still, "elping old "Itler, telling "im how to conquer the world. They live in this great castle somewhere, and they have evil rituals and "uman sacrifices! Only like Pop says, we"re not supposed to know and we ain"t allowed to talk about it!"
"So the n.a.z.is still take the stories seriously?"
"Don"t want a bunch of mumbo jumbo chaps in black robes stealing all the credit," said Pop. "Mind you, they were always a superst.i.tious lot. Hitler"s had his own astrologer for years, and apparently Himmler"s right round the bend."
Someone rattled at the door.
Pop grabbed his revolver, holding it out of sight under the counter.
Ma Barker s.n.a.t.c.hed up the long knife., She went to the door and peered out through the gla.s.s.
"It"s all right, it"s only old Arnie."
She opened the door and a furtive little figure slipped through. Ma Barker closed the door and locked it again.
"I came to warn you," said the little man. "There"s a big Freikorps operation planned for this area -" he broke off, staring at Ace. "What"s she doing here?"