Jack of Spies Read Free

there is, what will happen here in Tsingtau?”
    “If there’s a war, the Japanese will take over. The Germans might dig themselves in—who knows? If they do, the town will be shelled. If I were you, I’d take the boat back home to Shanghai before the fighting starts.”
    “Mmm.” Her eyes wandered around the room, as if she were deciding what to take with her.
    The tea arrived and was poured.
    “So what do you have for me?” McColl asked.
    “Not very much, I’m afraid.” The East Asia Squadron was going to sea at the end of February, for a six-week cruise. The
Scharnhorst
had a new vice captain, and there’d been a serious accident on the
Emden
—several sailors had been killed in an explosion. The recent gunnery trials had been won by the
Gneisenau
, but all five ships had shown a marked improvement, and the Kaiser had sent a congratulatory telegram to Vice Admiral von Spee. And anew officer had arrived from Germany to set up a unit of flying machines.
    “I know about him,” McColl said.
    “He likes to be spanked,” Ch’ing-lan revealed.
    McColl wondered out loud whether verbal abuse might sting the Germans into indiscretions. Maybe the girls could deride their German clients, make fun of their puny fleet. What hope did they have against the mighty Royal Navy?
    As she noted this down, a swelling sequence of ecstatic moans resounded through the building. Ch’ing-lan shook her head. “I’ll have to talk to her,” she said. “The others do the same because they think their tips will be smaller if they don’t, and after a while none of us can hear ourselves think. It’s ridiculous.”
    McColl laughed.
    “But I do have some good news for you. I have a new girl, a cousin from Shanghai. She speaks a little English, and now she’s learning a little German—she knows that a lot of the men like someone they can talk to.”
    “That sounds promising.”
    “And more expensive.”
    “Of course—I have no problem paying good money for good information.” He thought for a moment. “She could be worried that her officer might be killed in a war. The British are so much more powerful, yes? She could ask for reassurance, ask him how he thinks his fleet can win.”
    She nodded.
    “And the flying-machine man. I’d like to know how many machines, what type, and how he intends to use them. Between spanks, of course.”
    She nodded again. “Is that all?”
    “I think so. I’ll come back on Friday, yes?”
    “Okay. You want girl tonight? Half price?”
    He hesitated and saw Caitlin Hanley’s face in his mind’s eye. “No, not tonight.” He smiled at her. “You’re still retired, right?”
    “You couldn’t afford me.”
    “Probably not.” He gave her a bow, shut the door after him, and walked back down the corridor. Bedsprings were squeaking behind several curtained doorways, and several girls seemed intent on winning the prize for most voluble pleasure. Out on the veranda, the old man gave him a leer and added another splash of phlegm to his iridescent patchwork.
    It was enough to put a man off his dinner.
    The following day was as clear and cold as its predecessor. McColl rose early and took breakfast in the almost empty hotel restaurant, conscious that half a dozen Chinese waiters were hovering at his beck and call. Once outside, he made straight for the beach. A westerly wind was picking up, and he could smell the brewery the Germans had built beyond the town. The ocean was studded with whitecaps.
    As he’d calculated, the tide was out, and he walked briskly along the hard sand toward the promontory guarding the entrance to the bay. The field-artillery barracks he’d noticed on the map were set quite a distance back from the shore and, as he had hoped, only the roofs and tower were visible from the beach. He was soon beyond them, threading his way down a narrowing beach between headland and ocean.
    Another half a mile and he found his path barred by a barbed-wire fence. It ran down slope and