Bern, Switzerland —Saturday, 22 January 1916

David arrived at the residence in Bern mid-afternoon on Saturday, and after a quick discussion with the Ambassador, he rushed upstairs to greet Maria. They stood just inside the suite, kissing and caressing. "Only three days, but how I've missed you."

"Closer to three and a half." She stroked his beard and gazed into his eyes. "The days seemed so long, but the nights were so much longer."

He held her tighter. "We've been spoiled by an uninterrupted month together."

She nuzzled her face into his neck, then laid her head on his shoulder. "It feels as if you had a successful trip. Tell me about it."

"I'll have to do that later. First, I must go down and brief Evelyn. And Henry is on his way over."

"I thought Henry was no longer involved. Isn't he running the injured prisoners programme?"

"Yes, he is, but I want him involved in my activities as much as he's able. He has many years of experience and a vast wealth of knowledge, and I'd be a fool not to use those."

She nodded. "You'd be like the pompous buffoons, pretending you know all the answers."

David lifted Maria's head and kissed her again. "I need to refresh and go down. Shouldn't be more than an hour."

A few minutes later, the Ambassador looked up from the knock on his open door. "Come in, David. Henry will be here shortly."

David settled into one of the leather chairs. "Has Wyndcom caused any further disruption, Sir?"

Evelyn chuckled and shook his head. "He appears to take direction from Miss Hutchins better than from anyone else. She has him learning to use a typewriter by transcribing the details of prisoners and arranging them into alphabetical order."

"That's an appropriately benign task. I had told her not to allow him near any sensitive information. God knows what he might do with it."

"I've told her the same. Unfortunately, there's not much here which isn't sensitive."

"I thought as I drove. What about the administrative work for the Bread Bureau? That would relieve Edith from having to deal with some of the repetitious details."

Evelyn pursed his lips. "It has grown far beyond her initial concept. Nearly two hundred workers now and eight depots baking over six thousand loaves every day, but she seems untried by her continuing efforts."

"I was thinking he could assist in keeping track of the other items which are included in the bread packages. Tinned milk, chocolate, tobacco –"

"The Red Cross handles that, as well as the details of transporting the bread packages to Germany and their distribution to the camps."

"Well, it was a thought." David shrugged. "There must be some safe ..." He paused as Henry knocked and entered. They both rose to greet him.

Once they had settled into their chairs, Evelyn glanced at his watch. "I've told the steward we'll take our tea in here." He turned to David. "Tell us about your latest adventures."

David gave a quick précis of his trip, then he unfolded his map and laid it on the table, pointing to locations as he named them. "The Kaiser Wilhelm I Regiment in Mannheim has an entire battalion dedicated to guarding the chemical plants in Oppau and Ludwigshafen, plus other facilities in Rheingönheim, Mundenheim, Kaiserslautern, Pirmasens, and Landau."

Henry shook his head and blew out a loud breath. "You're good at this." He chuckled. "And I suppose you sold them all watches as well."

"Not to all of them. But Hans will be pleased again." David shrugged a shoulder and smiled. "I've spoken with Georg about having some of the men track the rail tank cars for both origin and destination to confirm the information is valid and to learn of other targets."

David took the photos from a folder and spread them on top of the map. "You can see the lines of tank cars here. My thought is one line brings in the natural gas, and the other takes away the ammonia or sulphuric acid for further processing."

He pointed to another photo. "Here are the barges bringing in the coal to run the plant. I was told they use four or five per day. I'm not sure of the dimensions of the barges, but extrapolating from the size of the people in this enlargement, and doing some calculations, it appears they use twelve to sixteen hundred tonnes per day."

"Per day?" Evelyn tilted his head. "That seems excessive."

"I thought so also, but two of the officers told me it was five barges every day, and one said it was four or five."

Henry picked up the enlargement and studied it. "These appear to be French Freycinet-gauge peniches."

"You've lost me here, Henry," Evelyn said.

"Remember Charles de Freycinet, the French Prime Minister twenty-five or thirty years ago? He was earlier the Minister of Public Works, and he standardised the canal system. Now, most French locks are to the gauge he established, and all the barges are built to make maximum use of the standard size. These barges carry about three hundred tonnes, and they likely come down the Moselle to the Rhine from the coal fields in Occupied France."

"I'll have Georg assign two men to track the barges."

"It may be easier to have the French look into this. Did you meet with Colonel Pageot? He can arrange that for you."

"Yes, and what a delightful man Philippe is. We had a valuable meeting and a delicious lunch." David pointed to the photos and map on the table. "I think I've finished with these for the moment, and I can talk about the plans he and I discussed." He gathered them into a pile and opened another folder. "This is in the Upper Rhine near ..." He paused as tea was brought in.

After the platters had been laid and the tea poured, David continued. "Philippe talked about a group in Alsace who are planning to destroy the three rail bridges across the Rhine. I had Georg do a potato-selling trip to Mulhouse." He opened the map and handed it to Henry, and then he passed the photo of the bridge to Evelyn.

After picking up a sandwich, he continued. "Georg was told the barricades were hastily put in place a month ago. The only approach is now by boat to one of the piers in the river." He paused and took a bite of his sandwich. "Sorry, I haven't eaten since breakfast. The snow was worse than I had anticipated."

"The current in the river looks rather strong." Evelyn passed the photo to Henry. "A boat would be tricky, particularly in the dark."

"Georg timed the current as they sat on the bank and fished. He said it was a bit above four feet per second. That's two-and-a-half knots, making it dangerous to approach the pier on its upstream side with the risk of being swamped in the wave. The turbulence in the downstream eddy will be tricky, but safer." He took another bite as he thought.

"Marcel, the leader of the group, wants us to do the upstream bridge while they do the two downstream. I think it's too risky for us to be involved. Not the physical risk. That we can handle. But the risk to our cover if we're caught. How do we explain Swiss citizens night-fishing in a boat loaded with explosives near a strategic bridge?"

"I agree, it doesn't make sense to become involved in this." Henry looked at the map. "This is too close to your base. And with what you said about the suspicious police officer at the winery – we have no idea what links there might be."

"My thought is to supply them with the explosives since they have no source. That, and offer them advice on placing the charges." David reached for another sandwich. "We have higher priorities."

"Yes, it's better to focus your attention and that of your team on identifying the sources and disrupting them." Evelyn pointed to the sandwich in David's hand. "Let's pause for a while to allow you to enjoy your late lunch and for us to absorb this new information."