The Poseidon Network by Kathryn Gauci

Author:Kathryn Gauci [Gauci, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780648714408
Publisher: Ebony Publishing
Published: 2019-10-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

It didn’t take long for Stelios to find a code within the scribbles of Kondoumaris’s notebook.

‘Most of what he’s written is meaningless; meant to throw the Germans off the scent should they ever get their hands on it, but if you look closer,’ he said, pointing at a few sentences excitedly, ‘interspersed amongst the words are letters in Cyrillic. It’s these that have a meaning.’

‘Good God! You’re absolutely right. The wily Greek wrote in code. Have you managed to work it out?’

‘I’m coming to that,’ Stelios replied, looking pleased with himself. He pulled out a small writing pad. ‘If we look carefully, his code is not difficult at all. In fact, it’s the most basic thing in the book. What makes this smart is that most Germans wouldn’t be able to distinguish the Greek alphabet from Cyrillic. So at a quick glance, the letters look the same — all Greek. From what I can make out, the entries go back about to round about the time Poseidon was formed. The letters on this page, when formed together, say that certain men have been held for questioning at Gestapo headquarters. It lists the names. You can see there are a few women amongst them.’

He flicked the page over. ‘The same goes for this. More names. This time it says they have been executed. And this one here mentions a blocco in Piraeus. It says around 50 men have been rounded up, some on suspicion of collaborating with the andartes and hiding weapons.’

I congratulated him on his excellent work, at the same time feeling a bit of a fool for thinking Kondoumaris might be a spy. He could tell what I was thinking and tried to ease my thoughts’

‘Don’t worry, sir. You were quite right to question him. You and I both know we’ve met more than our fair share of double agents.’

All the same, it didn’t make it easier for me. I’d wasted valuable time on a wild goose chase. I looked at the notebook. ‘What about the last few weeks? Was there anything out of the ordinary?’

Stelios smiled. ‘I was coming to that. This is where it really starts to get interesting.’

‘In what way?’

‘About a month ago, there was an entry about someone called Franz Keller. It seems that he drove him to the Hotel Grande Bretagne as he often does, but this time it was to meet a lady. Apparently the woman in question must have been someone special as he notes he appeared particularly excited by the engagement. He doesn’t give the name here, but later on he mentions him meeting a woman again.’

‘That could be anyone,’ I replied. ‘He’s a good looking man and from what I gather, he likes the women.’

‘That may be so, but if you look here,’ Stelios flicked over to another page, ‘you see that he notes the woman is Greek. What’s more she is married which appears to be the reason for his clandestine meetings. Keller must have let this slip. How and when, he doesn’t say.

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