Free The Titanic Secret by Jack Steel

out to keep tabs on him. Their instructions were to record where he went and who he spoke to. And it looks as if Voss has some rather unusual friends in Germany, if he really is just an American businessman.
    ‘The first unusual point is that Voss is staying in a very good hotel in Berlin, in a large room on one of the upper floors. He’s occupying the room alone, but he has also booked, and is paying for, the rooms on either side, and each of those is occupied by two men. They don’t look like business associates, they look like bodyguards, and he never leaves the hotel without them by his side. Sometimes they accompany him inside buildings, where he is presumably holding meetings, but on other occasions they don’t.’
    Cumming looked at the large gold pocket watch which he always placed on the desk in front of him, then back at the sheet of paper. ‘Perhaps Gunther Voss’s most unusual visit was two days ago, when he walked into the Berlin headquarters of the Preußische Geheimpolizei and spent over two hours in the building.’
    ‘What would an American businessman want with the Prussian secret police? Unless he’d been arrested for something?’
    ‘No. He went there with two of his men in a horse-drawn cab. And that’s not all. The building is surrounded by a high wall and, once Voss went inside, obviously the only thing my men could do was stay out in the street, keeping out of sight of the bodyguards, who remained near the main door of the building. After about three-quarters of an hour, they heard a volley of rifle fire from the courtyard inside the headquarters. That could have been Klaus Trommler – the informer Curtis met – meeting his maker.’
    ‘Would the secret police have the authority to execute him without a trial?’
    ‘Probably, yes. From what little we know about it, the Preußische Geheimpolizei is very much a law unto itself. I doubt if they’d bother with anything as fair or democratic as a trial. They probably beat what they wanted to know out of him, then stuck him against a wall and shot him. Of course, we might be mistaken. It’s always possible Trommler was arrested by the regular police, and the other lot were just making sure their rifles worked. But somehow I doubt it.’
    ‘So if you don’t want me to go to Berlin and follow Voss around, what do you want me to do?’
    Cumming paused, glanced down at the file again and then looked up at Tremayne. ‘I need to tell you something in the strictest of confidence,’ he said.
    Tremayne shrugged. ‘I thought everything you told me was in the strictest of confidence.’
    ‘This is particularly sensitive,’ Cumming replied. ‘What I’m about to tell you must never be repeated to anyone.’

Chapter 9
    9 April 1912
London
    For a few moments, Cumming didn’t continue, just looked across his desk at Tremayne.
    ‘What?’
    ‘I was just trying to remember how long we’ve known each other.’
    Tremayne shook his head. ‘Too long, probably. You were still in Naval Intelligence, and we met in Germany. I can’t remember which year, but I do know what you were doing out there.’
    Cumming allowed himself a rare smile. ‘Yes, and so do I. It wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had.’
    ‘No. Driving around the country pretending to be a successful German businessman when you hardly spoke a word of the language wasn’t what I would call a well-conceived plan.’
    ‘It worked, though. I got some valuable intelligence information on that trip. And once you and I met at that hotel in Königsberg and teamed up, it was a lot easier.’
    Tremayne nodded. ‘Yes, because I could act as your driver and assistant, and then you pretended you couldn’t speak because of laryngitis. At least that way one of us spoke German and it wasn’t quite so obvious you were an English spy. Still a bloody risky endeavour, though. If the authorities had twigged what we were doing they’d have locked both of us up straight away.’
    ‘But it worked,’