BrokenTune

I've not written much by way of updates on this book (#2 of the series). It has a different pace than the first book, and it took me a while to get into this one properly.

However, now that things have fallen apart around Jane M. and her group, she's been sent on another assignment. The aspects that I find really fascinating about these books are the links to the actual historical events. This particular book has a focus on the Cambridge Spies and, in particular, the defection of Kim Philby. As I know a bit about Philby's biography, I am curious where this book is going to take the story...

Thursday, 27th February

 

We leave in three nights. The plans are nearly set. Philby insisted we travel overland, by train to Leningrad and then north to the Finnish border. He says that’s our only chance. We leave on the midnight train and should not be missed until mid-morning the next day, if all goes as we hope. To give us an extra few hours, Eleanor will stay in their flat that night. The next morning, she has made an appointment at the American Embassy to discuss her forthcoming planned trip home to see her daughter. Sergei knows she is going; it should not cause suspicion. Not until she fails to leave the Embassy compound, by which time we should be almost at the border.

I have the address of a safe house in Leningrad. A taxi-driver will meet us at the station and take us there. Agent 859 will be waiting to escort us to the meeting-point just this side of the border, in the woods near Vyborg. Head of S insists it will work like clockwork, but I don’t think even he believes that. Still, if we can trust Philby – and I suppose we have to, though there are times when a look of uncertainty crosses his face – it is our best chance of escape.

If we can trust Philby.