I keep falling back to
Alan Furst's stories about espionage in Europe on the brink of WW2, I'm just in that kind of mood. I see this picture and I realize this is exactly the kind of thing you would run into in his stories.
The book I'm reading right now, for the second or third (or fourth time?),
Blood of Victory, follows one Serebin on his travels around Europe, running errands for the big shots (his betters?) who are plotting to disrupt the flow of oil from the
Ploesti oil fields in Romania to the factories in Germany.
Serebin gets an allowance that is like three times the average clerk's wages, so he's fairly comfortable. He's not a big shot, but he's well supported. He spends his time going to meetings or one sort of another. Some are in a community hall, some are in bars and cafes, some are in private residences, and some of those meetings are with girls, like you might see in the picture above. Funny thing is I didn't really have any idea of what those girls might look like until I saw this picture, possibly because I don't recall Mr. Furst mentioning anything about furs. But I think this is the caliber of people we are dealing with. Beware, because grading caliber by appearance is only valid on a couple of scales, and really has no bearing on their loyalty or honesty which are really the only measures that count. But if you are operating at this level, at least some of the players are going to have this caliber of appearance. And certainly all the girls Serebin has relationships with.
So Serebin's life goes on, he travels across Europe, mostly on trains, and he meets people, stays at hotels and eats in restaurants, much like any traveling salesmen does now. (Are there still traveling salesmen?*) But eventually the big shots decide they have enough information and decide on a course of action. And who do they ask to do the job? Well, none other than their man on the spot, Serebin. Up till now he hasn't done anything really dangerous. Mostly he's just had to endure the normal bureaucratic hassles of having his papers checked by Nazi thugs every time he crosses a border. Remember, technically we aren't at war with Germany. Yet. He has traveled using false papers, but very good false papers. Remember, this isn't a budget operation. The powers that be are pouring a veritable waterfall of money into this venture because if it succeeds it could bring this war to a close before it really gets started.
Things are different now. There are liable to be people with guns who are going to try and stop him, if they somehow get wind of what he's doing, and because the people with guns are very aware of how critical this supply of oil is, are going to be very sensitive to the least little whiff of trouble coming their way.
But for Serebin, there is no hesitation. This is what he signed up for. Everything up till now has just been the equivalent of cleaning your gun and filling your magazines. Here we go. He's really just like James Bond - he's one of the good guys, he's competent, he's got a mission and he's going to do his duty. He doesn't plan on getting killed or seriously injured, but he realizes that is a real possibility, and he's okay with it and he goes ahead on.
* They cover less territory, see more clients, spend more money, earn more money and stay away from home less. Now, there are more customers than before with more income and more buying impulses and, as a result, there are now more traveling salesmen, an estimated one million according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. - The New York Times in 1971!
P. S. Anya Taylor was the star of Queen's Gambit.
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