Eye of the Needle

Percy and Bloggs discuss a German agent they call Blondie, who tried to contact another agent, then stopped leaving his home. Percy thinks the man might have made contact, but he doesn’t want to pick him up in case he might lead them to another agent.

The landlord of the boarding house where Blondie lives stops by to check in. He sees a pane of glass missing from a kitchen window and questions the old man who acts as his agent on the property. The old man is unaware of an issue, but the landlord wants to speak to the other tenant to make sure there wasn’t a theft. When they go into the tenant’s room, they find him dead. A policeman comes and initially believes the man had a heart attack, until the landlord sees blood on the bed. The policeman goes to a neighbor to call his supervisor. The supervisor tells him that the dead man was under observation by MI5 and the policeman should go inform the MI5 agents in the house across the street.

Bloggs comes to the boarding house to inspect the dead agent. He tells the detective-inspector, a man he knew when he was with Scotland Yard, that the agent had come into the country by parachute only a week or so ago, and that his murder must have taken place the day Bloggs followed him to a rendezvous and then lost him. The two men share a cup of tea and discuss the motive for the killing, coming to the conclusion that this man was killed to protect the identity of another agent.

Percy tells Bloggs that Calais has been fired, and that puts their program of sending deceptive information to Germany, called Fortitude, in danger. Already, a German agent the British repatriated to Germany has discovered the identities of three of their deception agents. If a single well-trained German agent remains in Britain and sends legitimate information to Germany, it could cause the Germans to stop trusting the deceptive information, and the Allies would lose the war. For this reason, Bloggs and Percy know they must quickly identify the agent who killed Blondie. They decide to go through unsolved crimes in the London area to identify a similar crime to Blondie’s death that could give them more information on the unknown agent. In this search, Percy discovers the unsolved murder of Una Garden in 1940. The murderer’s use of a stiletto in the killing catches Percy’s attention. When Percy discovers a new transmission that was intercepted by Die Nadal, he remembers the interrupted transmission Bloggs showed him when he first began at MI5. They compare the time of that interrupted transmission with the time of Mrs. Garden’s death and realize Die Nadel must be Mrs. Garden’s murderer.

Lucy’s mother surprises her with a visit to the island. During the visit, Lucy tells her mother of the lack of intimacy in her marriage and her unhappiness. Lucy’s mother confesses that she once considered leaving her husband because he was unfaithful, but she decided to stay because divorce was uncommon at the time and women struggled to find work. She tells Lucy that she can’t tell her what to do because she doesn’t want Lucy to blame her if she isn’t happy with her choice. At the end of the visit, Lucy asks David if it would be okay to ask her mother to stay on longer. This leads to an argument in which Lucy confesses her unhappiness in their marriage. David tells Lucy she’s free to go. When her mother leaves, she tells Lucy things will eventually change. Lucy agrees that she cannot leave.

Percy suggests that Die Nadel might have gone to a prominent school in Germany. They decide to get school pictures and have a tenant from Mrs. Garden’s boarding house look at them. Bloggs and Percy go to the boarding house and meet the new owner’s wife. She tells Bloggs that three of Mrs. Garden’s tenants still lived in the house when the woman’s husband bought it: a salesman who has since died, a young man who has since joined the army, and an old man who is still there. They visit with the old man, but he is too blind to be helpful. The owner’s wife gives Bloggs a letter from the soldier so that he might contact him.

Bloggs recalls the night his wife died. He had been late arriving home and as he approached the house, he saw that the street had been hit by a bomb and his wife had been crushed under falling debris. This experience left Bloggs angry and more determined than ever to find the German spies living in Britain. He contacts the army and requests that Bill Parkin, who is serving in Italy, be discharged and returned to London. Bloggs arranges for Parkin to look at pictures in the MI5 offices. Parkin guesses immediately that this task is about more than the murder of Mrs. Garden. Over lunch, Parkin tells Bloggs that Faber was a quiet man, and the others thought him poor because of his old clothes and the bicycle he rode everywhere. Parkin guesses now that this was Faber’s way of staying under the radar. Later that day, Parkin finds three photographs of Faber.

Faber was born Heinrich Rudolph Hans Von Müller-Güder. His family were landowners, and his father was a military officer. Faber was a good student and moved quickly up the ranks in the army. Wilhelm Canaris was a family friend, and Hitler was a visitor to the family home. In 1933, Faber was promoted to Captain, and soon after, he appears to have ceased to exist. Percy also reveals that it is possible Faber served as an advisor to Stalin using the name Vasily Zankov. Percy orders Parkin to join their ranks in order to identify Faber when they find him. He also orders that they release Faber’s photograph to the police, but to do it quietly so as not to alert Faber.

Faber rents a boat in Norfolk, pretending to go fishing and bird watching, in order to search for Patton’s FUSAG. The boat is helpful because it allows him to avoid questions and nosy people, but it also proves to be a hinderance because the army will gather in areas near roads, not near the water, so he has to search the countryside in the dark. Faber comes to a lock and accepts an invitation to have tea with the lockkeeper and his wife. The lockkeeper tells Faber that there is restricted land in the area that he should avoid. This is what Faber is looking for. Faber moves his boat four miles upstream, then waits for dark before he walks inland, coming to a fence about a half mile in. Faber hides and waits for a security patrol to go by. Once it passes, he climbs over the fence and continues south.

Faber comes upon a group of barracks that are unoccupied. He also realizes they are unfinished, but there is no indication they are in the midst of construction. There are also military vehicles, but they don’t have motors or seats. Faber moves on, and after five miles comes to an airfield. There are more than 1,000 planes, but when Faber moves closer, he sees they are wood cutouts. Faber realizes this is all a trick to mislead Germany as to the location from which the invasion into France will come. Faber knows he might not be believed if he sends this information over the radio, or that Britain might intercept the transmission. He decides he must take photographs and deliver them personally to Hitler. Faber spends the night in an abandoned barn and returns at dawn to take the pictures, taking more than 30 before returning to his boat.

When Faber reaches his boat, several men from the Home Guard are waiting for him. Faber tries to talk his way out of the situation, explaining that he was bird watching, but there is a man up in a tree who saw Faber coming from the restricted area. When one of the men comes close to Faber to search his bag, Faber uses his stiletto to kill the man. A fight ensues during which Faber kills five men.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel arrives at Wolfsschanze, the Wolves’ Lair, along with several other military leaders for a meeting with Hitler. Hitler announces that there will be an invasion in France by Allied troops, and that it will launch from Britain. Colonel Alexis von Roenne explains that their information shows troop concentrations in Britain are along the south coast, the area known as East Anglia, and in Scotland. They believe this means that the invasion will be three-pronged, beginning with a diversionary attack on Normandy, a major attack on the Calais coast, and finally with a flanking attack on Norway. Hitler expresses the belief that Normandy is more likely to be the intended primary attack location. However, Von Roenne argues against it. He tells Hitler that he asked Die Nadel to investigate the FUSAG’s strength in East Anglia, and that if it is as strong as they believe, then the intended target must be Calais. Hitler expresses trust in Die Nadel and agrees to accept his assessment of the FUSAG.