Dominion by C.J. Sansom

saying the British Resistance was a treasonous organization, the public under a duty to report its activities. He had seen the new posters, a picture of
Churchill when he was a minister during the 1939–40 war, dressed in a dark suit and Homburg and holding a machine gun, the caption underneath, ‘
Wanted Dead or Alive
’. He
moved closer to Geoff and asked quietly, ‘The news reports about illegal strikers carrying guns, about that armoured police car being blown up in Glasgow, are they true?’
    ‘They rigged the election,’ Geoff said heavily. ‘And they declared war on us. You know what war is.’
    ‘I’ve never been a pacifist like Sarah.’ David shook his head. ‘But if I worked with you I’d be putting everything on the line. My whole life. My wife’s
life.’
    ‘Not if she didn’t know.’ There was a long silence. ‘It’s all right, David,’ Geoff said. ‘You’ve got responsibilities, I know.’
    ‘I hate it all,’ he said quietly.
    Geoff looked at him. ‘Would you like to see Jackson again?’
    David took a long, long breath. ‘Yes,’ he said finally.
    It was several meetings later, towards the end of 1950, that Jackson told David he wanted him to be the Resistance spy in the Dominions Office. The two of them were in a
private room in an exclusive Westminster club.
    ‘We need information, intelligence on what the government’s thinking and doing. Not just in home policy, but foreign and Imperial policy, too. After all, the core agreement of the
1940 Treaty was that Hitler took Europe and we kept the Empire. And developed it, too, to an extent we hadn’t bothered about before, to make up for the loss of markets in Europe.’ He
smiled sadly. ‘The retreat into Empire. The old dream of the political right, Beaverbrook’s dream.’
    ‘But we’ve made the Empire hate us.’
    ‘Yes, we have, haven’t we?’ That sad smile again. Then Jackson gave David one of his long, slow looks. ‘The Resistance have people in the India Office and the Colonial
Office. There have been three famines in Bengal since 1942, for example, that we’ve never been told about. We need someone who can tell us how it’s going with the Dominions. The White
Empire. We know Canada and Australia and New Zealand aren’t happy with political developments here, though the South Africans don’t mind. We want to know how the big African settlement
programmes are going, the plans for the new East African and Rhodesian Dominions. You could supply us with that information, papers too. You’d meet periodically with me, our man from the
India Office, and our Colonial Office fellow.’
    ‘Geoff’s the Colonial Office man, isn’t he?’ David said.
And you’re from the Foreign Office
, he thought. Jackson didn’t answer.
    ‘I’m too junior to be allowed to take papers from the office.’
    Jackson nodded his big grey head and smiled in that way he had, half confidential, half condescending. ‘There are ways.’
    ‘What ways?’ David asked. Looking back, he realized that was the moment when he had made the final, irrevocable commitment.
    Jackson said, ‘So you’re joining us?’
    David hesitated, then nodded. ‘Yes.’
    Jackson smiled, a smile of real warmth. ‘Thank you,’ he said. He shook David’s hand firmly.
    And so, bit by bit, David learned how the Resistance had people everywhere, in factories, offices, the countryside, organizing protests and poster campaigns, strikes and demonstrations. There
were even small areas, mining villages and remote country districts, where they were in charge, where the police dared not venture except in force. Passive resistance was over; the police and army
and their buildings were all legitimate targets. They had links with other Resistance groups throughout the continent. And they had spies everywhere, ‘sleepers’ working in institutions
all over the country, awaiting the call.
    Shortly after, when they met in the club again, Jackson said, ‘Time to