World War II: Starting with the defeat of the Desert Fox

Chapter 10 A Lucky Break

Gray came to see Thorne the next morning.

The Thorne family was having breakfast at the time.

Breakfast was simple: two slices of bread, a fried egg, and some English morning tea.

When Emma served the fried eggs, she said, "I heard there's a severe shortage of eggs in China, so let's take advantage of the fact that we can still eat them now."

Thorne understood her concerns: if the British army was defeated, Thorne's family would likely have to retreat back to the British mainland with the British army, and then it would be difficult to get eggs.

Thorne wasn't worried about that; he just didn't quite like morning tea, which was made with strong tea, sugar, and milk, and had a rather strange taste.

Just then, the sound of brakes came from outside the door, and soon Gray appeared at the door.

Wells and Emma warmly rose to greet them:

"Hey, Major, it's nice to meet you."

"Come have breakfast with us!"

Thorne sat there eating by himself, pretending not to see Wells's attempts to signal him.

Gray was a "great benefactor" to them, but Thorne didn't see him that way. He was actually an assistant sent by Montgomery to help Thorne complete his plan.

Grey readily accepted Emma's invitation: "Thank you very much, Mrs. Grey. I haven't eaten all night."

He chose a seat opposite Thorne, and Thorne noticed that he was listless.

"What happened?" Thorne wondered. Was there a problem with the quartz powder test?

Gray seemed to sense Thorne's concerns and replied:

"Oh, no."

"Don't worry, your gasoline formula is excellent."

"We've tested it, it works fine, you can start mass production now."

He didn't want Emma and Wells to know this, using the term "gasoline formula" instead of "toxic gasoline."

Thorne breathed a sigh of relief. This was a crucial step; if it went well, half the battle was won.

"But you look like you didn't sleep all night." Thorne pursed his lips and took another small sip of his morning tea.

There was no way around it; the bread was just too dry.

Gray took the plate Emma offered and thanked her again, explaining, "It's because when we interrogated Bassim, he was incredibly stubborn."

Instantly, Wells and Emma's gazes shifted back to Gray.

"Did he confess?" Wells asked. "And who ordered him to?"

Thorne's heart skipped a beat, and his hands unconsciously slowed down.

He worried that Gray would say, "I know you're using me, Thorne. They're not German spies; they're employed by oil tycoons."

Unexpectedly, Gray replied:

"Yes, Mr. Wells."

"He confessed."

"He was a member of the Young Green Shirts, as were several of his associates."

Wells and Emma gasped in surprise.

They had heard of the "Young Green Shirts," an extreme anti-British paramilitary organization in Egypt, named for the uniforms they wore during operations.

Gray continued, "We even found out they had connections with the Germans, which means they were spies."

"A spy?" Wells was incredulous.

"Yes," Gray explained, "as you know, they were powerless to defeat the British army, so they hoped to use the Germans to drive us out."

"These fools," Wells said. "They think the Germans can bring freedom."

Thorne still looked bewildered: "Is this... really true?"

“Of course it’s true.” Gray looked at Thorne gratefully. “It’s all thanks to you for providing me with this clue, Mr. Thorne.”

Well, Thorne thought, was this a lucky accident?

But does this have nothing to do with Shell?

Thorne didn't learn more until he went out with Gray after breakfast.

Gray leaned closer to Thorne and lowered his voice:

"I didn't tell you everything, Thorne. The police chief and Bassim accepted bribes from Shell."

"We are investigating whether Shell has any espionage connections, so we cannot disclose more information at this time."

"But I want you to know this: Shell has its eye on you."

Thorne feigned shock: "My God, Shell is involved too?"

"Of course." Gray nodded solemnly: "They are your competitors. Don't think of the business world as so simple."

Thorne understood.

In Gray's view, espionage is the main storyline, while Shell's involvement is secondary.

He didn't expect that Shell's behind-the-scenes manipulation was the main storyline, and that Barthim might just have been a "Green Shirt" member without being involved in any espionage case.

The reason is that small companies like Red Sea Oil have neither the need nor the value to use espionage.

But Thorne didn't need to worry about these things; one thing he was certain of was:

Shell may be in big trouble because it hired spies to suppress its competitors. How could a British oil company cooperate with enemy spies?

Thorne was both amused and exasperated, never expecting that a few carelessly uttered words would actually lead the other party into a trap.

"Come on!" Gray invited Thorne. "I'll take you to work, and we can discuss some more details."

Thorne didn't object and followed Gray as he got into his military jeep.

As the car started, Gray once again focused on the "toxic oil":

"The test went smoothly, and we determined that around 200 grams met the requirements."

"The key is quartz dust."

"Because we can retrieve the Germans' oil drums from the sea, add quartz dust, and then throw them back into the sea."

He paused for a moment, then continued:

"However, this does not mean that your refinery is useless; we will need it in the future."

"Because severe weather is inevitable, it becomes extremely difficult to salvage the oil drums and add dust into them."

"This could affect the entire war in North Africa, do you understand?"

"Understood." Thorne nodded, then asked after a moment's thought, "I have a question: how do you determine the optimal deployment time?"

"What?" Gray, who was steering the wheel, glanced at Thorne, not understanding what Thorne meant.

"I mean," Thorne explained:

"You timed it to be about an hour after the Germans used 'poisonous gasoline'."

"I don't understand why it's one hour?"

"Unless you know the timing of the German attack, how can you determine approximately when to release the 'poisoned gasoline'?"

Gray laughed heartily: "That's not something you need to worry about, Thorne."

Then, meaningfully, he asked Thorne, "Do you understand?"

"Okay, it's a military secret," Thorne said understandingly. "Don't tell me anything, just pretend I didn't ask."

What Gray didn't know was that Thorne actually did.

Thorne was worried that Gray knew he knew, so he pretended not to.

During this period, Britain possessed a prototype of a "super secret" computer, which they used to decipher German codes and accurately predict the timing of German attacks.

Thorne asked the question knowing the answer already in order to avoid arousing Gray's suspicion.