ENCLOSURE 4: Transcript of Treachery Act Hearing for [REDACTED]] // CEA GREEN, testimony of the witness [REDACTED]] // CEA INDIGO, 6 August 1944
[Excerpt begins]
Thank you for your candor. While I cannot tell you what weight it will carry in your sentencing, the Prosecution notes that your relationship did indeed serve the interests of His Majesty and the security of the Kingdom, and is correspondingly a matter of some discretion. However, can you tell me if there were negative consequences to your conduct as well?
-There… There were. Maybe. The fight, the one after that cursed play.
And which play is this? Please remember that while the Prosecution and Defense are sworn to defend the integrity of military secrets under the Treachery Act, the record, perforce, is not.
-It was the French one, the King in Yellow. The evil one, you remember?
I see. And what was the eventual fate of this… (There was a pause here while the observer from the Admiralty whispered something to the Prosecution.) The Prosecution will reframe the question. What transpired in this aforementioned fight?
-My friend [REDACTED] // CEA GREEN] attacked the spy we had caught, nearly killed him. He had to be restrained.
That is the captured spy you spoke of previously? The spy had to be restrained?
-No, sir. [REDACTED] // CEA GREEN] had to be restrained. The spy we killed. Or the Major did, rather.
The spy was killed because of the fight?
-No, he was… I don’t know, sir, upon consideration. I simply accepted that he was killed in the moment, I am not entirely sure I ever had an explanation offered for why the prisoner was killed. No one was much bothered by it, at that point. There were larger forces at work, and the press of time was great.
I see. You mean that it was time for the Squadron Leader to begin the next phase of the operation, is that correct?
-Yes, sir, the Squadron Leader. That was the point at which he returned me to the custody of the Court. I don’t truly have any further information from that point on, my role had been fulfilled. The dreams stopped then, and I stopped seeing Him. In waking life or the dreams.
And are there any other possibilities for why the spy was killed that you can imagine? Anything that might have been intimated or conjectured upon?
-Well, to be fair, we were all in something of a state in the moment. The play… It seems silly to say, but something of the atmosphere of it leaked, in a manner, from the words into the day-to-day. We all took on something of the bone mask, at that point, and killing perhaps simply seemed part and parcel of the process.
Thank you. (A brief conference between the Prosecution and the observer from the Admiralty occurred) The witness may step down now.