Another officer, younger, hair too tidy for a man who slept, added, "Airfields to the east are busy at night. Not loud. Busy. We think dispersal drills."
Churchill considered the pins as if they might respond. "They are preparing," he said. "Of course they are preparing. Only the unprepared go to war slowly."
He reached for a file stamped Confidential and read without moving his lips. "Has the Prime Minister seen anything like this?" he asked.
"He is briefed as the Cabinet Office deems appropriate," the colonel said, a formulation that managed to be both careful and unhelpful.
Churchill did not sigh. "If he fails in Germany," he said, "we will need every ship, every shell, every engine we can find."
The younger officer looked as if he wanted to ask something and was deciding whether courage or caution would win.
Courage won, slightly. "Do you think he knows, sir? The scale of it?"
"He knows what he can bear," Churchill said. "We all do."
