More interrogation!

“Now young lady” said Major Von Barner trying to seem stern “I’ve a good mind to send you off to a proper school somewhere like England, where you can’t get into trouble”

“But!” interject Ilse.

Von Barner held up his hand for silence ”However I am sure that you would abscond as soon as you had chance so it would not be fair on the school. Therefore I am sending you to Frau Wurmser’s academy in Sonnenbad, where you will learn how to act like a lady. If you abscond then the Freishutze will hunt you down”

"But Father!”

Again the hand was raised “No, I am determined. If you are set on becoming a spy then you need to be able to emulate a lady as well as a scullery maid”

“Yes Father. But when did you find out I was Sparrow?”

“Well two ways, firstly that the code in the messages was too correct, most agents seem to have common mistake they make when coding and then it was obvious that Hans was taking too much interest in these specific reports. So tell me again how you managed to get a job in the palace?”

"Quite simple really, the servants talked quite openly about their origins and for female staff the route was via Bishop’s housekeeper. I simply broke into the Bishop’s palace and copied a reference from a parish priest with appropriate changes. Our man in the palace then arranged for some staff to suffer food poisoning so there was a need for more staff.”

“So how did you know about our agents there?”

“Simple the information is in your office, and the idea of sticking a hair across the door as an additional check only works if no one knows it was there! And the lock was easy to pick.”