Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II

With one week left in training, Max starts to feel impatient and desperate. He loses a race to Jean and injures his wrist punching the dummy. During a hide-and-seek exercise, Chumley catches him and scolds him for rushing. Max stalls on the puzzle of how to spell Chumley’s name correctly, and the failure weighs on him.

Max speaks with Sergeant Thompson, who reflects again that people do anything for those they love. The remark steadies Max. Jean continues to push him through drills.

Two days before the deadline, Max writes an letter to Ivor, confessing his exhaustion and feelings of worthlessness. He leaves the letter on his desk and goes up to bed feeling despondent. The next morning, Jean comes into his cottage when she gets no answer. Finding the letter, she comes up to him bedroom and sits with him.

Jean explains that she joined Naval Intelligence to live fully, not to avoid risk, and reframes failure as part of that life. She encourages Max to see that he is lucky to be given these opportunities. When he says she is luckier, she points out that, as woman, her role in the war effort is limited to “the home front” (243). Reflecting that maybe he is the most “alive” person, Max gets up. Jean challenges him to another race; he loses, but the loss energizes him.

The evening before the last training day, Max watches Sergeant Thompson lock the parks’ entry ledger into his briefcase and carry it to the Mansion safe. Max has an idea for solving his mission.

Berg confronts Stein about his recent helpfulness to Max. Stein wonders if their purpose is to help people rather than heckle them, admitting it feels good. Berg resists this idea.

On the last day of his deadline, Max lures a kangaroo off the estate with Marmite sandwiches, creating chaos and drawing Sergeant Thompson away from the guardhouse. Max slips into the empty post, opens the ledger, and finds the correct spelling of Chumley: Cholmondeley.

Later, Ewen, Lord Rothschild, and Jean confront him, furious about the security breach. Rothschild is particularly upset about the risk to the kangaroo, named Kathy. Just as Ewen is telling Max he is too irresponsible to be a spy, Lieutenant Chumley arrives from the dead letter box with Max’s note bearing the correct spelling. It is revealed that Max’s plan was subterfuge and Chumley announces that Max has passed training.

The next morning, the team gathers in a London hotel for a mission briefing with Admiral John Godfrey. Chumley explains that Max’s destination is Berlin, pending one final assessment. The team shows Max photographs of a radio shop, its owner, and Fritz “Freddie” Fritzsche, the son of Germany’s top radio newsman. Max identifies a final photograph as the Haus des Rundfunks, or the Funkhaus, Germany’s central broadcast building. Chumley states that Max must infiltrate the Funkhaus. He is to do this by making friends with Freddie.

A phone call interrupts them and a nervous Admiral Godfrey announces the arrival of an important person.

The team descends to a basement room. Dr. William Brown introduces himself as the psychological assessor. There is a panel of three assessors: An army general and a St. West’s School alumnus are waiting, but an empty seat remains. Prime Minister Winston Churchill enters, reading from a file, and stays standing.

The assessment begins as Dr. Brown administers a word-association test. Max answers cautiously, sometimes hesitating. Dr. Brown rules him a young “boy” and emotionally unfit. Max feels desperate and tells Berg and Stein he thinks he is a worthless son. Berg sighs and tells Max to ask Dr. Brown if he has ever been to Munich.

Following Berg’s prompts, Max asks Dr. Brown about a trip to Munich in 1936. Using Berg’s knowledge, he reveals that Dr. Brown met with Dr. Ernst Rüdin, a high-ranking Nazi eugenicist, in a friendly meeting, which discredits the assessor. The general and Old Wet approve the mission. Prime Minister Churchill gives final approval and wishes Max luck.

The team is stunned. Berg admits he helped Max, and Stein remarks that helping feels good. The mission is on.

At sunset, the team drives Max to an airfield. Max is nervous about the impending flight, as are Berg and Stein. Max remembers the last week when he was being drilled repeatedly through his cover and mission and overheard a conversation between Ewen and Admiral Godfrey. Admiral Godfrey referred to Max as expendable and a “little freak.”

Max has been assigned the cover of Max Maas, nephew of Pastor Andreas Maas, his parents’ neighbor in Berlin. Max secretly intends to visit his parents as soon as he arrives. Ewen makes Max promise that he won’t accidentally ring the bell of his parents’ apartment, because the “people in your old apartment are not to be trusted” (284). Max realizes that his parents no longer live in their apartment and no one knows where they are. Berg and Stein recognize that Max is devastated, although he hides this from everyone else.

Chumley makes Max promise not to search for his parents, as it would endanger the mission. Max agrees aloud but silently vows to find them.

They reach an airfield crowded with bombers. Ewen explains Max will travel on a bombing run and parachute into Germany. Max meets Major John Jameson, the commando to whom he will be strapped for a tandem jump. Major Jameson is cheerful but the idea of the jump terrifies Max.

Max thinks of his parents and sees Jean’s reassuring smile. He steadies himself and agrees to proceed.

During the flight, Max sits strapped to Major Jameson’s lap in the freezing bomb bay. Max is terrified and Berg and Stein are complaining. When the signal comes, Jameson moves to exit, but their parachute pack wedges in the opening. The navigator, Chapman, runs back and kicks the pack. The kick frees them, and they tumble into the night air. After freefall, the parachute opens and they descend.

They hit a field hard. Max lies tangled in cords and waits for Major Jameson’s signal but hears nothing. He frees himself and crawls to Jameson.

Max finds that Jameson suffered a fatal head wound on impact. Lost in enemy territory with only Berg and Stein, Max decides to move forward, one task at a time.