Another title for a review of this phenomenal final part of the trilogy could be, "One should never tell Anything to Anyone", a dictum of Sir Peter Wheeler, former Oxford don, spy during WW II and the Spanish civil war. He was close to members of an ultra-secret group of people charged with "black propaganda", aimed to create chaos in Germany during WW II. He gives this advice to the trilogy's hero Jaime (etc.) Deza, who works for a 21st century version of this ex-WW II group without a name, working in a building without a name, which has co-opted its staff of no more than seven on his say so, regardless of nationality, no oath required. Privatisation of intelligence gathering is only one of the many themes in this volume.
Words can kill, knowingly or unknowingly. This volume provides plenty of evidence: slips of the tongue, false accusations, a simple idea to discredit an SS-officer, and the horrible (un)intended consequences. To win a war, anything and everything is allowed. And there will always be innocent victims. In smaller campaigns like scaring away a competitor for the love of the mother of one's children, the application of fear and violence also requires absolute determination. Who in this line of business is determined enough and can also cope with the outcome? And what will survivors of such actions do?
This third volume and the entire trilogy is a very deep piece of work, very (auto-)biographical, full of urgent and timeless themes, worked into a beautiful fabric with the aid of memories of wars, conversations, observation of videos of hideous scenes, and illustrated by ideas gained from posters designed to warn people that walls have ears, paintings, and quotations from poetry from centuries ago.
Western society can no longer suffer, stay silent, and shrug off our heroics during and after another very big conflict, as the UK did during and after WW II. I will reread Marias' trilogy next year, to understand perhaps 70%, and then again, and again. Ultimately, this trilogy is about the Western world today, having become soft, silly, totally ignorant of its roots and fundamental ideas and values, which were fought for, again and again.
No one is safe viewed from such a perspective. Least of all Deza, who at the end of this tale, will have to remain on guard, sleep with one eye open.