Page 53 of Shadows In Paris
Hannah replied, ‘Nothing that I’ve seen, Major General. There is some new correspondence still to be sorted—it is next on my list to do.’
The major general continued to assess her, and all Hannah could think of was the incriminating camera film containing German Military Intelligence secrets in her pocket.
Did he suspect her of something? She feared he viewed her with suspicion despite the lust in his eyes.
She rose from her chair and smoothed down her skirt. ‘I will check the new correspondence immediately and bring you anything about the confiscation of Jewish art.’
‘Collette?’
‘Yes, Major General?’ In the beginning, she had addressed him respectfully as Herr Major General, but he had told her there was no need for that. ‘Major General will do. No need to waste words.’
That was the type of man he was, and she soon noticed he relished his rank and was desperate for promotion. Everything he did was carefully thought through and designed to show him in his best light. The major general was a calculating individual who had set his sights on the general’s job,and it was part of Hannah’s role to help facilitate his advancement.
The thought of it made her sick to the stomach, and she had to remind herself why she was here and how important it was that she stick to her plan. She was in the best position to gain advance information about operations in Paris, and her data leaking had already paid off. Only last week, she had told Lizzie to meet with Francois in the park and tip him off about a last-minute change in troop and weapon movements. The result was he and Phillipe were in the right place at the right time to derail another train and stop it from reaching its planned destination.
The following morning, the major general had been in a foul mood and had smashed an expensive vase to smithereens in his office. He may be immaculately dressed, but Hannah already knew his weak point. The major general lost control of his anger when he was thwarted, and things didn’t go his way.
‘Come and clean this up immediately.’ He shouted at Hannah and when she went in, she saw his hands were shaking and his face was bright red.
Yes, her new boss wasn’t as cool and composed as he liked people to think. She was in his inner sanctum, and very few people saw him with his defences down.
That was the benefit of risking her life every day by working for one of the most high-ranking officers in Paris.
‘Bring me a coffee before you go through the correspondence,’ he snapped.
‘Of course,’ Hannah said in the deferential tone she was careful to use when she was around him. He must not suspect she burned with hatred for him and everything he stood for, or her long-term plan to use his efforts to thwart him at every turn, would go down in flames along with her and the rest of the Liberty Network.
Hannah was patient. As she made his coffee in the way he liked it, spooning in the sugar and stirring it just as his former secretary had shown her, she imagined him stood against a wall in front of a firing squad. Like how the Nazis exterminated anyone who got in their way. The image was compelling, and it gave her the resolve to do what she had to do.
The major general’s day of reckoning would come. She would make sure of that.
CHAPTER 25
The cold seeped into Lizzie’s bones as she lay in wait on the hard bank of the railway track that ran through the rural outskirts of Paris. Francois had left her a sign that she should come on the next sabotage mission. She spotted his chalk mark signal on the trunk of the gigantic oak tree on her way home from the city with a few measly supplies in her bag for a light meal for her and Hannah.
Lizzie’s thoughts wandered back to the Stern family as she peered through the gorse waiting for a sign to lay the explosives for the approach of the train.
Francois had smuggled the family out of the farmhouse in a borrowed truck and delivered them to a safe house in the seaside village of Ciboure. From there, a Basque guide was to take them over the Pyrenees.
Lizzie prayed they had made it into Spain. If they had escaped France, they were at least in with a chance of making it.
Meanwhile, Hannah was giving them frequent updates about planned weapon and troop movements via her role inGerman High Command, and the network was carrying out more sabotage operations than before.
It was still dusk, so the cape of darkness they usually relied upon when running clandestine operations did not conceal them, but they agreed this train was worth the risk.
Lizzie clutched her coat to her and moved her legs to keep from freezing. How she longed for winter to be over, and the frost to melt away on the warm spring breeze, and the grass to reappear like a soft green carpet beneath her feet. The first shoots of spring would decorate the trees, blossom would transform the bushes into visions of loveliness fit for any painter’s brush, and the birds would tweet their joyful songs, proclaiming spring’s arrival.
Francois hissed. ‘It’s coming. Get ready.’
Lizzie’s stomach dipped as she scrambled to her feet. She knew exactly what she had to do, but it didn’t make it less frightening. Francois and Philippe had risen to Hannah’s challenge and formed a lethal sabotage team in her absence. They had performed many successful operations all around the outskirts of Paris and sometimes far beyond. Lizzie usually passed on the intelligence and helped them fine tune the ops, but today they needed her on the team.
Lizzie rigged her explosives just as she’d done in her early training, and more recently, under Hannah’s watchful eye.
Hannah had discovered in some of the top-secret documents she combed through in the office that the Wehrmacht had been ordered to stop using horns and whistles on trains carrying weapons and soldiers. It made them too easy to target and her boss, the sinister major general, dictated a report for Hannah to pass upline to his boss, the general, detailing what he described as the worrying increase in sabotage in recent months, performed by French traitors to the Reich.
It was tangible proof the Liberty Network was having success in sabotaging and destroying German operations.
Hannah and Lizzie celebrated with a bottle of expensive Burgundy the major general had given her as a thank you for her commitment to the job. Hannah had laughed so hard at the irony of toasting their success with wine from the enemy. She said her boss’s arrogance knew no bounds. He couldn’t imagine anyone would dare to cross him.
