Page 28 of Shadows In Paris
The following night, Lizzie, Hannah, and two other members of the Liberty Network lay in wait in a ditch by a railway track on the outskirts of Paris. It was freezing, and they were all restless.
The countryside was still and quiet, apart from the occasional rustle of nocturnal wildlife. Tension weighed in the air and with every passing minute Lizzie grew more anxious.
Francoisoffered her a cigarette, and she accepted to distract herself. He cupped the flame with his hand and lit the cigarette for her with a gallant flourish.
She tried not to cough but couldn’t stop herself as the acrid smoke caught in the back of her throat.
‘Amateur smoker?’ he said.
She grimaced. ‘Afraid so. I thought I should learn how to smoke, but I don’t enjoy it.’
They passed the time with Francois giving her demonstrations on how to smoke. The train was due about thirty minutes earlier and they were wondering whether it was going to arrive. It wasn’t uncommon for trains to becancelled at the last minute, and they had no way of knowing.
‘No sign of it in thirty minutes and we’ll call it a night,’ Hannah said.
Lizzie was glad of the gloves she had borrowed from Hannah. The evening air had a fierce chill that made her face sting and Francois predicted more snow.
A shiver ran through Lizzie, and she thought longingly of her comfortable bed in London. What would they allbedoing at home now? It was late. They would probably be fast asleep. Unless there was an air raid.
No one could escape the menacing shadows of war.
That morning over coffee, Hannah had explained that their new Resistance network had been extraordinarily successful in disrupting military trains that transported German weapons and troops.
‘Do people die when you blow up the tracks?’ Lizzie asked, still blurry eyed from a heavy sleep as she warmed her hands on the cup.
‘Not always, but yes, sometimes soldiers do. We try not to kill civilians in any operation, but it’s difficult these days to tell a collaborator from a civilian.’
‘I know it’s necessary, and I’ve been trained for it, but I’m still not used to killing people—even German soldiers,’ Lizzie said.
‘That’s understandable. Even now, I kill only in self-defence or as an unavoidable part of an operation. We don’t want to give the Nazis an excuse for reprisal killings of civilians.
The thing to remember is for each soldier we kill; it is one fewer that can point their gun at one of ours. Make no mistake, the Wehrmacht’s orders are to clean up France, one way or another, until there’s no one standing who opposes Hitler.’
Lizzie stubbed her cigarette out until the flicker of orange withered on the ground. She had resolved to harden her heart for what must be done, or she wouldn’t have agreed to return, but her previous experience still haunted her.
War was a brutal business and there was no way to avoid deaths if you were to carry out successful operations.
‘You are so experienced, I wonder how on earth I’m going to learn all this in time to replace you,’ Lizzie said, turning to Hannah, a wistful note in her voice.
Hannah adjusted her beret over her blonde hair. ‘Don’t worry. I don’t plan to disappear completely. I will be back as much as possible to train you in what we do. That’s why we need you to stay for a while. Just because I’ll be working on another mission doesn’t mean we should release the pressure on the rest of our operations. We’re making too much progress.’
‘How long do you think the new mission will take to resolve?’ Lizzie asked.
Hannah said, ‘It depends. It has the potential to be long term, and if I infiltrate at that level to gain intelligence, I’ll stay as long as they let me.’
‘If there’s anything you need from me, just let me know,’ Lizzie said.
‘Sshh,’ said Philippe, who had been quiet throughout. ‘I think I hear the train in the distance.’
The small group fell silent and strained their ears.
After a few seconds, Hannah commanded, ‘Go!’
They scrambled up the bank towards the railway line. Lizzie watched Hannah position the explosives on the track, illuminated by the silver light of the moon. They used small torches so they could see what they were doing. One wrong move could prove fatal.
‘Get out now!’ Hannah said, her voice low and urgent.
This was the most dangerous part of the sabotage, and itcould easily fail. So many factors were out of their hands, such as the exact time the train would roll over the explosive-rigged track. If they got it wrong, they could blow themselves up, and the train crew would be alerted in time to make an emergency stop.
