Page 61 of Hearts of Resistance
‘Don’t look so surprised,’ Sophia said, walking off and looking anxious again. ‘I’m not the only one trained by SOE, remember?’
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SOPHIA
Sophia scanned the open fields around them, anxious to start moving again. She hated the feeling of being a sitting duck, as if they were inviting the enemy to find them by staying in the same place for too long. She’d stayed alive before meeting Rose by moving often and always staying in small groups or working on her own, and she didn’t want to become complacent. If anything, it was more dangerous than it had ever been now that an Allied attack was imminent.
‘When did you train with the SOE?’ Hazel asked, appearing beside her. ‘I don’t even know how long you’ve been here.’
They stood side by side and Sophia waited before answering, not wanting to be short with her. She’d told Hazel bits about her past, but her new friend was obviously still curious.
‘After I left Berlin, I headed for London,’ she said. It felt like an eternity ago; so much had happened since then. ‘I found my way to the right people, offered my services, and although they were suspicious of a German woman suddenly wanting to assist, I was able to prove myself to them.’ Sophia paused, thinking back. ‘I’ve been in France for well over a year now. I was the same as you, the moment my training was over I was earmarked to be sent in.’
Hazel was standing close and Sophia almost wished she’d bump into her, brush her shoulder against hers. She craved just the simple act of having someone casually touch her. Before she’d left Germany, she’d been used to a closeness with her mother that she knew would never be replaced, and she’d had Alex with her all the time. Now, she missed it. The wall she’d built around herself had kept her safe, but it had made her feel a deep-set loneliness that she was starting to resent.
‘Did you tell your recruiter about your mother and your Alex?’ Hazel asked softly.
‘I did. And I was able to tell them about my work in Berlin, rescuing Jews and working with our network to smuggle them out of the city.’ She laughed. ‘That and the fact that I excelled at explosives training made me a valuable asset.’
They were silent for some time, the only noise the soft echo of birdsong in the trees nearby.
‘Can I ask you something, about your training?’ Hazel said.
Sophia turned and gave Hazel a quick smile. ‘Anything. Of course.’
Hazel looked uncomfortable and Sophia hoped it wasn’t her who’d made her so. She glanced over her shoulder and noticed that Rose was sitting slightly away from the old barn now, her back against a tree. She was probably trying not to listen, but no doubt their voices were carrying the short distance.
‘Do you believe you could kill a man?’ Hazel finally asked, her voice so soft it was almost a whisper. ‘I mean, with a knife to his throat or with his own weapon or...’
‘With my bare hands?’ Sophia finished for her, knowing they’d both been taught the same methods of killing.
‘Yes.’
Sophia nodded and took a deep breath. ‘I know I could because I already have,’ she confessed. ‘The night I ended up on Rose’s doorstep, I’d been shot. But I was quick enough to grab my knife and kill one of the two men. The other was so shocked that it gave me time to grab the dead Gestapo’s gun and shoot him, too.’
Hazel’s face showed her surprise. ‘Oh, well, I see.’ She stumbled over her words and Sophia wondered what she was thinking, whether she was horrified or proud. ‘Was it easy? I mean, did you second-guess yourself?’
‘You don’t have time to second-guess yourself,’ Sophia told her, remembering the feel of the blade in her hand, of squeezing the trigger, of looking down at two dead men and knowing that her hand had taken both their lives. ‘There’s a split second between them killing you, or you killing them. The only time you have to think about it is after.’
‘Thank you,’ Hazel said, placing a hand on Sophia’s shoulder, her eyes so filled with honesty that Sophia wished she’d never been so hard on her in the first place. ‘I needed to hear that.’
‘Come on,’ Sophia said brusquely, not knowing what to say with Hazel looking at her with such compassion. ‘We need to go through what we’re doing.’
She walked over to where Rose was sitting and dropped down to the ground. Hazel did the same.
‘Are either of you familiar with the bridge?’ she asked.
Hazel shook her head, but Rose nodded.
‘I am, but I can’t say I’ve ever taken a lot of notice of it,’ Rose said.
‘Me neither,’ Sophia confessed. ‘But we don’t need to know it well to understand what we need to do. The only unknown is how well patrolled that area is, and we’re not going to know that until we get there and survey it with our own eyes.’
‘I think it’s too dangerous to watch it for too long,’ Hazel said. ‘We’re more likely to be found, and the Germans could have intercepted any of the recent messages.’
‘I agree,’ Sophia said. ‘But we need to be careful that we’re not caught before we lay our explosives. We need to spend a short time watching, and then when we run down, we need to put everything in place fast and get out of there quickly.’
‘What do you need us to do to help?’ Rose asked.
