Page 36 of Shadows In Paris
‘That sounds very cold when you put it like that. Are we only using her, then?’
‘In a way, we are. You need to harden your heart in the intelligence game. Caring too much for your agents and partners isn’t wise. Mind you, I’ve found it to be easier said than done.’
‘Poor Hannah. At least she knows Henry is alive,’ Lizzie said.
A shadow crossed Jack’s face. His brother was never far from his thoughts. ‘True. I try to keep the vision in my mind that Henry and Hannah will make it through the war and will be married and live a long and happy life.’
‘That’s a lovely vision,’ Lizzie said, the emotions rising in her throat. ‘I hope she finds her family after the war, too. Surely, most Jews will live through this and be liberated when it ends. They can’t murder them all.’
Lizzie shook her head and brought herself back to the present. She must get on with the job at hand and not think too much about why she was alone in a farmhouse in occupied France, pretending to be visiting her sister who was now secretary to a high-ranking officer at the Reich HQ.
She longed to send a message to Jack, but she had no news that warranted the risk, so she restrained herself from running up to the attic.
Jack had set up a private system to receive her messages directly to Baker Street. ‘It’s bad enough waiting to hear from the other agents via Bletchley Park’s cumbersome teleprinter. I’m not doing it for your messages. It’s far too slow. I need to be on standby to fly in immediately if something goes wrong.’
The fact he was prepared to create a new system just to receive her messages quicker warmed her heart, and she agreed it was a good plan if he wouldn’t raise any eyebrows.
‘Let eyebrows raise,’ he said. ‘The powers that be keep talking about the need to set up a better system now we’re expanding with more agents. I will tell them this is the beginning and I’m testing it in the field.’
Jack reminded Lizzie of Hannah. He was just as much a wild card as the Resistance leader. The only difference was he had mastered the art of operating so that when he hit the boundaries and wished to break the rules, he convinced his superiors he should create new ones.
The kettle steamed as she poured the water for tea. She would message Jack as soon as there was news worth sharing. What she yearned to tell him was how much she was missing him. It had only been a few days and already it felt like there was a hollow space carved into her chest. In bed last night, with the covers up to her chin to keep out the gnawing cold, she had longed to reach out and touch his warm body like when she stayed at his flat. She had grown used to talking to him every day, and it was a wrench without him.
There was a loud knock at the back door, and Lizzie froze. Should she answer or pretend to be out?
The blood rushed to her head as she turned to check herreflection in the mirror. She cast her eyes over the outfit she had hastily thrown on to come down for breakfast and see Hannah off. Her face was devoid of any makeup, and she wore her freshly dyed blonde hair loose.
She would do.
Lizzie walked slowly to the door, her pulse racing. Scenarios flooded her mind with every step. Was Hannah’s new job a trap, and they had come to search her home? Hannah had given this address as a double bluff. Using a false one would make it more suspicious, she reasoned. If she was open about living there with her sister, there was nothing to hide, and she could come home every evening.
It had seemed a clever idea when they discussed it as they cycled back from staking out German High Command in the city.
But now scary possibilities raced through Lizzie’s head. Was it the Gestapo at the door? She’d heard how they rapped loudly on people’s doors, bundled them into cars, and they were never seen again.
Lizzie inhaled deeply, squared her shoulders, and opened the door.
A short older woman stood on the doorstep; an elegant scarf looped stylishly around her neck. Her eyes twinkled as she peered up at Lizzie and greeted her, ‘Good morning.’
‘Good morning,’ Lizzie replied, her heart thumping. ‘How may I help you?’
CHAPTER 16
Hannah checked her watch and saw she was early. She slowly approached the main door of the building that not too long ago had been the Hotel Majestic.
The imposing stone façade was bedecked with red and black swastika banners fluttering eerily in the icy wind. No longer a welcoming hotel for visitors to enjoy all that Paris had to offer, but it served instead as a sobering tribute to the Reich’s domination of Europe.
Paris, once the celebrated city of light, had become the city that hosted murderers who brought bloodshed in their wake.
Anger raced through Hannah’s veins, and she breathed slowly to maintain her composure. For as long as she could pull it off, she would pretend to be a humble servant of the Reich. She would act as though she was in awe of the Nazi rise to power and for that reason, she was honoured to have been selected to work at one of their most prestigious offices in France.
A guard on the door greeted her and, after checking herpapers, stood aside for her to enter the gleaming marble lobby. She thanked him and her eyes strayed to the ominous eagle above the breast pocket of his grey-green tunic glinting in the pale winter sun.
After years of living a double life, Hannah was practiced at not showing her emotions, but her heart pounded, and her throat was dry as she walked through the lobby and followed the soldier’s directions.
This was it. She had wanted to go undercover in a Nazi office in Paris for months. The day had finally come when she had made it a reality. Several times she had suggested such a mission to the SOE via Jack or Lizzie and been refused. Until recently, when she had decided she would do it with or without their support. The intelligence she had received about the intensified persecution of the Jews in France that the Nazis were planning from this exquisite building was more than she could ignore.
Lizzie told Hannah that her boss had intercepted her last message before it reached Jack, and she had commanded them to organise backup immediately.
