The Umbrella Mouse

by Anna Fargher

  Pip squeaked loudly in alarm.

  ‘Shhh!’ Hans scolded, covering her mouth with his paw as the umbrella ground to a stop, precariously hanging by its canopy from the peak of the roof. A dog growled and barked from inside the farmhouse and in a nearby field, cows looked up from where they grazed in surprise. Pip and Hans froze, hearing thudding footsteps before a door swung open, banging against a wall as a black and white sheepdog rocketed from inside the house.

  ‘Quoi? Quoi?’ the farmer cried over the dog’s incessant barking. His grey hair was scattered madly upon his head with sleep and he impatiently wrapped his dressing gown about him to ward off the early morning chill. ‘What is it?’

  Pip and Hans held their breath, both terrified their clamouring hearts would give them away. The sound of the breeze rustling through the nearby trees echoed the waves lapping the shore, and the farmer, seeing and hearing nothing out of the ordinary, dragged the dog inside by its collar and slammed the door closed behind him.

  ‘We need to run and jump off this roof,’ Hans said, immediately leaping to his paws and pointing to the first wisps of white clouds in a tangerine sky. ‘The sun is rising and we are sitting ducks if we stay here. We need cover from the forest, and GI Joe is waiting for us there with the Resistance.’

  ‘All right.’ Pip nodded, staring into the thick, rugged woodland, wondering how many creatures lurked there unseen. ‘But if we’re to get a good glide we’ll need a good run-up from the highest part of the roof. Come on!’ she said, hurrying up inside the open umbrella canopy with Hans at her heels. ‘Now push!’ she cried and the rat joined her, shoving the umbrella along the peak of the roof with their paws. As it scraped roughly along the slate tiles, Pip’s chest grew tight with fear, hearing the sheepdog bark angrily from inside the house once more.

  ‘Get ready to jump,’ Hans said. ‘One. . . Two. . . Three. Go!’

  As the umbrella tipped over the edge of the roof, they leaped to the metal stretchers inside the canopy and dangled from them, swinging back and forth. The open umbrella instantly filled with air, silently gliding into the trees and finally coming to rest on a bed of brown leaves.

  ‘Follow me,’ Hans said, swiftly climbing out of the umbrella. ‘Let’s close this thing and get out of here.’

  Hurrying, Pip pressed the secret carved fig leaf again, and collapsed the canopy. Carrying it above their heads, they scurried across the ground into the wilds ahead. A throng of trees loomed above them, creaking one after another as if quietly talking to each other in a secret language. Ground ferns trembled with disturbance, scattering early morning dew drops to the earth. Something was moving swiftly alongside them on the ground.

  ‘What was that?’ Pip said, hearing a rustle beside her.

  ‘Nothing,’ Hans said, quickening his pace. ‘Keep moving.’

  Suddenly a low growl sounded and a flash of grey fur exploded from the undergrowth, throwing Hans out from beneath the umbrella. As it flew from Pip’s grasp, she cowered in horror, watching a tabby cat leer over Hans as he lay stunned on the ground.

  ‘What a juicy rat,’ the cat purred, rolling her ‘r’s and licking her lips. ‘Délicieux.’

  ‘Stop!’ an eagle cried, flapping his powerful speckled wings and landing on the ground next to the cat with a limp.

  A slim white pigeon settled next to him and fluttered her eyelids. Looking Hans up and down, they all recoiled at his scarred face and body. With a gasp, Pip stepped backwards and hit a wall of fur. Blocking her path was a tall, muscular rabbit, looking down his twitching nose at her. Another hopped beside it from the undergrowth while squirrels stared from lofty branches, flicking their bushy red tails.

  ‘Don’t touch them until Madame has spoken to them,’ the eagle said firmly. ‘They may have information.’

  ‘Wait! ‘Let me explain,’ Hans said with beads of sweat bubbling on his brow. Hearing his accent, the cat growled and tightened her claws around his chest.

  ‘A German!’ she hissed, and curled her lips around her white fangs.

  ‘Enemy spies!’ the eagle cawed, and his golden eyes narrowed with fury.

  ‘No!’ Pip cried. ‘We’ve come from London.’

  ‘Silence, traitor!’ the cat snarled, and her eyes dilated with savageness.

  ‘Take them to Madame,’ screeched the eagle. ‘Now!’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE HOLLOW

  The eagle and the pigeon snapped the umbrella in their talons and burst upwards above the treetops. Leaping on Pip and Hans, the other animals tied their paws tightly behind their backs with twine. The rabbits took positions either side of them, the cat following from behind, her tail swishing from side to side. Hans gave Pip a look that silently told her not to be afraid, but his eyes were wide with unease and she felt the sting of tears in her own. The rabbits pulled black hoods over their heads and the world before them disappeared. Shoved forward, Pip walked blindly on, hearing muffled yells of protest from Hans beside her.

  For what seemed like hours, Pip felt the crunch of dead leaves under her paws until the air grew thick with a woody smell. She was pushed through a wall of twigs that scratched against her fur and her ears pricked, hearing the familiar sound of Morse code.

  ‘What is this?’ a female voice said, bristling with alarm, and the dits and dahs stopped at once. ‘Who are they?’

  ‘Germans,’ one of the rabbits said, ripping off Pip and Hans’s hoods. ‘The sheepdog sounded the alarm and we found them at the edge of the forest.’

  Pip blinked. They were inside a large hollow underneath a fallen oak tree. Its thick, leafy boughs created an oval chamber and the morning light dappled the crisp ground with a rippling white honeycomb. A bullfinch crouched in a large nest concealed in the upper branches, wearing the same headphones and holding the same triggers Pip had seen in Bernard Booth’s hideout in London. Directly beneath them stood a hedgehog with little brown eyes that creased at the sides with wisdom. She was surrounded by a small crowd of wild rabbits, squirrels, rats, field mice, three beavers and a stag, dipping his grand head of antlers to the ground to peer inside the hollow. The cat sat on her haunches beside them and purred.

  ‘We saw them come down from the sky,’ the other rabbit said. ‘In that!’

  He pointed his paw to the umbrella clutched in the eagle and white pigeon’s talons, as they dropped into the hideout from above. The birds placed the umbrella on the on the ground and stood to attention. Gazing at it with shock and confusion, the hedgehog scowled.

  ‘Who are you?’ she said with all her prickles standing on end. ‘Who are you working for?’

  ‘Madame,’ Hans said, drawing a deep breath, his voice tinged with annoyance. ‘We are on the same side.’

  ‘I’ll be the judge of that,’ the hedgehog snapped. ‘Who are you working for?’

  ‘Bernard Booth.’

  ‘Bernard Booth!’ she scoffed. ‘He would never send me a rat and a mouse kitten with an umbrella without warning.’

  ‘GI Joe, the messenger pigeon,’ Hans said, furrowing his brow. ‘He was meant to tell you we were coming. He was travelling ahead of us.’

  ‘GI Joe?’ the white pigeon cooed in a soft American accent and her head cocked inquisitively from side to side. ‘Did you say GI Joe?’

  ‘There’s been no sign of him,’ the eagle said, and frowned suspiciously, glancing at the white pigeon beside him. ‘Nazi falcons are trained to kill messenger pigeons – almost none survive these days. Bernard Booth knows that better than anyone. He wouldn’t risk sending his fastest pigeon when he could send a message via Morse code.’ He turned to the hedgehog and spoke in hushed tones. ‘Don’t trust them, Madame. Spies are everywhere. The enemy are trying to infiltrate us. This is a sensitive time, many are still in hiding after D-Day and the Allied advance still rests in the balance.’

  The forest animals murmured anxiously and Pip racked her brains for a way to help. Everything Hans said, they didn’t accept. She knew he was German, but he was a mem
ber of Churchill’s Secret Animal Army and Dickin, GI Joe and Bernard Booth trusted him completely. He had a strong spirit and a tender heart and she had to do something to help him.

  ‘John has a long moustache!’ she cried, remembering the message in the scroll she had stolen from GI Joe.

  An astonished gasp echoed in the hollow.

  ‘What did you say?’ the hedgehog asked, turning to Pip with bristling prickles.

  ‘I said, John has a long moustache!’ Pip repeated at the top of her voice, trying to sound as confident as possible, but she still had no idea what the words meant.

  ‘C’est terrible!’ a rabbit said under his breath, and his hind leg instinctively thumped the earth with worry. ‘How do they know the code?’

  The other animals in the hollow looked at one another in alarm.

  ‘Enemy spies!’ they muttered.

  ‘No!’ Pip squeaked, but none of the animals were listening to her.

  ‘They’ve intercepted the message from GI Joe!’

  ‘They’re here to sabotage the plan!’

  ‘There’s only one way to deal with enemy spies!’ the eagle squawked with furious, gleaming eyes. ‘Take them to the interrogation wall!’

  The forest animals cheered. Pouncing on Pip and Hans, they roughly dragged them to the depths of the hollow where the trunk of the fallen tree had been gnawed into a jagged semi-circular cavity. Shoved against it, Pip shuddered at the torn tufts of fur and feathers snagged on splinters of wood.

  ‘Wait! You don’t understand!’ Hans protested, struggling like Pip in his bonds, but it was hopeless. The gang of animals were too many and too strong. ‘Listen to me!’ he cried, cornered against the wall. ‘We are here to help you!’

  ‘Stop!’ Pip cried, searching for a way to escape, but the animals surged forward, baring their teeth and claws. ‘We are on your side!’

  ‘Nothing you can say can save you now,’ the cat hissed, curling her lips around her pointed fangs.

  Pip glared into her savage dilated eyes, trying to ignore the fear trembling under her fur.

  ‘Back off, you stinking hairball!’ Pip spat, ignoring the cat’s tail swishing from side to side. A long, low growl sounded from inside the cat’s throat. ‘We haven’t done anything wrong!’

  The eagle leaped towards her, furiously beating his wings. Cowering in alarm, Pip scrunched up her eyes as her ears and whiskers blew about her face.

  ‘Leave her alone!’ Hans cried. ‘What if I told you that I once was a Nazi? A Goliath Rat!’

  The forest animals snapped their attention away from the little mouse at once and roared with anger. Hans’s words struck Pip like a blow to the heart.

  ‘I didn’t know what I was getting into,’ he said, turning to her before facing the snarling mob. ‘I hate the enemy and I can tell you why! When you hear what I have to say, you will see we are not a threat to you!’

  ‘Stop!’ the hedgehog said, her brown eyes blazing with authority. ‘If we don’t listen to their defence then we are no better than those we hate.’ The gang of animals loosened their grips and begrudgingly backed away from the prisoners. ‘Speak then, rat,’ she said calmly. ‘But I warn you, if you lie, I will have no control over what happens to you.’

  ‘If you don’t believe me,’ Hans said, breathing heavily with distress, ‘then you can gladly kill us both.’

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  HANS DER SIPPE EIBSEE

  ‘Not so long ago,’ Hans said, ignoring the other animals and speaking to Pip, her eyes stinging with betrayal, ‘I lived under the roots of a tree by Lake Eibsee, a place in Bavaria where the water is so clear it mirrors the sky and the snow-topped mountains behind. That was until one winter brought ice as hard as stone to the lake. Soon, no birds sang in the treetops. No deer roamed through the forest and no creatures foraged on the ground. We starved. I buried every member of my family and I was orphaned and alone, facing the starvation that had killed them all.

  ‘With what strength I had left, I walked east to find help. But the path was harder than I ever imagined. The wind bit through my bones. It gouged at my eyes with a thousand claws and every step was a peak I was not strong enough to climb. I can’t tell you how far I walked before I collapsed in the snow and my exhausted journey drew to a hopeless end.

  ‘Two days later, I woke in a sewer beneath the town of Grainau, beside a rat as big as a small dog, with auburn fur like mine, but as strong as three rats from my clan. His ruby-red eyes sent a shiver down my spine. His name was Herr General and he had rescued me from the snow. The general nursed me back to health, all the while telling me of Germany’s suffering, convincing me that we needed to help the humans find freedom and glory. Youth, loneliness and grief are the meat evil feeds on, and when I recovered my strength, I followed him to battle for the Fatherland, joining his army of Goliath Rats. I felt I understood honour, justice and brotherhood.

  ‘But I soon learned what it really meant,’ Hans continued after a long sigh, gravely looking into the distance as if he had stepped into the past. ‘We stowed away inside vans carrying supplies north to a human concentration camp. Herr General sent us to prey on the innocent people inside, biting them and spreading fleas to infect them with disease. I am still haunted by the cruelty I saw them inflict and I quickly realized I had to do something. I ran away, hiding inside pipes and gutters, only reappearing to bite Hitler’s guards, doctors and officers instead. I made their lives as difficult as I could, chewing through the brake cables in their cars and motorbikes and through the wires of their radio and telephone lines.

  ‘One night when I was taking potato peelings I had stolen from the camp kitchen to give the inmates inside their barracks, I found Herr General and two more Goliath Rats attacking a woman, too weak to move from where she lay. A deadly fury stirred in my heart and a bitter fight broke out. The Goliath Rats began hunting me, but I escaped, stowing away in a Nazi officer’s truck travelling across the German border into France. Soon after, I sneaked on to a British Lysander plane collecting members of the French Resistance to take to London. I have served Churchill’s Secret Animal Army ever since.’

  A strong sea breeze blustered through the forest trees and as Hans paused, his eyes blazed under his scars with the memories of his past. Surrounding him and Pip in the hollow under the fallen tree, the forest animals stood captivated by his story.

  ‘Enough!’ the eagle squawked, furiously flicking his gold eyes from one animal to the next. ‘I cannot listen to another word. He is manipulating us! He admits it! He is a Goliath Rat! He’ll lead them to us all!’

  ‘Leave him alone!’ Pip squeaked, annoyed by the forest animals nervously murmuring to one another. ‘He’s telling the truth!’

  ‘Little wretch!’ the eagle cawed, limping towards her.

  ‘Get away from her!’ Hans cried, shielding Pip’s little body with his own.

  ‘Axis rat bâtard!’

  The eagle darted for him with his sharp, hooked beak glinting in the dappled sunlight. He was a whisker’s breadth from Hans when a sudden clattering sounded, followed by a torpedo of grey feathers bursting headlong into the eagle, somersaulting him away from the interrogation wall.

  ‘GI Joe!’ the white pigeon cooed, rushing to her mate lying dazed on top of the stunned eagle and smothering him with kisses. ‘It’s so good to see you again.’

  ‘Hey, baby,’ he cooed in return, his velvety American voice cracking with pain. ‘How you doin’, jitterbug?’

  ‘We are very happy to see you again, mon ami,’ the hedgehog said, hurrying to him and helping him to stand. Dumbfounded, the eagle peeled himself from the earth alone and stared at GI Joe. ‘We feared the enemy falcons were too many to outrun after D-Day.’

  ‘You’re not wrong, Madame Fourcade. I barely made it past those dodos myself.’ He glanced at Hans and Pip pushed against the interrogation wall and smirked. ‘I’m glad you made it here in one piece, buddy – I see you’ve made a good first impression.’

  �
�Do you know this rat?’ the hedgehog said urgently.

  ‘Sure I do. I’ve known this hairball since he first joined Churchill’s Secret Animal Army. He’s on our side and so’s the liddle lady.’

  ‘Release them at once!’ Madame Fourcade said, her stern brown eyes flashing impatiently from left to right.

  The forest animals scrambled to the prisoners and untied the ropes around their wrists. Furiously snatching away her paws, Pip tenderly rubbed her wrists where the ropes had burned the skin under her fur.

  ‘Courtesy of Mr Bernard Booth, ma’am,’ GI Joe said, unhooking the messenger canister from his ankle and passing it to the hedgehog.

  ‘John has a long moustache,’ the hedgehog read aloud with a smile. ‘This little mouse was right. Plan Violet and Operation Popeye can begin. Bring me a grape!’ She turned to a squirrel, who dashed away at once to burrow in the ground a few paces away. Included with the original scroll was another blank sheet of paper Pip had not seen. As the hedgehog laid it flat on the ground the squirrel returned, handing her a wrinkled green bulb. Tearing the fruit open, Madame Fourcade rubbed it against the paper, revealing hidden instructions and diagrams.

  ‘Invisible ink,’ Hans whispered to Pip.

  ‘It appears this rat and mouse kitten’s arrival demanded radio silence,’ the hedgehog said after reading the words on the paper. A fierce look of concentration passed over her face before she rolled it tightly closed again. ‘Destroy it,’ she said firmly, handing it to the squirrel, who feverishly ripped it to shreds with his claws. The hedgehog looked Hans and Pip up and down. ‘Bernard Booth believes if a Morse code message was intercepted, the enemy would never cease hunting an umbrella mouse.’

  ‘Hans and I are assigned to the mission with you,’ GI Joe cooed. ‘You can trust him completely, Madame, his being German and a former Goliath Rat has made him one of our strongest assets.’