by Anna Fargher
‘You’re telling me that Bernard Booth has one of the most feared Axis animal soldiers in his command?’ The hedgehog frowned. Noah’s Ark muttered to one another nervously and scowled in Hans’s direction. ‘And he trusts him?’
‘It sounds cuckoo when you say it like that,’ GI Joe said. ‘But I gotta tell you, I’d sacrifice every feather on my body for him. We’ve completed ten missions together and we’re a force to be reckoned with. If anything goes wrong, he pretends to be the enemy and it’s saved my beak more than once.’
‘And what about this mouse kitten and the umbrella?’ Madame Fourcade said, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘Mon dieu. Whatever will these British agents think of next?’
Pip stood tall, trying to look as grown-up and capable as possible.
‘Pip’s an honorary member of Churchill’s Secret Animal Army,’ GI Joe said. ‘Bernard Booth’s ordered that the liddle lady and her umbrella stay in our care and she’s to help us while she’s here. She and Hans will continue east after Noah’s Ark’s completion of Operation Popeye.’
‘Bernard Booth is full of surprises today,’ the hedgehog said with a sigh. ‘So, little one – you know that also means you and Hans are also honorary members of Noah’s Ark?’
A rush of excitement pulsed under Pip’s fur. Now she was a spy in Churchill’s Secret Animal Army, getting to Italy would be easy and fighting alongside Noah’s Ark on the way didn’t seem so bad. She wanted to help bring an end to the war that had killed Mama and Papa.
‘Alors. We must organize our plans at once, but first,’ Madame Fourcade said softly, looking Pip and Hans in the eye. ‘Forgive us for your treatment. You must understand that enemy spies are everywhere and we can never be too careful in these times of invasion. I hope we can be friends.’ She held out her paw. ‘As GI Joe said, my name is Madame Fourcade, I am the leader of this group – Noah’s Ark.’
‘I’m Pip,’ Pip said, tentatively shaking paws. ‘Pip Hanway.’
Hans shook the hedgehog’s paw in silence.
‘Welcome to the French Resistance, Hans and Pip. We are pleased to have you with us.’
The cat yawned with disinterest and the eagle scoffed in the corner with an angry ruffle of his feathers. Used to his temper, the hedgehog ignored him and, climbing on to a log before rows of ears pricked high upon feathered and furry heads, she addressed the hollow.
‘Tonight is the night!’ Madame Fourcade said, her voice increasing in volume, encouraging her troop like an army general sending soldiers into battle. ‘I told you before France fell that Hitler is not unbeatable nor is he eternal! We must continue to nibble away at the enemy!
‘After our Allied success on D-Day, the enemy is retreating inland. But we have not won the war yet. Bernard Booth in Stronghold has intercepted a message from the enemy and we’re going to stop them.’
‘Stronghold?’ Pip whispered to Hans.
‘It’s Noah’s Ark’s codename for London, liddle lady.’ GI Joe winked. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll soon get the gist.’
‘This evening we shall conduct Operation Popeye,’ the hedgehog continued. ‘The humans are moving weapons and laboratory equipment by train east to the Nacht und Nebel camp in the Venteux Mountains. If we let them pass, they will travel to Germany and from there, they will gain strength. They will use the weapons on our Allied soldiers in France, Belgium and Italy. They will take the laboratory equipment to their concentration camps here in France, Germany and Poland. Innocent men, women and children will suffer. But we will not let them pass!’
The forest animals nodded with determination and a proud smile drew across the hedgehog’s face.
‘When the moon is at its highest, the train will cross Nouveau Bois Bridge over the river beside the monastery at Bec. We will chew through the supporting beams and force the train into the water! Whatever happens, the flame of the French Resistance must not and will not die!’
Noah’s Ark cheered. Madame Fourcade paused, feeling stronger with every word.
‘Émile,’ she said, pointing to the largest of three beavers sitting in the middle of the group. ‘Go to Nouveau Bois Bridge with your wife and son now! Gnaw every timber column on the far side of the river into a point, but be careful not to chew all the way through. I will meet you there tonight when the monastery bell strikes twelve and together we will watch the train fall.’
Émile nodded and promptly scurried out of the hollow with the other two beavers at his heels. Pip watched their large, waxy oval tails vanish through the forest’s trembling ground ferns, feeling a tremor of excitement beat inside her chest.
‘But first,’ the hedgehog said, turning her prickled head to Pip and Hans with twinkling eyes, ‘it’s time our new members proved their worth.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
NOAH’S ARK
Nerves fluttered Pip’s whiskers as every animal in Noah’s Ark turned and tittered with enthusiasm, staring at her and Hans, their noses trembling with curiosity.
‘How do you think they’ll do?’ a squirrel whispered.
‘He looks tough,’ another said, looking at Hans’s lean, scarred body. ‘I’m not so sure about her – she looks a little scrawny.’
Pip frowned and stood as tall as she could.
‘Don’t listen to them,’ Hans said. ‘Only fools judge by appearances.’
‘He’s right,’ cawed Léon, the eagle, and Henri, the stag, nodded. Regretting what they had said, the squirrels’ ears flattened against their heads and they scuttled away. Limping forward, the eagle offered the end of his speckled wing to Pip and Hans.
‘Please forgive my behaviour before,’ Léon said, glancing at Madame Fourcade with respect. ‘I was captured and the enemy left me with scars so I would never forget it.’ He gestured to his leg, gnawed and deformed with an unnatural, jagged lump at the knee. ‘Every day I feel the pain they caused,’ he said, ruffling his feathers with the memory. ‘It makes trust very difficult for me, I’m sorry.’
‘We share the same scars, friend,’ Hans said, taking Léon’s wing in both paws and earnestly shaking it. Pip did the same, recoiling shyly from the eagle’s fierce, golden stare. ‘And not all Germans are Nazis – some of us are resisters too,’ the rat continued solemnly. ‘Their Fatherland is not my Fatherland. Germany is trapped inside Hitler’s snare and I will fight for its freedom until my dying breath.’ He looked down into Pip’s face, who was staring up at him with a furrowed brow, and a tender smile flickered across his scarred face. ‘If necessary.’
‘Isn’t she a little young to be in Churchill’s Secret Animal Army?’ the white pigeon cooed to GI Joe, looking up from where she nestled on his shoulder and staring at Pip with an inquisitive flutter of her pretty blue eyes. ‘War isn’t a place for kittens.’
‘I’m old enough to have made it here, aren’t I?’ Pip scowled, feeling patronized by the bird. She wasn’t that much older than her.
Several animals giggled, amused by the little mouse’s spirit.
‘You’ve got heart, liddle lady,’ GI Joe chuckled. ‘The pair of you will get along just fine.’
‘I’m Lucia,’ the white pigeon said with a smile.
‘Pip.’
‘Like you,’ GI Joe said to Hans, ‘Luey escaped Axis capture.’ The pigeon gave the rat a friendly nudge. ‘But they let her keep her good looks.’
‘I was lucky,’ Lucia cooed. ‘I thought I was done for when they caught me, but then they sent me back with a message to my troops: Herewith we return a pigeon to you. We have enough to eat.’
‘Never underestimate luck, guts and guile,’ the hedgehog said firmly, approaching the group and placing a paw around Pip’s shoulder as if she was her own kitten. ‘When the worst happens you must use every last drop of them to survive.’
‘Then Madame Fourcade has the most luck, courage and brains of us all,’ GI Joe said. ‘She’s escaped captivity not once, but twice.’
Pip looked up at the hedgehog with a curious twitch of her nose. Somehow, she knew
every line scored on Madame Fourcade’s face told a story and she had no doubt she could be as fierce as she could be mild.
‘There is no need to look so worried, ma petite chérie,’ she laughed, giving Pip a gentle squeeze.
Feeling the hedgehog’s warm embrace, Pip’s heart grew heavy. It was not long since she had snuggled into Mama’s fur, but it seemed a lifetime ago. She couldn’t believe she would never see her again and she swallowed, trying to stop tears filling her eyes.
‘You are part of our family now. We take the greatest care of one another and strive never to be captured. But it is important for you to know,’ Madame Fourcade continued gravely, ‘if you are captured, your only hope is to escape, either in death or by whatever means you can. Each of us is connected to another animal in the Resistance – that’s what makes us strong. We work together, sharing information to destroy the Nazis. But the enemy knows this. They will do anything to make you turn on your allies, and pain can persuade even the best secret keeper to shout and scream.’
Noah’s Ark listened in silence, ears flattening with fear against their heads.
‘Torture is the most brutal language of war, Pip,’ the hedgehog continued. ‘You must never underestimate it. Whether you survive the horror of the interrogation or not, the cruelty of it will haunt you for the rest of your life, especially if your friends die by the secrets you told to ease your own suffering. So we must do everything we can to rid the world of evil. Then we can end this war for good.’
‘I want to help,’ Pip said earnestly, glancing at the umbrella. The sooner the war was over, the sooner the fighting would stop and no more families would be killed. ‘I know I can.’
‘And you and your umbrella shall, ma petite chérie.’ The hedgehog smiled and the rest of Noah’s Ark smiled with her. ‘Bernard Booth has had an excellent idea for it. I want you and Hans to come with me, Léon, GI Joe and Lucia now.’ She turned to the others and looked at each of them with a keen determination twinkling in her brown eyes. ‘For us to truly succeed tonight, we must conduct Plan Violet.’
‘Plan Violet?’ Pip said.
‘Oui, chérie. We are going to sabotage the telephone lines so the enemy have to use their radios when they find out the train has fallen later tonight. Then the Allies can listen in and learn what else they have planned. Lucia,’ Madame Fourcade said, turning to Léon and clambering upon his strong, speckled back, ‘take Pip and her umbrella with you. Hans, you go with GI Joe.’
‘Climb up,’ the white pigeon said, offering her silky wing to Pip. A shiver of excitement rushed under her fur as she sat on Lucia’s shoulders. ‘This is going to be fun.’
‘Hang on tight, liddle lady,’ GI Joe said as Hans agilely leaped on his back. ‘Luey flies like a devil.’
‘But that’s still not as fast an eagle,’ Léon said, giving Pip a wink.
‘We’ll see about that!’ Lucia said, snapping the pointed end of the umbrella in her talons as GI Joe hopped on its handle.
As the pigeons launched into the air, Pip too began to fly.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
PLAN VIOLET
Pip had never felt more alive than she did soaring through the air on Lucia’s back. Fiercely flapping their wings side by side, Lucia and GI Joe carried the umbrella in their talons and weaved swiftly in and out of towering tree trunks beneath a verdant green canopy of oak leaves. Staring up at the dappled shafts of sunlight dancing through the forest, Pip caught sight of Léon following them closely from above. His white underwings, tipped with long, brown, speckled feathers, stretched wider than the umbrella and beat effortlessly on the gentle summer breeze. On his back, Madame Fourcade leaned her prickled head forward and spoke into his ear. At that moment, the eagle tucked his wings into his sides and charged downwards, elegantly swooping to fly alongside the pigeons.
‘Listen carefully,’ the hedgehog said, raising her voice above the clatter of wings. ‘When you reach the lowest telegraph wires, hook the umbrella handle on one and meet us in the sky above. We’ll dive together and pull it to the ground, damaging the telephone line in the process.’
‘But will the umbrella be all right? Pip said, her insides trembling with unease.
‘We’ll see. We’ve never used an umbrella before,’ Madame Fourcade said, her eyes gleaming. ‘Get ready, we’re almost there.’
Before Pip could reply, the eagle and the hedgehog disappeared, overtaking the pigeons with a burst of Léon’s wings.
‘Don’t worry, liddle lady,’ GI Joe said, seeing her brow furrow. ‘You have my word. I’ll look after this umbrella as if it was my own.’
‘Me too,’ Hans nodded.
‘And me,’ Lucia said.
Pip drew a deep breath. With a nervous smile she decided to trust them, but their words didn’t stop her heart clamouring behind her ribs.
Ahead, the trees thinned into a wide expanse of grass fields that rolled for miles into the horizon under a clear summer sky. A row of tall timber telegraph poles, connected with long black wires, loomed above rich green hedgerows. Beyond, smoke plumed from distant battlefields. As they left the safe cover of the forest behind them, Pip’s ears flattened – she could hear the sounds of gunfire travelling on the wind. A shiver of dread crept over her fur, and she wished the moon shone instead of the midday sun. Sharing the same thought, the birds powerfully beat their wings and tore through the blue.
Nearing the telegraph line, the eagle ascended and hovered above them as Lucia slowed to let GI Joe, carrying the umbrella by its handle, take the lead. Together they manoeuvred its silver hook on to one of the lowest rubber-clad cables, and as the pigeons arced upwards to meet Léon and Madame Fourcade, Pip bit her lip, watching the umbrella gently swing back and forth on the wire below.
‘Ready?’ the hedgehog asked, staring at them one by one. As the animals nodded in reply, Pip held her breath and tightened her quaking paws around Lucia’s feathers. ‘GO!’
The birds plummeted through the air and snatched the umbrella in their talons. They furiously flapped their wings, and the timber telegraph poles creaked as the cable stubbornly stretched towards the grassy field below. A moment later it gave way, propelling them all to the ground. Instantly, the pigeons disengaged and soared upwards while the eagle swooped back on himself to unhook the umbrella and carry it into the sky.
‘Magnifique!’ Madame Fourcade cried in delight, flying alongside the pigeons. ‘Well done, ma petite chérie! Now you and your umbrella are true members of Noah’s Ark!’ A broad grin drew across Pip’s face and her heart swelled, knowing she had done something to help end the war. ‘Come – let’s do as much damage as we can!’
‘Hang on tight!’ GI Joe cooed.
Léon released the umbrella from his grasp and the pigeons rocketed downwards, catching it in mid-air. Pip heaved a sigh of relief having it close to her again, and as GI Joe and Lucia hooked the umbrella handle upon another low-hanging wire and ascended again, Pip realized she wasn’t trembling like before.
‘Ready?’ Hans said, smiling from GI Joe’s back beside her.
She nodded, feeling dizzy with adventure.
‘Now, Léon!’ Pip yelled, and the eagle tucked his wings into his sides, charging into the umbrella with the pigeons following close behind.
A sudden growl roared, violently shaking the air over their heads. Cowering in alarm, they looked up to see three fighter planes tearing across the sky.
‘Hurry!’ the hedgehog cried, gazing fearfully at their metal tails. ‘Those are Messerschmitts, if they’ve seen us we’re done for!’
The timber poles moaned as the birds frantically beat their wings. The planes grew smaller and Pip’s fur bristled as she watched the middle aircraft break formation. Turning back, its spinning propeller headed straight for them.
‘Look out!’ Pip screamed.
Fiery shots spluttered from the plane just as the elegraph wire gave way, scattering the terrified birds into the air. Racing back to the forest on Lucia’s back, relief pound
ed in Pip’s chest as they entered the shadows, but turning back she gasped in fear. Still carrying the umbrella in his talons and Madame Fourcade on his back, Léon desperately raced for the trees. Behind them, the plane opened fire in a deafening flash of orange sparks. Flying low, the eagle faltered through a spray of bullets and crash-landed in the ferns. The aircraft blasted upwards and thundered overhead.
‘Léon! Madame Fourcade!’ Pip cried. ‘Lucia, Joe, hurry – go back!’
The pigeons and Hans glanced at each other, brows furrowed, and immediately turned around. Approaching the flattened leaves in the thick undergrowth, Pip’s throat tightened as she caught a glimpse of the eagle and the hedgehog collapsed on their sides beside the umbrella.
‘Madame!’ GI Joe cooed urgently, landing next to her with Lucia. Hans leaped off his back and crouched low to tend to the hedgehog, who was curled into a ball.
‘Léon?’ Pip said, rushing to him. He looked as though he was peacefully asleep. Tentatively putting a trembling paw on the eagle’s face, a jolt of fear snapped it back against her body as his huge golden eyes flew open. ‘Are you all right?’ she said nervously.
‘Oui, I think so.’ The eagle blinked, slowly peeling himself from the ground with a shudder of his wings. Seeing Madame Fourcade’s motionless body, he cawed softly and limped over to her. ‘Madame,’ he said, but there was no reply. The others looked at one another anxiously and bowed their heads.
‘Please wake up,’ Pip said, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes. Unable to bear the silence, she shook the hedgehog by the prickles. ‘Madame Fourcade!’ she said fiercely. ‘Wake up!’
‘Shhh honey,’ Lucia cooed softly. ‘Let her be.’
‘I detest those planes,’ Madame Fourcade groaned, uncurling from her ball. Sighing with relief, the others helped her steady herself on her paws. With her heart leaping inside her chest, Pip wrapped her little paws around the hedgehog’s soft belly fur. ‘Oh, ma petite chérie,’ the hedgehog said softly. ‘Don’t worry, I am all right.’