by Anna Fargher
The animals shook their heads and whimpered with alarm.
‘If they don’t come back then we have to assume they have been captured too. The beavers would never desert us, they’ve been with Noah’s Ark since the beginning.’
‘How could this have happened?’ Lucia cooed with disbelief.
‘There is only one explanation,’ Léon cawed, landing in the hollow with GI Joe. Lucia flew to her mate and they fondly nuzzled their heads together. The eagle’s golden eyes narrowed with fury. ‘Sabotage.’
‘Sabotage?’ Lucia cooed in surprise. She turned to Léon and scowled. ‘What do you mean by “sabotage”?’
‘One of you alerted the enemy to the plan.’
The animals in the hollow rumbled in alarm.
‘One of us?’ Lucia snapped. Her neck feathers ruffled defensively. ‘Or maybe it was you, Léon. You’ve wanted to be our leader since day one.’
‘Don’t be absurd!’ the eagle squawked, offended. ‘I’ll follow Madame Fourcade to the end and I’d gladly die before ever colluding with the enemy. They can take both my legs before I ever tell them anything about the Resistance or Noah’s Ark.’ Looking the white pigeon suspiciously up and down, he limped over to her with his ebony-tipped beak glinting menacingly in the moonlight, golden eyes bitterly narrowed. ‘Where are your scars from when you were captured by the Nazis, Lucia? Such an easy escape makes me wonder. . .’
‘That’s enough!’ GI Joe cooed sternly, protectively stepping in front of his mate. He stood tall, plumping his chest feathers, ready to fight the eagle if he had to. He stared into Léon’s furious, gleaming eyes without a trace of fear in his own. ‘We must not turn on each other.
Noah’s Ark has been through too much for us to crack from within.’
‘Who’s to say it isn’t her!’ Lucia said, pointing her wing at Pip. ‘She could have led the enemy right to us!’
‘Me?’ Pip said, squeaking in surprise. ‘But I’m on your side. I would never—’
‘How well do we know her?’ the white pigeon snapped, the mixture of anger and fear showing clearly on her face. ‘Think about it! She’d be the perfect Axis spy! No one would ever suspect a mouse kitten! For goodness sake, she is Italian and she arrived with a Goliath Rat!’
‘He’s not a Goliath Rat!’
‘See! Look at her defending him!’
Pip shifted nervously under Noah’s Ark’s collective gaze.
‘Invader scum.’
‘Luey,’ GI Joe said with a low, impatient coo.
‘And to think I wanted to be sisters with the enemy.’
‘I’m not the enemy!’ Pip cried, scowling defiantly, her whiskers standing on end. She clenched her paws into fists, furiously trying to hide the hurt tearing through her. ‘And neither is Hans!’
‘There she goes again! Traitors will stick together, won’t they, Pip?’
‘Lucia! I said enough!’ GI Joe growled, flapping his wings in a burst of anger. He turned to his mate and furiously stared into her eyes. ‘I have known Hans since the day he arrived in London. They are members of Churchill’s Secret Animal Army! Leave her alone!’
‘All right,’ Lucia cooed softly, but her feathers still ruffled angrily around her neck. She looked at Léon and gave him a wry smile. ‘Besides, whatever you may think, Léon, no one could have left the hollow and alerted the enemy without one of us noticing.’
‘We can’t know that for sure,’ GI Joe cooed, turning to Noah’s Ark, huddled together in the moonlight. ‘Can any of us say that we completely know each other’s movements?’ The animals looked at one another with their feathers, ears and whiskers twitching uneasily in the gloom. ‘Did any of you see anything suspicious?’
There was silence in the hollow.
‘Perhaps it was just bad luck?’ the cat said frankly, sitting as still as a sphinx. ‘What if the enemy saw the beavers start to damage the bridge and captured them there and then?’
‘Maybe what happened was a terrible accident,’ a rabbit said.
GI Joe exchanged a grim glance with Henri and Léon. They all shook their heads.
‘The plan was top secret,’ Léon said gravely. ‘Noah’s Ark may have known the message was coming but only Madame Fourcade knew the words meant derailing the train. With all the bridges we could have attacked in Normandy, how could the enemy have known Nouveau Bois Bridge was our target tonight without someone revealing the plan?’
‘But isn’t it possible the sentry owls were patrolling the bridge because of the train scheduled for tonight?’ the cat said, and after a pause a few members of Noah’s Ark nodded in agreement.
‘Sabotage or not,’ Henri said after a firm puff from his nose, ‘what we do know is Madame Fourcade, Hans and André are heading to the Nacht und Nebel camp in the Venteux Mountains. We saw Nazi sentry owls capture them and take them with the train.’
‘Oh no,’ Lucia cooed with a mournful shake of her head. ‘Those poor souls.’
‘What’s at the Nacht und Nebel camp?’ Pip said, fearing the worst. She had never witnessed such a bleak silence.
‘It’s a camp for human prisoners, a day’s journey east from here,’ Léon said after a sombre pause. ‘But our kind keeps prisoners there too. It’s a fortress the strongest men struggle to escape from, and they use the same tricks to ensnare us too.’
‘Many animal and human Resistance fighters are taken to that place,’ GI Joe said with a sombre coo. ‘The conditions are terrible and the guards are feared all over France.’ He glanced at Léon’s deformed, crippled leg, curled under his body. ‘Most don’t survive the interrogations.’
‘Then we must save them!’ Pip said.
‘It’s too dangerous,’ Lucia said with a stubborn shake of her head. ‘It’s heavily guarded and we cannot risk losing more of Noah’s Ark.’
‘But we have to try. We can’t just leave them there!’
‘Hans and Madame Fourcade have escaped capture before. Have faith that they can do it again.’
‘But what if they can’t? I know I can help! I’m small and fast, the guards will never see me.’
‘She’s certainly fast,’ Henri said, remembering the chase Pip gave him in the forest. ‘Believe me.’
‘No one has ever broken anyone out of the Nacht und Nebel camp,’ Lucia cooed, ruffling her white feathers dismissively. ‘It’s impossible. It will put too many members of Noah’s Ark at risk.’
‘Then they’ll never expect it!’ Pip insisted. ‘We can use the surprise to our advantage.’
The animals in the hollow mumbled quietly to one another.
‘The liddle lady has a point,’ GI Joe cooed. ‘And she’s right, we’ve never had such a tiny member of Noah’s Ark.’
‘It could work,’ Léon said with a slow, confident nod of his speckled head. ‘I know the camp. I have escaped it before and I know where they will be held.’
‘We’ll never know unless we try!’ Pip squeaked excitedly. ‘I know we can do it!’
‘Don’t be so stupid!’ Lucia snapped. ‘Why are you listening to her? She knows nothing of war! Or the lives she is risking!’ She turned to Pip, her face set in a scornful grimace. ‘What are you trying to prove, Pip? We all know that you’re just a little London mouse kitten – a lonely orphan with a ridiculous umbrella and no home. Your idiot ideas could kill us and those that we love. Just because you have no one doesn’t mean we should too.’
Lucia’s words were a dagger to Pip’s heart. She clenched her jaw, desperately trying to think of something to say, but the hurt she felt tied her tongue in knots.
‘They kill everything at the Nacht und Nebel camp, what makes you think they won’t murder all of you too?’ the white pigeon continued cruelly, narrowing her eyes. ‘Do you even know what they will do to you when they catch you? They’ll torture you for information. They’ll chop off your ears, your whiskers and your tail.’ She turned to Noah’s Ark, who collectively cowered at her words. ‘She’ll give all our secrets to them. They’ll be led st
raight to us and everybody will die because of a mouse kitten!’
‘No,’ Pip cried, trembling with furious hurt. ‘I would never let that happen.’
‘Stop it, Lucia!’ GI Joe growled, seeing his mate’s milky-blue eyes flash with enjoyment.
The white pigeon paused, but a gleeful smile drew across her beak.
‘Unless you’re one of them and you’re trying to report back, trapping more of us with you as you go?’ she cooed softly. ‘What a successful little spy you will be.’
‘Leave her alone!’ Henri bellowed with a stamp of his hooves, just as Léon screeched angrily and spread his powerful speckled wings.
‘One more word, Lucia,’ the eagle said, glaring at the white pigeon, ‘and I’ll deal with you. I haven’t eaten pigeon for many moons.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she cooed, innocently fluttering her eyes as she flinched under Léon’s gaze. ‘I’m only teasing. It’s what sisters do, isn’t it, Pip?’
‘I don’t care what you do,’ Pip said, turning from where she was standing on Henri’s head. She stormed down the stag’s neck, clambering over his shoulder and the length of his long leg to reach the ground. ‘Rot for all I care, because you’ll never be a friend or a sister of mine. I’m going to save Hans, Madame Fourcade and André with your help or not.’
With that, she marched out of the hollow under the fallen tree and into the night alone, only looking over her shoulder briefly for one last glimpse of the umbrella.
‘Don’t you dare take her there!’ baulked Lucia, seeing GI Joe’s wings spread. ‘Joe? Joe!’
Ignoring his mate, GI Joe took to the air, with Léon following close behind. The white pigeon’s face fell with despair.
‘No! What are you doing?’ she cried, flicking her wings erratically in desperation. ‘Please! Stop! You’ll all die! It’s a day’s journey from here! What even makes you think they’ll still be alive when you get there? We need to stay together, for all our sakes.’
‘You stay here where you’ll be safe,’ Henri said, calmly turning to the moonlit forest. ‘If you won’t look after your own, we will. And you’d better take good care of Pip’s umbrella. If it’s not in perfect condition on our return, prepare yourself to be plucked alive.’
‘You didn’t think we’d miss out on all the fun, did you, liddle lady?’ GI Joe said with a smile, swooping past Pip as she stormed through the forest on her own. His strong wings propelled him forward, and he led the way through the trees with Léon by his side.
‘Climb on, Pip,’ Henri said, catching her up as she grinned triumphantly up at the birds. He dipped his grand head to the ground beside her. ‘There’s no time to waste.’
Her heart leaped to have the others with her. She climbed up Henri’s nose to his antlers once more, and the four of them began their journey to the Nacht und Nebel camp. As each of them felt the thrill of the unknown thump in their chests, Pip thought once more of the umbrella lying safely in the hollow, and hoped Mama and Papa would have understood that she was doing the right thing.
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE JOURNEY
They had not travelled far through the forest before the crack of machine-gun fire clattered in the distance and Henri slowed, walking around a crater in the earth where a shell had recently exploded. With each step, the forest thinned to scattered fallen trees. Those that remained upright stood bleak and bare in the moonlight, with branches that were torn and shattered at their stems. At their feet, small ditches had been dug in the ground for men to shelter inside, some under the cover of fallen fir branches still green with life.
‘This way,’ GI Joe whispered, flying low to glide alongside the stag, tentatively weaving between the trees with his ears flinching at every snap of gunfire. ‘We need more cover. Follow me.’
But as the forest thickened, the battle grew louder.
‘I don’t like this place.’ Pip shuddered, hearing a low whistle hurtle above them, followed by a fearful explosion in the distance.
‘Nor me,’ Henri said, quickening to a trot. Léon and GI Joe also sped forward. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
Gunfire crackled again and a tree trunk beside the stag burst into splinters.
‘Run!’ Léon squawked, urgently beating his speckled wings. ‘Run as fast as you can!’
A storm of bullets pelted the trees. Henri galloped forward, zigzagging through trees and hurdling over fallen trunks in a panicked sprint through the wood, flashing white lights banging like fireworks all around them. Another whistle screamed above and the forest exploded in a bright, thundering roar. Hurled forward by the blast, Henri’s legs crumpled under him. As he landed in the undergrowth on his side with a painful skid, Pip flew from his head and somersaulted across the ground.
‘Henri!’ Pip cried over the ringing in her ears. Shaking with terror, she collected herself and tentatively stood on her paws. ‘Henri? Are you all right?’
But no sound came from him.
‘Henri,’ she sobbed, rushing to the stag, lying motionless against a fallen tree. With gunfire fiercely spluttering overhead, Pip tenderly stroked his soft cheek with her little paw as another whistle sounded and crashed in the distance. ‘Can you hear me?’
Pip stared at his eyes and ears, looking for the smallest flicker of life, but the stag didn’t stir. As a hollow feeling crept over her, she cast her eyes to his stomach and watched closely, desperately hoping it to see it rise and fall.
‘Oh Henri,’ Pip whimpered as she buried her face in his. ‘Poor Henri.’
A horrible, deathly silence followed before a sudden crackling crunch of dry leaves sounded under her paws.
‘I’m all right,’ he said, moving his head with a groan. ‘At least, I think I am.’
‘Henri!’ she cried and hugged him harder. ‘Thank whiskers you are all right!’
‘What was that?’ he said, trying to shake the explosion from his head with a rattle of his antlers.
‘Henri!’ GI Joe cried, landing on the ground beside him with Léon. Together they nudged his head further off the ground with their beaks and wings. ‘They have a tank – one of the metal monsters. It will kill us all if we don’t move now. You must get up!’
‘Come, mon ami,’ Léon said. ‘Hurry!’
‘You can do it!’ Pip said, helping the birds lift the stag’s head with her paws. Clambering back up his neck, she climbed behind his ears to the top of his head and stroked the fur between his eyes. ‘That’s it, up you get.’
Trembling with shock, the stag wobbled to a stand.
‘Now run!’ GI Joe said, spreading his wings and soaring into the air with Léon by his side. ‘Run as fast as you can!’
A terrible whistling screamed in the air about them as a hot burst of light rocked the earth they had lain on just a minute before. With fear still quaking his limbs, Henri’s hooves hit the ground faster than he had ever known. Neither he nor Pip dared to look back, both too afraid the explosion would swallow them whole and as GI Joe and Léon swooped alongside, they raced deeper into the forest until only the stag’s galloping hooves sounded through the moonlit trees.
It was some time before they slowed, finding the forest thinning around them. A great field of wheat stretched beyond, rustling in the night breeze under a blanket of stars, blinking curiously from the black sky above.
‘We must cross this land and continue east,’ Henri said, standing inside the last cover of bracken and puffing heavily in and out of his nose.
The birds glided downwards, landing on opposite antlers above Pip, and the four of them stared nervously into the field ahead.
‘We need to reach the Fleur Forest by sunrise,’ Léon said. ‘And we must travel by night. The humans might see us by day. Food is scarce for them during war, they could kill us if they find us.’
‘But won’t we be seen without the shelter of the trees?’ Pip said, her ears flattening at the great expanse of earth and sky beyond.
‘We don’t have a choice,’ Henri said. ‘I smell
no trees nearby.’
‘France is rich with forests,’ Léon said wisely, his golden eyes glowing in the dark. ‘We won’t be unprotected for long.’
‘These tall wheat stems will give you some cover,’ GI Joe cooed. ‘We’ll fly ahead, hopefully another wood won’t be far away.’
‘I have flown this land before. The further east we go, the more forest we will find.’ Léon looked down at Pip’s furrowed brow, and at once his stern eyes softened. ‘Travel swiftly, we will return soon.’
With that, the eagle and the pigeon soared into the gloom, leaving Pip and the stag to step on to the open ground alone.
‘Let’s go,’ Pip said, swallowing a lump in her throat.
Henri nodded, gave a shudder of his tail, and stepped out into the wheat field, the crop swishing gently in the breeze. Travelling silently, eyes and ears flickering in the dark, searching for danger, Pip watched the wheat toss back and forth like waves in the balmy night air. As the forest faded into a distant silhouette far behind them, an unnatural, low rumble sounded in the shadows.
‘What’s that?’ Pip said fearfully, turning to the noise. ‘It’s getting louder.’
‘I don’t know,’ Henri said, looking behind him with alarm. He quickened his pace to a trot. ‘We must keep moving.’
‘Look!’ Pip gasped again. ‘Over there!’
Two lights flickered in the distance, rapidly increasing in size as they sped through the forest. Reaching the edge of the trees, the lights raced in plain sight along a road, running directly alongside the field. Crouching low, Henri and Pip watched them approach behind a veil of wheat ears.
‘It’s a van,’ Pip said, sighing with relief. ‘I remember the sound from London.’ She could clearly see the shape of it travelling past them through the darkness now. It was open at the back and a white flag billowed from a pole attached to its bonnet. There was a dark red cross printed in the flag’s centre, just like the one Dickin had had on his search and rescue uniform. ‘It looks the same as the trucks parked on the Normandy beaches.’