by Anna Fargher
‘Gas?’ one said.
‘Ja,’ the other said, making a tick mark on his paper.
‘Sehr gut. Munition?’
‘Ja, Herr.’
To their left, fixed beside the control room door, a circular red button gently pulsed with electricity, just as GI Joe had said. Pip looked around the room. The only way to get there was to cross the ground between the men’s legs and climb up the power line. Feeling sick with fear, she carefully clambered across the wooden frame, using her claws to travel down its vertical edge to the window sill below. Keeping her eyes on the men, she lowered herself inside the room, climbing down the timber walls to the cold cement floor. Holding her breath, she crouched as motionless as the rows of umbrella handles she had once hidden behind inside the umbrella shop and, staring up at the men with her heart clamouring in her ears, she slowly edged towards their black leather boots.
‘Wo sind die Drogen?’ the man in the white coat asked, bristling with impatience.
Pip froze behind his foot as he looked from side to side.
‘Hier, Herr Doktor,’ the man in uniform said, turning away and stepping to the boxes in the corner.
As the other man followed, Pip scrambled to the power line on the opposite side of the room. After a careful glance at the men, she scaled the wire to the red circle buzzing with electrical power. Pressing it with all her strength, the button sank slowly into the wall. Hearing it click, she smiled, watching its glow instantly dim and disappear. With one last look at the men safely at the other end of the room, she hurried back down the wire to the floor. Racing to the control-room door as fast as she could, she squeezed through the gap under it and stepped into the night.
The full moon shone brightly above the camp, casting shadows across the ground.
Keeping watch beside the neighbouring barracks stood a monstrous Goliath Rat with gleaming red eyes. Beyond it, Pip spied the tangled barbed wire glinting malevolently over the hole, exactly as Léon had said.
Looking desperately around the camp enclosure for cover, dread crept over Pip. To get to the hole, she must run from the control-room door to the barracks, completely exposed in the moonlight. Shivering from the tips of her whiskers to the end of her tail, she stepped forward. With one last scan of the sky to check for the owls, and a glance at the Goliath Rat, who had his back turned, she sprinted for the hole faster than she had ever run in her life.
But just as she reached the barracks’ shadowy underbelly, the Goliath Rat’s ears cocked. Pip darted behind the barbed wire, hardly daring to breathe. Seeing and hearing nothing but the nearby trees rustling in the breeze, the Goliath Rat scuttled away.
‘Hans!’ Pip whispered, staring through the metal thorns into the black hole, but there was no sign of life. Grabbing the barbed wire in her paws, she dragged it backwards in jangling tugs. ‘Madame Fourcade!’
A gasp of fear was uttered below.
‘They’re back!’ Terrified voices began muttering to each other.
‘Be strong.’ Pip’s ears pricked up as she recognized Madame Fourcade’s voice. ‘Your spirit is your strongest weapon. Never let them take it away from you, no matter how badly they hurt you.’
Suddenly Pip could move no further. Gritting her teeth, she pulled the tangled mass of barbed wire with all her strength, but it was no use. The wire stubbornly remained unmoved, only revealing a narrow gap between its thorns and the hole below. Peering over the edge, three mice, two rabbits, a rat, three beavers and a hedgehog met her gaze.
‘Pip!’ Hans cried in a delighted whisper. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’m saving you!’ She smiled. ‘Hurry, climb out!’
‘Quickly,’ Madame Fourcade said, nudging the animals around her. ‘Go! Go!’
A young, trembling rabbit was the first to clamber upwards, helped by the others lifting her from below. Pip grabbed her paw through the wire and pulled, trying to ignore the pain burning through her fur as the barbed wire ripped into her skin.
‘Stop! Please stop!’ the rabbit cried, wincing in agony and jerking her head away from the sharp gap in the barbed wire. Desperately shaking her head, a tear ran down her cheek and across the length of a whisker. ‘I can’t do it. The thorns are too sharp and thick.’
Feeling panic thunder inside her chest, Pip snatched the wire in her paws and frantically tugged once more, but again it would not move. The animals below looked at one another, muttering in dismay.
‘Help me up,’ Madame Fourcade said, and immediately the animals lifted her. Pip leaped for her paw and stared into the hedgehog’s brown eyes, glistening with determination in the darkness. ‘Pull, Pip! And don’t let go!’
Madame Fourcade’s prickles flattened all over her body. With the help of Pip from above and the animals from below, she slowly dragged herself upwards, quietly yelping in discomfort as she squeezed through the narrow gap in the tangled barbed wire. A long, painful minute brought her to Pip, breathlessly gulping the night air with relief.
‘We must move this wire!’ Madame Fourcade said, leaving no time to collect herself. Grabbing the wire in her paws, she heaved with all her strength, but it only jangled metallically. Letting it go, her tawny brow furrowed in despair. ‘There must a way to move this thing!’
‘Look!’ Pip said, pointing to the ground where the thorns had latched into the earth. ‘It’s the teeth, they’re stuck!’
They swiftly burrowed about the wire with their front claws.
‘Well done, chérie!’ the hedgehog cried as they triumphantly pulled it free from the hole. ‘We’ve done it!’
‘Hurry,’ Pip whispered, lying on her stomach and reaching down for the animals’ paws below. ‘Climb up, we must get out of this place!’
One by one, the animals helped each other out into the night. Soon all ten prisoners cowered nervously alongside Pip under the barracks. She stared out into the camp with twitching whiskers, carefully keeping watch for Goliath Rats guarding the ground.
‘What now, Pip?’ Hans asked, stepping to her side. He had been the last animal to clamber out of the hole, having helped every creature out before him.
In the shadows, Pip’s eyes fell on fresh scratches and bruises throbbing on his scarred face and neck. Madame Fourcade and the others had similar marks over their bodies.
‘We run and escape through the fence over there,’ she whispered, pointing her paw to the trees behind the closest fence, where the stag had promised to meet her. All the animals turned to look at the fence standing a few metres away. ‘Henri and GI Joe are waiting for us.’
‘What about the owls?’ Madame Fourcade said.
The other animals nodded nervously and craned their necks to get a view of the sky.
‘Léon has tricked them into the forest, but we must hurry, they could be back at any minute.’
A sudden clatter of wings silenced them all. Exchanging a frightened glance with Hans and Madame Fourcade, Pip peered out into the camp. A white bird had landed on the ground next to a Goliath Rat prowling under the neighbouring barracks. Recognizing each other at once, they began speaking in a language Pip did not understand.
‘It’s Lucia!’ she squeaked in surprise, seeing the pigeon’s face in full view. ‘What’s she doing here?’
‘She’s talking to the guards in German.’ Hans growled. ‘She’s telling them about Noah’s Ark coming to save us.’
‘A friend can be a traitor,’ the hedgehog said, clenching her fists with fury.
‘It was her, wasn’t it?’ Pip said after a pause, her mind racing with memories of the bitter row in the hollow under the fallen tree. ‘Lucia sabotaged Operation Popeye!’
As she spoke, the Goliath Rat’s cruel, blazing red eyes fell on the animals cowering above the hole. Throwing its head back, it cried out its alarm in a snarling roar.
‘Run!’ Hans said, pushing Pip and the others out into the night. ‘Go! Now! Run for your lives!’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE FIGHT
Pip bounded into the
cold, bright moonlight with Hans, Madame Fourcade and the other animals by her side. The jagged web of spikes inside the fence loomed over the ground ahead, casting long, sharp, shadows that reached out to snare everything that crossed its path. Daring to look behind her, Pip’s heart hammered against her ribs as she saw the Goliath Rat spit with fury and sprint after them from the neighbouring barracks. Beyond it, many more Goliath Rats now hurried across the camp, growling murderously as they raced towards the fence with alarming speed.
‘They’re gaining on us!’ Pip cried, and at once each animal running alongside her panted, trying to run faster across the ground.
‘Don’t look back!’ Henri bellowed, leaping out from the cover of the trees behind the fence and anxiously stamping the ground with his hooves. ‘Run! Run as quickly as you can!’
GI Joe burst out from the treetops. Charging over the fence and swiftly diving through the air, he swooped to Pip, Hans and Madame Fourcade leading the sprint on the ground.
‘Quickly, grab hold of me!’ he cried, flying alongside them.
Pip hurled herself to him, wrapping her arms about his neck, while Madame Fourcade and Hans each caught him by a leg. The pigeon beat his wings with all his strength and climbed slowly into the air above the beavers, mice and rabbits sprinting in terror for the fence.
‘What happened?’ GI Joe panted.
‘Lucia’s an Axis spy!’ Pip cried. ‘She’s the one who sabotaged the plan to destroy the bridge! She’s here! And she knows the Goliath Rats – she’s just warned them we were coming to rescue Hans and Madame Fourcade!’
‘What?’ the pigeon said. ‘But that’s impossible. Luey is one of us.’
‘We saw her with our own eyes, GI!’
‘How can she even be here? We left her with Noah’s Ark in the hollow.’
‘It’s her, GI,’ Hans said, jumping with Madame Fourcade from the pigeon’s legs to the Henri’s back, who was now standing beneath them. ‘I’m sorry, it’s been her all along.’
‘It can’t be,’ GI Joe cooed, landing beside them and shaking his head with disbelief as Pip clambered off his body. ‘I know her. She wouldn’t do this.’
‘If you don’t believe us,’ Madame Fourcade growled, ‘then look for yourself! Lucia is one of them!’
GI Joe turned and, seeing her white feathers flying swiftly across the camp in the bright moonlight, his beak fell open in shock. Sentry eagle owls flanked her on both sides while another two glided closer to the ground, soaring through the air together above the Goliath Rats chasing the terrified animals.
‘Maybe she’s their prisoner,’ he cooed desperately, cocking his head with confusion and spreading his wings. ‘Then she’s in trouble – I gotta save her.’
The stag shook his antlers and angrily stamped the ground with his hooves.
‘No, GI!’ Madame Fourcade said, leaping on to his wing. ‘You cannot go back in there to save Lucia. She is the enemy and they’ll kill you. It’s because of her that we are here. Don’t you see? Her weapon was to make you care about her! She’s a traitor! She fooled us all!’
‘But Luey—’
‘No, GI! If she’s with them, she believes in their evil ways – in killing, in torturing and in having power at all costs.’
‘I can’t believe it, she’s—’
‘Listen, friend,’ Hans said urgently, staring earnestly into the pigeon’s amber eyes. ‘Look at us!’ He pointed his paws to the other injured prisoners, sprinting on the other side of the fence. ‘See the scars on our bodies and the stumps where their tails once were. Think of Léon, think of me – think of all the suffering you have seen during this war! Lucia is not who you think she is!’
There was a pause as the pigeon stared back at his mate, pursuing the petrified beavers, mice and rabbits across the ground. Slowly his eyes narrowed with rage.
‘Then she can’t get away with this,’ he said, his feathers furiously ruffling all over his body.
‘We have to do something!’ Pip said, watching the Goliath Rats and the owls snarling at the other animals’ heels. ‘Run!’ she cried, cupping her paws around her mouth. ‘Run as fast as you can!’
But it was hopeless. The owls were the biggest birds she had ever seen. Each beat of their enormous wings propelled them forwards more powerfully than any animal running across the ground.
Pip marched to the pigeon and grabbed his wing in her paws, ready to climb on to his back. ‘We can’t stay here and watch them die. We have to help them!’
‘No, Pip!’ Hans said, dragging her from the pigeon’s wing, firmly handing her to Madame Fourcade and jumping on the pigeon’s back himself. ‘This is not your fight. We must put an end to this.’
‘Shhh, Pip,’ the hedgehog hushed, tightening her grip around the little mouse struggling to get out of her grasp. ‘Let them go.’
‘No!’ Pip cried, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes. ‘Please! I can help, I know I can!’
‘You have already helped us so much,’ Hans said. ‘Let us do what we need to do.’
‘Don’t worry, liddle lady,’ GI Joe cooed, spreading his wings and plumping his chest feathers. ‘We’re gonna make them pay!’
With that, they burst upwards from the stag’s back and charged into the sky. Breathless, Pip watched them hurtle over their heads and soar into the fight, outnumbered by five birds to one.
Seeing an owl swoop perilously close to one of the escaped mice, GI Joe and Hans torpedoed downwards. As its monstrous talons opened like a gaping jaw around its prey, the mouse squealed, hearing the owl and the pigeon squawk and clash violently behind her.
‘Yes!’ Pip cried with Henri and Madame Fourcade, watching the owl tumble in a heap on the ground. ‘Run!’ she shouted to the terrified animals nearing the fence. ‘Keep going! It’s not far now!’
GI Joe and Hans soared over the camp. Seeing the attack on its mate, the neighbouring owl narrowed its orange eyes in fury. Swivelling its head away from the beavers, mice and rabbits sprinting for the fence, it suddenly changed direction and charged at GI Joe with a fierce burst of its wings. He swiftly beat his own and desperately weaved through the sky, struggling to outrun the talons snapping at his tail feathers.
‘They’ve reached the fence!’ Madame Fourcade gasped, clasping her paws together with joy. ‘Look!’
‘That’s it!’ Pip cried, jumping up and down on the stag’s back with triumph, watching the animals slowly navigate the thick web of barbed wire.
‘Come, friends!’ Henri said, dipping his head to the fence. The animals panted, travelling as swiftly as they could through the metal barbs. ‘I will take you home!’
‘Watch out!’ the stag bellowed a moment later, stamping the ground in alarm as a clatter of wings sounded overhead.
Above them, Lucia and two eagle owls flexed their fearsome claws and plummeted through the air as Pip and Madame Fourcade ducked, cowering in small balls on Henri’s back. Swooping back upwards with empty talons, Lucia and the owls arced through the sky. Screeching furiously, they torpedoed again, diving at the stag’s eyes and nose with their beaks and claws. Swiping his antlers from side to side in pain, Henri suddenly reared upwards. As he thwarted their attack with his front hooves, Pip cried out with fright and stumbled, desperately grappling for something to hold.
‘No!’ Madame Fourcade yelled, scrambling for her, but it was too late. Grazing the hedgehog’s fingers with her own, a terrible lurch snatched Pip’s paws from under her. As she tumbled through the air, a cold, pink, waxy talon closed around her and lifted her into the sky.
‘Let me go!’ Pip cried, fiercely struggling inside the bird’s claws. Looking up, Pip laid eyes on the white pigeon and gasped in horror. ‘Lucia! How could you do this to us!’
‘We are not so different, you and me,’ the pigeon cooed calmly, speaking in her true German voice as she swiftly flew beside the sentry owls towards the smoking chimney. Appalled, Pip stared at her with fury racing over her fur, unable to believe she was the same pigeon she
had met inside the hollow. ‘I am an orphan like you, Pip. The Nazis saved me when I lost everything, just like they are going to save you.’
‘We’re nothing alike! I’d die before I’d join the Nazis! You’re a liar and a traitor, Lucia! We will never forgive you for doing this to Noah’s Ark.’
‘What do you care, Pip?’ she cooed, and her blue eyes bitterly narrowed. ‘You and your umbrella are not real members of Noah’s Ark.’
‘I’m more of a member of Noah’s Ark than you’ll ever be!’
‘A silly dream for a stupid little mouse kitten.’
‘I’d rather fight and die with Noah’s Ark than live in the nightmare of an Axis world!’
‘Whatever you may think –’ Lucia smirked – ‘you’ll thank me when you see what’s going to happen next.’
Pip looked down into the camp below and blinked with confusion. The Goliath Rats and the sentry owls had stopped chasing the animals picking their way through the barbed-wire fence. Now they raced in the opposite direction, towards the control room.
‘No!’ Pip cried, thrashing inside the white pigeon’s grasp. ‘You can’t turn the fence back on! They’ll be fried alive!’
‘The sooner you realize you cannot beat us,’ Lucia snarled, crushing Pip inside her talons and smiling, hearing the little mouse choke in her claws, ‘the sooner you’ll tell us everything you know about Churchill’s Secret Animal Army. Before long, you’ll join us too. We’ll be sisters once again, Pip, you’ll see.’
Pip’s mind raced, thinking of a way to escape. Gasping for air, blood ringing inside her ears, she lurched forwards, trying to sink her teeth into the pigeon’s fist, but Lucia only squeezed her harder. Feeling her consciousness ebb away, Pip saw the faces of Mama and Papa in the umbrella shop and everyone she had met since the bomb blast in London: Dickin, Bernard Booth, Madame Fourcade, Hans, GI Joe, Henri, Léon and Noah’s Ark, all fighting for freedom. No matter what the enemy did to her, she would sooner die than tell their secrets, and as the world turned black, Pip’s last desperate thoughts were searching for a way to help the others.