by CW Browning
Vladimir turned to stride up the street. After Grigori had alerted him to Evelyn’s presence in Oslo, he had made some very discreet inquiries of his own. The NKVD had two men in Oslo who kept them well informed, and one of them had confirmed the arrival of the British agent at the airport outside of Oslo on the second of April. Had she still been in the city when the Germans landed in the early hours Tuesday? More importantly, had she been able to get out of Norway before the bulk of the German troops arrived? Or before Eisenjager found her?
He hadn’t forgotten about the German agent who, by all reports, had been set on her trail. If, by some chance, she was still in Norway, she would have to avoid, not only the advancing soldiers and the accompanying SS detachments, but also one of the deadliest men in Hitler’s Third Reich. While he had absolutely no doubt that she could find a way to survive, what concerned Vladimir was that she would get the opportunity to do so. If Eisenjager knew she was in Norway, then so did the SD, and therein lay the problem. They had standing orders regarding the British agent, as Vladimir well knew. He had been informed of the orders by his own protégé firmly entrenched in Berlin. The young agent was up against formidable odds, made more so by the indubitable fact that she had no idea of the threat.
Striding up the street as the gray light of dawn gave way to early morning sun, Vladimir knew that he had a decision to make. He could continue as he had been, watching from afar and allowing MI6 to blunder their way through this war with embarrassing ineptitude, or he could step in and take Evelyn in hand himself. He had almost decided to do just that the day he left Moscow. The news in the paper today decided the issue for him; Norway wouldn’t last much longer. If Evelyn was still in the country, something had to be done now, while there was still a chance to get her out.
He would contact his man in Oslo and put him on her trail. Without realizing it, Grigori had given him the perfect excuse for a revived interest in the British agent. Grigori pushing for the NKVD to get hold of her gave Vladimir a valid reason for keeping track of her himself. Not that he would need one. He had so many operations in play that his own superiors had long ago tired of keeping track of them all. If he thought something could be useful to them in the future, he laid the groundwork for it. The British agent would be considered just another of those contingency plans.
Glancing at his watch, he turned the corner and headed back to his hotel. He would contact Mikhail now and by nightfall, the Soviet agent would either tell him the British agent had made it out of Norway, or he would say he was on her trail. Either way, Vladimir would then have some idea of how to proceed.
Under no circumstance could she be allowed to fall into Eisenjager’s hands.
Chapter Twenty-Six
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Near Skatval, Norway
Evelyn nodded to Philip and ducked into the abandoned barn where they had taken shelter for the night. Erik and Philip had kept up a grueling pace throughout the afternoon and evening, stopping only once for half an hour to eat some of the food that Mrs. Hansen had sent with them. It wasn’t until after ten o’clock that they had come across this farm. It was in good repair, but had obviously been abandoned for quite some time. After checking the old house and the smaller out-buildings, Erik had decided that they would take refuge in the barn. He built a fire to chase away the frigid temperatures and, after eating again, the others had fallen into an exhausted slumber.
When Evelyn had gone out a few moments earlier to answer to nature, Philip was posted outside for the first watch. He had nodded to her and warned her not to go far. It was a cold night and there were wolves in the area. She had done as he suggested, starting at every slight noise until she had hurried back to the barn. Wolves. Fantastic. Just one more thing to worry about.
Coming out of the harsh wind, she went to the fire, holding out her hands to the welcome warmth. If she wasn’t such a stubborn woman, she reflected, she would be close to giving up. The road seemed to be getting longer and more difficult with each passing hour. Yet what other choice did she have? What other choice did they all have?
“It will snow before morning,” Erik said in a low voice behind her.
She turned in surprise to watch him come out of the shadows near the door and move towards her.
“I thought you were asleep,” she said.
“I should be, and so should you.” He sat down near the fire and pulled out a cigarette case. “We still have a long way to go.”
Evelyn sat next to him and accepted the offered cigarette.
“Will we make it by Sunday?” she asked.
“It’s possible. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t be pushing us so hard.” He lit her cigarette, then his own. “The snow will slow us down.”
“I looked at the map with Anna earlier. It looks as if we’re not even halfway there.”
Erik glanced at her, his lips curving faintly. “We still have two days. Don’t panic yet.”
Evelyn was silent for a long moment, smoking her cigarette and staring into the flames.
“Who are you?” he asked after a long silence.
Evelyn looked at him to find dark eyes studying her in the firelight.
“What do you mean?”
“The Royal navy wouldn’t arrange to evacuate a simple embassy clerk from a port miles away from Oslo,” he said calmly. “They would wait until the entire embassy could be evacuated. Yet here we are, hiking across Norway to get you to a rendezvous with a British ship. Anna is determined that you not come within earshot of the Nazis, and Peder is risking much to contact London for you on a regular basis. So, I ask again. Who are you? Really?”
Evelyn swallowed. She supposed it had been inevitable that Erik would realize that she wasn’t exactly who he had been led to believe. He was right. The embassy employees would be interned in the embassy until such a time as England could send transportation to evacuate them. The fact that she was risking a cross-country trek to meet a ship willing to take her now was telling.
“Does it matter who I am?” she asked, glancing at him. “Would knowing make any difference?”
He looked at her for a long moment.
“I suppose not, but it would appease my curiosity,” he said. “You speak Norwegian very well, but I think you are English. I suppose you could be French, but I would be surprised if that were so.”
“Why is that?”
“In general, I don’t find that the French display the amount of courage that you’ve shown in the past two days.”
Evelyn was torn between a feeling of insult on behalf of her French relations and amusement. She couldn’t stop the wry smile that curved her lips.
“I’ve shown no more courage than everyone else,” she replied. “We are all doing what we have to do right now, as best as we can manage.”
Erik turned his gaze into the fire and they were quiet for a few moments.
“It hasn’t escaped my attention that you’ve made a very close ally of Peder and his radio,” he finally said in a low voice, “or that Kristian also appears to be firmly on your side. Anna said the two of you went down to visit him in Drammen. There’s only one reason that I can think of that someone from the British embassy would want to make friends with wireless radio enthusiasts.”
Evelyn was silent. It was obvious that Erik had worked out her real purpose for being in Norway, but she wasn’t about to confirm or deny it.
“Anna has changed over the past months, and she’s obviously become very fond of you,” he continued. “I’ll admit that when she told me she was going to work for the embassy, I tried to talk her out of it. I didn’t understand her reasons for working for another government. Now I’m beginning to see why she chose to.”
“I believe she was offered a very good salary,” Evelyn murmured, drawing an amused look from him.
“No doubt, but Anna has never been interested in money,” he said. “Tell me something. How did you convince he
r that the Germans were a very real threat? Because that is the only thing that would have driven my sister to work so closely with the British.”
Evelyn glanced at him and sighed.
“I didn’t,” she told him. “She saw it for herself.”
Erik nodded slowly and turned his gaze back to the fire.
“Then she’s more perceptive than I,” he murmured. “I didn’t become convinced until they sailed into Trondheim.”
Evelyn hesitated, then tossed her cigarette butt into the fire.
“There’s no shame in that,” she said. “Many men far higher up than you failed to see this invasion coming, regardless of the signs. Everyone hoped Hitler would stop with Poland. There is nothing wrong with hoping for peace.”
“There is when it causes you to be blind to what is happening around you.” Erik finished his cigarette and tossed it into the fire. “But now that we’ve learned that lesson painfully, it won’t happen again. If we fail to win this battle, the Germans will have to contend with a very different type of Norwegian than they’re expecting.”
Evelyn looked at him sharply. “You’re speaking of resistance?”
“If it becomes necessary.” Erik looked grim. “I will do whatever I must to get my country back. So will many others. So will Anna, which is why I want you to convince her to go with you on Sunday.”
“What?”
Erik looked at her, his face unreadable. “If Anna stays here, she will start down a road that she cannot possibly reach the end of. I’m afraid that she will begin something that will get her killed. If she goes with you, she can be spared all of this.”
“She wants to fight.”
“She can do that from the safety of another shore. There are ways for her to help us without being here.”
Evelyn nodded slowly, acknowledging the truth of his words.
“That is true, but I don’t think she thinks of it quite in the same way,” she said slowly. “I’ve already asked her to come with me. Her answer was quite firmly no. She wants to stay and do what she can here.”
“That is her immaturity talking,” he said disgustedly. “She was always reckless, and this is just another example of it. She needs to leave and be safe, not throw herself into the front lines.”
“You’re not leaving,” she pointed out. “What makes Anna different?”
“Anna is not trained for this.”
“Then train her.” Erik looked at her, surprised, and she shrugged. “If that’s your only argument, it is easily remedied. Anna can be trained, just as I...”
Evelyn broke off suddenly, biting her lip.
“Just as you’ve been trained?” he asked softly. “I’m not surprised. You handled that rifle too well, despite the fact that you’d never seen a Krag–Jørgensen.”
She was silent for a moment, then looked at him. “I’m more than willing to bring Anna with me, but I’ve already spoken to her once, and she declined. If you can convince her otherwise, I’ll do what I can. But I think you must be prepared for the fact that she doesn’t want to leave Norway.”
“Then she will die.”
“I wouldn’t be too quick to predict that,” Evelyn said after a moment. “She is surprisingly resourceful, and she knows the risks. She won’t make foolish mistakes. I think you might be surprised.”
“If I can convince her, you will take her with you?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Then I will convince her.”
Evelyn glanced at him. “Good luck with that.”
They were quiet again for a long moment, then she turned her head to study his profile.
“Are you serious about forming some kind of organized resistance if Norway is lost to Hitler?” she asked quietly.
“The King has made it clear that we are to fight,” he said. “I will do so until my last breath.”
“If you do, you won’t be alone,” she said slowly. “I’m confident that we can offer aid and supplies to help.”
Erik looked at her. “And how would you know that?”
She smiled slowly. “You’d be amazed what a lowly embassy worker can know.”
He was surprised into a short laugh.
“If it comes to it, that would be welcome, and necessary,” he said after a moment of thought. “All of our weapons and equipment have been seized by the Germans. All we have left is what we carried with us. Do you think you can get weapons to us?”
“It’s possible.”
“If that is so, then I will make sure that any and all information about the German troops and plans that we come across is forwarded on to your government.”
“That’s a fair enough trade,” she said. “I would ask that, if Anna stays, you allow her to continue with what she’s already begun.”
Erik looked at her sharply. “What do you mean?”
“It’s the only way I can guarantee the supplies you’ll need,” she said calmly.
He scowled. “I knew she was up to something,” he muttered. “I should have realized that she’d already begun.”
He was silent for a very long time, staring into the fire, and Evelyn waited. If he agreed, she knew Bill would get the supplies they would need. Whatever resistance Erik organized would be considered part of the network she had built, and therefore was guaranteed MI6 support. But he had to agree to allow Anna to continue what they started in Drammen, otherwise there was no point to any of it. Resistance was key, but so was the intelligence that they would be able to gather.
And Anna was the only one she trusted to do that.
“Very well,” he finally said. “If she insists on remaining here, I’ll ensure that she is properly trained and that she can continue what she’s already started. But if she agrees to go with you, I will take her place here. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
London, England
April 12
Bill looked up when a short knock fell on his door, and it opened almost immediately. Wesley entered, carrying a stack of papers in his hand.
“Good morning, sir,” he said cheerfully. “I have the morning’s transmissions here, and Roger stopped me in the corridor. He was bringing a message from the radio room, so I told him I’d bring it to you. I know you’ve been waiting to hear from Jian.”
Bill nodded, holding out his hand for the sheaf of papers. “Yes, I have. Thank you.”
He dropped the rest of the papers and tore open the message from the radio room.
WE’RE MAKING GOOD TIME AND HAVE BEEN ABLE TO STAY AHEAD OF THE INVASION FORCES. SHOULD REACH STEINKJER BY NIGHTFALL. ON TARGET TO REACH DESTINATION ON TIME. WILL TRY TO MAKE CONTACT AT 10PM IN CASE OF FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS. - JIAN
“Good news, sir?”
“Well, it’s not bad news,” Bill replied, setting down the paper and rising from his chair. “Is the map of Norway still up there?”
“Yes.” Wesley turned to the map taking up part of one wall of the office. “What are you looking for?”
“Somewhere called Steinkjer,” Bill said, joining him. “It will be between Trondheim and Namsos.”
Wesley nodded and studied the map for a moment. “Here it is, sir,” he said finally, pointing to a spot on the map. “Looks like it’s the only place to cross the water.”
Bill stared at the map with a frown. “Yes.”
“Is something the matter, sir?”
“What strikes you about that point on the map, Wesley?”
Wesley looked at the map for a moment. “Just that it’s the only land-crossing for miles.”
“Exactly.” Bill turned away from the map. “And if the Germans have an ounce of sense, they’ll make a beeline for it and secure it.”
Wesley turned and watched as Bill went back to his desk.
“That’s where Jian is going, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Yes. She says they’ve been able to stay ahead of the G
ermans, but if the Huns manage to get to Steinkjer first, she’ll be walking right into them.” Bill dropped into his chair. “Get Bigsby on the line, will you? See what he can tell us about enemy movement, specifically in the region around Steinkjer.”
“Yes, sir.” Wesley turned towards the door. “I’ll go try him now.”
Bill watched him leave, then reached for the stack of morning transmissions on his desk. There was nothing he could do to help Evelyn physically in her flight across Norway, but he could warn her of any additional unforeseen complications. If the Germans were moving in that area, old Bigsby would know of it. His lips curved despite himself. Thank the good Lord that the old battle-axe had come over to work with them at the start of the war. He and Bill had known each other since before Bill had married Marguerite. If there was any possibility of Evelyn running head first into the Huns, Bigsby would tell him.
As he turned his attention to other matters, he was conscious of a feeling of relief. At least she was still able to get word out and, at least as of now, she was avoiding the advancing troops. For a novice agent who had found herself suddenly in enemy territory, Evelyn was doing exceptionally well.
Jian was going to make a damn good spy. They just had to get her out of Norway.
Trondheim, Norway
Eisenjager watched as another column of trucks carrying troops rumbled by. He had entered the city easily enough after showing his credentials at one of the many checkpoints set up around the perimeter. After filling the tank of his car, he had gone into a café filled with fellow Germans. He had ordered a coffee and open sandwich from a stone-faced man behind the counter, taking it with him back to his car. He would eat and then continue on his way.
There was no possibility that Jian had come through Trondheim. She would have seen that it was secured and impassable. She would have been forced to go around it. The question was whether or not she was still heading north, and how. He had seen the Volvo at the side of the road near Grindal. Either they had obtained another vehicle, or they were proceeding on foot. He sincerely hoped it was the former. A car he could track. If they were moving on foot, there was no way he would find them.