by Allan Jones
Sims looked earnestly at Paul as he finished his tale. Paul took a swig of the brandy and passed it to him. Sims’ eyes watched Paul as he also drank, though Paul had only stuck his tongue in the neck of the flask and had pretended to swallow.
Paul pondered his next words before speaking. “A good story,” he said. “Is that all it is, a story?”
“It’s the truth!” Sims exclaimed. “Honest! On my life ,by all that’s ’oly; it’s the truth an’ nothin’ but the truth, so’ elp me God.”
“Sounds like you’ve seen the inside of a court, sergeant,” Paul said with a wry smile.
Sims warmed to the smile and his lopsided mouth split into a semblance of a grin. “You’re not wrong there, sir, but it were a long time ago, when I were a lad.”
Sims paused, weighing his next words.“Y’know, it’s a bit of a relief to get it all off me chest an’ all. It’s been gettin’ ’arder an’ ’arder to keep it up, always ’aving to watch yerself. It gets right lonely at times an’ all. I’m glad you knows the truth now ,sir; takes the burden off, so it does.”
Paul remained silent. “You do believe me, sir? I told you everything; I ain’t lef’nuffin’ out either. That’s how it was, really. You gotta believe me.”
Paul stared hard at Sims, then his expression softened. “It’s all right ,sergeant, I believe you; it’s just that these days you can’t be too careful.”
“You’re right there! There’s spies and them as works for the Germans everywhere; you don’t know who to trust! You ’as to be right careful, watch yer every step.”
They remained quiet. Paul waited, knowing wha tSims would say next, and sure enough: “Well, you knows about me, but if you don’t mind me askin’, what the ’ell are you doin’ ’ere, sir?”
“Me… I’m waiting to go home.”
“What, back to England?” Paul nodded. “Take me with you, sir! Let me come with you an’…you could vouch for me too ,sir, couldn’t you? You could tell ’em. I could be back in the Army, if you ’elps me.”
“I’m sorry, sergeant, I’d love to help, but there’s no room on the plane; there’s two of us going as it is. I’ll tell the Army about you, though, tell them to put you back on the active list, and tell them what you’re doing.”
“Oh well,” Sims sighed, “too good to be true, I suppose. Still, at least they’ll know. I’ll just ’ave to carry on. But hey! If I goes back on the list, I’ll ’ave all me back pay, won’t I? That’ll be summink to think of; it’ll be a tidy sum, won’t it?”
“You’ll be quite rich, I’d imagine,” Paul agreed.
“An’ if you tells ’em I’m in the Resistance, I might get me medal and me stripes back.”Sims was animated at the prospect.
“Very likely. I’ll do what I can, I promise,” Paul told him.
Sims sat back and relaxed, a happy smile on his face.“Thanks ,sir, you don’t know how much it means to me. I loves the Army an’ I loves me country, I do, I really do…So, what happens now?”
Paul looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“Well, them in the ’ouse, are you goin’ to tell ’em?”
“Oh, I see.” Paul pretended to think for a while, then said, “No, I don’t think so. Best you carry on for a while as you are. The less people that know, the safer for you. Carry on your act and wait till they contact you. Although…when I go tomorrow night, they’re sending in a replacement agent at the same time, codename ‘Bandit’; you could be of use to him, so make yourself known to him, tell him ‘Nimrod’ says you’re OK. Tell him to radio for confirmation and I’ll look out for the signal and vouch for you. Then you follow his orders: perhaps you could be a courier between the different groups. No-one notices you or takes any heed of what you’re doing, so you could prove invaluable with the right training. Are you game?”
Sims grinned widely. “Too right I am, sir! Stand on me. I won’t let you down, God knows I won’t.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine, sergeant. For the moment, keep up the act, though, till Bandit decides. Don’t let the people inside know yet, OK?”
“Yes, sir!” Sims threw Paul a salute. “Cor! I ain’t done that in a while.”
Paul managed a laugh and returned the salute. He stretched his arms and yawned. “God, I’m tired. It’s been a long day; better turn in soon. You all right in here? Of course you are, you’re used to it, aren’t you? I’ll see you in the morning; we’ll go somewhere and talk some more.” He got to his feet. “Sorry if I scared you; I didn’t know what was going on.”
Sims scrambled to his feet and held out his hand. Paul shook it. “That’s all right; you weren’t to know, seein’ as I was made out to be a bad ’un before.”
“I’m glad you made it, sergeant, I mean that, and keep up the good work.”
Paul stood back and saluted him. Sims was delighted with the honour and saluted back. Paul bade him good night, left the barn and walked back to the house, a wry grin on his face. He hurried up the stairs to join Amelia, who was standing back from the window, though she still had a clear sight of the barn door. He moved behind her and put his arms about her waist and kissed the back of her neck. She sighed with pleasure.
“How long do you think he’ll wait?” she asked.
“He’ll be impatient to get going; not long,” Paul replied, smelling her hair and planting kisses on her neck.
“Get off, will you, there’s work to be done!” She shrugged him off, giggling.
“Just passing the time,” he smiled.
He came beside her as she asked.“ What did he tell you?”
“A pack of lies, lies upon lies. He’s good, I’ll give him that; he spilled them out almost without thinking about it. If I hadn’t seen his file among Wessendorf’s papers, I might even have believed him.”
“It’s true then, he shot the couple who sheltered him?”
“Yes, the Germans gave the gun to him, to show his good faith. He mowed them down without mercy. Since then, he’s been telling them anything he could find out, doing his harmless, ‘please pity me’ tramp act. Quite a few of those that ended up in Wessendorf’s cellar were there because of him.”
“And SOE smelt a rat,” Amelia said.
“Yes, there were too many incidents, too many co-incidences; there had to be a leak. That’s why I had to avoid the Rennes cell as much as possible. At least at first.”
He turned to her. “I didn’t tell you this before, but my orders were first to get you out, then I was to stay, lurk in the background and see if Henri and his people could help me find the rat. You were supposed to go back on your own. No need now.”
“Jesus! After what you did, your face would have been plastered everywhere with a high price on your head. It would have been suicide!” Amelia was shocked.
“As I said, I would have kept out of sight. The Rennes cell was warned and ordered to cease all activity and go underground till we’d sorted it out. Chummy over there got told to lie low as well. Our good fortune is that he came here, else I’d have had to hunt him down; could have taken some time.”
“He doesn’t know about Henri and the others?” Amelia asked.
“He didn’t, but he does now. He’ll go straight to the Germans, tell them two British spies and a Resistance cell are here and hope to bring them and have us all in the bag by daylight. He’d probably have come with them to sneer at me, show me he had fooled me, rub it in.”
“He won’t get the chance,” Amelia said grimly, “as long as Philippe and Andre stay on their toes. Did you have to pick them ? I could have done it! Or the older men; they’re just kids.”
‘I know, but I need you with me, and the others are better trained for the job in hand. We’ll have to supervise, check everything. The lads will be fine, don’t underestimate them; they’re bright lads and cool with it, they’ll do fine.”
“Which one is it to be?” she asked.
“I left it to them.”
“So your conscience would be clear, you shifted the burde
n to them.”
“I have no conscience where that man is concerned; neither will whichever one does it. It’s an act of war, for God’s sake! Whoever puts an end to him should be proud; no worse than putting a dying animal out of its misery.”
“I know, but I fear for them. I know what killing someone in cold blood is like: it never leaves you, does it? No matter how you excuse it, it stays with you, like a taint, a bad smell; the mark of Cain is on you, and will be there forever.”
He put his arm round her shoulder. “Only because you have a conscience. Do you see? These days there are many who don’t; that’s why the war happened, that’s who we’re fighting. Having a conscience and being willing to pay the price for it is what separates us from the thugs and bullies and murderers.”
She squeezed his hand, then stiffened and cried out, “There! There! He’s on the move.”
She pointed as a dark figure emerged from the barn and, crouching low, made off down the drive. He hadn’t got far when two figures erupted from the ground and held him, struggling, while they hooded him. They half-dragged, half-carried him to the car and bundled him into the back seat. Philippe got behind the wheel, Andre got in the back and shoved the silenced pistol into Sims’ ribs; the engine roared into life and they made off down the track.
Amelia and Paul hurried downstairs. The others were ready and they all went out of the back door and climbed into Gaspar’s van. The explosives and detonators were prepared. They armed themselves, checking the action of the machine guns and pistols, as they drove into the night to the rendezvous.
CHAPTER 14
Andre spoke in English. “Still! Keep quiet or I will shoot you now!” Sims became quiet, his body rigid with fear. Andre whipped off the hood: Sims’ eyes were wide in terror. “We know exactly who you are, and what you’ve been doing, so does the Captain: he knew all along, he saw the file the Germans had on you. So! No lies! Do everything you’re told! You make one move and you’re dead! Understand me!” Andre dug the gun further into his ribs for emphasis.
“I’ll do anything you want!” Sims cried. “Anything!”
Andre lowered his voice. “Yes, you will, you will, my friend; and if you do, there may be a way out for you. You hear me?”
Sims clutched at the straw. “Anything! Anything! I’ll do whatever you want. I will !Just don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, please.”
“You will do exactly what I tell you to do; no mistakes, no tricks, or I’ll shoot you down like the dog you are, you hear me?”
Sims was gibbering. “I hear! Anything, whatever you want, anything, just don’t kill me.”
“Very well, my friend, now you listen and listen good: you do a little job for us and we’ll let you go, and the Captain said you can have this.”
He produced a roll of money, a lot of money, and waved it under Sims’ eyes. “If it were up to me, I’d kill you now, but the Captain’s orders are that if you co-operate, you can have this and we’ll take you far from here and you can go. He said to tell you that you’re to get out of France and never comeback! We don’t care where you go, or how you do it, but you never set foot on French soil again or you’re a dead man. Understand?”
“Yes, yes! I’ll go, I’ll do whatever you say; you’ll never see me again, I swear!”
“You’ll have to go anyway; after tonight the Germans will be mad at you, they’ll hunt you down, and if they get their hands on you…”
He left the sentence unfinished, and the meaning was not lost on Sims. “I’ll do it! I’ll go, I’ll go! Just tell me what you want.”
Carefully and patiently Andre told him, questioning him repeatedly to be sure Sims got it right. At last he was sure.
They pulled up at the doctor’s house on the outskirts of the village. The doctor had been warned to make himself scarce and so was working a night shift at the hospital in Rennes, where he normally worked. He would report the break-in and the missing drugs and valuables on his return in the morning. Philippe broke in and began quietly ransacking the place, whilst Andre marched Sims to the telephone. The Germans would know where the call had come from, but they would be long gone by then.
Andre handed Sims the receiver.
“Now, your life depends on getting this right. One mistake ,one hint of a trick and I shoot you. Understand?”
Sims nodded and made the call. He was put through to the Abwehr office in Rennes, and finally his controller came on the line. “Who is this? What do you want at this hour?” Oberleutnant Shmidt had been called from his bed and was not pleased about it!
Sims spoke urgently but quietly into the phone. “It’s me, Claude. I got something big for you, the biggest. I just been with two British agents − they’s the ones responsible for that business at the chateau− they’re bein’ picked up by a plane to take ’em to England tomorrow night, an’ I knows where; an’ that’s not all, there’s another British agent comin’ in to replace them. You can get ’em all! An’ the plane, an’ the Frenchies who been ’elping them. I knows where and when it’s goin’ to ’appen.”
“Tell me more. What British spies?” Shmidt’s interest was immediate.
“I was kippin’, er, sleepin’, that is, in a barn that’s out of the way, when they all comes in. Must’ve been a meetin’ place, an I ’id an’ ’eard everything; they din’ know I was there! They even mentioned the map reference of the field where the plane’s goin’ to come, but I knows where it is anyway from ’ow they described the place: one of ’em was tellin’ the others ’ow to get there! If you gets there before ’em an ’ides till the right time, you can nab ’em all, see!”
“You’re sure they didn’t see you?” Shmidt asked suspiciously.
“Yeah! Certain. They ’ad no idea. ’Ave I ever let you down? ’Ave I? Everything I gave yer so far’s been kosher, ain’t it! Stand on me, it’s straight up. See, I ’ad me suspicions about that barn, seen comin’s an’ goin’s where there oughtn’t to be, no reason to go there an’ all, seen tracks of vehicles leadin’ there. So, when you tol’ me to go wanderin’ again and sniff fings out, I thought I’d make a start there, an’ blow me, there they came, just like that! Stroke of luck an’ no mistake!”
“Good! You’ve done well. Give me the details, quickly!”
“What about me? What do I get? It’s gotta be worth summin’, ain’t it?”
“You’ll get your reward,” Shmidt shouted angrily into the mouthpiece. “Don’t waste my time; give me the co-ordinates now!”
“OK, OK, calm down; I’s only askin’.You gotta pen?”
Andre heard the angry shout from the phone as he held up the paper for Sims to read from. He spoke carefully and slowly, then repeated the figures to ensure Shmidt had them right. “Very good, my friend.” Shmidt was calmer. “Now you will make your way into the vicinity and wait for us on the road; we will pick you up on the way. Just make sure you’re not seen. When this is done, I think we’ll have to move you to another area. You have done well, very well. Congratulations! You will be well rewarded. Now I must go. Be on the road tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir, I will, I’ll meet you tomorrow. I’ll be there, and thank you, sir, thank you.”
Sims replaced the receiver and looked anxiously at a grinning Andre. Sims forced a smile. “He bought it, he bought it all right! See, I didn’t let you down, did I?”
“You did well; well done.” Andre said. “Now it’s time to go; we have a long drive ahead of us. We have to get you far away from here. Hurry!”
Sims was encouraged. “And I can have the money?”
Andre waved him to the door with the pistol. “Sure, I’ll give it you in the car.”
Philippe reached the car first and held open the back door. Sims got in first. Andre got in next to him, placed the pistol over his heart and pulled the trigger twice. Sims died instantly. Philippe got in and started the car. Before driving off, he looked back at Andre and the body, but before he could say anything, Andre growled, “Just drive, will you? No talk!”
Philippe put his foot down and they sped off. “Who are they?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Germans, Milice? What’s the difference? They’re coming after us.” Andre was reaching into a bag at his feet.
“What are you doing?” Philippe asked urgently, fighting the wheel.
“We’ve got two grenades. Let them get closer and I’ll lob them out.”
“No! Too risky. I’ve got a better idea. Hang on to something.”
“What about the body? Shall we throw it out? They might stop to look?”
“Just hang on, will you! We’re nearly there. How far behind are they?”
“About a half kilometre. They’re faster than us; they’ll be on us in no time.”
Philippe roared round a wide sweeping bend, hit the brakes and skidded the car down a track on the left and killed the engine. They were down a steep slope, so the car was hidden from view. They both held their breath, watching out of the back, Philippe ready to drive off down the track if need be. The car came closer, and, to their relief, roared by and kept going. Philippe gunned the engine and reversed out of the track and tore off back the way they had come. “What now?” Andre cried.