by Anna Fargher
‘It was funny. He jumped up and screamed, and the whole auditorium laughed. His wife didn’t believe I was there.’
‘Are you sure about this?’ GI Joe asked, slowing as he considered her plan.
‘Yes!’ She swallowed, throat as dry as ash with every second they neared the soldier.
‘No, topolina, I can’t let you do this!’ Leo said urgently. ‘Like you said when we first met, you have a family to find in Italy. I have nobody. I should go!’
‘That isn’t true, Leo.’ Pip looked over her shoulder into his kind face, and her heart stirred. ‘You have us now, and Noah’s Ark takes care of each other. Hurry, GI!’
‘All right, liddle lady –’ the pigeon fiercely beat his wings – ‘but you be careful! I’ll pick you up as soon as you get outta there.’ She bit her lip, the soldier’s fitted sage green jacket zooming ever closer. ‘On the count of three.’ Pip nodded, clenching her paws into fists to stop them from trembling. ‘One, tw—’
But before GI Joe got to three Leo hurled himself from the pigeon’s back and landed on the soldier’s jacket collar with a small thump.
At once the soldier stood bolt upright and stumbled backwards with a wriggle of unease, feeling something warm and furry scuttle down the back of his neck. As Leo’s cold little paws scrambled over his body, the man shrieked in alarm and hopped up and down, his hands slapping the little lump that was rippling through his uniform.
‘Leo! No!’ Pip cried, unable to take her eyes off the man, clawing at his jacket buttons and panting in alarm.
GI Joe dived sharply to the ledge jutting below the machine gun pointing from the balcony, and Pip rushed from his back to stare through the gaps in the balustrades, her heart hammering behind her ribs.
‘That was a shock for me too!’ GI Joe grabbed her by the shoulders and stared into her eyes. ‘But you and I have got a job to do now. You’ve gotta disarm this thing and I’ve gotta go get that loony friend of ours outta trouble. Now go! There’s no time for delay!’
He burst into the air and Pip felt a sharp stab of guilt at not being able to go to Leo’s aid. But she knew GI Joe was right, and she raced to the last blocks of explosives, feverishly gnawing through every fuse until they were disarmed.
With her mind whirring for a way to help her friends, Pip held her breath, watching the soldier duck away from GI Joe, flapping and pecking about his head. Swinging his arms, the man struck the pigeon with his fist and GI Joe faltered in the air for a moment before he circled to attack again.
The soldier writhed in disgust and ripped off his jacket with Leo still inside. Slamming it on the floor, he jumped, stamping his big, black boots all over its surface in a sinister dance that made Pip’s blood freeze.
‘Mäuse! ’ the soldier yelled, catching sight of Leo darting out of the sleeve.
‘Hang on, Leo!’ Pip cried, seeing the terror etched on his face as he dodged and weaved between the soldier’s feet crashing down all around him. ‘I’m coming!’ But before Pip could race through the gaps between the railings she clasped her paws over her mouth in horror. The toe of the soldier’s boot caught Leo in the flank and launched him over the balcony into the night beyond.
Just then, Philippe hurtled through the darkness above her head with Madame Fourcade and Nancy clinging to his back. Snatching Leo in his beak, he frantically beat his wings and swooped to the right towards the orange flames still flickering inside the Grand Palais.
GI Joe urgently landed beside her. ‘Let’s get the hell outta here!’ Pip scrambled on to his back and he charged after Philippe, racing east over the Paris rooftops.
‘Is he alive?’ Pip felt sick with guilt, seeing Leo dangling limply in the parrot’s mouth. It was her idea to climb into the soldier’s uniform and it should have been her, not him, who had performed the task. She’d never forgive herself for not realizing he would take her place.
‘We think so,’ Madame Fourcade replied, and Philippe’s eyes were clouded with worry, ‘but he needs a doctor if he’s going to survive.’
‘Then we have to get him back to the catacombs,’ Nancy said, ‘and we need to get there fast.’
‘Where’s the closest entrance?’ GI Joe asked.
‘The flower bed where we arrived in the city before,’ Nancy replied. ‘All the others are further south.’
At once, Philippe and GI Joe swerved away from the River Seine and swiftly flew over chimneystacks, church spires and the gilded dome of Napoleon’s tomb towards the Luxembourg Gardens. In the gloom below, Pip saw that fewer flags were flying over monuments where swastikas had billowed before and the leafy boulevards were sparser where trunks had been felled. Barricades made from bricks, old furniture, metal grating, concrete paving and fallen trees stretched across roads all over the city with people huddled behind them, holding rifles and wearing the tricolour wrapped round their upper arms. But as the birds neared the Luxembourg Palace a cold shiver of dread rippled down Pip’s spine.
Thundering blasts tore through the streets nearby, kicking pockets of dust into the air and scattering men in fear. Pip spotted a Tiger tank a moment afterwards, rolling through the remains of a barricade with mist trickling from its gun barrel. As her mind raced for a way in which they could sabotage it, a flutter of black-and-white feathers dashed through the darkness and landed on its rear fuel compartment. A second later, a magpie took to the air with an ermine clinging to its back, and a rush of pride rose inside Pip and Madame Fourcade, knowing it was Pie and Monique from the Maquis.
Philippe and GI Joe neared the south side of the Luxembourg Gardens and Pip’s eyes widened, spying small bursts of light blazing behind hedges and statues where men in civilian clothes engaged in a fierce gunfight with enemy soldiers.
‘The stinking Nazis are shooting at the Resistance beside our flower bed!’ Nancy cursed. ‘There’s no way we can access the catacombs from there now.’
‘Where’s the next closest entrance?’ Pip asked urgently, glancing at Leo hanging lifelessly from Philippe’s beak and feeling more worried than ever.
‘La Petite Ceinture,’ Nancy replied. ‘The abandoned railway tunnel.’
‘The one guarded by Max the raven?’ Madame Fourcade asked.
Nancy nodded with Philippe. ‘Yes, there’s a secret door under one of the sleepers.’
‘We know it,’ GI Joe said, robustly flapping his wings with the parrot. ‘That’s how we came in first. Leo, you hang on, buddy! We’ll be there soon!’
The birds charged south, and as soon as Pip caught sight of the big bronze lion in the middle of the large road junction her pulse quickened with hope. A few minutes brought them inside the tall stone corridor covered with rich green creepers, and GI Joe and Philippe flew swiftly forward, following the grassy, disused train track leading into the black tunnel ahead. The birds raced through the veil of ivy into the gloom and landed beside the secret railway sleeper with the animals hurrying to the ground.
‘Max!’ Nancy knocked the sleeper swiftly three times, then once more, in a secret password, and her tail flicked impatiently as she repeated the sequence. ‘Open up, you dodo!’
A moment later, Pip and the others heaved a sigh of relief as the timber trapdoor creaked ajar with Max’s beady, black eyes shining from below.
‘Salut, Nancy!’ Max smiled fondly, levering the timber railway sleeper wide open with the pole and hopping out of the opening. Philippe struck a match as he rushed into the hole and Max’s face suddenly fell, seeing Leo flopped listlessly in his beak. ‘Oh non, Leo! What happened?’
‘There’s no time for chit-chat, Max,’ Nancy said, pushing Pip and the others into the opening. Looking up at the raven for a second, her eyes widened in horror. ‘Max!’ she yelled. ‘LOOK OUT!’
The raven followed her gaze and gasped. Twelve hulking Goliath Rats were sprinting across the railway sleepers, straight towards them.
‘Run!’ Max cried, watching in horror as the Goliath Rats neared with their lips curling back from long yellow teeth
. He shoved Nancy into the hole and she cursed as she fell upon Madame Fourcade’s prickles. ‘All of you, run as fast as you can!’
‘Come with us!’ the hedgehog yelled, ripping a match from the flip-top box and striking it against the ignition strip with a fizz.
‘I’ll be right behind you!’ Max panted. ‘Now go! GO!’
Madame Fourcade and Nancy rushed after the others. Max leaped into the secret passageway after them, throwing his full weight into the pole that held the trapdoor open. The railway sleeper slammed shut above his head, and he swiftly ignited another match to follow his friends. But a second later, the raven stopped dead, realizing he’d not heard the trapdoor click back into place, and he gasped, hearing the sound of scratching claws find the edges of the sleeper and slowly prise it open.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE GOLIATH RATS
‘Where’s Max?’ Pip looked over her shoulder as she bounded between Philippe and GI Joe, pacing as fast as they could through the burrow.
‘He’s coming,’ Madame Fourcade puffed behind the pigeon.
‘Just keep going.’ GI Joe urged Pip on. ‘Don’t look back!’
The flares billowed above Philippe and Madame Fourcade’s head as they sprinted through the tunnel. A few panicked minutes brought them skidding to a halt at the wall of human skulls.
‘I can hear the rats.’ Nancy nervously shifted on her paws with Madame Fourcade, watching Philippe fumble with the bottom left skull’s teeth and drop his match on the floor. As it snuffed out, the darkness closed around him and he whimpered with fear.
‘Which tooth opens the door?’ Pip cried, hearing the Goliath Rats’ growls grow louder in the tunnel behind them and she pushed past the parrot to the skull that grinned at them in the gloom.
‘Pull the lower left tooth!’ Nancy rushed to Pip’s side.
‘Hurry!’ Madame Fourcade winced, the flame of the match singeing her paw. ‘I can’t hold on to this torch for much longer!’
Pip found the tooth and pulled. A moment later, the hedgehog dropped the matchstick and a shaft of light shone in the darkness as Pip slowly dragged the skull’s face outwards. Seeing her struggle, Philippe, Madame Fourcade and Nancy leaped to her aid and yanked the door wide open.
‘Well done, chérie.’ Madame Fourcade pushed Pip into the long secret passage freckled with fossils. ‘We’re almost there.’
Damp air filled their lungs as the animals rushed through the opening. Letting the door swing closed behind them, they dashed down the slope and followed the little lights, guiding them deep underground. A few breathless minutes brought them to the murky pool inside the large limestone chamber. Behind them, the roar of the Goliath Rats grew louder as they chased the others inside.
‘They’ve worked out the skulls! Quick!’ Nancy said urgently. ‘We’ve got to reach the ledge on the other side of the water before they see which way we’ve gone. The rats have to think we’ve taken the path of lights, otherwise our hideout is blown and it won’t just be Leo’s life that’s in danger – it’ll be the whole Parisian Resistance!’
‘Let’s get outta here!’ GI Joe said as Pip scrambled on to his back with Madame Fourcade while Nancy climbed on to Philippe, and she’d barely grabbed the feathers behind his neck before he burst into the air.
With the sound of the approaching Goliath Rats screaming in their ears, the birds soared over the pool towards the small ledge on the opposite side of the cave. They were almost there when Nancy shrieked. A second later, the others gasped in horror as the white mouse lost her grip and plummeted into the pool with a small splash.
‘Nancy!’ Pip cried as Philippe landed on the ledge, closely followed by GI Joe.
The animals turned pale, watching Nancy splutter as she came to the surface. Knowing what lurked beneath her, her eyes widened with panic and she swam desperately towards Pip and Madame Fourcade, who were hurriedly dismounting from GI Joe.
‘Don’t wait for me!’ Nancy ordered, nearing the ledge and seeing Philippe hesitate. ‘Go and tell the raven guards the Goliath Rats are snapping at our heels! Now!’
‘Go!’ Pip added as she dived on to her stomach with Madame Fourcade and GI Joe. Together they reached Nancy’s paw and dragged her to safety. ‘Take Leo to the doctor! We’ll catch up!’
Giving one last glance to his friends, the parrot disappeared into the dark corridor with Leo dangling from his beak. Pip watched the gloom consume him, hoping with all her heart that Leo was going to be all right. She’d only met him a matter of hours ago, yet she felt as though she’d known him forever. Just as she stepped to follow them a blood-curdling snarl snatched her breath from her lungs.
‘UMBRELLA MOUSE!’
Pip’s insides lurched with fear as she turned with GI Joe, Madame Fourcade and Nancy. Twelve Goliath Rats glared at them on the other side of the pool with gleaming red eyes.
‘You cannot run from us any longer!’ the biggest Goliath Rat spat, its muscular, auburn body rearing on its hind legs. ‘Come with us now and we’ll spare your friends’ lives!’
‘Don’t listen to them.’ Madame Fourcade wrapped her paw tightly round Pip and as her ear pressed against the hedgehog’s chest, she heard Madame’s heart drum. ‘You cannot trust the enemy.’
‘The Umbrella Mouse must pay for her crimes!’ another rat cried.
‘She is a murderer and a traitor to the regime!’ the biggest rat growled. ‘If she doesn’t give herself up now, all of you will suffer!’
‘You don’t scare us, you mangey varmints!’ Nancy glowered.
‘She isn’t going anywhere with you!’ GI Joe stood in front of Pip and Madame Fourcade with his feathers ruffling furiously all over his body.
‘GI Joe,’ a soft female voice cooed in the familiar American accent that had once fooled them. Pip froze, recognizing it at once. ‘I wondered if you survived the fire, honey. We searched for your body in the ashes.’ She looked him up and down and smirked. ‘You look like you should have died in the flames like your friends Hans and Léon.’
‘Lucia . . .’ GI Joe glowered at the white pigeon padding up to the Goliath Rats from the path behind. She smiled at the animals cowering across the pool of water and a deep growl rumbled in GI Joe’s throat.
‘I shall have my revenge, Pip,’ the white pigeon snarled, now speaking in her true German voice. ‘You cannot get away with what you did at the Nacht und Nebel camp.’
‘I’ll never let you take her!’ GI Joe flared.
‘You can’t stop me,’ Lucia scoffed, ‘and I’ll crush anyone who tries, just like I killed your friends. And it’s all your fault they are dead, Pip.’
Lucia’s malice was like venom pulsing through Pip, Madame Fourcade and GI Joe’s veins, and they edged closer to one another, feeling too weak with grief to stand alone.
‘When will you learn?’ Lucia’s milky blue eyes glowed with pleasure, watching Pip and her friends suffer. ‘A pathetic little orphan like you cannot beat us! This is your last chance. Come with us now or your friends will pay the price – starting with Madame Fourcade’s hoglets!’ The hedgehog’s prickles stiffened against Pip’s fur and Nancy and GI Joe drew sharp breaths. ‘That’s right, Madame.’ Lucia chuckled. ‘One of your precious allies has talked. It’s only a matter of time before I find your little darlings and kill them too!’
‘She’s lying,’ Madame Fourcade whispered. ‘Nobody from Noah’s Ark knows where they are.’
‘A swallow visited your hideout three days ago, did it not?’ Lucia asked, plumping her chest feathers with confidence.
Pip shivered. After they’d sabotaged the Tiger tanks with the Maquis, the Butcher Birds had impaled the remains of a bird with inky feathers on the bramble thorns. She suddenly realized they were exactly the same colour as Rémi the swallow’s, who had visited Noah’s Ark on the morning of the funeral. His visits were always brief and furtive, and Madame Fourcade had always shown more interest in his news than anything else, from the most dangerous sabotages to the best reports
that the Allied armies were winning the war. Pip had always suspected he brought word of Madame Fourcade’s hoglets, and now Lucia had found and killed him.
‘You are mistaken.’ Madame Fourcade replied calmly, but her body betrayed her words, and Pip hoped the white pigeon could not see the hedgehog tremble. ‘I know no swallows.’
‘My Butcher Birds had a little chat with one they caught in the forest,’ Lucia went on, ‘and he knew you and your hoglets very well, Madame. They are hidden inside an orphanage near Giverny, aren’t they?’
‘You’re wrong.’ Madame Fourcade gritted her teeth, but her eyes were glistening with tears.
‘We’ll soon see about that.’ Lucia smirked. ‘My largest troop of birds and rats are hunting them as we speak, but you have my word they will cease if Pip comes with me now.’
‘You’ll have to stop me first.’ GI Joe said furiously, opening his wings to fly, but Pip and Madame Fourcade leaped on him, shaking their heads, knowing he stood no chance against twelve Goliath Rats at once.
‘By all means –’ Lucia laughed, eyeing his thinner body up and down with the Goliath Rats salivating beside her – ‘hand yourself to us on a plate! You always were reckless. That’s what made you so easy to manipulate.’
Pip glared at the white pigeon with her little fists clenching and her blood thrumming with hatred. She loathed Lucia, the Goliath Rats, the Butcher Birds, the Axis and this vile and vicious war for murdering her parents, for killing her friends, for razing her home and for destroying the lives and spirits of those she loved. For Madame Fourcade to lose her hoglets this close to France’s liberation after everything the hedgehog had risked and sacrificed for their sake was an intolerable cruelty Pip could not endure.
‘Enough!’ Pip cried, shaking with anger as she wriggled free of the hedgehog’s embrace. ‘You win! I’ll come with you – just don’t hurt anyone.’
‘What are you doing?’ GI Joe gasped as Nancy’s mouth fell open in outrage.