CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SOPHIA
Sophia scanned the open fields around them, anxious to start moving again. She hated the feeling of being a sitting duck, as if they were inviting the enemy to find them by staying in the same place for too long. She’d stayed alive before meeting Rose by moving often and always staying in small groups or working on her own, and she didn’t want to become complacent. If anything, it was more dangerous than it had ever been now that an Allied attack was imminent.
‘When did you train with the SOE?’ Hazel asked, appearing beside her. ‘I don’t even know how long you’ve been here.’
They stood side by side and Sophia waited before answering, not wanting to be short with her. She’d told Hazel bits about her past, but her new friend was obviously still curious.
‘After I left Berlin, I headed for London,’ she said. It felt like an eternity ago; so much had happened since then. ‘I found my way to the right people, offered my services, and although they were suspicious of a German woman suddenly wanting to assist, I was able to prove myself to them.’ Sophia paused, thinking back. ‘I’ve been in France for well over a year now. I was the same as you, the moment my training was over I was earmarked to be sent in.’
Hazel was standing close and Sophia almost wished she’d bump into her, brush her shoulder against hers. She craved just the simple act of having someone casually touch her. Before she’d left Germany, she’d been used to a closeness with her mother that she knew would never be replaced, and she’d had Alex with her all the time. Now, she missed it. The wall she’d built around herself had kept her safe, but it had made her feel a deep-set loneliness that she was starting to resent.
‘Did you tell your recruiter about your mother and your Alex?’ Hazel asked softly.
‘I did. And I was able to tell them about my work in Berlin, rescuing Jews and working with our network to smuggle them out of the city.’ She laughed. ‘That and the fact that I excelled at explosives training made me a valuable asset.’
They were silent for some time, the only noise the soft echo of birdsong in the trees nearby.
‘Can I ask you something, about your training?’ Hazel said.
Sophia turned and gave Hazel a quick smile. ‘Anything. Of course.’
Hazel looked uncomfortable and Sophia hoped it wasn’t her who’d made her so. She glanced over her shoulder and noticed that Rose was sitting slightly away from the old barn now, her back against a tree. She was probably trying not to listen, but no doubt their voices were carrying the short distance.
‘Do you believe you could kill a man?’ Hazel finally asked, her voice so soft it was almost a whisper. ‘I mean, with a knife to his throat or with his own weapon or . . .’
‘With my bare hands?’ Sophia finished for her, knowing they’d both been taught the same methods of killing.
‘Yes.’
Sophia nodded and took a deep breath. ‘I know I could because I already have,’ she confessed. ‘The night I ended up on Rose’s doorstep, I’d been shot. But I was quick enough to grab my knife and kill one of the two men. The other was so shocked that it gave me time to grab the dead Gestapo’s gun and shoot him, too.’
Hazel’s face showed her surprise. ‘Oh, well, I see.’ She stumbled over her words and Sophia wondered what she was thinking, whether she was horrified or proud. ‘Was it easy? I mean, did you second-guess yourself?’
‘You don’t have time to second-guess yourself,’ Sophia told her, remembering the feel of the blade in her hand, of squeezing the trigger, of looking down at two dead men and knowing that her hand had taken both their lives. ‘There’s a split second between them killing you, or you killing them. The only time you have to think about it is after.’
‘Thank you,’ Hazel said, placing a hand on Sophia’s shoulder, her eyes so filled with honesty that Sophia wished she’d never been so hard on her in the first place. ‘I needed to hear that.’
‘Come on,’ Sophia said brusquely, not knowing what to say with Hazel looking at her with such compassion. ‘We need to go through what we’re doing.’
She walked over to where Rose was sitting and dropped down to the ground. Hazel did the same.
‘Are either of you familiar with the bridge?’ she asked.
Hazel shook her head, but Rose nodded.
‘I am, but I can’t say I’ve ever taken a lot of notice of it,’ Rose said.
‘Me neither,’ Sophia confessed. ‘But we don’t need to know it well to understand what we need to do. The only unknown is how well patrolled that area is, and we’re not going to know that until we get there and survey it with our own eyes.’
‘I think it’s too dangerous to watch it for too long,’ Hazel said. ‘We’re more likely to be found, and the Germans could have intercepted any of the recent messages.’
‘I agree,’ Sophia said. ‘But we need to be careful that we’re not caught before we lay our explosives. We need to spend a short time watching, and then when we run down, we need to put everything in place fast and get out of there quickly.’
‘What do you need us to do to help?’ Rose asked.
‘I’ll set the explosives,’ Sophia said. ‘We have two hand grenades and I need you each to have one, in case you have to throw it. We have a short delay, approximately ten minutes, so it will give us just enough time to get out of there. We don’t want any longer, though, in case it’s discovered.’
‘Or we’re discovered,’ Hazel muttered.
‘Exactly,’ Sophia said.
‘Let’s have something to eat and get on our way, then,’ Rose said. ‘It’ll be dark in a few hours or less.’
They sat quietly and took the food Rose passed them, and Sophia thought how amusing it was to have a bag containing grenades and food sitting so casually beside them.
A couple of hours later they walked confidently across the field. They’d surveyed the railway bridge, and there was no doubt it was dangerous. But night was starting to fall and if they were going to do it, they needed to act fast.
‘The biggest problem, aside from those bastards, is that we could end up being caught in an explosion by one of our own,’ Sophia muttered. ‘Who knows how many local fighters have mobilised?’
They’d decided to walk as far as they could without trying to hide. That way, they could try to talk themselves out of trouble and pretend they were lost and not doing anything wrong. Sophia had suggested the plan, and even though she was the first to admit it wasn’t her best idea, it was the only one that got them close to the railway line without doing anything suspicious.
‘If we can’t get to the bridge, can we blow up the line on this side of it?’ Hazel asked. ‘We’re surely better to blow up something than nothing at all?’
Sophia agreed. ‘Yes. We’ll decide once we’re there.’
They all stayed quiet as they continued their approach, and Sophia almost jumped out of her skin when an explosion echoed out, a dark cloud rising in the far distance.
‘Run!’ Sophia ordered, holding tight to her bag and moving as fast as she could. Rose and Hazel kept up her pace, one on each side of her, and as they neared the train line they heard dogs barking, the noise carrying to them on the wind. Another cell must have blown up something nearby! It was the only explanation. There had been no planes droning overhead, and now they had even less time to set their plan in motion.
‘I don’t think we have long,’ Rose panted beside her. ‘They’re going to be everywhere soon. The patrols will be—’
‘Let’s just do it here,’ Sophia said, knowing that being cautious was better than being dead, even though she hated not making it all the way to the bridge. She slowed down, tried to catch her breath and glanced back at the others. Hazel was walking with one hand on her hip, clearly winded, and Sophia knew how heavy her radio equipment must be to haul around like that.
‘You’re certain?’ Rose asked.
Sophia nodded and looked down the line, not seeing anyone. The bridge was too far away – they would never have made it without being seen – and here at least she had a moment to think and place her lines carefully.
She didn’t need to ask Rose or Hazel to cover her, because they were already in place. The moment she dropped to her knees beside the line they were on either side of her, and she looked up to see Rose pass Hazel a grenade. She set to work, still hearing dogs on the wind, their just-audible yips sending shivers through her. It was her greatest fear, a dog being set on her, and she knew from what the Germans had done to Jews in Berlin that their dogs didn’t hesitate to rip a person to pieces as they screamed and begged for mercy.
She worked quickly, instinctively knowing what to do, her mind quiet as she focused on laying the wires and preparing her explosion site. Once she was done she reached into her bag for one of the pencil detonators they had luckily received in the last drop. She crushed the end of the copper tube with the heel of her boot and checked she’d broken the glass vial, then moved on to the inspection hole to check it was unobstructed. Then she carefully inserted the end of the pencil into the explosives.
‘We need to go!’ Rose hissed. ‘I can hear a rumble, there’s something coming.’
Sophia ignored her and checked her work, ran through everything in her head, closed her eyes and felt the temperature around her. It wasn’t cold, which meant the timer should be accurate for ten minutes; it usually only went off later if it was freezing.
‘There’s someone coming. I can hear . . .’
‘Move!’ Hazel ordered, her voice deeper than usual, her hand on the back of Sophia’s jacket and yanking her up. ‘We need to get out of here and fast.’
She stood and squinted, looking down the line. There was company on its way, that was for sure. Sophia packed away her remaining equipment and grinned down at her handiwork, before following behind Hazel as she set the pace. They walked quickly, heads ducked, chins tucked down as if they were cold and trying to use their jackets’ collars for warmth.
But the rumble was fast approaching now, the unmistakable sound of trucks or tankers or something – not a train because the noise was all wrong – and Sophia made the mistake of looking behind them.
‘Incoming!’ she hissed. ‘Head for the trees!’
They started to run then, and as darkness started to fall around them Sophia prayed that time was passing more quickly than it seemed to be. How many minutes had gone by? When the bomb went off they’d at least have a head start because of the disruption it would cause.
The yells of men told her they’d been seen, and she was smart enough to know that they were within plain sight, that with everything going on they would be seen as traitors the moment they were spotted running. But what else were they supposed to do?
‘We’re not going to make it,’ Hazel cried. ‘I need to break my radio up, I can’t have them taking it!’
‘Stop it!’ Sophia yelled at her. ‘Just keep moving!’
‘She’s right, we need to—’
Boom.
The explosion was bigger than Sophia had imagined. As she stumbled, hand shooting out to save her in case she fell, she looked over her shoulder and saw the grey clouds of smoke billow up, visible even in the fading light. Shouts erupted, bellows from Germans who had started to gain on them but were now caught in the chaos of the explosion. She grabbed Hazel’s grenade from her, fingers fumbling with it before she threw it with all her might and then started to run again.
Terror surged through her. All these months, she’d evaded capture. She’d almost started to believe she was untouchable.
But she’d only been fooling herself.
‘Run!’ Rose shouted, holding her bag close, her other arm pumping as she ran as fast as she could alongside her.
Sophia gasped as Hazel roughly snatched her hand, pulling her along. She stifled a scream as her ankle collapsed, twisting on something that snared from the ground, but she didn’t slow down. They had to move fast.
They were surrounded by the enemy now. If they didn’t find their way to safety, they were as good as dead.
‘It’ll take time for them to regroup,’ Sophia managed, panting as she whispered, a familiar wave of calm grounding her and clearing her thoughts. ‘We’ll be gone before they even start searching for us.’
The silence from the other two women told her they weren’t so optimistic, but Sophia refused to be anything other than certain of their survival. She’d faced worse odds before, they all had, and there was a reason they were all still alive and so many others weren’t.
‘Hazel—’
‘No!’ screamed Rose, leaping in front of her and pushing her back.
The Nazi had appeared from nowhere, pistol raised, the barrel pointed skyward now as Rose fought against him, pushing him away. Where had he even come from, and why was he alone? As Sophia staggered to her feet, the gun went off, the blast making her ears ring, making everything silent around her as she watched Hazel move behind the soldier.
They’d talked about death, about whether they were capable of killing a man with their bare hands the way they’d been trained to do. Sophia swallowed away the bile rising in her throat as she watched Hazel’s hand tremble.
The silver of her tiny blade shone as Hazel sliced it against his throat, blood spurting out as Rose fell backwards, released from his grip.
Sophia caught her and pushed her back up, lunging forward to retrieve the pistol.
Hazel was frozen. The fallen Nazi was at her feet, blood staining his otherwise immaculate uniform.
‘Now we really need to go,’ Sophia managed to say, taking Hazel’s knife from her and wiping it clean on the soldier’s shoulder as she took charge. She passed it back to her friend as she surveyed the trees around them, hoping they weren’t about to be ambushed, knowing their location had just been given away. They’d have dogs sent to find them, men scouring every blade of grass for them now. ‘Move!’ She grabbed Hazel’s hand and yanked her along with her.
It was kill or be killed. And she knew without a doubt now that she could trust Rose and Hazel with her life.