Shadows In Paris (Seagrove & Raven #2)

Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

T he cold seeped into Lizzie’s bones as she lay in wait on the hard bank of the railway track that ran through the rural outskirts of Paris. Francois had left her a sign that she should come on the next sabotage mission. She spotted his chalk mark signal on the trunk of the gigantic oak tree on her way home from the city with a few measly supplies in her bag for a light meal for her and Hannah.

Lizzie’s thoughts wandered back to the Stern family as she peered through the gorse waiting for a sign to lay the explosives for the approach of the train.

Francois had smuggled the family out of the farmhouse in a borrowed truck and delivered them to a safe house in the seaside village of Ciboure. From there, a Basque guide was to take them over the Pyrenees.

Lizzie prayed they had made it into Spain. If they had escaped France, they were at least in with a chance of making it.

Meanwhile, Hannah was giving them frequent updates about planned weapon and troop movements via her role in German High Command, and the network was carrying out more sabotage operations than before.

It was still dusk, so the cape of darkness they usually relied upon when running clandestine operations did not conceal them, but they agreed this train was worth the risk.

Lizzie clutched her coat to her and moved her legs to keep from freezing. How she longed for winter to be over, and the frost to melt away on the warm spring breeze, and the grass to reappear like a soft green carpet beneath her feet. The first shoots of spring would decorate the trees, blossom would transform the bushes into visions of loveliness fit for any painter’s brush, and the birds would tweet their joyful songs, proclaiming spring’s arrival.

Francois hissed. ‘It’s coming. Get ready.’

Lizzie’s stomach dipped as she scrambled to her feet. She knew exactly what she had to do, but it didn’t make it less frightening. Francois and Philippe had risen to Hannah’s challenge and formed a lethal sabotage team in her absence. They had performed many successful operations all around the outskirts of Paris and sometimes far beyond. Lizzie usually passed on the intelligence and helped them fine tune the ops, but today they needed her on the team.

Lizzie rigged her explosives just as she’d done in her early training, and more recently, under Hannah’s watchful eye.

Hannah had discovered in some of the top-secret documents she combed through in the office that the Wehrmacht had been ordered to stop using horns and whistles on trains carrying weapons and soldiers. It made them too easy to target and her boss, the sinister major general, dictated a report for Hannah to pass upline to his boss, the general, detailing what he described as the worrying increase in sabotage in recent months, performed by French traitors to the Reich .

It was tangible proof the Liberty Network was having success in sabotaging and destroying German operations.

Hannah and Lizzie celebrated with a bottle of expensive Burgundy the major general had given her as a thank you for her commitment to the job. Hannah had laughed so hard at the irony of toasting their success with wine from the enemy. She said her boss’s arrogance knew no bounds. He couldn’t imagine anyone would dare to cross him.

Thinking of Hannah always gave Lizzie courage, but her heart pounded as she raced away from the track. Philippe followed, and Francois brought up the rear. Now they had to get out of the way of danger but stay close enough to gauge the effects of the explosion. They learnt from every operation and were fine tuning their skills and systems with each successful manoeuvre.

Lizzie turned to watch as Francois crossed the track, her heart pulsing as if it were in her throat. The chug and thud of the train wheels approaching was like a countdown, and she tried not to think about how many soldiers would die in just a few moments.

Then a loud boom rang through the air, and Lizzie peeped out of the dense foliage on the top of the bank, horrified as she watched Francois tumble to the ground. Philippe stood next to her and saw it, too.

‘Merde,’ he hissed.

‘Shhh,’ Lizzie said, barely making a sound as she prodded him and brought a finger to her lips.

Five young German soldiers with rifles poised to shoot approached Francois as he lay bleeding on the ground. Everything happened at once and they were outnumbered. The train approached and the noise of its wheels squealing on the tracks was deafening.

Lizzie stared as the soldiers waved frantically at the train, ordering it to perform an emergency stop. Then two of them bent to the ground and dragged Francois off the track, the others covering them, as they glanced backwards towards the screeching train.

A noise fizzed and popped. The soldiers recognised the sounds of an impending explosion, and ran for their lives, pulling Francois behind them and stopping near some bushes.

The train driver had slammed the brakes on, seeing the soldiers’ warning just in time to stop before the packed train reached the rigged section of the railway. Lizzie saw the rails light up like a bonfire, followed by a loud cracking sound and several explosions. She held her hands to her ears as the fire ripped over the tracks, making it impassable.

Lizzie and Philippe stood like statues, not daring to move or make a sound. The soldiers were still visible, and it wouldn’t take much for them to find them in hiding.

Francois lay on the ground. The soldiers had moved him far enough away, so he wasn’t caught in the blast, but his gunshot wound could be fatal. Lizzie felt sick at the realisation he might die and there was no way for them to save their friend without being seen and putting the entire network in jeopardy. She stared at Philippe through the thickening dusk beneath the beautiful, orange-flecked sky, and he made a sign they must leave now.

It was heart wrenching to abandon Francois to the Germans, but if they didn’t leave, they would be captured too. Soldiers swarmed out of the train and climbed up the bank to thank the heroes who had saved them. The smell of cigarette smoke bled into the freezing air as they talked about how they had most certainly cheated the jaws of death and would get to live another day.

Lizzie followed Phillipe out of the bushes, both treading as quietly as possible in their rubber soled boots. Francois had identified their quickest escape route before laying the explosives and now they used it to leave Francois bleeding on the frozen ground.

They slipped from the bushes and into the forest, not exchanging a word until they had put some miles between them and the site of the catastrophic operation.

Eventually, they reached the spot where they’d hidden their bicycles. It was too difficult to ride through the dense forest, so they walked until the trees thinned and they could mount for a getaway.

A light snow was falling again, and Lizzie’s hands shook as she pushed the pedals in a robotic movement. Her whole body fired on adrenaline as she raced out of the forest and reached Philippe in the clearing. She no longer felt the cold.

‘What a disaster. I can’t believe it,’ Lizzie said.

‘Oh, believe it. We knew this could happen.’

‘It’s a nightmare,’ she whispered. ‘Poor dear, Francois.’

‘Francois was prepared for something like this, but yes, it’s terrible. We are lucky to have got out alive, so we’d better make it count.’

Lizzie inhaled the chilled oxygen rich forest air, and a wave of clarity flooded her mind. ‘We’ll debrief when things calm down. We’d better get away before they comb the area.’

As if on cue, they heard voices in the distance, and they nodded to each other and cycled off in opposite directions. Lizzie reached the edge of the forest, and joined the road when she saw there was no one in sight, her wheels buffeting across the bumpy ground. She took the long way round and repeatedly checked she wasn’t being followed before changing direction and heading toward the farmhouse.

‘They’ve got Francois,’ she said as she threw herself into the house through the back door, surprised to see Hannah already home.