Chapter 36
CHAPTER 36
J ack called an emergency meeting with Val. She listened with growing concern etched on her face as he explained why Lizzie had not made the pickup.
‘It’s time for me to go in,’ he said.
‘We’d really rather you didn’t,’ she said, her brow creasing into a heavy frown.
‘I know. You want me here wrapped in cotton wool, but it’s time for me to get my hands dirty again.’
Val tutted. ‘It’s nothing to do with wrapping you in cotton wool. You understand the reasons it’s better for you to stay in London. If you get caught, you know far too much.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ Jack said, lighting a cigarette and exhaling pointedly until smoke rings circled over his head like an omen.
‘Don’t be like that. We must think of the overall success of the agency.’
‘I am thinking of our overall success!’ he said, shaking his head so his shock of black hair flopped onto his forehead, and he shoved it aside impatiently with one large hand. ‘If Lizzie and Hannah are both compromised, the whole of the Liberty Network is compromised, which means we’re essentially back to square one with our Paris operations.’
Val paced back and forth, not saying a word as she thought it over. After what seemed to Jack like a lifetime, she said, ‘What do you have in mind?’
‘Don’t worry. If it all goes terribly wrong and they’re about to capture me, I’ll swallow my poison pill.’
Val rolled her eyes. ‘You think that scenario encourages me to give you the go ahead? Do you even know me?’
‘Look, obviously I know you’d rather I didn’t poison myself, but I just want to be clear if that’s what it takes to protect our people and intelligence, then I’ll do it without a second thought.’
Val sank into a chair, sighing. ‘It’s like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea.’
‘No, no, it’s not at all. If I go in quickly, there’s a high chance I can reach the girls and stop the operation going bad. It’s a lot for them to handle. Too many moving parts.’
Val raised an eyebrow. ‘Do I detect a glimmer of the knight in shining armour swooping in on his white horse to save the damsels in distress?’
Jack snorted. ‘What nonsense! It’s nothing like that. Lizzie is still very new in the field—a concern I raised repeatedly before she left—and who knows what’s happened to Hannah at German High Command? Talking about the devil, Hannah is playing with fire in hell as private secretary to a Nazi.’
‘It’s just as well you’re not harbouring romantic notions of saving those two. Let me tell you now, they are both hard as nails. Hannah can take care of herself—she’s shown that time and again. And as for Lizzie, you saw how she handled herself in Reims. She’s born for this. If I was a gambling woman, I would put my money on her succeeding any day of the week. That girl has grit running through her veins. You should have more faith in her. ’
Jack exhaled again. This wasn’t the response he had hoped for when he explained to Val about Hannah’s disappearance and Lizzie failing to make the pickup. It was typical Val, though. She always had total belief in her operatives and she championed Lizzie’s competence relentlessly. After all, it was Val who had sent her back into occupied France. If it was up to him, she’d be safely out of harm’s way, decoding messages in the cipher room.
Was he being overprotective because they were his agents? He shook his head, his heart sinking. It was a pointless question. Of course he was overprotective. The fear of Lizzie being arrested was a vice gripping his chest every night as he struggled to drift off to sleep. All he could think about was what she was doing and whether she was safe. He had known the dangers of falling for an agent who was active in wartime missions. It was a recipe for disaster, and he would not have chosen the situation for himself or for Lizzie. He should have held his ground about not getting involved and spared them this heart wrenching agony every time one of them went undercover. He should have, but he hadn’t, and who was he kidding? As if he could have turned his feelings for her off like a faucet. His all-consuming love for Lizzie was as ungovernable as the tides. From the minute he laid eyes on her, he had been swept away and hadn’t stood a chance.
And then there was Hannah. How could he not protect his brother’s fiancé? It was painful enough he was risking his life in the skies every day, but Jack could not be the one to tell Henry something had happened to Hannah. His brother would never forgive him if any harm befell her. It was Jack who had recruited her, and for this reason alone, he would do anything in his power to keep her safe.
‘What was the last you heard?’ Val asked, her words crisp. She wasn’t one to be overwhelmed by emotion, and if she knew he and Lizzie were involved, she would be disappointed in him for allowing it to happen.
‘Lizzie said she wasn’t going to the pickup because Hannah was missing, and she couldn’t leave without finding her. A member of the network was shot in a sabotage op and the fear is he may have cracked.’
‘The reality is if they are compromised, they could already be in the hands of the Gestapo,’ Val said, tapping her pencil on the desk as she spoke.
‘Theoretically, yes. But sufficient time has passed, so there’s a high chance he didn’t tell the bastards a damn thing.’
‘And where does Lizzie think Hannah is?’
‘Lizzie thinks they may have detained her at German High Command, and she was making a plan to break her out.’
Val smirked. ‘I told you she was born for this. Which new agent plans to break someone out of a Reich building in the centre of occupied Paris?’
‘I know, I know. She’s courageous beyond words. Too courageous for her own good, and you know how unruly Hannah can be. I think a bit of support from me will be just what they need. And if they don’t need it, I’ll stay in the shadows and be on the next flight out of there.’
‘You must miss being in the field very much. The thrill is addictive, isn’t it?’
‘I suppose there’s that, but honestly, I wouldn’t go in if I didn’t think it was necessary. Thrilling or not, it’s hardly a picnic dropping into occupied France in the depths of winter.’
Val shrugged her shoulders. ‘Let me talk to the big man and see what he says. Ultimately, it’s up to him.’
Jack’s laugh was genuine. ‘We both know that’s not quite true. Come on, Val. He hangs on your every word. Give me the go ahead this time and I promise I’ll be a good boy and sit here wrapped in cotton wool doing whatever it is you want me doing for the rest of the year.’
‘That’s a big promise. I hope you can keep it Jackie-boy,’ she said, smiling. ‘You realise it’s still only January, and the year has barely begun?’
Jack stubbed his cigarette out, flashing her a charming grin. ‘Come on, you know my word is good. Let me go in and put my mind at rest, and if I’m overreacting, I’ll leave them in play and fly out immediately.’
Val stood and crossed the room. At the door, she turned. ‘You’ll have my answer shortly. Don’t start packing yet.’
‘I always pack light,’ he winked, and she laughed and left the room.
In the early hours of the following morning, Jack’s French-made leather brown boots touched the snow-coated ground of the woods on the outskirts of Paris. There was no reception committee and no visible moon to light his way. Sometimes one had to land in imperfect conditions. As the icy snowflakes flurried all around him, blurring his vision, he realised this was one of those times.