Jackdaws

He brought the mouthpiece of the shortwave radio to his lips. “All units, this is Major Franck,” he said softly. “Action, I repeat, action.” Then he got to his feet and drew his automatic pistol.

The searchlights concealed in the trees blazed into life. The four terrorists in the middle of the field were mercilessly lit up, looking suddenly bewildered and vulnerable. Dieter called out in French, “You are surrounded! Raise your hands!”

Beside him, Goedel drew his Luger. The four Gestapo men with Dieter aimed their rifles at the legs of the Resistance people. There was a moment of uncertainty: Would the Resistance open fire? If they did, they would be mowed down. With luck, they might be only wounded. But Dieter had not had much luck tonight. And if these four were killed, he would be left empty-handed.

They hesitated.

Dieter stepped forward, moving into the light, and the four riflemen moved with him. “Twenty guns are aimed at you,” he shouted. “Do not draw your weapons.”

One of them started to run.

Dieter swore. He saw a flash of red hair in the lights: it was Helicopter, stupid boy, heading across the field like a charging bull. “Shoot him,” Dieter said quietly. All four riflemen took careful aim and fired. The shots crashed out in the silent meadow. Helicopter ran another two paces, then fell to the ground.

Dieter looked at the other three, waiting. Slowly, they raised their hands in the air.

Dieter spoke into the shortwave radio. “All teams in the pasture, move in and secure the prisoners.” He put away his pistol.

He walked over to where Helicopter lay. The body was still. The Gestapo riflemen had shot at his legs, but it was hard to hit a moving target in the dark, and one of them had aimed too high, putting a bullet through his neck, severing his spinal cord, or his jugular vein, or both. Dieter knelt beside him and felt for a pulse, but there was none. “You weren’t the cleverest agent I’ve ever met, but you were a brave boy,” he said quietly. “God rest your soul.” He closed the eyes.

He looked over the other three as they were disarmed and fettered. Michel would resist interrogation well: Dieter had seen him in action, and he had courage. His weakness was probably vanity. He was handsome, and a womanizer. The way to torture him would be in front of a mirror: break his nose, knock out his teeth, scar his cheeks, make him understand that with every minute that he continued to resist, he was getting irreversibly uglier.

The other man had the air of a professional, perhaps a lawyer. A Gestapo man searched him and showed Dieter a pass that permitted Dr. Claude Bouler to be out after curfew. Dieter assumed it was a forgery, but when they searched the Resistance cars they found a genuine doctor’s bag, full of instruments and drugs. Under arrest he looked pale but composed: he, too, would be a difficult subject.

The girl was the most promising. She was about nineteen, and pretty, with long dark hair and big eyes, but she had a vacant look. Her papers showed that she was Gilberte Duval. Dieter knew from his interrogation of Gaston that Gilberte was the lover of Michel and the rival of Flick. Handled correctly, she might prove easy to turn.

The German vehicles were brought from the barn at La Maison Grandin. The prisoners went in a truck with the Gestapo men. Dieter gave orders that they should be kept in separate cells and prevented from communicating with one another.

He and Goedel were driven back to Sainte-Cécile in Weber’s Mercedes. “What a damned farce,” Weber said scornfully. “A complete waste of time and manpower.”

“Not quite,” said Dieter. “We have taken four subversive agents out of circulation-which is, after all, what the Gestapo is supposed to do-and, even better, three of them are still alive for interrogation.”

Goedel said, “What do you hope to get from them?”

“The dead man, Helicopter, was a wireless operator,” Dieter explained. “I have a copy of his code book. Unfortunately, he did not have his set with him. If we can find the set, we can impersonate Helicopter.”

“Surely you can use any radio transmitter, so long as you know the frequency assigned to him?”

Dieter shook his head. “Every transmitter sounds different to the experienced ear. And these little suitcase radios are particularly distinctive. All nonessential circuits are omitted, to minimize the size, and the result is poor tone quality. If we had one exactly like his, captured from another agent, it might be similar enough to take the risk.”

“We may have one somewhere.”

“If we do, it will be in Berlin. It’s easier to find Helicopter’s.”

“How will you do that?”

“The girl will tell me where it is.”

For the rest of the journey, Dieter brooded over his interrogation strategy. He could torture the girl in front of the men, but they might resist that. More promising would be to torture the men in front of the girl. But there might be an easier way.