The Unlikely Allies (31 page)

“That’s the way it is with the Lapps,” Mallory informed him. “They take an old, dependable dog and train it to take care of the baby. The mother has so much work to do inside and out that it’s a good way to keep the baby safe.”

Both Derek and Mallory were tired, but Mallory knew she had to explain their position.

“Jagg, I must tell you we are being hunted by some evil men. German soldiers. We’re trying to get to the border over to the east.”

“What men are these?” he asked. He listened as Mallory explained, and then he said, “They never come among us. You will be safe.”

“Not if they see me,” Derek said. “I’m so tall they’d notice me at once, and they’d spot a fair-skinned woman like Mallory.”

“We are moving that way a little every day. It is slow, but you will stay with us.”

“It might be dangerous for you if you were caught hiding us.”

“The good Lord will take care of us,” Lorge said. “We are His sheep, and He is our shepherd.”

“That’s good, son,” Jagg said. He smiled, his weathered face crinkling.

“Mallory, you’ll be happy to hear the congregation has grown. We have over thirty now. Thirty-five if you count some who have backslidden a bit.”

“Tell me about them,” Mallory said. “I’ll see them tomorrow, but I want to hear all that’s going on.”

Derek listened as Lorge eagerly talked about the little congregation. His eyes ran around the circle, studying the faces illuminated by the flickering fire. Mostly, however, he kept his gaze on Mallory. There was an eager light in her eyes that held a loving expression. Her lips stirred pleasantly as she listened to Lorge, and her coat fell away from her neck, revealing the smooth, ivory shading of her skin. Her black hair made her skin seem fairer. He admired the smooth roundness of her shoulders and the delicate lines of her body.

Remu served up some supper, and the family had a lively conversation as they enjoyed the reindeer meat. Before long it was time to settle down for the night.

“I always say a prayer for my family now,” Lorge said, “and when I’m done, I would like it very much if you would pray for me, Jesus woman.”

Derek was touched by the family’s prayer time. With all the many complications in his life, their simple faith moved him deeply, and he longed for the same kind of simplicity in his own life. As he fell asleep, he thought,
It doesn’t seem likely that my life will ever be as simple as this. . . .

****

For three days Derek and Mallory immersed themselves in the lives of the Lapps. They got up each morning and helped to take the tent down. Derek discovered that everyone carried a part of the tent. He was amazed at how quickly it could be dismantled, and soon their possessions were packed on sleds that were pulled by the reindeer. The animals were driven with a single line attached to the base of the antlers. The adult Lapps never rode on the reindeer, for they were only strong enough to carry the children.

The Lapp dogs were also very important in the life of these people. Derek was amazed the first time he saw the dogs eat, for they were trained from the time they were puppies to take turns at feeding and always in the same order. Jagg strictly supervised his dogs, ensuring that every dog would get his share. Their main food, he learned, was hot soup consisting largely of reindeer blood preserved from the slaughtering time.

As Derek and Mallory moved east with the Lapps toward the border, the days passed imperceptibly. There was no sign of pursuit from the Nazis, and Derek said one morning, “You know, I think we could leave and make a dash for the border.”

“Jagg says the weather’s going to get worse. We might get caught,” Mallory said.

“I suppose we’d better not chance it, then.”

Before Derek went to bed that night, he hung up the hay outside the tent that he had used in the boots Jagg had given him. He had found that the Lapp boots stuffed with hay did indeed keep his feet warmer than his other boots.

The next morning he got up and went out to get the hay. When he realized it wasn’t there, he went back in the tent and exclaimed, “My hay—it’s gone!”

Orva laughed at him. “The goats ate it. You have to take better care of your things, Derek.”

“Why didn’t you tell me, Orva?” he asked as he sat down by the fire.

“People have to learn from their mistakes,” she said. She came over and sat down beside him and began touching his hair. “You’re a pretty man.”

Derek saw that Mallory was watching this with amusement.

“I am not!” he exclaimed. “Men aren’t pretty.”

“You are,” Orva insisted. “Why don’t you take me for your woman? I could make life very easy.”

Derek heard Mallory burst into laughter.

“That’s your best offer, Derek.”

He suddenly grinned. “Well, that
is
a good offer, Orva, but I’ll be leaving here. The Germans are going to keep looking for me, and they’ll hang me or shoot me if they find me.”

She laughed. “You don’t want me anyhow. You like that one.”

Now it was Mallory’s turn to feel uneasy. Her cheeks flushed, and she left the tent.

Derek laughed. “You’re right.”

“She is tall enough for you,” Orva went on. “I am not, so you may have her.”

“Thank you, Orva.” Derek got up and left to follow Mallory. When they were outside, he said, “Well, there’s one chance I had for a wife.”

“I don’t think you’d be too happy with Orva. I feel bad about her.”

“Well, as she says, I can have you.”

Mallory glanced at him quickly, her cheeks still burning. “That’s foolishness!” she said. “I’ve got to go. We’re going to have a service tonight, and I need to prepare a sermon.”

****

Derek was very quiet during the service that night. As he listened, he noted that no matter what the subject of the sermon, Mallory always spoke of Jesus.

Afterward he rose and said, “Let’s take a walk, and you can explain your sermon to me.”

“All right. It’s too early to go to bed.”

They walked through the reindeer herd, and he commented, “They’re domesticated, aren’t they?”

“I suppose that’s all they’ve known all their life.”

“It’s amazing how the men can lasso them. They’re better than wild west cowboys in America.”

As they reached the outer edge of the herd, the sky suddenly lit up with brilliant waves of colors—blues, greens, and reds. “What is that?” Derek asked as he stared in wide-eyed amazement.

“It’s the northern lights. I never saw them in Africa, of course, but I’ve seen them several times when I’ve been staying with the Lapps.” A curtain of yellow blazed across the sky. “Isn’t it the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?”

“It certainly is! I guess I’ve heard of northern lights before but never imagined it would look like this.”

They watched for several minutes, until the display faded.

“I wanted you to know your sermon touched me tonight, Mallory.” He hesitated, then said, “I want to serve Jesus Christ . . . but I don’t see how I can.”

“God knows all about you, Derek. He knew about you before you were born. He’s brought you out of a terrible way of life, and He has a plan for you.”

“I hope so, for I don’t have one for myself.”

“You’re not out of trouble yet. Did you ever hear the story of Joseph?”

“Yes, of course. In the book of Genesis.”

“You remember, then, how everything seemed to go wrong for him? His brothers sold him for a slave, and when he made a good place for himself in Potiphar’s house, that went wrong too.”

“I remember that woman who tried to seduce him. I’ve always admired Joseph. It takes a strong man to run away from a beautiful woman like that.”

Mallory stared at him. “Have you done that?”

“Why . . .” He could not answer. “I haven’t always led a pure life, Mallory. I wish I had.”

“Did you love those women?”

“I loved Rachel,” he said simply. As always, when he spoke her name, a sadness crossed his face and touched his eyes.

“I didn’t mean to make you feel bad,” she said, “but Joseph came out of it all right. God used him to save His people. God’s going to use you too, Derek.”

“I don’t know how, but I hope so.”

“God will help you, and I will help you.”

He turned and reached out his hands. When she put her hands in his, he said, “We’ve become good friends, haven’t we?”

“Very good friends indeed.”

An impish light touched his eyes, and Mallory knew he was up to mischief. “Don’t you think that good friends should express their relationship . . . in some sort of
physical
way?”

She could not help smiling at his foolishness. She had seen this side of him before and loved it. “I think that might be good.” She lifted her head, and he bent over and kissed her. A warmth lay between them, strong and unsettling, but at the same time with a goodness and a sweetness in it. His mouth was firm, and he held her gently. When he lifted his lips, he said simply, “I love you, Mallory.”

To her own surprise, Mallory knew the truth and spoke it. “I love you too, Derek,” she whispered.

“I don’t know what our future holds, but whatever happens, I’ll carry this love I have for you always.”

They stood there in the silence enjoying it, and finally he said, “There are only a few passes into Sweden, even this far north, and they may be closely guarded.”

“I’m going to try the radio.”

“It’s such a small one. Do you think it’ll pick anything up?”

“It’s the best one I’ve made. We’ll put up an antenna. Maybe it’ll pick up something.”

They went back to the tent, and she got the radio. It was indeed small, but the batteries were large. She had hated having to add it to her load, but she knew they would need it.

Moving outside, she attached a wire, and he spread it out, looping it over the branches of some trees.

Mallory worked with the radio for some time. The batteries were very weak, but finally a voice crackled. “This is Ajax. I read you, Byron.”

“We need to be taken out,” Mallory said quickly.

“What is your location?”

Mallory gave their location and voiced the plans they had made earlier. “We will be at Angel Fjord just off North Cape.”

The voice came back faintly, “The submarine will be offshore in four days, the first of December at exactly oh two hundred. You must be quick. When you get a signal, answer it. We’ve made arrangements for a local fisherman to leave a small boat there that you can row out to the sub.”

The two were straining to hear, and they barely heard the last instruction before the signal faded completely.

“The battery’s dead,” she said.

“That’s okay. We got all the information we need,” Derek said with a glad voice. “We’d better write it down. Angel Fjord off North Cape.”

“I’m sure we aren’t too far from there. Lorge will guide us. We’re going to be all right.”

He reached out and put his hand on her cheek. “Yes,” he whispered, “we’re going to be all right.”

****

Adolf Moltmann quickly scribbled the radio message. Jumping up, he found his lieutenant and shared the call he had just picked up.

“I must take this to Colonel Ritter!” he exclaimed.

Leaving the radio room, he went at once to Ritter’s office. “Colonel, we just picked this up on the radio. It was very faint, but I think I got it all.”

Ritter read the message the radio man had written. “Excellent,” he said. “Very good indeed! We have them now!”

Ten minutes later Lieutenant Uldrich Stahl was listening to Ritter, who was walking around the room waving his arms, his eyes glittering with excitement. Berlin had been furious over Grüber’s defection and had given Ritter a hard time for letting him escape. Now Ritter said, “We have all we need. We must have a force there to capture them.”

“My colonel, let me lead the expedition. It would give me great satisfaction.”

“Very well, Stahl. You will be in charge of the team. Make no mistakes. We must capture them. We’ll make an example of Grüber. As for the American woman, she’ll have a public trial.” He laughed aloud. “She’ll be found guilty, of course. It will make the Americans look bad.” Then his eyes narrowed, “I will enjoy her execution!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Dangerous Rendezvous

Captain Franz Ubel, captain of the destroyer
Eagle,
fixed his gaze on the visitor to his ship. Ubel was a successful naval commander, having received commendations from no less than the führer himself for his successful action against the British navy. He looked very much like the ideal Aryan warrior—tall and broad-shouldered with gray eyes and a hardbitten aspect.

As the
Eagle
nudged through the cold gray waters off the coast of Norway, he wished he could pick up Lieutenant Uldrich Stahl and throw him overboard!
The man is an idiot! Command must have lost its mind sending a clown like this on an important mission!

Lieutenant Stahl had similar feelings about Captain Ubel—and had not attempted to conceal them. He was proud of his assignment and felt that Ubel and the crew of the
Eagle
were nothing but a means of transportation—and a difficult bunch to deal with!

The two men were standing in the wheelhouse of the destroyer. The only light was a pale green glow coming from the instruments and gauges. A helmsman faced straight ahead, trained to ignore the conversation of his betters. From time to time he moved the wheel, keeping to the course his captain had given him and listening to the conversation while appearing to be deaf. He was already composing a letter in his head that he would write to his mother as soon as his shift
was over, and he knew he would claim more for himself in the action than was true.

“You cannot seem to understand, Captain Ubel,” Stahl said, speaking slowly as if to a slow-witted child. “I want to do two things. First, we must capture the woman and Grüber alive.” He waited for the captain to answer, but Ubel simply stared at him without changing expression. “It is important that we do this, for the high command intends to make a public example of them both. Imagine a German officer, a highly decorated one such as Grüber, defecting to the enemy. Oh, we will make an example of him!”