Waging War (24 page)

This time Ravi’s smiling eyes found me. “Of
course, old chap. I’ll babysit the beast while you’re gone. Take
all the time you need.”

Archer led us outside and we headed toward
the pub, which surprised me. “We’re not going back to your
room?”

“It’s fine for whispering, but there’s not
enough light to read by,” Archer said.

“And the pub is a good place to read a
message you’re not supposed to have?”

“No one expects you to discuss secrets in
plain sight.”

I sighed. “Just like no one ever looks up.”
My eyes had been scanning the landscape around us, and as we passed
the mansion, I thought I saw a curtain flutter in an upper-floor
window.

“Who works upstairs?” I whispered.

“Colonel Marks. I imagine we’ll need to go
there next.”

Archer opened the pub door and ushered us
inside. It was a little less crowded than it had been before, but
Nancy still held court at her table by the back wall, and Archer
waved to her across the room. Her bright smile back to him made me
grumpy like it was Monday morning and there was no coffee. Archer
settled us into a table near the door and went to the bar for
drinks. I worked very hard not to watch as Nancy waved him over and
he knelt down to talk to her. And I definitely tried not to see him
touch her hand as he stood up to return to the bar. He came back
with bubbly water for me and pints for himself and Ringo, but no
explanation of his exchange with Nancy. Ringo caught my eye and
must have seen the green in them because he gave me a quizzical
look. Jealousy had always been something I pitied in other people
because it just seemed so effortful. I wasn’t committed to being
one of those people, so I took a breath, let it go, and smiled.

Ringo’s glance went to Nancy’s table as he
sipped his drink while Archer pulled the slip of paper from his
pocket to read. Archer’s expression darkened, and he held the paper
out to me. I shook my head. “I can speak it well enough, but you’re
fluent.”

“Right.” The message went back into his
pocket. Archer wrapped both hands around his pint glass and stared
into it, deep in thought.

“Um, dying a little here.” I prompted.

He seemed to shake himself and looked up at
both of us. “Sorry. It’s the same message you described to me. It
appears the Werwolves have a target in England, accessed by Holborn
station up near Russell Square. Or, if they’re using explosives,
something above-ground. The mission is being led by an Englishman
called T. Landers, and has been planned for June
12
^th
.”

The date had been the missing element, and I
exhaled sharply. “That’s after D-Day.”

Archer’s eyes narrowed and his voice
dropped. “Be very careful, Saira. What occurs to you as known
history is still very top secret information now.”

I flushed, embarrassed at my carelessness.
But I also usually traveled with my Archer, who knew the same
things I did, plus about a ton more.

Ringo spoke quietly. “Then find us a new
place to talk, because censorin’ Saira’s not the way to figure this
thing out.”

Archer looked abashed. “You’re right, of
course. Forgive me. I’ve spent so much time surviving I sometimes
forget how to live. Perhaps it’s time for Ravi’s tea break after
all. The clatter of Colossus should cover our conversation
there.”

Nancy watched us leave the bar, but no one
else seemed to have noticed our presence in the room. Ringo
whispered in my ear. “Last one’s a rotten egg,” then took off
running. I was behind him a breath later, not caring that we were
unauthorized guests on a wartime military installation. I didn’t
even look back to see if Archer had followed us on Ringo’s route
that took us up and over a garden wall, across the roof of the
shed, up a tree to dodge the sentries who were just changing
shifts, and down the roof of one of the huts. We dropped in front
of H Block and had already caught our breath by the time Archer
rounded the corner. I half expected scolding from him, or at least
a disapproving expression, but instead he wore a big, delighted
grin.

“My God, I’ve missed you two.” Archer’s
whispered voice could have been a shout for how much joy was in it.
“You’re magnificent!” The words were meant for both of us, but his
gaze settled on me in a way that made me flush with pleasure.

Archer went in first to relieve Ravi for his
tea break, and we hid behind the door until he had gone. “Thanks,”
I whispered to Ringo.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Just ‘cause she
watches ‘im doesn’t mean ‘e sees ‘er,” he said.

“It’s dumb, I know. I’ll let it go.”

“Do that,” he said as we slipped back inside
the Colossus codebreaking hut.

Archer was studying a map of London that had
the Underground stations marked. I stood next to him and pointed to
the British Museum. “Apparently, they used … or are using at least
one Underground station to house some of the treasures of the
British Museum while the threat of bombing exists. Mr. Shaw was
trying to find out which ones, with the assumption being that
they’re accessible from Holborn,” I said, pitching my voice low
enough not to carry over the clatter of Colossus.

“That would likely be Aldwych, and perhaps
one or two others. I can get a message up to the Home Office
through Nancy’s contacts at the SOE. We should be able to ascertain
the stations and who manages them within a day or two. But that’s
only a small part of this mystery.” Archer’s gaze had shifted to
the map of Europe.

“Why is Tom Landers involved?” I asked,
trying to prompt him to put his thought process on loudspeaker.

He sighed. “That too, of course.” He studied
the message again. “I was actually wondering why this would be sent
to the 2
^nd
SS Panzer Division?

“The 2
^nd
is in Toulouse right
now, and their business is my business. What do you know about
them?” Nancy entered the room with a raised eyebrow, her gaze
locked on Archer’s.

“Nothing specific. There’s a message
directed to them about our English Werwolf.”

She regarded him steadily before she spoke.
“My boys confirmed that a Werwolf unit landed in Limoges a few days
ago. They intercepted a message to their commander, but it was in
code.”

“Can you get it to me? I’m told we’re good
with code around here,” Archer said.

I loved the polite snark in his tone, and it
made it easier to just roll with Nancy’s presence. “Have they seen
the Werwolves?” I asked.

She nodded. “We have spies throughout the
Limousin area.”

“How do they know it’s the Werwolves?” Ringo
asked. Nancy suddenly realized he was there, and her gaze
sharpened, even as her voice turned to honey. “Devereux, darling,
don’t tell me you actually managed to smuggle
two
PONTIs
into Bletchley.”

Archer smiled benignly at Nancy. “My
mistake. Nancy, may I introduce a person of great importance to me.
This is Ringo.”

She made a show of studying him head to
foot. “One name?” Her eyebrow rose suggestively. “You haven’t
earned a surname yet, is that it?”

Ringo smiled disarmingly. “Nah, just too
important for one.”

Nancy laughed out loud, and it was a
charmingly genuine sound. “Well, Ringo, have you ever seen the wolf
trap symbol with which the Werwolves decorate their armbands?”

Ringo shook his head, so Nancy continued.
“It’s based on the ancient Viking rune called a Wolfsangel. It
looks like a backward Z, lying on its side, with a slash mark
through the middle.”

She took the pencil out of Archer’s hand
with familiar ease that made me clench my teeth. She drew the
symbol on a scrap of paper with all parallel lines. “This is the
Werwolf rune. That’s what the new group in Limoges wears on their
armbands.”

Archer exhaled and looked at her. “Can you
get us to Limoges, Nancy?”

“All three of you?” She asked in
surprise.

I nodded, and then gave her a piercing look.
“We’re the only ones who can identify the Englishman, and like you
said, an English spy anywhere near your pilot escape network is a
very bad idea.”

She studied me, then looked at Archer, and a
slow grin spread across her face. “Apparently they aren’t PONTIs,
are they?” She swept toward the door. “We leave tomorrow
night.”

When Nancy was gone, I turned to Archer.
“PONTIs?”

He shook his head with a chuckle. “People of
No Tactical Importance.”

Ringo and I slipped back to Archer’s hideout
while Archer invented an excuse to cut out of work early.

“What do you think of Nancy?” I tried to
keep my whispered voice casual, but I knew Ringo too well to think
he’d be fooled.

“She’s got the stones of a bloke, for sure,
and brash as anythin’. I don’t think she suffers fools, and she
admires Archer for ‘is brains, and probably ‘is looks too. But if
she fancies ‘im, it’s not returned, least not in any way that
counts. Why are ye worried, Saira? It’s not as if ‘e ‘as eyes for
anyone but ye.”

I shrugged. “Just something he said before
we came.”

The secret door slid open and Archer entered
with a plate of sandwiches in one hand and an extra lantern in the
other. He handed the plate off to Ringo and closed the door behind
him. “I didn’t think I could carry two bowls of soup, but the
canteen has chicken and potato if you want to take your
chances.”

I took a ham sandwich from the plate. “This
is perfect, thank you.” Archer didn’t eat regular food, and yet he
was the one who remembered to feed us. “The Germans don’t know that
you’ve broken their code, right?” I had been wondering whether
there was any chance the information was planted, but it seemed
Archer had already thought of that.

“Most of our work right now is to make sure
the disinformation we’ve placed about Operation Overlord is
effective. So far it seems to be working, which means Colossus is
still unknown.” Operation Overlord was code for D-Day, and Archer
wasn’t holding back secret information from us, which was treason
if anyone overheard him.

I looked Archer in the eye. “As long as time
stays intact, Operation Overlord will work. But that’s why Tom is
such a wild card. He could seriously wreak havoc on the time stream
if he wanted to. But even though he seems to be working for the
Germans, I can’t imagine he would want England to lose the war.” I
said this with confidence I was pretty sure I actually felt.

Archer looked thoughtful. “I don’t know Tom,
so I can’t begin to understand his motives. In my experience
though, the only reasons a man would betray his country are
financial or personal.”

“There are a million better ways to get
money than going to work with the enemy,” I said vehemently.

“Indeed there are.” Archer sounded grim. “I
had means, and have had ample opportunity to invest my family’s
money to ensure its longevity.”

“I don’t see money as something that would
motivate Tom, not given what he’s been through. So what personal
reason could there be for him to be here, now, on the German side
of this war?”

Archer’s expression was serious. “So it’s
true that Wilder’s ingestion of your mother’s blood resulted in
Clocking skills which he then passed on to Tom when he turned
him?”

I nodded. “We know Tom can Clock, but I
don’t believe he has quite my skill. It’s true he managed to kill
Wilder twice on two different timelines in medieval France, but I
don’t think he can make portals like I can.”

“He went to the trouble to kill Wilder
twice?” Archer asked. “Such hatred is concerning. But Wilder isn’t
in 1944, so that couldn’t be the source of a personal vendetta. Who
else does Tom hate with such fervor?” Archer’s eyes flicked between
both Ringo’s and mine.

“’Imself,” Ringo said, finally.

The Maquis

We met Nancy at the Cranfield Aerodrome,
which was about ten minutes by car from Bletchley Park. It was a
harrowing trip on dark country roads, and I was very glad for such
good night vision. Nancy handed Archer a set of papers, then looked
all three of us over with a critical eye.

“Your shoes are too good. They’ll give you
away as agents if Gerry or the collaborators lay eyes on you.”

“One good rainstorm and a stomp in the mud
will change that,” said Ringo

“You sound like an old Cockney I used to buy
chips from before the war,” Nancy scoffed.

“Maybe I am an old Cockney, and I’m just
better at disguise than any of you SOE types.” Nancy stared at
Ringo, and then burst out laughing. She actually had a fairly
infectious laugh, which, when combined with her magic smile, made
her somewhat irresistible. She looked at Archer and jabbed her
thumb in Ringo’s direction. “I like this one, Devereux.”

I had to bite back the snarky comment that
threatened, and Ringo caught my eye with a wink. Archer distributed
the paperwork Nancy had given us, and I saw that I had a hastily
forged identity card with a picture that looked vaguely like me,
and the name Hélène Klene.