said.
‘Lookout on the ground,’ Paul said. ‘Lookout upstairs, and one to actually search the apartment.’
‘A trio sounds good to me,’ PT said. ‘We’ll go take a look as soon as we’ve finished eating.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Henderson knew most of the Maquis lads in the woods north-east of Beauvais. But they were a trigger-happy bunch, so he entered a barn and switched OT uniform for peasant garb before delving into the countryside.
The Maquis’ forest headquarters had moved that morning and Henderson wasted fifteen minutes going down the wrong path. A Maquis with a better sense of direction had made it back from town faster and Jean hurried out of his tent when Henderson finally arrived.
‘Have you heard what’s happened in Beauvais?’ Jean asked.
‘I was in the bar where it started,’ Henderson said, nodding as he caught his breath. ‘Some maniac shot a waiter in the foot. Then they all started wrecking the joint. Set the place on fire and beat the hell out of the staff.’
‘I heard it was all along the main drag,’ Jean said.
Henderson nodded. ‘I cleared out as fast as I could, but once they’d kicked off in one bar the whole street went off. Fights, fires, anyone local was for it. Men beaten up, women mauled.’
‘Animals,’ Jean hissed, shaking his head. ‘I’ve heard they’re leaving soon, at least.’
‘Where’d you hear that?’ Henderson asked.
‘Prostitutes in town,’ Jean said.
This news, combined with the riotous mood of the tank crews and the information Scholl had given about the fuel tankers made Henderson certain that the 108th was making final preparations to leave. The only problem was, while Jean and pretty much everyone else in the Beauvais area wanted to see the back of the 108th, Henderson’s job was to keep them here.
‘Are any of my team around?’ Henderson asked.
‘Joel and Edith were here a while back,’ Jean said. ‘They can’t have got far.’
Henderson found the pair, along with Sam, at a larger encampment a few hundred metres away. But he blew his top when he discovered that Paul, PT and Luc had gone into town.
‘It’s bloody dangerous in town right now,’ Henderson said. ‘Did they say where they were going?’
Edith had heard about the boys’ plan to check out the Milice apartment, but didn’t want to snitch. She shook her head.
‘I need good people on this,’ Henderson said anxiously.
‘There’s plenty of Maquis around,’ Sam pointed out.
‘Jean won’t like any operation that stops the 108th leaving the area,’ Henderson said. ‘They’ve always been unruly, but since the invasion they’re on edge and they’ve become downright nasty.’
‘What about the communist lads?’ Sam asked thoughtfully. ‘Their underground newspapers are full of stories about Soviet sacrifice, so they can hardly turn down a fight to rid their country of fascists. Plus, Jean’s fair with rations, but he picks favourites when the weapons get dished out and the communists are at the bottom of the pile.’
‘Smart thinking,’ Henderson said as he drummed his chin with an index finger.
‘A lot of the communists are boneheads though,’ Edith pointed out. ‘We’ve got rifles and plastic, but we can’t make them soldiers by sunset.’
‘Agreed,’ Henderson said decisively, as he reached his tent. ‘But we don’t have the luxury of choice, so we’ll just have to keep our tactics simple.’
As Joel and Sam hurried off to recruit a posse of young communists without Jean noticing, Edith found herself studying maps under Henderson’s small shelter.
The Allies dominated the skies over France, so the 108th had hidden its weapons and vehicles under camouflage netting in dozens of separate locations in the countryside surrounding Beauvais. Since they’d been made Henderson’s sole target, Maquis scouts had located fifty out of fifty-six Tiger tanks, along with two dozen motorised artillery pieces and a few more specialised vehicles such as mobile bridges, mine-clearing vehicles and flamethrower tanks.
Henderson had logged each find on a map and now tried to work out the most likely routes for the fuel tankers and the best spots to ambush them.
‘They won’t risk having a dozen fuel tankers on one stretch of road,’ he told Edith. ‘One rocket from a Tempest flying overhead would blow up the whole convoy. I’d say we’re looking for individual tankers, arriving on different routes over a period of several hours.’
‘Small teams?’ Edith said.
Henderson nodded. ‘Exactly.’
*
Paul, Luc and PT didn’t know about the mini-riot staged by the 108th, but picked up the tense vibe in town. There were few people on the streets, and those that were moved quickly.
The apartment building known as Le Grand Americain would have