The Escape - Robert Muchamore Page 0,45
the British suspects myself and they all say that he’s most determined.’
‘Questioned – or tortured?’ the plain clothes man snorted. ‘People just say what you want to hear if you push them like that.’
‘I know my job, Herr Potente,’ the Gestapo officer snapped. ‘This is no longer your command. I have orders to run counter-intelligence operations in occupied Paris, and Henderson is our top priority.’
A second crash came at the rear of the house, as a Gestapo officer who’d been sent around the back kicked in a door and entered the kitchen.
‘Herr Oberst5,’ the black-uniformed man said, clicking his heels obediently and giving a Nazi salute. ‘Nobody tried escaping out the back. The houses on either side appear to be unoccupied.’
‘There’s nobody upstairs either,’ the other officer added, as he ran back down the stairs. ‘But the bed is ruffled, as if it was slept in recently, and there are damp clothes hanging over the bath – either a boy or a very small man. I’d say they were washed out late last night or early this morning.’
Marc’s heart thumped as the four men stood in the doorway less than five metres away.
‘A boy,’ the Oberst said, stroking his chin curiously. ‘Find the boy, and whatever neighbours you can. Interrogate them. Use force if necessary, but our orders are to behave as gentlemen until the occupation of Paris is complete. So if you have to make a mess, make sure you clean it up.’
‘Yes, Herr Oberst,’ the officer said, before heading out of the front door and calling to a couple of regular soldiers who now stood by the front gate.
‘We must search carefully,’ Herr Potente said, warning the two officers. ‘When we captured the British spies we found several booby traps. One of my men lost three fingers when a filing cabinet blew up on him.’
The Oberst nodded. ‘Then be careful everyone, but don’t waste time. Obergruppenführer Heydrich is taking a personal interest in the Mannstein affair. He’s extremely unhappy that Digby Clarke made it out of Paris.’
‘I spoke with Mannstein at the hotel late last night,’ Potente said. ‘He’s disappointed that his drawings were stolen by Clarke, but he says he’ll be able to recreate them within weeks.’
‘But we don’t want the British getting the plans out of France,’ the Oberst shouted. ‘And I want Henderson before he can recruit new spies. If we don’t capture Henderson, Clarke and the plans, I’m going to make sure that your next posting is a very unpleasant one, Herr Potente. Is that understood?’
‘Yes, Herr Oberst,’ Potente said, giving a Nazi salute as the Gestapo officer backed out of the room.
Marc was terrified. He could only understand about half of the Germans’ conversation, but he’d picked up enough to realise that they were prepared to torture him for information.
* * *
4Kübelwagen – an open-topped German car, similar to a British Land Rover or American Jeep.
5Oberst – a high-ranking German officer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Father Doran and his sister Yvette still worked two acres of land around the small farmhouse in which they’d been born more than seventy years earlier. The Father had been parish priest for almost half a century and was one of the most respected men in the area. It had surprised nobody when the elderly siblings took in three orphans and several neighbours had offered help, especially for Hugo, who’d arrived with nothing but the clothes on his back.
The Dorans always stopped for two hours in the middle of the day and ate a large meal made from garden vegetables and meat butchered on a nearby farm. After a soup and a main course of beef cooked in a wine sauce, Paul and Rosie struggled through a fruit tart for dessert. Hugo barely touched the first two courses, reserving all of his available stomach space for afters.
‘I have some friends coming around to play cards this afternoon,’ Father Doran said, as he dabbed his shrivelled lips on a napkin. ‘So you three keep the noise down if you’re staying indoors.’
The three kids nodded as they left the table. Rosie went to the sink to help Yvette wash up, while Hugo followed Paul upstairs to the small bedroom shared by all of them. There was a double bed, in which Paul and Rosie slept, and two sofa cushions pushed together on the bare floor for Hugo, although he usually claimed to be scared of the dark and crawled up under the bedcovers to sleep between Rosie and Paul.
‘Do you want to play outside?’