She took a bite out of her apple, and Vivi sat back and turned her face to the spring sun that was defying the war and attempting to warm the cold season. She contemplated the same question for herself. She’d had a few brief relationships, but had never really been in love. Vivi had been so busy getting ready for this mission she had barely thought about it over the last few months, and the thought suddenly struck her, now she had chosen this dangerous path, real love might never be an option for her.
‘Yvette, you’ve time for that. You’ve had to grow up quickly.’
‘And there is no one around,’ Yvette continued as she snatched at a clump of grass with frustration. ‘Even if I had the chance, there’s no one to have the chance with. I really hope it ends soon.’
Vivi nodded, lighting a cigarette and looking across the water. ‘We all do.’
On returning home, Vivi ate dinner with the family and then excused herself to transmit back to headquarters in Britain.
Locking herself in her room, she closed the curtains, pulled out the wireless, and the crystal she needed to make the radio work. Vivi placed them both on a small dressing table in the corner. As she turned on the wireless, the signal was weak and she was unable to establish a link. Tentatively she opened the window and looked up and down the road, surreptitiously. All was quiet, so she snaked the antenna that came with her equipment outside. Vivi had been instructed to do this if the signal was weak. She noticed her hands were shaking. It was risky transmitting this way with German detector vans roaming the city to find wireless operators just like her and she would only have a limited amount of time to convey information to the signal centre for SOE in England.
Listening in on the device, she took a deep breath as she fitted her crystal and waited for it to warm up. Then, with great speed, she tapped out her code name and hastily transmitted the message that she’d arrived safely. Vivi waited with bated breath as information filtered back to her, confirming in code they had received her message and wishing her luck.
As Vivi listened, she kept her eye on the clock. She knew she could not transmit for more than fifteen minutes. If the Nazis that drove around the city spotted the antenna or encountered her transmission, not only would it place her in jeopardy, but the whole family in the house.
She finished her message and slid the wireless in its case back under the bed. Glancing in the mirror, Vivi noticed beads of sweat glistening on her forehead and felt her heart pounding through her ribcage.
The following evening Vivi slipped out of the house to connect with her circuit leader, Frank, for the first time at the Resistance meeting. Her job eventually would be to work for him as a courier between others in the circuit and transmit messages back and forth to London.
On the way, she used Terrier’s zigzag pattern of moving through the streets, trying not to lose her way. When she finally arrived, she knocked on the door and gave a coded word, and a nonchalant young man nodded and brought her inside. He led her down a hall and into a darkened room.
Inside, the members of her cell, within the Physician Network, were huddled around discussing their plans. As her eyes started to adjust to the darkness, she was surprised by the sight of the different types of people. A motley cluster of very young men, some still boys, too young to fight, and also mature men, several with war wounds, probably from the First World War, she surmised. They stood huddled around a map talking about the nearby Renault factory that they were hoping to sabotage.
‘The pianist is here,’ declared the young man who had opened the door to her. ‘The pianist’ was the general code name for the women or the men who were working as wireless operators around the city to transport information back to British headquarters about anything the Resistance needed.
They all acknowledged her and the leader stepped forward and introduced himself as Frank, before quickly moving on to business, eventually turning to Vivi. ‘We need explosives and more guns. Could you request an airdrop for the end of the week?’
Vivi nodded and only then did she realise how much she was a part of this.