Cold Lonely Courage (Madeleine toche Series Book 2) (19 page)

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CHAPTER
FIFTY

Madeleine sat silently looking at the photographs Stenger set down in front of her as he explained the situation. Willi looked at the floor as the enormity of the crime settled on them.

“You’re sure this is Oradour sur Glane, Major Stenger?” Madeleine said in a steady, even tone. There was neither pain nor anger in her voice, only the cold distant promise of retribution.

“Yes, Ms. Toche,” Stenger said, adopting a little formality as he felt the transformation begin in Madeleine. She had been showing signs of trust and happiness. A friendship was developing between them.

“Everyone?”

“If they were in town.”

“My cousin and her four year old daughter, then?”

“I have no way to know, I’m sorry.”

Madeleine nodded almost imperceptibly, acknowledging her belief in Stenger’s compassion. She remembered mentioning to him that she had family in the region days before the tragedy occurred.

“I appreciate you telling me. It is a demonstration of trust and I can’t tell you how long it has been since I’ve been able to trust anybody. If I knew this before I was captured I would have killed every officer responsible and every soldier under their command that I could find. But I gave my word to stop killing, though every tiny piece of me is screaming for revenge. I can’t explain it. It lives inside me and its strength is terrible to resist.”

“What I’m going to say I’ll deny if I’m ever questioned. I’m a soldier and a police officer. I trust in the law and justice but that’s impossible here. Something has to be done, something I can’t do,” Stenger said, his eyes locking on hers. He placed a tiny cap on the table, so small only a baby could have worn it. “I found this in the bakery in town. It was in an oven.” Madeleine stared down at it, unable to look away. “You know what to do,” Stenger said.

He walked over to a beat up old cupboard over the sink. He reached in and took out a small bundle and placed it on the table along with a box of ammunition. He unwrapped the contents and handed them over to Madeleine. She looked up, silently accepted her pistol and silencer. Willi watched, sadness crossing his face as he realized what was happening.

“Willi, I gave my word to you,” Madeleine said.

“When you go, keep your head down, soldier.
Das Reich
are animals,” he said as he stood and walked out of the room, gently placing his hand on her shoulder in affirmation as he passed.

Without another word Madeleine stood, tucking the pistol under her clothing. She folded the baby bonnet and put it in the pocket of her skirt.

“Any idea where and who, Major?” She asked as if ordering a cup of coffee on the terrace of some quaint café.

“I believe Major Diekmann was in command. By now they should be in Normandy, possibly around Caen.” Stenger said without hesitation.

“We will meet again, Major.”

“Yes, we will
mademoiselle.
I know of a lovely little restaurant just off the beach in La Ciotat,” Stenger said, a grim little smile playing on the corner of his lips, his internal struggle rending him inside. He hoped he was right.

“You and Willi keep your heads down too,” Madeleine said and left the room.

Stenger waited and Willi walked back in right after she left.

“We never really caught her, did we, Horsty?” Willi said placing a bottle of cognac and two coffee cups on the table.

“You can’t catch the night, Willi. You can’t catch the night,” Stenger almost whispered, holding his cup up as Willi poured.

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CHAPTER
FIFTY-ONE

John Trunce looked at the little scrap of map he had and knew he was lost. He was roughly where he was supposed to be, but the fight was behind him. Not only was he behind enemy lines, he was behind the enemy. He needed to find the front, and then get back through and find the American army, if he could. That would be step one; he’d find his company after that.

Madeleine sat in her room in a family hotel in the village of Avenay approximately thirty miles from the front. Traveling by train and a stolen car, it had taken her two days to get here. Most of the people she ran into were headed south. Nobody was looking for the Angel of Death, with the entire north coast of France a battle ground. I still have no idea where or how I’m going to find
Das Reich,
must less Major Diekmann, she thought. He was first on her list. I don’t have any intelligence on them, and I’m not going to get any. I’ll have to cross enemy lines and make my way to the first Allied soldiers I can find. Then, if I can get a message to London, they’ll know where
Das Reich
is fighting. I’ll make my way around the major battle and maybe get through to the Allied lines that way.

Madeleine spread a map on the bed, considering the towns between her location and Caen. There aren’t many, she thought. I can’t take the time to find a Resistance group; they’re all fighting by now. She stood up and walked to the second floor window and looked out into the street. Everyone is either gone or praying the fighting doesn’t come this way, she thought. I wish I had more news, but I assume the invasion and the liberation of France haven’t been declared a victory yet. No wonder I got those odd looks from the family who owns this hotel. They either didn’t care or chose to believe I was waiting for my aunt to get here from Carentan. There has to be fighting up there. It’s pivotal to both sides.

Madeleine lit a cigarette, tossing the pack towards the handbag she’d picked up. I’m not going to be able to hide a machine gun in that, she thought. I’m going to need a whole lot more than my handguns when I get close to the front. Madeleine paced as she smoked, considering her plan. Even if I get through to the Allies, how do I get back again and find Diekmann? I can’t just run up behind him in battle and shoot him. He’ll have to be off the line, between battles. I don’t care, I’m going to find him and put one in his eye.

John Trunce hid among the brambles of a hedgerow as a small German patrol walked by. They were moving quietly, speaking in whispers. These guys are disciplined and experienced troops, he thought. I’ll wait to see if they’re alone; look for stragglers or a rear guard.

Once the men passed, he stepped from his hiding place and shot them in rapid succession. He moved quickly over to investigate. The three were dead and he checked them for anything that might let him know where he was. One of you has to have a better map than mine, he thought as he stripped them of their weapons and looked through their pockets. He dug into one of their packs and found an old road map. It’s kind of crude, but better than nothing. I have to be somewhere near Carentan, I saw that name on a road sign that pointed right towards a German division.

He pulled the dead soldiers off the road and under the cover of the hedgerows that seemed to be everywhere. John crouched and looked at the map. Problem is I can’t use it unless I know where I am now, he thought. My compass works but that only tells me the way I’m going. I’m sure we overshot Carentan, so I’m guessing I’m South and West. North and East is as good a direction as any, he thought, slinging his extra German machine gun over his shoulder, moving down the road.

Madeleine woke up in the middle of the night. There were still many hours before dawn. It’s time to move cross-country, find the front, and then try to skirt it, she thought. I can’t take the chance that Diekmann would get captured or be moved where I can’t get to him.

Madeleine dressed in the dark, tucking her guns out of sight. She left her traveling clothes on the bed, putting on dark corduroy pants and a light green jacket.

She left the room and enough money on the bed to pay for her night’s stay. If they wondered why she left her clothes behind, she didn’t care. She just hoped the battling armies left the family alone.

Madeleine kept up a steady pace, eager to cover as much ground as possible under the cover of darkness. She kept to the edge of the hedgerows and trees so that she could quickly take cover if necessary. The sounds of the day’s battle she heard earlier were sporadic now, as if there had been some unspoken agreement to cease-fire until the sun came up and the killing could begin again the next morning. From time to time there was a brief exchange of gunfire as scouting patrols ran into one another. She knew she wouldn’t be able to move well during the day with the heavy shelling and continuous exchanges of gunfire.

Later, Madeleine started to see the evidence of small skirmishes. There were dead soldiers in small groups from both sides. She saw the insignia of American troops for the first time.

As Madeleine came closer to a small clearing she heard the sound of German voices. Her plan required avoiding all combatants if possible. She moved quickly into a hedgerow and burrowed down into the damp leaves and twigs. She was glad that it was early summer. The ground was wet and the leaves made no noise as she pulled them over herself. She watched as the patrol came by. These were soldiers of the German regular army and seemed less cautious than a squad hell-bent on ambushing the enemy. They were green troops, and by the careless way they walked and spoke, they simply didn’t seem to know any better. She was a veteran of the ambush. She had killed more than one Gestapo officer by remaining hidden before the kill. It was remarkable how her profession so easily relied on the simplest traits of human nature. Once her targets were discovered and the alarm raised, the soldiers scattered in every direction out from the killing ground to find the killer. No one thought to search the immediate area. Soldiers weren’t trained as assassins.

As she lay in the dark Madeleine reminded herself that now was the time to be more cautious than ever. She could hear the old German’s whisper in her ear, “There will come a time when passion, and not duty calls on you to kill. That is dangerous territory. Driven by passion you might kill indiscriminately, and that leads to a place from which you can never fully return.”

Madeleine stood and moved out from under the brambles and watched the road for some time before she continued down it. Eventually she would have to go around the more fortified and entrenched positions. She considered finding some more protected hiding place to wait for the battle to proceed past her. Every instinct told her that mobility kept her options open.

There’s somebody in the road, she thought as she crouched down automatically and moved her body, crablike, towards the hedgerow. The figure started to move carefully in her direction. Did he see me? I don’t think so, I was in the shadows when I first saw him. Madeleine eased her pistol from the pocket of the dark sweater she wore and carefully screwed the silencer into place. The man was moving cautiously, stopping every so often to look all around him. He had the feel of someone with combat experience expecting an ambush. It was a dangerous but necessary game. Once the battle began it was right in your neighborhood, the immediate hundred feet around you. All the best planning and training went out the window and things became very personal.

Madeleine carefully turned her head, never taking her eyes off of him. It was too dark to make out his uniform. Without warning he crouched, crossed over to her side of the road and moved towards her. Every nerve in her body tingled as a wave of adrenaline passed through her, spreading electrically out from her core. She calmed her mind and slowly pulled the pistol up the length of her torso, keeping it in the dark shadow of her profile. She held it next to her face as the man crept forward. He must have sensed something, as he seemed to hesitate and peer into the hole of shadows in which she hid. He waited for what seemed like an eternity. Madeleine was not used to being hunted. He can’t see me, but he can feel me, she thought. Well, come on, then.

Madeleine had only one weapon she could rely on, born of training and endless dark nights alone with her fears, her thoughts, her uncertainty and endless waiting. There was never anyone to share her thoughts with, to help shoulder the burden she carried, no one to ease her mind through the bond of companionship. She was alone. Some people found the courage to act through the strength of those around them. She had only herself and her cold lonely courage.

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“There is somebody out there, Johnny,” Trunce mouthed to himself without making a sound, his eyes darting around nervously. His mouth felt like dust but his hands were damp. This is not good, he thought. I’ll never find a friendly face in this place, he thought. He had been clambering around for several days now. He was way off the grid but every time he tried to get closer to the fighting another German patrol would blunder by. What was I thinking? That I could just run to the front and skip over to the other side? With all these damn hedgerows there are hundreds of little battles everywhere. There is no defined front. Well, what did I expect? He reminded himself, I’m Airborne, and we’re always surrounded! I just wish that I could be surrounded with a few buddies. I can’t do shit on my own except an ambush here and there. That’s just fine but I’m trained to fight in a team. Tonight I’m a goddamn guerrilla and I’m sure there’s another bush fighter out there just down the road! He fingered the signaling device in his breast pocket, a little metal toy that made a clicking sound. One click was supposed to be answered by two. There’s no way I’m going to click that damn thing until I know what the hell is waiting down there in the dark. He lowered his body to the ground and began to crawl with his weapon held diagonally in front of him. He swished back and forth as he pulled himself ahead, snakelike into the gloom. Man, it was dark but there were pockets of cave dark along the sides of the road. My night vision is good but Dracula couldn’t see anything in there. He paused and listened for a cough, the rustle of fabric, the sound of a safety disengaging, anything. Maybe I’ve been imagining things, he thought.

“You had better speak English,” a voice whispered as a round metal object was pressed carefully into his ear. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind.

“82
^nd
Airborne, on your side, I hope,” he said.

“Keep your eyes ahead and tell me if anyone is on the road.”

“Not that I can see.”

“Now, slowly turn your head and look behind you. I will not be looking away. If you move abruptly, you die. You will not hear the shot.”

Trunce knew better than to try anything. There was something chilling in the voice as it spoke. It didn’t carry threat; it carried certainty. He would die if he didn’t do exactly as he was told.

“Clear.”

“Leave your weapon and stand up slowly and move back onto the road.”

Trunce stood carefully and walked a few paces backwards into the road. He strained to see back into the darkness and saw a small figure rising up from the ground, a pistol and silencer pointed at his chest.

“You’re cautious; I’ll give you that, Airborne. Now, any chance you have a cigarette?” Madeleine said stepping out from the darkness.

Trunce could barely believe his eyes. He felt his body uncoil and relax. She looked hardly older than he was. He could tell from the way she stood and the outline of her body that she was very much a woman, though.

“I have a pack in my pocket. May I get them?”

“Get two,” Madeleine said suddenly lowering her gun. “Let’s both have one.”

Trunce had a thousand questions but instinctively knew that now was not the time to start asking them. He lit two cigarettes and handed one to Madeleine. When she stepped closer to take it he could see the features of her face and the hard grace of her body. She reminded him of a cat. She was a frightening mixture of beauty and implicit threat.

“
Merci
,” Madeleine said and tasted the tobacco. She relaxed as she blew the smoke out and she looked at Trunce.

“May I pick up my weapon, ma’am?” He asked.

“Of course. We may yet need to kill a few Germans.”

“French Resistance?” John asked, unable to bridle his curiosity.

“British Intelligence, SOE.”

“Well, that explains it then.”

“Explains what?”

“Why you were better than me back there.”

“You were pretty good yourself. I’m trained to wait. Sometimes it seems forever. But forever has come in the form of the United States Airborne.”

“At your service,” John said with a slow salute. “May I ask what you are trained to do?” John asked casually.

“To kill Germans.”

“Then we have something in common already,” John laughed.

Madeleine couldn’t help but chuckle at the insanity of it all. They were two young people who could have just as easily stepped out of a dance hall for a quick smoke and a chat. She found herself liking the young soldier immediately. He had a calm, easy way about him. He hadn’t shown any fear and seemed to care less that she was a woman. At least he had the sense not to comment on it. Maybe he was being deferential, but in her heart she didn’t think so. The man simply had an ability to go with the moment, to adapt and improvise. She was sure there weren’t many like him. Not so young and attractive, anyway. She had to admit to herself that he was handsome in an open, natural way. He was lean but broad shouldered, and held himself with the kind of casual grace that cannot be learned. It was the mark of being at home within one’s own skin.

“I need to find my unit,” Trunce said.

“That will do for me also. I must get word to the British command. I need some information.”

“Then what?”

“Then I go back in and kill a few SS,” Madeleine said casually.

“Back in? So the war won’t yet be over for you either.”

“My war has been a long one, but I have one more duty to perform before I can lay down my weapons and get back to my life.”

“You married?”

“Not yet,” she replied.

“Courting someone?” Trunce said, accentuating his Missouri drawl.

“Oh yes, we’ve courted,” she replied wistfully, a secret smile playing on her lips, obviously misunderstanding the meaning of the word. John caught it too and felt himself blush and smile simultaneously.

Madeleine realized her mistake and laughed too. “Courting means dating, not the other?”

“Yes, although sometimes there’s some pretty close dating.”

The two paused briefly and surveyed the road.

“I hope you have a better idea of where we are than I do,” Trunce admitted.

“We are between Caen and Carentan.”

“Carentan was one of our objectives. I am way off. My plane was hit and the pilot struggled with the controls for a long time. There was so much confusion that my stick didn’t make it out all at once. I barely did.”

“And the plane?”

“I don’t know. Many planes were hit. I got out, that’s all I know. I hope the pilots made it,” Trunce said uncertainly.

“The Germans have much to answer for. There are so many dead. My brother among them.”

“I am sorry to hear that. I have a brother too. He’s younger, though. I can’t imagine your loss.”

“We better get moving. It’ll be light soon and we won’t be able to move as easily.”

“Lead the way. Say, what’s your name?”

“Madeleine, and yours?”

“John,” he said holding out his hand. She took it. He was amazed at the firmness of her small hand’s grip. There was nothing delicate about her, he thought, but he kept stealing a glance here and there. She was a beauty, but not in a doll-like way. She was ethereal, as if formed from the most dark and terrible things of the earth into a thing of splendid radiance. He knew that he’d come across someone special. Without a second thought he knew he’d die to protect her.

The two set out. When they spoke it was in whispers. There was a discipline between them. They moved as one. They both were happy to be with another person. Especially one so highly trained.

As they walked, night thinned and the first glow of the sun peeked over the horizon. The shadows became weaker and their need for stealth increased.

“Where do you think you are going?” A harsh German voice bellowed through the pre-dawn silence.

Madeleine and Trunce quickly found cover and crept forward. The voice had come from around a bend in the road.

“This one looks like Resistance,” another taunting German voice broke in.

Madeleine peered over the trunk of a fallen log and saw a squad of German soldiers surrounding a small wagon. A family sat on the wagon as the four soldiers roughly dug through a haphazard heap of their belongings. Madeleine saw one of the soldiers, dirty from battle, pulling a young woman from the cart, the girl’s mother struggling to hold onto her.

“Non,”
the father cried out.

“Shut up, you,” another soldier yelled and smashed his rifle butt into the man’s face, crushing his nose, blood spurting out as it ruptured.

John raised his rifle to fire and Madeleine quickly put her hand up in front of his face. She motioned for him to flank around the side. Placing her mouth on his ear she whispered, “Wait. Fire only if you need to.” He nodded his understanding as Madeleine crawled silently around the other side of the group, her silenced pistol held slightly raised in front of her. Trunce moved to flank from the other side, careful not to create a crossfire with Madeleine’s position. What he saw next he would remember for the rest of his life.

Without breaking her forward movement, Madeleine came out from the brush immediately behind and to the right of the cart. She raised her silenced pistol and shot the two soldiers nearest her. John saw a hole sprout between the eyes of each man in rapid succession. She then simply walked forward without haste and put two bullets in the side of the soldier’s head as he was trying to pull the girl off to the side. She shot the fourth as she casually stepped over the body of the third man. He had hesitated, fumbling with his rifle, and that mistake cost him everything. Trunce had seen killing and done it himself in battle. But he had never seen it done as effortlessly and surgically as now. The look on Madeleine’s face held no animation, her black eyes fixed on each man as she struck. In that instant John knew how lucky he had been last night. She would have killed him without any hesitation of fear. She was no ordinary agent reporting on troop movements, she was death itself.

The woman holding her husband’s head on the cart was paralyzed with fear. Madeleine had moved over to the terrified girl who had watched her abductor simply melt away to her side as Madeleine’s bullets tore into his brain.

Madeleine lowered her pistol and slowly put her arm around the girl’s shoulder. She led her back to her parents. The father looked through the blood that ran down his face and whispered,
“Merci, merci
.”

“Partez maintenant!”
Madeleine said gesturing down the road with her head.

“Est- vous, L‘ange de la mort
?” The young woman asked as she passed.

“Je suis une fille de France
,” Madeleine answered with a quick nod in affirmation. She had gone a long time without any praise or recognition for her dangerous work.

The two women smiled grimly, pride showing behind their eyes. It was an emotion Madeleine had not seen on the streets of her country for too long. It was the pride of the undefeated, knowing France would be free again. As the cart proceeded past the corpses of the Germans, the little family did not even afford the dead a glance. The soldiers were only so much dirt beneath the hooves of their horse.

As the cart passed, John walked out from his position. Madeleine had already started to drag one of the bodies to the side of the road and into the brush. John did the same and soon they had covered the soldiers and made a perfunctory search of their persons. Madeleine watched the respect Trunce gave the dead. He did not riffle through their pockets looking for valuables. Two of the men had watches that he left on their wrists.

“No plunder for the victor?” Madeleine asked breaking their silence.

“Not mine to take,” he said simply.

Madeleine shook her head in agreement and walked over to the middle of the road.

“Remind me not to make you angry,” John said, catching her eye. She smiled firmly in return.

“Do you see the insignia on those lapels? Those are SS
Panzer;
they are experienced soldiers. Two of them had ribbons from the Russian winter war. They are hard men, and animals. They raped their way across Russia and liked it. The Russians will exact their revenge for themselves. I will do it for the French.”

“Panzer
means tanks. Things are going to get complicated,” John said as the rumbling of artillery began in the distance.

“The last thing we want is to run into enemy tanks,” Madeleine said, stating the obvious.

“Tanks support infantry and vice-versa. If we’re not blown to pieces we might find friendly forces,” John replied.

“Then let’s go find them,” Madeleine said striding off towards the cannon fire.

“Here we go,” John muttered, turning to follow.

As they approached the battle, Madeleine and John increased their pace. Madeleine carried the German machine gun John had taken the previous day. If they had to fight, her pistol would be of limited use. The shells screamed overhead and the ground shook as they hit the earth.

The sound of a machine gun’s constant staccato was close as they left the road and made their way up the side of a small hill. Walking on the road this close to the battle was suicide. Both armies would have fortified positions, expecting armor or troop transport along any passable road. There was no way through in that direction. At the top of the hill smoke from the battle and the screams of the wounded rose up from below. In every direction there the Germans were dug in, facing the opposite direction.

“We need to punch a hole through somewhere. It might as well be here,” John said, checking his ammunition.

“See you on the other side of that field,” Madeleine responded as they both stood and fired into the two entrenchments in front of them. John emptied his rifle into the machine gunner and his belt man as Madeleine fired short bursts into another. John knew he was seeing fire discipline of the highest magnitude as she advanced. Suddenly a shell screamed out of the sky and landed directly to her side. She was blasted away from it, as if torn off her feet by a giant hand. John yelled and ran to her side. He grabbed her by one arm and threw her over his back as he scrambled for cover. He ran with her to the nearest machine gun nest and dove into it with her over his shoulder. Bullets came from every direction as the Germans realized that they’d been attacked from the rear. The advancing Allied soldiers were also firing on their position. John grabbed the German machine gun and fired immediately on the German position to his right. They were stuck between shooting to keep the advancing soldiers at bay and this new threat from their left. John walked the heavy caliber bullets up the ground and into their flank. He then immediately swung the gun around and fired into the position to his left. He felt a bullet rip through his left shoulder, leaving a deep gouge. As he began to turn, Madeleine threw herself into the back of the trench and fired into a group of soldiers directly behind them. A few were killed and the others threw themselves to the ground or behind whatever cover they could find. They were completely surrounded. Madeleine and John caught one another’s eyes for the briefest instant, communicating a fierce commitment.