The Unlikely Allies (32 page)

“What part does the woman play in all of this?”

“That’s not for you to know, Captain, but I will tell you off the record that she will be tried as a spy and publicly executed. The story will appear in newspapers all over the world.”

Stahl had planned the mission down to the last detail. He had argued long with Colonel Ritter about the size of the team he would take. Ritter was in favor of a very large number, but Stahl had finally won out, emphasizing that there were only two of them. “Give me six expert commandos, and I will take them with no trouble.” He had argued that it was simpler to move with a small group and had not spoken aloud his real reason for taking such a small crew—he didn’t want any more people than necessary to receive the accolades for their success. Stahl had already mentally prepared the speech for the newspapers, telling how he had captured the hated defector and the depraved woman and brought them to justice.

“The second thing we must do is destroy the submarine.” This also had been Stahl’s idea. The submarine would be a sitting duck when it surfaced, and he could see no reason why a competent German naval officer could not sneak in and accomplish that mission.

“It will be difficult to do both.” Franz Ubel’s voice was hard and spare. He had dealt with army officers in the past, and their heads seemed to be packed with cement. They simply
could not understand that war at sea was different from battle on land. And this fellow Stahl—he was even more stupid than most soldiers! Captain Ubel had checked his record and discovered that Stahl had no combat experience at all, and he felt nothing but contempt for him. “If I understand you correctly, you want me to be absolutely sure that the two are captured before I attack the sub?”

“That is correct, Captain.”

“You don’t seem to grasp how quickly these submarines can move. They can dive while my ship is making a single turn. These British have become quite adept at that.”

“I fail to see the problem,” Stahl said stiffly.

“Have you looked outside?”

“Outside? Why, of course.”

“Have you noticed that it’s a moonless night and even the stars are blotted out by those clouds? In other words, it’s as dark as pitch out there. Look for yourself.”

Stahl peered outside, and sure enough he could see absolutely nothing, but he would not have his plan interfered with, and he said stiffly, “You have the position of the submarine. You know the exact time, two o’clock, that they will be there. Surely you can find something as big as a submarine.”

“As big as a submarine! Have you noticed how large the sea is? On a summer day with the bright sun, it would be simple, but trying to sneak up on a submarine in the dark, we’ll have all hands out watching for an enemy it will be almost impossible to see.”

Stahl waved his hand impatiently. “That is a technical problem. I was assured you were a capable naval officer, and you have your orders to do exactly as I said in this matter.”

“Yes, I have them, Lieutenant.” Captain Ubel gritted his teeth. To put his ship under the command of a mere army lieutenant was galling to say the least, but the orders were clear, and he had little choice. “All right. We won’t argue about that, but we can’t guarantee our success. Too many factors are unstable.”

“What’s unstable about it?” Stahl barked. “We want this pair alive. The propaganda will be priceless, and surely you want to add a sunken sub to your record, Captain Ubel.”

This was true enough. Ubel was proud of his record, and like all other officers, he sought a promotion. There would surely be great credit in sinking a sub while attempting to take these two off.

“Let me go through the plan one more time, Captain,” Stahl said, speaking again as if to someone with a feeble mind. “You will put me and my team ashore in a small boat. We know that they will be in the cape, and they will have to signal the sub. As soon as we see the light, we will go ashore and capture the pair.”

“That may not be so easy. These are rough waters, and the coast is jagged. There are very few landing harbors in the fjords.”

“I will take care of that. Now, as soon as we capture the pair, we will send you a signal by light, and you can sink the submarine.” Captain Ubel saw that further argument was useless. He looked at his watch, holding it up to the green light and said, “It’s fifty-four minutes until two. We’re very close to Angel Fjord.”

“Do you know these waters at all, Captain?”

“Of course. There’s actually only one location in the fjord accessible by small boats. The fishermen often land there. They’ll have to leave from there. The rest of the fjord has steep walls. A picturesque place, but only one spot for a landing.”

“There. You see? We understand each other. You can assume the British submarine will be right off of that harbor in Angel Fjord.”

Captain Ubel thought hard, then said, “You have a small force, only six men.”

“Yes, but they’re all experts. We want to take these two alive, and they will have no guards, we assume. It’s not a military force. These operations are always as secret as possible.”

Ubel shook his head. “If you make a signal to us with a
light, the captain of that submarine will see it. You don’t know their code and neither do I.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.” Stahl reconsidered and then said, “Look, Captain, we will see the signal from Grüber and go ashore at once. It will be a simple matter, since they won’t be expecting a land force. We’ll take them prisoner. From the time we leave until the time we capture them should be no more than thirty minutes. Give us that much time and then move in and sink the sub.”

Captain Ubel could think of half a dozen things that could easily go wrong. He had been involved with complicated missions before, but apparently Stahl had not. “I hope all goes well, Lieutenant,” he said, shaking his head. “But we have no emergency plan.”

“We will not need one, Captain,” Stahl said firmly. “Now, I will go give my men their final orders.”

Stahl left the wheelhouse, and Ubel stared out at the darkness. “It’s a bad plan,” he said under his breath.

“I beg your pardon, sir?”

“Never mind, Schultz. Just keep on your course.”

****

“I can’t see a bloody thing.” Captain David Bishop was scanning the shoreline through the periscope. “Take a look,” he told his second-in-command.

Lieutenant Charles Moore peered at the shore. “No moon and no stars. I’m not even sure we’re in the right spot.”

The captain and the first lieutenant of the British submarine
Tiger
were both apprehensive. They had brought the
Tiger
into the North Cape, and both of them knew its waters well. They had come early enough to make sure they were in the proper location, but now that the time of the rendezvous was approaching, both officers were unhappy about the situation. “I wonder what genius thought this up,” Captain Bishop murmured.

“I’m sure they have plenty of those at Naval Command.”
Moore was a young man, short and compact and always cheerful. “Don’t worry, Captain. It’ll be a piece of cake.”

“You said that when we had to go in to pick up that Dane, and we nearly lost the boat.” Captain David Bishop was too tall for the submarine service, but he loved it. He towered over every other member of the crew and was continually banging his head on the low compartments. Still, now that he had his own boat, life felt good to him. He looked around at the other members of the crew, who were busy about their work. “Charlie, this thing has to be timed exactly right. We can’t stay on the surface any longer than necessary.”

“You’re right about that, Captain. There have been reports of a pair of heavy German cruisers in these waters. If they catch us, we’re finished.”

The two men talked quietly, both of them keeping their eyes on the water. Finally Moore said, “This should be pretty simple, Captain.”

“Things are never simple.” This summed up Captain Bishop’s philosophy. He ascribed to the theory that if something can go wrong, it will. He had stayed alive by virtue of the fact that he was a smart, cautious man who knew every boat and his submarine. He also had a healthy fear, which did not keep him from doing his duty but often had warned him in time to take evasive action. As he stooped over in the sub, he had an uneasy feeling. “I think something’s wrong with this operation.”

“What could be wrong? It’s simple enough.”

“You keep saying that, but you don’t know what’s out there. There could be a battleship, for all we know.”

Moore laughed. “You worry too much, Captain. Who are these people anyway? They must be important.”

“I have no idea. You know how Command is. They like to keep us in the dark.”

“You’re right about that. Sometimes I think the Krauts know more about our plans than we do.”

The two men fell silent, and from time to time, one of them took a look through the periscope.

Captain Bishop checked the time. “We’ll surface in eight minutes. We give the signal, and if we don’t get an instant response, Lieutenant, we don’t wait.”

“I’m sure they’ll signal. They’re bound to be waiting. Any other orders?”

“Yes. Send everybody you can topside. It’s black as pitch out there, but they’ve got ears. If anything’s creeping up on us, they’ll hear it. Be ready to dive quicker than you have in your life, Charlie!”

****

“There’s Angel Fjord.”

Lorge had guided Derek and Mallory from the Lapp camp to the sea. He knew the area well, and although he was young, he was serious-minded and understood the dangers.

“I can’t see much of anything,” Derek complained. Actually a few stars had come out, and his eyes had gotten slightly more accustomed to the darkness. He had discovered that Mallory had better night vision than he had, and now he turned to her, whispering, “Can you see anything?”

“Yes. The sea’s right down there, and you can see the steep cliffs of the fjord.”

Mallory felt rather calm, which surprised her. She was more worried about what would happen to Derek when they got to England than she was of the actual mission itself.

“I wish we were on board that sub,” Derek said as they groped their way down the steep incline.

“We’ll be all right,” Mallory said. “We wait until the sub signals, and we give them a light. We take the small boat and row out. That’s all there is to it.”

“I suppose you’re right. I’m just jumpy.”

The three made their way down to a level spot, and Lorge said, “Here’s the boat. It’s not very big.”

“We don’t have to go far with it, Lorge. There are oars, aren’t there?”

“Yes. Maybe I should row out with you and bring the boat back.”

“We couldn’t chance that, Lorge,” Mallory said. She came closer and looked down at the small young man. “You’ve done enough already. Now you go back home.”

“When will you come back to us, sister?”

“As soon as I can. But you are the shepherd of the sheep now. When we get to England I’ll write to you in care of the Narvik General Store. Then you can write to me and tell me what’s happening with the church and with yourself.” She hesitated, then said, “We don’t know how long the war will be. You may be married with a family by the time I get back.”

“Pray God it won’t be that long.” He put his hands out, and Mallory took them with both of hers. “God go with you,” Lorge said. Then he turned and shook hands with Derek. “Take care of the Jesus woman, please.”

“I’ll do the best I can, Lorge, and thank you. I don’t know what we would have done without you.”

As soon as Lorge left, the two turned their eyes toward the sea. “What time is it, Derek?”

“Four minutes to go. We got here just in time.” He stared out at the sea and shook his head. Doubts filled him, but he did not want to speak of them to Mallory. They simply stood there with the cold wind biting them as it came off the sea.

“Look, a light,” Derek said suddenly. “It’s got to be the sub. Here, give me the flashlight.”

Derek took the flashlight and gave the signal. He received a confirmation and said, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes, but—” Mallory didn’t finish her sentence, for they heard the sound of running footsteps. Frightened, they both whirled, but it was Lorge crying loudly, “There’s a boat filled with soldiers! They’re coming down the coastline!”

“What kind of a boat?”

“One with a motor!”

“We can’t outrun them,” Derek said. “Not if they have a motor.”

“We’ve got to try,” Mallory said. “Quick—maybe they’ll miss us in the darkness.”

Derek knew they had no choice, so the two scrambled into the boat and Lorge shoved them off. The sea was not rough, but still the waves tossed the small boat around as they rowed with all their strength. They had rowed for five minutes, one of them on each oar, when suddenly they received another light from the submarine. “There’s the second signal. We’ve only got a few minutes.”

Mallory pulled as hard as she could, rowing until her arms felt like lead.

Suddenly Derek said, “Listen.” But Mallory had already heard it. “They’re coming,” Derek said. “I don’t think we can make it, Mallory.”

“We’ve got to try.”

They could now make out the small German craft as it cleaved the water, headed toward them.

“They’ve seen us!” Mallory gasped.

“It’s too far to the sub—we’ll never make it!”

The small boat shot toward them, the roar of the engine getting louder. Derek pulled out his pistol and began to fire, but they kept coming. Throwing the pistol down, he pulled with all his might on his oar. “Pull, Mallory, pull,” he yelled.

Three soldiers in the other boat were standing up, their automatic weapons trained on Mallory and Derek. Mallory’s heart went dead within her. When the boat came closer, a German officer in the front ordered, “Stop your rowing!”

Both Derek and Mallory put down their oars. When the officer and a private leaped into their small craft, she immediately recognized Lieutenant Uldrich Stahl.

“Well, Miss Winslow and Major Grüber. You’ve given us quite a run, but it’s over now.” He waved his Luger. “We have some entertainment planned for the two of you, but I’m sure you knew that.”

Desperately Mallory tried to think of some way to escape, but the soldiers in the German boat were alert.