Chapter 25: The Dog's Smile

"Shouldn't we escape?" Pain asked after he and Fear had been laying on their cots in silence for an hour.

Morning glistened on the fresh snow, but neither of them could see it through the blacked-out windows.

"We can't," Fear said.

"We've gotten out of much worse situations! This place would be easy as pie to break out of."

"What's the point? Where would we go?"

"To find the boss."

Fear sighed. "No point. We'll never find her before the Philosophers do. And then the Cobras would be disbanded."

"I don't trust the Philosophers."

"The boss does."

"Does she? Do we know what she actually thinks?"

Fear stretched and folded his arms under his head.

"You're sweet on that woman," Pain said.

"And you're not?"

"Not Joy. That Sabine woman."

Fear smiled without a hint of his usual cunning. "She's not afraid of me. She's like the boss."

"Don't you compare them!" Pain shouted, sitting up. "You hardly know this woman, and from what I can see, they have nothing in common. I'm going to break the others out. You can come with me or stay with your precious Sabine."

Precious Fritz. That was what she had called him. She was as mysterious as the forests of his homeland just before sunset – not Spain but Bulgaria, where he was born and where he had met the Joy.

"I'll come with you," Fear sighed.

They dressed quickly. Day would come soon, and they would have only a short time to escape Berlin with both the Gestapo and the Philosophers following. Fear opened the door, and Sabine stepped into his path.

"Fritz!" she cried. "I never expected you to betray me this way."

"Move, woman!" Pain bellowed.

"Or what?"

"My bees are trained to burrow under your skin, to kill you so agonizingly - ."

"Stop it, Pain."

"Dammit, Fear! This is supposed to be your bag, striking fear into people."

"I'm not going to let you hurt her. Escape on your own. I'll stay here."

"Neither of you will es - ."

"Am I interrupting something?" asked a voice from the doorway on Sabine's right.

"Major!" Sabine cried. "When did you get back?"

Astrus walked into the hallway behind her. "Only ten minutes ago. Your brother said I would find you here. What pray tell are you doing to our operatives?"

"You said before you left - ."

"I told you to keep them here after you rescue them. From what David says, you're keeping the three Russians in a utility closet."

"Well, I - ."

"This will not do. I need them in London immediately. There have been some… changes."

"The Joy?"

"She was seen last evening boarding a ship to America. It may be as you feared."

Sabine nodded solemnly.

"I'm afraid the Cobra Unit will have to come with me before the Gestapo finds all of you. You do understand, Sabine."

"Of course."

When Sabine opened the door to the closet, Fury rushed from the darkness and shoved her against the wall.

"What was the meaning of that, bitch?" he snarled.

Sabine looked at Astrus pleadingly. "I don't know Russian."

"Fury, please. Let her go. You're coming with me."

"Not going to take us in a fucking cage or something, are you?"

"No. Now please, let her go, and speak English. You're making it worse."

Fury shook the woman once more by the shoulders before he let her go.

The End, barely hiding a smile, stepped into the hallway. "Sorrow and I tried to hold him back, but as you can see, he's not an easy man to control."

"Gentlemen," Astrus said. "I do hate to interrupt, but I have a car waiting outside. We have a very small window of time for getting out of Berlin. Excuse us, Sabine."

"I'll see you out."

They met David on the old factory floor, where he shook Astrus's hand heartily.

"Good-bye, Major, and good luck," David said.

"And you, m'boy. Fight the good fight. Well, men, let's head out."

All of the Cobras but Fear followed Astrus to the door. Fear watched them march away and called, "When did we decide to go with Astrus? Didn't I tell you I was staying here, Pain?"

"Not that again," Pain growled.

"You can't, Fritz," Sabine said. "You have to go with Astrus. If I separated the Cobras, the Philosophers would have my head."

She kissed his cheek. "Until we meet again."

The note! "Sabine," Fear said, "one last thing. The note you gave me."

Her eyes snapped up to meet his.

"What note?" she said, but her eyes warned: Don't talk about the note.

"It's fine now. You're with Major Astrus. You can trust him."

He's not to be trusted, her face told him.

On the first of December, just before midnight, Astrus and the Cobra Unit paraded down a dark and empty corridor at SOE's London bureau.

"Why the hell did you have to wait until night to bring us here?" Fury growled as Astrus motioned them into a room on the left.

"There are some here who still do not trust the Russians."

"Ungrateful bastards! After so many have died on the Russian front?"

"As you can see, I'm entirely on your side. That's why I had to get you out of there."

The door opened, and Jonathan Thomas, looking more harassed than Sorrow had seen him in his vision, stomped into the room.

"This better be important, Astrus!" he shouted. "You called in the middle of the bloody night with no – my God, it's the Cobra Unit!"

"Yes, Jonathan."

Sorrow glared through Thomas with his milky eyes, and the man stepped back into the doorway, clearly unnerved.

"You're still playing with these freaks, Astrus?"

"Of course. I just rescued them from Berlin."

"From the Nazis?"

"No. From the other Philosophers."

"My oh my, but why did you call me here like this?"

Thomas stalked cautiously to his desk, the whole time staring at Sorrow's eyes.

"I have learned a great deal about their talents, Thomas, and I think they are exactly what we need for Operation Serum."

"And with their commander - ."

"Jonathan! That's a highly sensitive subject. I'm certain they don't want to be reminded…"

Fear noticed the subtle warning in Astrus's voice. Thomas had been about to say that Joy was "out of the way", and Astrus had stopped him.

"No," Fear said, "we would like to be reminded, especially if you know where she is."

Astrus did not hesitate as he answered, "That's the dog's smile, isn't it? We know that she went back to America, but the question, of course, is 'Why?'"

"Well, Sabine seemed to know."

"And she would be entirely mistaken. She jumps to conclusions. No doubt her head is full of mystery novels."

"But - ."

"Fear," Fury interrupted, "are you trying to get us fucking arrested again?"

"I assure you," Thomas said, "that nothing any of you can say will get you arrested. The Philosophers need you, no matter what alarmists like Sabine might tell you. The world may be divided, but the Philosophers seek unity. Sewing the seeds of disparity will not be tolerated."

As Sorrow watched the fretful man trying not to look at his eyes, he knew there was one thing he could say that would probably get all of them killed. He held his jaw firm as he had with Skorzeny.

"No need to sound so threatening, Mr. Thomas. All of this was a rather complex misunderstanding," Astrus said with a wily grin. "It's very likely that she is in the U.S. for much more… personal reasons. Now, I am certain everyone wants to get a little sleep, so let us tell our friends about the operation."

"Atlas Briggs, sir," the man snapped.

"True," Fear yawned.

"And your rank, Mr. Briggs?" Astrus asked calmly.

"Staff Sergeant, sir," the square-jawed black man named Atlas Briggs shouted.

"True."

"And your age, Mr. Briggs?"

"Twenty-four, sir."

"True." Fear stifled another yawn with his hand.

"And now, Sergeant, I need you to tell me what is going on at 2232 Norton Street."

Atlas opened his eyes wider, stark whites with black centers against his dark face. The movement was subtle, but Fear saw it.

"I swear to you, sirs. I have never been there before."

"He's lying," Fear said, leering at the prisoner.

"Finally," Astrus sighed. "Well, Fear. Make him talk."

"My pleasure…" He drew out the word until it was a hiss.

"There are six people in there besides Fifer," Sorrow said as he opened his eyes. "Two in some sort of library on the second floor, three talking at a table on the first floor, and the last in the basement."

"Where's Fifer?" the End asked.

"I don't – that is to say, they don't - ."

"Dammit, Sorrow. You know I'm not going to kill him!"

"Yes, but on your signal, Fury is going to kill the rest of them, and well, the spirit is a little girl, and she doesn't want to see her home destroyed and - ."

"And she's dead. It doesn't matter. They're using the place to pick targets in London for the German rockets. I'm sure she doesn't want to see her city destroyed."

"Do you really trust Astrus?"

"Truthfully, no. He's an old fox, and Thomas is a little ferret. Still, it's obvious that they are with the Philosophers, and without the boss here, we have no one else."

"Do you really - ?"

"Sorrow, where is Fifer?"

Sorrow sighed and asked the girl again where the man named Fifer was.

"It seems he got the note from Briggs," Sorrow said. "He's putting on his coat to leave."

The End tilted his rifle up onto the windowsill and waited until the man in his long green coat was several feet down the pavement. He fired, and Fifer fell, unconscious, onto the stones. A tall, burly man with his face covered knelt over Fifer as an explosion shook the street. Roofing tiles and chunks of brick rained on the cars and pedestrians, and the enormous man protected Fifer with his body. Then he lifted the sleeping man into his arms and carried him to a car waiting several yards away.

It was a blustery Tuesday afternoon in London, December eighth, seven days since the Cobra Unit had arrived. They had met with Thomas and Astrus only by night, and today they would meet Astrus at a house in the country rather than the London headquarters.

"Do you even know how to drive?" Pain grumbled as Fury pulled up onto the pavement, narrowly missing Sorrow and the End.

"Shut your damn mouth, Pain," Fury murmured while the End climbed into the front seat, and Sorrow wedged himself into the back beside Pain and the unconscious Fifer.

The man's graying head lolled into Sorrow's lap, and he pushed it away, disgusted. The streets were filling with gawkers and emergency vehicles.

"Hope you're ready to go because we're getting out of here fast," Fury said as he peeled away from the curb and dodged a woman standing in the street with her son. "Get out of the bloody road, bitch!"

Fury careened down the crowded streets as Pain shouted directions. Soon they were on an empty road, wide and smooth, leading to the country house. Fury relaxed his hands on the wheel as he drifted, corrected, drifted, corrected down the road.

"So Sorrow, did I kill them?" Fury asked casually.

"Yes…"

"Please, Fury," the End said. "Don't speak like that. Some of them were civilians."

"Think I give a rat's ass? They're traitors."

"None of them were German," Sorrow said. "They were all Americans."

"Doesn't mean a goddamn thing!"

"Do you not wonder what this Operation Serum is? Who is controlling this?"

"Sorrow," the End said, "we already talked about this. We have no one to trust but the Philosophers."

"I know who killed Joy's father."

The car drifted to the right as Fury turned around. "You're only now telling us?"
"Watch the road, dipshit!" Pain shouted.

"Shit!" Fury jerked the wheel back to the left. "You were saying, Sorrow?"

"I saw her father die, in his memory. Jonathan Thomas killed him."

"Shit!" Fury shouted again.

"The road!" Pain growled.

"And you waited this long to tell us?"

"It was not important until this week, and no one wanted to speak of it. I wanted to tell."

"I know this may sound wrong," Pain said, "but I don't think we should do anything."

"Who made you leader?" Fury grumbled.

"I was the first Joy picked for her unit."

"Because she hadn't met me yet!"

"Will you listen for a second? Astrus probably doesn't know either, and if we tell him, we will be the catalyst for a power struggle within the Philosphers. Right now, they can still function, but if they are fighting each other, the war effort… and finding the boss… will be lost in the confusion. Get it?"

"We going to tell the Fear?" Fury asked.

Pain paused. "No. Not even the Fear. He has been acting strange lately anyway."

When they arrived at the house, Astrus stood by the gate in a heavy coat. Without his usual smile, he ushered them into the house. Two men took Fifer upstairs, and Astrus motioned for the Cobras to follow him down a wood-paneled hallway.

He spoke softly and bleakly as they walked. "Another mission complete. There is no doubt she chose her unit well. Through here."

He led them down a darker hallway with peeling pink wallpaper covering the top half of the wall and white-washed wood on the bottom. Like the rest of the house, this hallway was lit by gas, but only some of the sconces were lit, their tiny flames casting the group's shadow across the opposite wall so that they looked like a many-legged beast. Astrus opened a door into a room painted red. As Sorrow stepped onto the red carpet that covered the floor, he saw that the armchair, couch, and wooden bookshelves were all red. Even the silk curtains filled the room with crimson light, and in one corner, hanging sullenly in the duskiest part of the room, was the red flag of his own country.

The Fear rose from the armchair to greet them, his pointed face morose and made sinister by the strange light. He gazed at Sorrow for a moment then narrowed his eyes and looked toward Astrus.

"Please sit, everyone," Astrus said, his expression solemn.

Everyone but the Pain sat. "I stand," he said defiantly.

Astrus closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and then looked each of them in the eye as he spoke. "I had hoped, somehow, to be relieved of this task, but it seems there is no one else who can tell you this…"

"Then you'd better goddamn tell us," Fury muttered.

Fear looked at him sharply.

"Perhaps it is just as well," Astrus said. "Your commander… the Joy… is dead."

Sorrow was overcome by a nauseating euphoria. After two weeks of silence, he could contact her! He fought the dizziness, the strangely hypnotic light of the red room, but Astrus's next words broke his concentration.

"And she died a traitor."

Historical Notes:

In real life, SOE had several headquarters in and around London, but for simplicity's sake, I have one in the story.