The sirens' song, The Odyssey: "Over all the generous earth, we know everything that happens."
February, 1944
A month after their return to Italy, Alice did not think that she'd had a single day off. The Siren certainly had breaks from her performances, and Al didn't sneak out every night to run the resistance network, but those rest days never seemed to coincide.
Tonight she wore Al's loose, dark clothes, even though her face still felt raw from scrubbing off her makeup from her morning performance for the Kriegsmarine Reserves in Florence.
She crouched on the top of a shrubby cliff overlooking a beach in Tuscany, weeds tangled around her ankles, but she wasn't alone. Otto, disguised as an old, stooped man with silver hair and a bowed hunch, crouched beside her. He'd painted fine wrinkles onto his face, aging him decades. Alice felt a jolt of surprise every time she looked at him because of how genuine the disguise was, reminding her of those days of constantly being startled by the new shape of Steve.
It wasn't unusual for Otto to accompany Alice on missions, but in this instance she was really accompanying him, since the mission was his brainchild. Alice had been caught up with several press duties recently due to the upcoming album. Plus she'd almost been caught snooping at a general's house last week and still felt a little shaken. Her main task for this evening was to smuggle some maps of the region in her jacket, and to organize their allies in the Italian Resistance.
Tuscany was miles north of the Winter Line, but that didn't mean the situation was any less dire – the Nazis were suspicious of the local Italians no matter where they were.
There were no signs of any troops out here, though. She and Otto crouched in the weeds as the last dredges of sunlight dripped below the horizon out at sea, and worked out the finishing touches for the Siren's upcoming album.
Otto hummed the melody to the third song, just loud enough to be heard over the cool breeze which rustled the low-lying shrubbery. Alice chimed in with accompanying harmonies and revisions, her ear tuned to the song but her eyes fixed on the dark ocean below. They had a good vantage point from the top of their sandy incline.
"I think we ought to change Soldaten [Soldiers] to Helden [Heroes]," she whispered contemplatively. "They like that kind of rubbish."
"You're right," Otto nodded. "Then with those changes, we just need the coda for the fifth song."
"I'm working on it, I just need to speak with the pianist on Saturday-"
"We have to mail the sheet music to Berlin on Saturday-"
"So we'll mail it in the afternoon," she replied calmly. She squinted down at her watch, angling it so the moonlight illuminated the hands. She glanced up, scanned their surroundings, then pulled out her flashlight and flashed it twice in an easterly direction. She waited a few moments, then spotted an answering double flash at the top of a hill about a mile away.
"All clear," Otto noted. He turned back towards the dark, shifting ocean. "They're late, though."
"I don't imagine I'd be in much of a hurry to get through mine-infested waters." Between Corsica (currently held by the Free French) and Tuscany lay 130 miles of hostile, mined ocean.
"There is that," he admitted. They both peered out at the water.
During the day, even in winter, the waters here were a clear crystal blue and the sandy beaches a startling white. Any other year this would be a wonderful holiday destination. But Alice doubted anyone had gone swimming down there in a long time, save for the occasional overconfident Nazi.
"There." Otto pointed, and Alice followed his finger to see a hazy shape materializing in the water. As it drew closer, she spotted the white trail of water stretching behind it, and then a gleam of metal, and then the shape materialized into a small landing craft. She squinted and counted ten figures aboard.
"Let's get going," Otto murmured.
Alice flashed three long signal lights to their lookouts in the east, then she and Otto carefully made their way down the sandy and precarious cliffside. By grabbing handfuls of the coarse, sturdy grass they managed to reach the shore without incident (aside from Otto showering Alice with sand every time he took a step).
By the time they reached the shore the troop vessel seemed to have vanished, leaving the water dark and empty again. But Alice knew that they would have docked in the rocky cove off the edge of the beach, which was covered by tall frond-like trees.
She held out a hand to help Otto down onto the rocks overhanging the water, then led the way as they picked their way around. The water sloshed and dragged below their feet, and the chill wind rolling off the ocean cut through Alice's layers.
As she led the way around into the rocky cove, trying not to slip in the darkness, Alice heard voices up ahead. They were indistinct and almost completely disguised under the rush of breaking waves.
Otto's hand landed on her shoulder and forced her into a crouch. "Careful now," he murmured.
Alice nodded, peering into the darkness, then let out a low whistle that ascended three notes.
The voices fell silent. Then an answering whistle returned, descending the same three notes.
Alice and Otto nodded at each other in the dark, then crept forward. She sensed Otto reach for the gun tucked into his belt, and her hand rested on the knife in her pocket.
The rock beneath their feet gave way to shifting sand, and the stars above were obscured by closely-pressed trees, and suddenly Alice could see the troop carrier: empty and docked on a narrow sand beach. Ten figures stood on the beach around it. Alice saw the glinting points of weapons, but the figures were utterly still.
"Turisti?" [Tourists?] she called in a male Tuscan accent, with one arm held out as if to cover Otto.
The weapons ahead of them lowered.
"Devi essere la nostra guida turistica," [You must be our tour guide] came a wry female voice in the darkness, and Alice beamed.
She and Otto straightened and trudged along the beach. As they did, the moonlight glowed through the thick fronds to illuminate the figures ahead of them. Alice first noticed Steve: he wore the same colorful uniform, and his shield was a metal halo just visible behind his shoulders. He drew in a breath as he saw her, his chest expanding, and when she drew close enough to see his eyes they practically blazed with light.
Bucky stood at Steve's right, weight slouched onto one hip and a small grin quirking his lips as she approached. The rest of the team arrayed behind them, features shadowy in the darkness. As she grew closer, Alice picked out differences: Steve's uniform seemed more beat up than the last time she'd seen it, Dugan had a new firearm and Dernier had a black eye. But all of them were beaming.
Two strangers stood by the boat, and from their clothes Alice supposed they were the troop carrier's pilots.
The tenth figure stood in trousers and a brown leather jacket, her hands on her hips and her lips still painted, remarkably, red.
Alice looked around at them all, her heart full and her chest swelling, and her eyes drawn unstoppably to Steve. Her fingers tingled and she felt an overwhelming urge to run towards him and sail into his arms, like they'd done at the airfield in December. The blazing look in Steve's eyes told her that he wanted the same. But they both knew they couldn't.
Alice settled for swallowing hard and taking measured paces across the beach toward them. She couldn't help the grin on her face though. "Hello, everyone. Welcome to Tuscany."
Peggy smiled, then raised her eyebrows. "The location is secure?"
"No one should come by here until dawn, but we've got lookouts posted all the same. If they see anything they're going to knock a boulder down the cliffside, so keep an ear out for that."
"Excellent," Peggy nodded.
Otto shifted a little behind Alice, and she moved aside – she'd been unconsciously covering him. "Everyone, this is Otto. Otto, you know Peggy, obviously, and this is-"
"Oh, I know," he said wryly as he nodded around at them all. "I've heard good things. And bad things, from the papers, but that's what I like to hear."
Steve's men chuckled and murmured a chorus of greetings. Otto and Steve shook hands briefly, which Alice watched with a vague sense of worlds colliding.
Otto moved to shake Bucky's hand, and Steve and Alice's gazes were drawn together once more. It had been two months since they'd last seen each other, and though Alice had been busy every day of those two months she still hadn't gone a day without thinking of seeing him again. Thinking of the promises and not-quite-plans they'd made. His eyes were bright beneath his cowl, looking back at her with a hint of wistfulness and relief, and yet still with the glint of a hidden smile.
"Oh, go on then," came a voice just to Alice's right, and she glanced over to see Peggy giving her and Steve an exasperated look.
Alice glanced back at Steve and didn't need telling twice. They reached each other in two strides and seized each other – not in a kiss, they weren't that hopeless – but their arms wound around each other and squeezed so tightly that it couldn't be mistaken for a friendly embrace. Alice buried her face in his shoulder. Steve's fingers curled into the edge of her jacket, brushing her ribcage, and Alice banged her knuckles against his shield. She felt overwhelmed. She'd forgotten how big he'd gotten.
After a few seconds – not long enough – they pulled apart a little breathlessly. Bucky was next, lifting Alice off her toes for a few seconds just to make her scowl, and then she strode through the 107th Tactical Team, shaking hands and exchanging greetings. She stepped back to see Peggy with her hand on Otto's shoulder, greeting each other with a smile.
"Shall we get down to business?" Alice prompted, as if she weren't the one holding them up in the first place.
Peggy nodded. "Let's begin with Operation Olive."
Alice and Otto nodded. Operation Olive wasn't their primary mission for tonight, but this doubled as their monthly intelligence meet, so there were other orders of business. Otto looked to Alice, and she dug into a hidden compartment of her shoe to pull out 6 bullet casings. As she handed them over to Peggy, she explained their contents.
"Open those up and you'll find more photographs – the first one is a report Otto found about HYDRA intelligence on HYDRA activities, and the other five are what we believe are aerial photographs of what we think is the main HYDRA factory. We don't know the exact location, but we were thinking that by cross-referencing terrain you might be able to get close."
"Excellent work," Peggy said, putting the bullet casings in an inside pocket of her jacket. She didn't tell them how she would put the intelligence to use – she never did. The 107th Tactical Team eyed the bullet casings with impressed looks.
"Also," Alice added, "We believe we've pinned down the location for HYDRA's secondary warehouse." Steve's head jerked up and his team's eyebrows raised. "It's in Liguria, east of Genoa. The exact coordinates are included in the film in those bullets."
Eyebrows raised, Morita pulled a map out of his jacket pocket and searched for Genoa.
"How on earth did you find it?" Peggy marveled. Despite the 107th Tactical Team's lightning-fast raids, HYDRA's Italian main factory, secondary warehouse and the rumored occupied town had remained elusive. Otto had discovered the town a week ago – prompting this mission – but the SSR had not expected to discover either of the others so soon.
Alice hesitated. This was how she almost got caught last week. "Well, we knew that Generaloberst [General] Vietinghoff and his officers in the Wehrmacht had found some intelligence about the HYDRA warehouse location, because we heard they were conducting bombing raids on it. The Nazis hate HYDRA almost as much as we do, nowadays. So we figured it out from there."
Otto eyed her. "You may as well tell them all of it."
She avoided his gaze. "That about covers it, I think."
Otto sighed and faced Peggy. "She broke into Vietinghoff's office – against my advice – and used his telephone to call the airfield and… you know how she can mimic voices, she pretended to be Vietinghoff as she asked the Luftwaffe commander to confirm the coordinates they'd been bombing."
Alice had been watching Steve's men, and saw expressions of concern and bewilderment cross their faces. But not Steve – he didn't show her fear. Instead he met her eyes and they shared a grim, determined look of we got them. A shared screw you to the Nazis and HYDRA. Alice suppressed a grin.
"Well, and it worked, didn't it?" Alice cut in.
Otto raised an eyebrow. "So we shan't discuss the fact that you had to hide in the man's coat closet for three hours since he returned to do some paperwork, shall we?"
Alice colored, and then she saw concern flit onto Steve's face. Her stomach dropped.
"Alice Hedwig Moser-" Bucky exclaimed in part frustration, part concern.
Dugan snorted. "Hedwig?"
Alice glared at Bucky, too furious to speak, and he returned her gaze, unrepentant and annoyed.
But Steve smiled at the looks of bewilderment on his men's faces. "Yeah, we only found out what her middle name was when she almost got arrested for trying to illegally change it when she was fourteen."
Alice's anger ebbed. "I would've managed it, but that Billy Puller gave me rubbish false documents." That turned Bucky's annoyance into a reluctant smile, and the tension faded.
"Regardless," Peggy cut in, amused, "It sounds like you did excellent work."
Otto sighed. Alice didn't know what he'd been hoping for: for her to get in trouble with Peggy? She'd found good intel. She knew this was why Otto despised personal connections: they made an operative worry, act irrationally. She felt flattered that she and Otto had grown close enough for him to worry about her, but it also lit up a spark of concern in her chest for him. Because this was the last thing he'd wanted out of their alliance.
Oh well, she thought. He'll just have to deal with it.
"So," Bucky said, bringing them back to the point, "After tonight's mission we can hit that warehouse, and then there's just the main factory to go." His voice was both excited and wary.
"Exactly," Otto said. "Though they know their Italian stronghold is shaky, so be ready for unexpected firepower and tactics."
"We will," Steve said seriously. He set his hands on his hips. "Is there anything to add about tonight's mission?"
Alice and Otto shook their heads, even as Alice's stomach sank a little further. The reason they were all gathered here was because three weeks ago, Otto had discovered the small town HYDRA had occupied: a former holiday resort in Tuscany, which the science division had commandeered for their own purposes.
Alice had only gotten as close as a nearby mountain range, where she'd taken some aerial photographs they'd passed on a week ago, but Otto had been right up to the fenceline. Through a few days of observation and a hurried conversation with a group of British POWs who'd been working by the electrified fence, Otto had worked out that HYDRA was using the town as a base to mine for resources for their weapons.
After communicating this information along, as well as the names of the POWs, it had come out that some of Major Falsworth's friends were being held in that camp.
Eyeing Falsworth now, Alice thought she saw heavier lines of tension in his face, though it was difficult to tell. He was nothing if not professional.
"Our intelligence remains the same as it was yesterday," Otto answered Peggy. "I had a scout watching the camp all day, and they report that the number of POWs doesn't appear to have changed. Operation Omelette is ready to go ahead."
Monty inclined his head, and Steve nodded grimly.
Peggy checked her wristwatch. "While we've still got time, how are our ongoing plans? Have you heard anything more about the location of their main factory?"
"We're a few weeks away, I'm sure of it," Otto said, his German accent pronounced amongst the other varied voices. "We've got everyone on the lookout."
"It'll take us a few weeks to push back their lines to this warehouse," Steve said, tapping Morita's map.
"At least we're not waiting around for the Allies to push through the Winter Line anymore," Bucky commented.
"Speaking of which," Alice said, "One of our couriers was arrested last week after getting the latest HYDRA plans through to you. He managed to escape and we've got him in a safe place now, but we've been discussing the need for a better line of communication. The Allies are still all the way down south at the Winter Line, and the further you guys push into Nazi territory the more complicated it is to get in contact with you. Either we have to figure out a long line of communication past the Winter Line, which isn't guaranteed to reach you wherever you are in enemy territory, or we have to figure out where you are. Our couriers know the risks, but we can't keep putting so many of them at risk for a message."
Steve nodded, frowning. "What do you suggest?"
Peggy's eyebrow quirked a little and she glanced between them, as if surprised at Steve for asking Alice's advice.
Alice pressed on. "Well, we think we've come up with a solution." She quickly explained the plan she and Otto had set up, and Peggy's eyebrows hiked further up her forehead. Alice handed over some papers describing the new plan to both Peggy and Steve. It was one of her most complex codes yet, developed in tandem with Otto. She tried to conceal quite how proud of it she was, but she knew from the light in Steve's eyes that he could tell.
"We'll review this at the SSR," Peggy said, looking over the notes. "But this definitely has promise." She folded the paper and put it in her pocket. "Well then, I think that concludes our meeting."
Steve nodded and turned to his men. "Alright. Everyone ready?" He was met by a chorus of nods and murmurs of assent from his now steely-eyed team. He nodded. "Good. Let's review the plan."
Morita laid his maps of the area on the sand along with a compass, and they all gathered around as Gabe shone a flashlight at it. Whether by chance or on purpose (Alice definitely purposefully sidled) Alice and Steve ended up side by side.
Alice tried not to fidget as she listened to them reviewing their battle plan, pointing to the pre-drawn lines and x-marks on the map. She knew they didn't have any backup: they were way too far north for infantry support, and the ocean was too hot for the navy. They were to have some air support in an hour and a half, provided the Luftwaffe didn't keep them at bay. She reassured herself by eyeing the duffle bags by their feet, which she knew were packed full of firepower and Stark explosives.
Plus, Alice reminded herself, they've got the Italian resistance waiting in the wings with more explosives, and Otto managed to slip more weapons to the British POWs so they'll have support on the inside.
Steve pointed to the elevated area on the map where Bucky would search for a good sniper's nest, and as a result leaned in a little closer to where Alice stood. His arm nudged against hers.
Bucky took over, explaining where his range of cover would lie, and almost unconsciously Alice pressed her shoulder against Steve's. As if they'd prearranged it, they both reached for each other's hands behind their backs. Steve's fingers laced into Alice's, and she squeezed his hand. Hi.
Steve's lips quirked as he looked down at the map, following Bucky's explanation.
They weren't really intending to hide anything, but Alice and Steve both knew that there was no time for romance or heartfelt catch-ups tonight.
A moment later they had to release each other's hands when Steve ducked down to triple-check their heading on the compass.
Peggy turned to Alice and Otto as the 107th Tactical Team arranged their final plans. "I'm staying with the boat," she told them, and Alice had to repress a smile at how grumpy she seemed at this arrangement. "You told us you would arrange your own extraction, is that all to plan?"
Alice nodded. "We've got a short walk up north, then we're traveling back to Florence in a truck with our lookouts. We'll be back at our hotel before dawn."
Dugan, who'd overheard this, laughed. "Sounds alright, I could do with a good long sleep in a hotel room!"
"Want to swap?" Alice challenged with a quirk of her lips, and he seemed to reconsider.
"I think I'll take my bedroll and tent, actually."
Steve picked up his compass, handed Morita's map back, and dusted the sand off his gauntlets. "Alright, we're all set. Let's clear out."
"Not without a goodbye!" Bucky insisted, even as he broke the circle to come over and sweep Alice into his arms. She laughed and hugged him back, feeling the edge of something like desperation creeping into her heart. She didn't think she could take many more of these warzone farewells.
They pulled apart and Alice said a swift goodbye to each of Steve's men, being sure to kiss every single one of them on the cheek just so she would get the excuse to do it to Steve too. They were simultaneously earnest and teasing, each of them tugging at her heartstrings.
When Alice came to Steve she felt rather than heard the other men snickering under their breath - no doubt expecting a repeat to Alice and Steve's last dramatic farewell. But she simply leaned up and pressed her lips to Steve's cheek, lingering just a fraction longer and pressing just a little closer, her palm on his other cheek. She heard his breath leave him.
Then they too pulled apart. "You be safe," she said, heart thundering. She could not bring herself to think of what he was about to walk into.
"Back at you," he replied, but his voice was too earnest for the joke to land. They stared at each other for a few more seconds.
Then Steve drew in a deep breath, as if steeling himself, and tore his eyes away to look at his men. "Let's head up."
Within the space of twenty seconds they'd vanished into the night, leaving nothing but their footprints on the sand. Alice, Otto, Peggy, and the two ship pilots were left behind in the silence.
After a few moments Peggy spoke. "I understand now."
Alice looked away from the point where Steve and Bucky had disappeared into the darkness. "Pardon?"
Peggy smiled a little sadly, then nodded in the direction Steve had left. "Oh, let's not… I don't want this to be some unspoken discomfort." She raised her eyebrows meaningfully. "I understand what it is now, with you two. I didn't at first, I'll admit, when I first found out, but seeing you together makes sense."
Alice felt a brief flare of embarrassment. Did she see us holding hands? But there was also relief soothing the embarrassment, that she'd brought it up. She hadn't quite been able to get Steve's 'there might've been something with Peggy' out of her mind; less out of jealousy and more out of fear that it would mean something would change between her and Peggy. But she found nothing but genuine care in her friend's eyes. She opened her mouth, not quite sure what to say.
Otto stood a few paces away, and though he seemed to be interestedly paying attention to the ship's pilots' conversation Alice knew he was eavesdropping. It was just his way.
She settled on: "Steve's always made sense to me."
"I can see that." Peggy nodded seriously, as if they were still discussing battle plans. "You seem to understand each other quite well. Well, you have known each other for years."
"It didn't take me years to understand him," Alice said reflectively. Then, thinking that might have been rude somehow, she eyed Peggy more directly. "I mean to say, Steve is…" everything that Steve was overwhelmed her. "He and I… I just mean-"
Peggy arched an eyebrow. "My my. I've often wondered what it would take to bring you to speechlessness. Now I know." Alice huffed a laugh, and Peggy smiled. "I understand, Alice."
They subsided into silence, side by side with the dark water behind them as they breathed in the night air.
"We had best be going," Otto eventually said.
"There's no other intel you'd rather I hear alone?" Peggy asked.
Alice blinked. They hadn't considered not trusting any of the intel with Steve and his men.
"No, that covers it," Otto confirmed.
Peggy didn't seem surprised. "Alright then. Until next time. Be safe, and be smart."
"Always," Alice smiled.
She and Otto each hugged Peggy, then set off into the night.
Later, as they climbed into the truck which would transport them back to Florence, they heard the sound of explosions in the distance.
"Spero che dia loro l'inferno!" [I hope they give them hell!] cried one of their lookouts, a member of the Italian Resistance.
Alice smiled, suppressing her fear. "Lo faranno." [They will.]
Facebook Post dated 12 April 2011, on page Battle Tactics of History:
Day 12 of Analyzing Howling Commandos tactical campaigns: The Victory at Altassina.
Before dawn on a chilly April night and Tuscany, Captain America and the Howling Commandos descended on a HYDRA-occupied resort town. This was one of their first major offensives against HYDRA in Italy and their massive success marked the beginning of a devastating campaign that swept across Europe. They achieved a tactical success and a morale-crumbling blow against HYDRA.
Strategy notes: In another brilliant move by master tactician Captain Rogers, the Commandos bolstered their smaller numbers through lightning-fast, targeted strikes backed by a brief airforce strike on the HYDRA forces, and also supplied arms not only to the POWs trapped within but also to the local Resistance. The Howling Commandos' alliance with the resistance here is a tactic which comes up again throughout their military campaign and without which, they might never have been as successful as they were.
The next day, word rippled throughout Italy that Captain America and his Invaders had pulled off a dazzlingly bold strike against HYDRA. Alice and Otto waited with bated breath to hear the full news and let out sighs of relief when it finally came: the 107th Tactical Team had gotten out with minimal injuries, with all the POWs in tow, and HYDRA's stranglehold on the small resort town had been smashed.
Alice and Otto joined the German generals in their satisfaction at the blow against HYDRA, and feigned commiseration at the generals' concern that Captain America had managed to penetrate so far beyond the front lines.
Meanwhile, they turned their sights to their final goals: gathering surveillance on the HYDRA warehouse near Genoa, and hunting for the main factory. They pulled off a few risky stunts in the process: Otto "discovered" the singing talents of one of the young secretaries in the Italian Wehrmacht Intelligence office, and began coaxing HYDRA intelligence out of her during recording sessions at a studio in Milan. "I might have to actually sign her for a record," he confided in Alice one evening, disgruntled. "Let's hope there's a market for overconfident and slightly off-key records."
Alice got a tip that one Luftwaffe commander had worked closely with HYDRA before their break from the Nazi forces, so she arranged a "research meeting" in the man's office. They sipped Dolcetto wine and Alice asked about various airplane and Luftwaffe terms for an 'upcoming song'. When the laxative she'd dropped in his drink kicked in and he hurriedly excused himself, Alice broke into his filing cabinet and snooped through his archived notes, her movements disguised by the loud classical music pealing from the phonograph.
All this new intelligence was passed on to Steve's team and the SSR through the new communication route that Alice and Otto had devised:
A song.
One song which had made its way onto the Siren's regular setlist was Lili Marleen - originally recorded by a German singer who matched Alice for fame, it had recently become controversial because Marlene Dietrich, German-born but fervently American in ideals, had re-recorded it as American musical propaganda. Goebbels had briefly banned the song, but had been forced to allow it back on the airwaves because since 1941 the song had been wildly popular regardless of which army you fought for. It had the benefit of being sung by soulful, melancholic singers, its lyrics spoke to the heartache and nostalgia of the war, and it was also very catchy.
Alice had been singing it for a while now, and had taken to switching up the lyrics occasionally, as she did in her other songs, mostly to keep herself from being bored stiff.
She'd been singing one of her adapted versions, while contemplating the issue of communicating with an ever-moving team of guerilla soldiers behind enemy lines, when inspiration struck.
When she took the stage for the first time since the attack on the Tuscany HYDRA town, her hair shifting in the spring breeze, she sang not with her audience in mind, but the microphone which she knew would capture her voice and send it out on radio waves across the country.
Excerpt from article 'Lili Marleen: Love anthem of a world war' by Christine Henderson
First a poem written in 1915, 'Lili Marleen' became one of the most popular songs during World War II: the story of a soldier at war missing his beloved and invigorated by the memory of her. Its popularity began in 1941, when Radio Belgrade (the German soldiers' radio station in Belgrade) began playing Lale Andersen's recording of the song, and soon it crossed the lines of the war and became a favorite of Allied soldiers.
Scottish Major-General Fitzroy Maclean wrote of hearing the song in the spring of 1942: "Husky, sensuous, nostalgic, sugar-sweet, her voice seemed to reach out to you, as she lingered over the catchy tune, the sickly sentimental words."
Singers on both sides of the war performed the piece, from Vera Lynn to the Siren to Marlene Dietrich.
Marlene Dietrich's performance of the tune for the OSS Muzak Project (musical propaganda) became a smash hit. She sang it in German and English, but in a film later in her life her character described the German lyrics as 'much sadder' than the English.
In a camp just south of the Winter Line, Steve and his team tuned in to the public German radio station on Gabe's field radio. For a moment, nothing but staticky silence met them.
But then, like a star coming out from behind dark clouds, Alice's voice pealed out from the radio. Clear, high and sweet, her voice crested an octave before plunging to a chilling depth.
It affected each of the men: they straightened, leaned forward in their seats, let out a breath. Steve didn't move a muscle. It had only been two weeks since that beach in Tuscany, but that had felt like a fleeting moment. Hearing her now, he recalled the feeling of her cold fingers linked with his, her lips pressed against his cheek.
He drew in a breath and focused. The sound was surprisingly clear, despite the distance, and after a moment Steve recognized the song as one of Alice's originals from before the war. They'd tuned in a few minutes early, just in case.
For a few minutes Steve and his men listened in silence to the German songs. Each of them had notepaper on their laps. They'd camped a few miles away from the main Allied camp tonight for privacy, so it was just them, the radio, and the open night sky above them.
Then she came to the song Erika and they all straightened once more: Lili Marleen was next on the setlist. They heard, faintly, Alice's audience singing along and stamping their feet in time.
In no time at all Erika came to an end, and the nostalgic accordion melody of Lili Marlene struck up. Each of Steve's men went rigid and seemed to hardly breathe, so intent were they on the music. And then, with the hint of a smile in her voice, Alice began to sing.
The next three minutes were a flurry of utterly silent note scribbling in the campsite, every ear strained to pick out the crooned German words and each eye focused on a sheet of paper.
When Alice lilted out the final "Wie einst, Lili Marleen?" [As before, Lili Marleen?], the men let out a collective sigh.
"Alright," Steve said in the staticky space between songs, "Let's work it through. Line 1?"
Bucky nodded and tapped his sheet. "The line is meant to be Vor der Kaserne, Vor dem grossen Tor," [In front of the barracks, in front of the big gate] he read, "But she changed grossen [big] to hoch [tall] which means" - he tapped his sheet - "that the Wehrmacht troops in area C - around the HYDRA warehouse we're monitoring - don't have any major offensive plans this week."
Steve checked the intricate sheet. "Good. Alright, next?"
They worked through the rest of the lines, some of which had no changes, indicating no intel in that "area", but others had them raising their eyebrows. It wasn't simply changes of words - Alice had included vocalisations like oh and humming to her intricate code, usually used to indicate numbers (she'd sung oh four times in this performance of the song, which indicated the day of the week they were to receive a package or briefing - Thursday).
And as for the location of the dead drop…
"In the fourth verse, fourth line," Monty noted, "she sang Dein verliebtes Herz [Your heart in love] instead of verliebter Mund [mouth in love], that means additional intelligence is at location Z, which for this week is… Dernier?"
The Frenchman checked his sheet and read, in slow English: "The dead drop in Campobasso."
Steve made a note: Thursday, Campobasso. He'd send one of his team or an ally.
"And the code sheet for the next performance?"
Morita cleared his throat. "Wenn sich die späten Nebel dreh'n [When the late fog turns] was sung twice…" holding up a table, he indicated the second row. "And in the last line she sang Wie einst, Lili Marleen [As before, Lili Marleen] instead of Mit dir [With you], which is" - he drew his finger across to the column marked Wie einst, and eyed the letter the clues had brought him to. "Code sheet F."
After some rustling Gabe brought out code sheet F, which held entirely different meanings for all the possible combinations of the song. "So this is for next week's performance."
Steve set down his notepaper. "Well done, everyone. I think this'll work."
"It sure does work," Dugan said, half-smiling. "But the congratulations don't belong to us, Cap. We ain't the ones who came up with all this."
Codes and tables flew from Steve's mind and the sound of the radio crackled back across his consciousness. Alice's heartbreakingly familiar voice, dancing along a more technically difficult song that made his throat close up.
He closed his eyes and knew that she was singing for him. A patently selfish thought, but he knew it was true - wherever she was, whatever she was looking at, Alice was singing and thinking of him. It made his heart ache.
It felt as if he'd spent half his life listening to Alice on the radio.
Bucky clapped him on the shoulder, easing him out of his reverie. "I should've learned German like she told me to for all those years," he said wryly. The other men chuckled.
Steve smiled. He felt as if Alice's voice were wrapped so closely around him that he might be able to reach out and touch her. "She's singing about victory."
Excerpt from 'Musical Cryptography' by Allen Herwitz (2014), p. 12
... music is all about encoded meanings and messages, on varying levels of complexity and secrecy. Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich used the bare bones of musical notes (A-G) to spell out parts of his name in his works, as a hidden resistance against the Soviet authorities who persecuted him his whole life. Pop singer Katy Perry once teased an album via morse code on the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. Mathematicians and cryptologists throughout history such as Philip Thicknesse have posited that musical cryptography is the best way to transmit secret messages, as no potential spy-catcher could suspect music.
Whatever the purpose, be it just a cheeky desire to sneak their name into a song or as a deeper resistance against larger forces, the fact remains that musicians throughout history have disguised meanings within their compositions and lyrics, and it is the job of music historians to uncover those meanings.
March, 1944
For over a month, Alice toured around Italy as Steve and his team battled their way through it, and almost every night she sang to them.
It was an extended mission of tracking and relaying information about HYDRA. Alice and Otto partied with the German higher ups each night to learn about their search for the rogue science division, ran their network of spies, informers and couriers, and did their fair share of breaking and entering, all in the hunt of information. Otto discovered a network of street kids who'd been causing nuisance for the Gestapo and put them to work finding and ferrying information.
Alice found it strange turning music into an encoded message, but felt startled at how easily it came to her. She twisted words and lines to signify times, locations, and troop movements, and the notes rang true.
Her changes did not always go unnoticed.
One evening, a junior Nazi officer came up to her at the routine party after her performance to the troops. He had dark hair which he'd slicked down to look like the Führer's, and a studious air.
"Why did you not sing the song right?" he said after offering her a bow.
Alice laughed. "I beg your pardon, did you not like my singing?"
"Oh no, you have a lovely voice," he reassured her. "The voice of angels!" She smiled as he went on to compliment her. "But there was a mistake with the lyrics: beautiful walk, not lovely walk, and a few of the final lines were in the wrong order."
Alice smiled. "I see you've exposed me! I have so many songs to remember, most of them about love, that sometimes the small details escape me. And sometimes I do admit to taking a little artistic license."
The young officer laughed along with her, what little suspicion he had abating, thinking her a dim songstress who couldn't remember simple lyrics.
Later that evening, Alice heard from one of her "friends" in the Kriegsmarine that the young, attentive officer was in charge of troop supply for the entire north west of Italy. So she happened to bump into him again once he was a few glasses of port in, and amped up the stupid.
She sensed Otto watching her out of the corner of his eye - she was dedicating an awful lot of time to a man he thought was a relatively small fish at this party - but he trusted her. He turned his attention back to his focus for the evening.
"I'm thinking of extending my tour up to Lombardy and Piedmont," Alice told the young officer. "Can you recommend any good spots?"
That got the ball rolling. The young man told Alice all the hotspots of activity in the northwest, the largest concentrations of soldiers, and the "dangerous spots you ought to avoid". Alice figured that these spots were either the Allies fighting back, or HYDRA.
Alice returned to the same stage for another performance the next day, and when she saw the officer afterwards she said lightheartedly: "I sang hair of ebony, did you hear me? I was thinking about your lovely black hair!"
The officer blushed to the roots of his dark slicked hair and stammered something polite. But ebony really meant drop zone E, where a short missive about her gathered intel was waiting, having been dropped off in the middle of a wad of newspapers by a butcher.
As the weeks went on, Alice expanded her code out to her other songs to add variety, and then turned the order of songs on her setlist into a cipher. She performed at least once every two nights, which provided a consistent and reliable way to get information to Steve and the SSR.
Captain America and his Invaders seemed to strike faster and more unpredictably than ever, making the Nazis and HYDRA reel. Soon the HYDRA warehouse fell, and HYDRA's troops fled west to safety. Alice and Otto's network worked to disrupt their supply lines and escape routes, as well as damaging morale of the wider German army.
Sometimes Alice felt as if she were singing codes into an empty void. But then she'd hear of the latest Captain America strike behind enemy lines, or she'd receive a rare scrawled note requesting intelligence about a particular area, and felt as if she were standing in a shaft of warm sunlight.
Every note, no matter how short or direct, ended the same.
- Ulysses
~ Songs are for beauty, not for lies. ~
April, 1944
Steve and his team were called away on urgent business to attack a HYDRA base in the Danish straits. Alice was frustrated to hear that they were leaving just as the pincers were closing on HYDRA, but she knew they'd return soon. And they'd chased HYDRA all the way up to the north of the country. All that was left was to finally scour out the location of the main factory, which Alice and Otto knew from Steve's description of the Austrian map to be somewhere in the northeast, near Milan.
Four days after the 107th Tactical Team left, one of Alice's bike couriers found the factory. He described what he'd thought was a rather large redbrick barn, which he'd almost cycled right past until he'd spotted a man in a bizarre looking uniform smoking outside it.
Over the course of the next few days Alice sent various spies through the area disguised as beggars, tourists, and farmers. Each of them came back with descriptions of metallic uniforms with what looked like glowing blue boxes on the back, fences that crackled ominously, and once even a brief glimpse of a tired straggle of prisoners.
"We found them," Alice said, when the last report came back. She drew a red circle around the coordinates on the map - unnecessary, but it soothed the glittering sense of victory in her stomach.
"We did," Otto confirmed with a rare grin. "Now we just have to pave the way."
The 107th Tactical Team weren't able to act immediately on the intelligence - they had the mess in the Danish straits to clear up, and then rumors of a high-tech submarine terrorizing the Mediterranean.
Alice and Otto collected and finalized all their intelligence, but it soon became clear that their mission in Italy (and Alice's much-extended singing tour) had come to a close.
And Alice had been working on a side project for Peggy for months.
One Sunday, after delivering a meticulous set of detailed notes on the HYDRA factory to a dead drop, Alice returned to her hotel room and penned a letter.
Dear Vera, she wrote. I hear the beaches in France are lovely this time of year.
She signed her name, sealed the letter in an envelope and had the hotel concierge come collect it for the evening post.
She gazed out the window at the orange setting sun and set her chin in her hand. HYDRA was soon to be squashed in Italy, but the rest of the war was going poorly. The Allies were slowly chipping away at the massive Winter Line, but the end was far from sight.
Alice had turned twenty one at the opening of the war. She was twenty five now. She'd stepped into adulthood as the world had fallen into an explosion of violence, and as she reflected on her life she found it hard to not measure everything by war. Even in Brooklyn, trouble had been brewing. In Vienna, the violence had begun before she'd even arrived. She wondered who she'd be now, without the war.
But a moment later she realized it didn't matter. Because the war had forged her into the Alice Moser whose reflection gazed back at her from the glass, and this Alice Moser would see this war to its end even if she had to drag herself by her fingernails.
And at the end of it, if she were very lucky, there'd be a dock in Brooklyn with Tom waiting for her, and Steve and Bucky by her side.
Until then. Her thoughts turned to her next mission, her next prey to hunt through countries and battlefields. Here I come.
The info on Lili Marlene is pretty much straight out of wikipedia, and those quotes are real - go check out the song! I recommend both the Marlene Dietrich versions, and Lale Andersen's recordings.
The info about musical cryptology comes from BBC Music's article "7 secret codes and ciphers hidden in music" and Atlas Obscura's article "With Musical Cryptography, Composers Can Hide Messages in Their Melodies". I... did not understand most of their contents.
Reviews:
Sprout: Thank you so much! I update every Saturday (late in the evening for me, early morning for the US). Sometimes if I'm feeling generous I'll also update midweek, but I don't see that happening any time soon since I haven't had a lot of time to write haha. I'm really glad you're enjoying!
The Social Imaginary: ff is being weird and I can't reply to your reviews directly, but thank you so much! I'm so excited to show you what happens next, I'm glad you're excited/nervous. Thank you for your wonderfully thoughtful reviews :) It means a lot!
zishigaku: Again, ff won't let me see your reply so I'm responding here. It sure didn't take Steve and Alice long to get back into corresponding! Even though they're separate again they're a lot closer than they were before :)
Gray Winter 1 (from chapter 1): Lots of love to your Oma! She must have been a very strong woman. I've done my best to handle the war as sensitively and responsibly as possible, but if you have any concerns or questions do let me know x
Captain Loki: I love Peggy with my whole heart and soul so I felt very bad about doing her dirty last chapter, hopefully I did everyone justice though :)