August 17
Back on The Black Pearl to Germany – 2230 Hours
And with much anticipation and eagerness, Carter and I are leaving England, until the end of the war we can hope, and going back to Germany. Carter is below deck at this moment, sleeping before we reach the coast of Germany and run from sight at Bremerhaven. I cannot sleep because of the tense excitement of this mission and the giddy success I feel in completing it. So much had happened from that tense moment when knocking on Hansel and Gretel's door, to meeting with the Generals, the call to Rob and then seeing those people off to where they should be. I think even Carter has had enough excitement for a while, and though I know that Hochstetter will surely come after me as I come back to Stalag 13, I will always remember earlier this day.
I guess I should start where I left off, when Carter and I arrived at Hansel and Gretel's place, so there shall I go…
The door behind us closed as Carter obediently tapped the panel on top of the doorway inside three times (I had to remind him to hit it another time) and hid behind me as I knocked the uppermost doorway. Behind it, I heard quick scuffling around and some clicking…from a machine? Although I had thought I heard voices in another language talk (I couldn't be sure and should have been me hearing things again). I did hear, for a certainty, that there were people on the other end of the door and that we were not alone.
My neck prickled. Again, whether it was for the trap we were going to fall in or that these people were who we were searching for, I didn't know. All I knew is that, for a fact, we found who the spies were. "Keep your gun within reach," I whispered to Carter as I knocked again. Mine had been moved from my boot to my belt ring, hidden from any prying eyes.
I waited a few minutes more. The shuffling inside had been silenced and I was afraid that these people knew what we were here for. At least we weren't like the Gestapo and busted the door open. We knocked, so there was hope that it wasn't anyone that was going to threaten their well-being, and indeed we're not…no, we're here to destroy their ties to Germany.
I was about to open the damned door myself when some light allowed itself to creep into the hallway. The entranceway had opened and a woman appeared before us, worry lines crept on her face. She was tall and thin; her black hair was salted with white and dark bags were under her eyes (either from worrying or being tired, I could not tell). For a split moment, I felt pity wash over me, but just as quickly as it came, it left me. We're on a mission, Nikki, and most certainly NOT here to uplift the spirits of some mother, I chided myself.
"Yes?" this whispering woman softly called to us. The light was still slim and the door ajar.
"Gretel," I inquired, "we're here to talk to you and Hansel. We have some…crumbs to drop in the forest." I tried to stick to the story outlines as I remembered them as much as possible and to say, in another way, that we have questions and information for them. It must have worked, for the woman let me and Carter in with no problems. I mean, if we went past the old woman and she led us here, then Gretel must let us in, right?
"I'm afraid our home is of sparse space," Gretel indicated to me and Carter as we went inside. Indeed, their apartment was small. Before us stood a kitchen and relaxing room all in one room, and to the left was a door that led to a water room and next to it, a bedroom. To the right, there was a small hallway, and right at the end was a small bed with toys littering its floor; there was no child though. My neck prickled when I thought more of what might have happened to the child, indeed if he…or she…is still alive.
I was afraid to ask, but Gretel seemed to have read my thoughts. "Our child, Marie, has been missing for some time now." There was sorrow in her voice, but some part in it somehow indicated that she wished it that way. I knew something was wrong.
"Have you informed the municipal services about this?" I asked. I panicked then, and knew, without a doubt, what had happened to the little child: she had been disposed of. Why, I will never know.
"Yes," answered Gretel. "Well, the old woman, Ursula McConald, does. She told them that little Marie was her granddaughter, since we cannot afford more attention because of our status, and asked them to find her. A picture gave them the idea of what she might look like."
"Indeed," I answered, noting that Carter took a seat at the kitchen table with some man I presumed to be Hansel. "We have more pressing business." The person I presumed was Hansel was fingering a mug of steaming coffee and its aroma hit me hard. I had forgotten how much I had missed real coffee. The coffee that they had here in England always hit home with me.
"Yes, please state it and leave!" a panicked man, Hansel, said, obviously paranoid about something, something I couldn't put my finger on. I turned away to keep him less fearful about such things, but when I quickly glanced into the next room on the left and saw the radio, set to frequency length 430, and then I knew. Before I let attention be bestowed upon me, I quickly glanced back casually, seeing that the radio was on, but it didn't have a person on the other side. My neck prickled.
Indicating that I seat myself too, Gretel and I sat elbow-to-elbow at their table. Then I started as Carter knew that he had to shut up and leave everything to me. "First and foremost, we cannot say who we are and where exactly we work for security reasons. But I can say this: my companion and I work in this cause deep in Germany and England. We have been assigned to destroy the ammo dump nearby where we work. Sources have told us that our planes, through careful planning, had been unable to do this. So, we were told to annihilate it again. Through the messages of those who operate close to us, I can relay to you that it is a go, and that tonight is the night we shall sabotage it. It's our second chance to get it."
"That was what we have been told," Hansel said out of the blue. "We radioed Stalag 13, or were told to, and I don't think that they received it. Do you work with them? Perhaps you can remind them of their assignment. Papa Bear seems hesitant."
"Maybe they did, but we had a lot of static," Gretel said. "And take it easy on them, dear. These people had a long journey from Germany perhaps…"
My neck was saying something that contradicting what was being said. I knew then that there was no trap for us here, in this apartment, but one if Rob and I didn't plan this carefully. It was if we had listened to their message, but we didn't because of what I theorized. And I have some evidence to prove it. It's only an assumption, but it's almost enough to have them bagged.
"Either way," Hansel said, "they have to get it. The resources there could win the war for Germany. Without destroying that dump, our side could lose the war and its efforts since the storming of France's shores."
That I could believe. Anything could counter the efforts D-Day started.
Hansel continued, and it was much harsher than before. Was it because this trap was being delayed by us and the Krauts were questioning their loyalty too? "Stalag 13 should be reminiscent of their assignment. I should radio them again and –"
"Don't do that!" I said quickly, interjecting him on time perfectly and anticipating this. "My partner here and I will radio them from Headquarters on their usual radio length. Papa Bear will be reminded of what he has to do tonight, if it is all right with you. Now, if you can excuse us, my partner and I have to leave. As you've indicated, your security here is vital and we're already violating your private business." I sat up, with Carter behind me, and I created a trail back through the door and down the stairs.
Behind us, as I tapped the panel that opens us to the outside world, Gretel said, "Goodbye and good luck. And don't worry about Marie."
As Carter and I went out the door and shut it behind us, I had a shiver come down my spine, and my neck prickled, and it was more in fear of the child Marie than for me and Carter. I didn't know what was wrong with Marie or where she went, but I was determined to find her, dead or alive.
Ushering Carter down the steep stairs quickly, I reached into my old memory banks for something, anything, that might indicate where these horrid parents took their child, but I thought of nothing. My mind drew a blank.