“We need him alive for a while longer for my plan to work.”
“What plan?”
“The plan to save the families on that train.”
“Who is he?” she demanded.
“Pull him out of the car.” He limped after her as she rounded the sedan and opened the left rear door, drew his Taser in case Petain tried to make a run for it.
Petain climbed out of the car, he stood without moving. Hiram reached out with his free hand and pulled the hood off the man’s head.
“Capitaine Petain?” Danette said.
Deborah crossed her arms and leaned back against the car. “How in hell did you capture him?”
A muffled scream escaped the root cellar. They turned toward the noise. Petain looked from Hiram and around at the other women, worried.
Hiram slid the hood back on their captive and shoved him into the car. They needed him for a bit longer. Hiram hoped Maxime would get her chance for revenge.
1300 hours, Sunday, August 16, Mamirolle, Doubs Department, Vichy France
Teams Charlie and Delta arrived and stood guard around the farm. Hiram gathered his surviving team leaders, Barbara, Charlotte, Nora and Irene, in the barn. Deborah and Danette stood with Hiram. Maxime continued to sleep in the upstairs bedroom. He planned to go check on her after the briefing. Denise watched over Petain, ensuring he remained in place in the back seat of Lebeau’s sedan and protected from other members of their party who wished him harm.
Charlotte walked beside Leverette as he picked wild flowers at the edge of the overgrown field, his occasional laughter a ray of light in the shadow that loomed over the farm. The boy remained oblivious to the well-deserved horrors his father suffered at the hands of his mother. Hiram wondered what Rosette would tell her son when he asked about his father. For now, Garon Bertrand was in the root cellar with his wife, his current status unknown.
Hiram briefed the team leaders on the events in Lapalisse and the German decision to occupy southern France. The acceleration of the operation put them all in more danger.
Barbara stared out the open door at the Citroën. Hiram expected her to make quick work of destroying the Police Captain if she wasn’t kept under watch.
“Listen, we need to focus on getting the families to safety,” he said. Deborah translated. “You can do whatever the hell you want to Petain afterward. We need him alive and cooperating for the next couple of days.”
“Hiram’s right,” Charlotte said to Barbara.
“If he can help us save our families, he can draw a few more breaths,” Barbara said. “When it’s done, I plan to gut him like a fish.”
Deborah translated for Hiram. Part of him wished he didn’t always know what his soldiers said.
Charlotte turned to Hiram. “What’s your plan?”
“Thirty trucks have been dispatched from Rivesaltes to Pont-Saint-Vincent to pick up the prisoners and return them to Camp Joffre,” he said. “I don’t think Petain’s communication with his assistant raised any warning. We should expect the trucks to arrive with drivers, but no additional guards.”
Deborah continued to translate before adding, “How can you be sure?”
“I can’t, so we’ll take no chances. Teams Charlie and Delta will set up in the hills west of the railyard to provide cover fire if it’s needed.” He called up the overhead drone view of the railyard on his C2ID2 display and pointed out the steep hillside he meant. Several houses rested on the hillside, and along the west side of the railyard, but like almost every other town in the Zone, he assumed they had been abandoned. “It’ll be dark, so be sure to have your NVGs. Petain can get the five of us past the railyard perimeter guard.” He pointed out the guard stations on the display. “We’ll drive to the spur where the train parked. Once we get in position, Petain will gather his men together. We disarm them and herd them into one of the boxcars. Take out anyone who refuses to cooperate.”
“Do you think he’ll betray his men so easily?” Irene said as she nodded in Petain’s direction.
“Petain is looking for the best outcome for Petain. If he thinks it’ll save his own hide, he’ll sacrifice theirs.”
“What happens next?” Irene said.
“When the trucks arrive, we take the drivers hostage. Take them out if you need to. Then, we load every one of the prisoners up and drive out of there,” said Hiram.
“Where do we go?” Nora asked.
“Head back this way. We keep going all the way to the Swiss border. Petain’s credentials should get us as far as Besançon without raising too many questions.” Hiram pointed out the city ten kilometers north of Mamirolle, at the edge of the mountains. “The border is heavily defended, but if we attack at night, using our night vision scopes, we have a chance. We can arm some of the prisoners on the train as well. And I can jam the guard’s radio transmissions so they can’t call for help.”
He waited for Deborah to finish translating for the group.
“Can I make a suggestion?” Charlotte said.
“Of course.”
“I noticed an old style-, current style I mean, HF radio in the Citroën. I assume it’s Petain’s?”
Hiram watched Deborah as she repeated Charlotte’s words. He nodded.
“Can Petain send his men off on some wild goose chase?” Charlotte said.
“They think he’s in Vichy, right?” Danette said.
Deborah interpreted and Hiram nodded again.
“Petain can order them to join him in Vichy. Tell them they’re getting some type of reward for turning our equipment over to the government.”
“It might work,” Hiram said.
“What time do we expect the trucks to arrive?” Deborah asked. “How much time do we have to prepare?”
Hiram shrugged. “I’m not certain. Petain told his assistant he would call her back this afternoon, once the Commandant at Camp Joffre had time to organize the convoy.”
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t kill him yet,” Barbara said.
With no further input from his soldiers, Hiram sent them off to prepare for the mission. Deborah lingered behind.
“We need to cover two hundred kilometers, but the convoy has a lot further to go,” he said. What if we-.” His C2ID2 squawked.
“Hawk, this is Raven, over.” Three seconds later Sarah’s voice came over the comm.
“Raven, this is Hawk, over.”
“Hawk, we’ve been contacted by Falcon.” Falcon was Trembley’s codename and, the last he heard, Trembley was on the train with the rest of the prisoners. “He reports that the train with the prisoners is still in the railyard in Pont-Saint-Vincent with a guard of approximately thirty men, over.”
“Raven, Falcon was captured. I think you’re being set up, over.”
“Hawk, the two OSS officers standing here with me say he used all the proper code words. No reason to think he’s under duress. He seems to have made some new friends, over.”
“Raven, did you say friends? Over.”
“Local resistance fighters. He’s been in contact using one of their HF radios. Looks legitimate from here, over.”
“Roger, Raven. Send me Falcon’s operating frequency, over.” Once he had the frequency, Hiram ended the transmission.
Deborah unbuttoned the top two buttons of her uniform. “You were saying?” He caught a glimpse of the inside edge of her breast.
“Not here,” Hiram said. Not with the bustle of the camp preparing for battle. “Bit of a buzz kill.”
“The woods then,” she said. She undid another button, opened her uniform more, before heading toward the woods.
Hiram started to limp out of the barn after her. She was less than two meters from him, yet he held on to the frame of the barn door afraid he’d collapse if he took another step. He wanted to be with her, to feel her in his arms, to sense the warmth of her skin against his even in the summer heat. His body would not comply. “I can’t. I-”