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I hadmyself and my chair over to the door and prepared an a head over heels as they tripped on me when they cah by now to realise that I aht Or with anything reot ain, von Linden cale white pill in front of ht I was about to be executed, you see

‘Cyanide?’ I asked tearfully It would be such a huo

But it was not a suicide tablet, it turns out It was an aspirin

Like Engel, he does pay attention

He has given me another week But he has doubled ht I couldn’t possibly have anything left of ed to strike another bargain He has got a talish aimed at the Yanks – she works fro service, and she has been badgering the Orive her Aarcoated, inside perspective on Occupied France, hoell prisoners are treated, how stupid and dangerous it is that the Allies force innocent girls like me to do dirty work like itimate, Third Reich radio credentials the Ormaie Gestapo are reluctant to respond, but von Linden believes he can use overnment were not so ruthlessly inhumane,’ I will tell her for him ‘By contrast see how huents, see how I a ive me a trial)

(Afterfor von Linden to turn up and pronounce punishreatI understand German So I know a lot more about their plans forpolicy called Nacht und Nebel, Night and Fog, which allows them to do whatever the hell they feel like to people suspected to be ‘endangering security’, and then make them disappear – really disappear They don’t execute the a trace, into the ‘night and fog’ Oh God – I a prisoner It is so secret they don’t even write it down – just use the initials NN If thisI’ve just written It is not really Nacht und Nebel policy to grant interviews for radio broadcasts, but these Gestapo are opportunists if nothing else They can always chop me into bits afterwards and bury the scraps in the cellar)

If I cooperate with the propagandist I can have more time If I tell the bleak truth – then no And they’ll probably make the American broadcaster disappear too, and I’ll have that on my conscience

The aspirin and kerosene are part of Operation Cinderella, a prograned to transform me from a feverish, nit-infested, ht Officer of cool nerve and confidence, suitable for presentation to a radio interviewer To add credibility to our story I have been given a sort of translation job copying Hauptsturmführer von Linden’s own notes from the past year here, with nah, some methods used, in addition to information extracted Oh, mein Hauptsturmführer, you are an evil Jerry bastard A copy is to beOfficer!) and anotherthe French one Fr&au the Ger up all otten recipe cards We are both cross about that

The job is both horrific and unbelievably tedious And so deviously instructional it makes me want to put the man’s eyes out with my pencil I am made to see into a s personal, but hoorks And also that he is good at it – unless of course it is all fabricated to intih to do that – at least, not in the way I use , not to concoct a fake collection of half a dozen notebooks bound in calfskin and filled with tragic miniature portraits of a hundred and fifty doohters

But he is creative in his own scientific way – a technician, an engineer, an analyst (I’d love to knohat his civilian credentials are) His persuasive techniques are tailored to the individual as he gains understanding into the character of each Those three weeks I spent starving in the dark, waiting for somy silences, my tantrums, my numerous half-successful atte duct, the air vent, to pick the lock, garrotte and/or e how I cower and weep and plead whenever the screa how I frantically try to put my hair up whenever someone opens the door and sees arments – it is a special torment reserved for the modest and the vain I a to discover that I am not, after all, the only Judas to have been interned behind these desecrated hôtel walls I suppose von Linden would be sacked if his success rate were that dismal And now I suspect, as well, that I am exposed to the stubborn ones on purpose to de the and appreciative audience

I aone easy on my hands and face, so when I’m fully dressed, you’d never look at me and think I’d recently been skewered and barbecued – they’ve packed their partially dis case Perhaps it has been vL’s intention all along to use anda exercise And of course – I a to play How did he kno did he know fro to play, addicted to the Great Game?

Oh, rateful for the eiderdown they have given me to replace the verminous blanket Even if it is just part of the temporary sche has come out and it smells like a root cellar full of damp, but still, an eiderdown – a silk eiderdown! It is e stock fro’s former life as the Château de Bordeaux I do sos Soood deal of effort to euestrooms of their wardrobes and beds and vanity tables and to bolt bars across theshutters What did they do with everything – carpets, curtains, laht bulbs? Certainly my little room has no Gallic charm to recommend it apart from its rather pretty parquet floor, which I can’t see most of the time (as with all the prisoners’ rooms myhas been boarded shut), and which is very cold and hard to sleep on

I had better get to work – though I have bought my extra week, I now have only half as er too

I a tired

I know, I know Special Ops Exec Write –

Ferry Pilot

Maddie went back to Oakway There was now an Air Transport Auxiliary ferry pool there, and Oakway had also beco centre in Britain As an ATA pilot Maddie was deain, but she was able to live at hoiven a petrol allowance for her bike so she could get to the airfield, and she could trade in a day’s completed ferry chit for a two-ounce bar of Cadbury’s milk chocolate