“This is an unexpected pleasure, Fröken Larsen!” he exclaimed truthfully, his salute accompanied by a sharp click of his jackbooted heels. “How are you? What are you doing here?”
“All’s well with me,” she answered brightly, “and I’ve come from Oslo for the day to visit a friend. Let me ask you the same questions.”
“I’m fighting fit, as you can see,” he declared, unashamedly proud of his looks and physique. “I’m stationed nearby at Gardermoen, but I get to Oslo quite often. Where are you working? I’d like to see you next time I’m there.”
“I’m helping at Christina’s dress shop on Storgaten.”
“I thought you were going to continue your hotel training when you left Alesund.”
“I was, but when I arrived, the hotel was closed. It’s difficult to get in anywhere else at present, but I’m looking out all the time.”
“I wish you success.” He glanced back along the platform. “I would have liked to talk longer, but I can’t just now. Do you have a telephone number?”
“The shop is in the book.”
“Good. I’ll ring you soon. Auf wiedersehen.”
As Anna walked away, she was both furious and anxious that such an unlucky twist of events should have caused her to be recognised when she least wanted it.
It did not take her long to reach the café where a freckle-faced girl stood waiting to serve behind the counter. Anna saw Karl at once. There were only half a dozen other customers in the café, two of them reading newspapers.
“You’re on time,” Karl said with a smile, coming to meet her. “I’ll fetch some coffee now. Would you like anything to eat? There’s fish sausage on the menu.”
Anna made an amused little grimace of refusal, knowing he was teasing her, for she had told him once that she found fish sausage one of the most nauseating of wartime foods concocted through necessity. It eased her tension that they could share a little joke even at such a time.
As they sat down at a table, she noticed that his light canvas rucksack lay on the spare chair. She guessed it contained the explosives. Nobody was paying them any attention. At the next table a bored toddler was fractious and noisy, giving cover to their quiet conversation. She told him of meeting Fritz von Heller in the railway station.
“In that case,” he said in the same low tones, “we’d better stage a parting. Ask the bus times. That should put you in the clear in case of any questioning later.”
Anna knew that she had become a dangerous lead that could be followed up. Yet she hesitated to disassociate herself from him, whatever the reason. “We’re in this together,” she reminded him sternly.
“That’s why I want to be sure that you live to fight another day if anything else unforeseen happens. Follow me out after five minutes.”
She nodded reluctantly. At the next table the child had dropped a rag doll, unnoticed by the two women at the table, who were continuing their own conversation. Anna leaned down to pick it up.
“So you can’t stay after all, Steffen,” she said, using his assumed name just loud enough for the women to overhear, as she handed the doll back to the child.
“Thank you,” the mother said.
Anna smiled absently as if concentrating on her conversation with her companion and turned back to him. After another minute he rose to leave, shouldering on his rucksack.
“I’ll be seeing you sometime,” he said casually. Then he left.
Anna waited for almost five minutes before going to the girl at the counter and asking about a bus to Oslo. In the original plan she and Karl would have simply faded from the scene, but circumstances had changed. Now she must cover her tracks completely. Since she would not be on any bus, she would have the answer ready that she had obtained a lift with a farm-lorry.
The girl looked at a timetable on the wall. “There’s a bus leaving Jessheim for Oslo in three hours.”
“That’s a long wait. I think I’ll walk for a while.”
“It’s a lovely day for it.”
Outside Anna turned for the road that would take her to the forest, following it away from the little town. There were few people about. The sparse traffic was mostly connected with the Luftwaffe. She kept to the shade of trees, which at first were silver birches already turning russet, ochre and red. Soon the tall pines began to take over. When Jessheim was well behind her, she checked that there was nobody in sight before slipping into the forest. It was darkly shadowed with pockets of sunshine. Karl was watching for her.
“Over here!”
Anna ran to him. “I’m ready,” she said, slinging the strap of her purse across her.
He led the way, keeping low, she following close behind as they went deep into the forest. It gave her pleasure to dart through the green and gold pattern of the trees. Briefly it was like being a child again. Then suddenly, cutting a clearing through the forest, was the railway track.
Karl set down his rucksack and unstrapped it, revealing the explosives within. There was also a gun for her, which he gave her. Neither spoke and both took what they needed. She dropped to a knee by one rail while he did the same at the other. A soft breeze played around them. But they had only just begun their task when Karl looked up sharply. A trace of smoke was showing in the distance.
“The train is coming! It’s early! Get out now, Anna! I’ll finish here!”
She shook her head, her fingers working swiftly. He yelled at her even as he worked. “For God’s sake, go!”
Grimly she continued and set the last explosive into place. He finished an instant before her and was already on his feet, catching up his emptied rucksack at the same time. His iron grip hurtled her forward with such force that she fell sprawling, but he caught her up and they ran within a few feet of each other, plunging through undergrowth and slashed by low branches. They could hear the train now, for it was approaching at speed and its sound became louder every moment.
On and on they ran, making for the road and greater cover beyond. Pine cones flew up from under their feet, uneven ground made them stumble, and treacherous tufts of fern hid tiny streams that splashed icy water up their legs. Anna lost her shoe among the pebbles of one, which made her fall, and precious moments were lost as she retrieved it, not daring to leave any clues. Karl came rushing back to find her.
They had put some distance between themselves and the track, but they were not yet out of the danger zone. It was with intense relief that Anna saw the road lying ahead through the thinning trees, but when they would have emerged from the forest they both halted abruptly. They heard motor cycles and then saw a pair of outriders approaching in escort to an open staff car with two officers on their way to Jessheim. Anna dropped down into the undergrowth, Karl with her.
“Get under the overhang of that large boulder!” he hissed. “Be quick! I’ll follow!”
She crawled and scrambled her way across to it and threw herself down in time to watch through the tall grass and wild flowers at the roadside as the outriders roared past and the car swept by. Then Karl, who had drawn his revolver where he had crouched, dashed forward to fling himself over Anna for her further protection as the world seemed to split apart.
Explosion after explosion followed, the deafening noise filling the forest like thunder, the ground lifting and vibrating as the locomotive and its wagons leapt and vanished in a searing spiral of red-gold fire, the blast wiping out a wide area of the forest and cleaving the earth into a hideous crater. The sky was darkened by smoke and flying debris. On the outskirts of the blast, trees were toppling, uprooting others as they pitched down.
A great pine came crashing down on the boulder in a shower of vast splinters, making it shake as if it must split asunder. More trees were tossed across the road and rocks, clumps of earth and branches rained down, even a wagon-wheel and a twisted length of rail, which clanged and leapt about before they settled.
“Are you all right, Anna?” Karl asked, throwing off some twigs and foliage that had fallen on his back. He hel
ped her up with him.
“Yes,” she said breathlessly. There was earth and grass in her hair and her face was scratched and bleeding from a whipping branch in the rush through the trees, her skirt torn. He held her to him for a few moments.
“We’re literally not out of the woods yet. Are you ready to run again?”
She drew a deep breath and nodded, knowing it was time to have her gun in her hand.
They pounded on once more, keeping level with the road, but here trees were still standing and made a protective screen. They had to drop down every time an army vehicle went speeding by, troops being rushed from all directions to the scene. By the distant orders being shouted, Anna guessed that the soldiers were leaping out of the trucks into the road some way beyond the boulder.
Just when she was wondering how much longer her legs would keep going, Karl branched away from the road along a cart track to where a military car was parked under the trees and covered by greenery to camouflage it. They pulled all that away.
It was a two-seater with what was known generally as a mother-in-law’s seat at the back, which closed down like a luggage boot. It was the type of small car that young officers used when they could not get anything better, particularly the Hird, for the Germans commandeered all the best cars for themselves. Karl had driven it from Oslo that morning and proceeded to change back into the Hird uniform he had worn on the way.
“It’s worse being togged up as a traitor than as a German,” he said with distaste when he was ready, jamming on the peaked pill-box cap.
“It won’t be for long,” Anna said consolingly, having packed his own clothes into the rucksack as they were discarded.
“You’re right.” He opened the rear of the car where the seat had been removed. Cushions and a soft travelling rug lay in the space that had been made. As she was about to climb in with the rucksack, he took her by the shoulders and kissed her hard and quick. “I love you! I wish you could ride beside me, but I’ll get you back to Oslo as soon as I can.”
He closed her into the car. The cushions helped, but it was still an uncomfortable way to travel. She was bumped about considerably along the cart-track until the car swung out onto the Oslo road.
As Karl and Anna had expected, the Germans had set up road blocks and thrown out cordons in the hope of catching whoever was responsible for the destruction of the train. It was not long before Anna felt the car draw up. Then she heard Karl being questioned as to why he was on the Jessheim to Oslo road.
“I was on military matters in Jessheim when the explosion occurred and I’m on my way to report it to Prime Minister Quisling. One of the wagons carried Hird weapons.”
There was a pause as his forged papers were examined, including a document signed by Quisling. Yet the German did not seem satisfied. She heard Karl get out of the car and there seemed to be some sort of argument in progress. She held her breath as she heard heavy boots coming round to the rear of the car and guessed the guards were awaiting orders to start searching it. Incredulously she heard one of them drumming his fingers on the lid as he waited.
There were agonising minutes before Karl threw himself back behind the wheel with permission to go through. She almost wept with relief as the car shot away, although the force of it threw her painfully against the side.
Karl called back to her. “That sergeant wanted to be difficult, but that was all. It’s this uniform. The Germans have no more time for Norwegian traitors than we, even though they need their information.”
He was stopped twice after that, but went through smoothly. Soon Anna heard the sounds of the city and, from what she had been told previously by Edvin, she knew Karl was making for an old district near the harbour. The bump of cobbles told her when they had entered a long, crooked alley that ran between the windowless backs of warehouses. At the moment when the car was out of sight from either end, Karl swung it through open doors at the rear of one of the warehouses. Men’s footsteps came running and the doors closed after the car with a hollow slam.
Karl sprang from his seat and came to help Anna out. “Are you badly bruised?” he asked with concern.
“Not enough to matter.”
He lifted out his rucksack and began changing back into his own clothes, while she flexed her arms and legs, thankful that she had escaped cramp on the journey. Then she turned as the car was started up again and saw that a man was driving it down a ramp into an underground area, which she guessed spread under the whole warehouse. A second man was hurrying down after it.
“What’s going to happen to the car now?” She was combing her hair.
“It will be hidden down there until it’s needed again.” He was frowning. “You can’t go back to Storgaten, Anna. I was thinking it over on the way here. It’s highly likely, when check-ups are made about strangers in the area of Jessheim, that the Gestapo will want to question you.”
“But I covered my tracks.” It was her first chance to explain how she had done it, but although he heard her out he still shook his head.
“Every farm vehicle would have been turned inside out at the road blocks. They’d know you weren’t on any of them or a bus. You’ve deep scratches on your cheek from the forest and a bruise on your forehead from the car.”
“I fell down the stairs,” she answered impatiently. “I have to return to the apartment. If I’m not there to answer for myself, Christina will fall under suspicion. I won’t have that.”
Karl could see there was no persuading her. He gave in reluctantly. “I’ll even have to let you walk back to Storgaten on your own. You can’t be seen with me.”
Her expression softened. “I know,” she said, moving into his arms. “Take care wherever you go. I hope we meet up again soon.”
He kissed her hungrily, she responding with equal fervour. Then he took her to a side door and she tore herself from him and left. He remained with his shoulder lodged against the door jamb and watched her out of sight. Partings were becoming harder for them both each time.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The shop was shut when Anna arrived back in Storgaten, for it was early evening. She let herself in through her own front door and took off her kofte as she went up the stairs. On the threshold of her living-room she halted, startled. Nils had leapt up from a chair.
“Where the hell have you been all day?” he demanded, his rage born of the anxiety he had endured. “What have you done to your face? It’s scratched and your skirt is torn.”
“How long have you been here?” she countered, being in no mood for a tirade.
“I’ve been coming and going through the shop until Christina wanted to go home. So then I stayed. I couldn’t get out of her where you were—”
“She didn’t know,” Anna interrupted. “We lead independent lives.”
“In working hours? I even called on your aunt in case you were there.”
Anna’s own anger burst forth. “You had no right to do that! You would have set her worrying about where I might be.”
“She’s on to your being in the Resistance, is she?”
“I didn’t want her to know, but she’s an intelligent woman and guessed.”
“Then if she knows, at least you can tell me, a fellow underground fighter, where you were today. It was more than a message delivery, wasn’t it?”
“I set some explosives, that’s all.”
“For the armament train?” he exclaimed incredulously. “Maybe.”
“You did! When I nipped back to the office to see if there were any messages about an hour ago, I met Wolfgang, the sportsman I told you about. He had heard about the explosion on the army radio. You couldn’t have been on your own in something that big.”
Anna sighed. “Listen. I’m tired and I’m going to have a bath and get to bed early. I’ll see you tomorrow. Let yourself out.”
She would have turned for her bedroom, but Nils caught her by the arm and jerked her round to face him. “Who were you with? Was it Karl?”
She saw th
at intense jealousy lay behind his renewed fury. “Yes, I was.”
“I would have gone with you! You’d have been safer with me!”
“My safety didn’t come into it. Karl and I did what had to be done and we got away. That’s the end of it. In any case, you’re not linked to the Oslo group. You told me yourself that you prefer to work independently with your own Resistance contacts.” Impatiently she drew his attention to the phone, which had begun ringing persistently throughout their argument. “I’ll have to answer that!”
She went to the extension from the shop in the hall and lifted the receiver. “Christina’s Gowns.”
“This is Edvin! Christina has been arrested! Get out, Anna! Now!”
Ashen-faced, Anna ran to her bedroom, calling out as she went, “They’ve got Christina! I have to get away!”
She snatched up her suitcase before throwing in her few things. Nils scooped a couple of blouses and a skirt from hangers for her to add to everything else. She pulled off her torn skirt and threw on her other one. In all it had been only a few minutes before she was in her coat, a wad of stored money tucked into a secret pocket with her gun, and was making for the stairs with her suitcase.
“Thanks for your help, Nils,” she said gratefully, as they hurried down the flight to her street door. “We’ll part outside.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Don’t be a fool!” she exclaimed desperately over her shoulder. “You know what would happen if we should be caught together!”
“They’ll not get you if I can help it.”
Then there came such a crashing on the street door that they both stopped abruptly and she almost fell back against him. “Dear God!” she breathed. “They’re here!”
Even as she and Nils dashed back up the flight, there came the sound of glass being smashed in the shop door. Their only other escape route had been blocked.
“I’ll help you through the hall fanlight onto the roof!” Nils was unable to think of anywhere else.
“No! Come with me!” Anna ran to raise the cupboard floor and toss in her suitcase. “Go down the ladder! I’ll follow, because I know how to close everything.”
The Fragile Hour Page 24
