Our Ally, Our Enemy (Moon Brothers WWII Adventure Series Book 3)
Page 33
“But what was this waste of time those Krauts were working on?” he asked.
As she began her explanation, they were wandering among some abandoned German aircraft still on the Eschborn ramp. When she first used the term atomic weapon, they were standing next to a derelict jet: an ME-262, just like the one he’d shot down on that final mission with Vukonikov.
Then she described what an atomic weapon was capable of doing.
“Holy shit,” he said. “That’s got to be the real super weapon that’s got everybody scared shitless. You should hear Sean talk about the stuff they came up against—jets like this one, super guns, super tanks. But they don’t hold a candle to this. A bomb that could wipe out a whole city. Holy shit…”
“Remember, Tommy, this is all top secret. You can’t tell anyone.”
“Don’t worry, Syl. I know the drill.”
“Good,” she replied. “But the thing I wonder most about is how your Americans were so confident the Boche atomic data was no good, how they couldn’t make a working bomb from it. How would they know that, unless they already have one that works?”
“I see your point,” he said.
They walked farther along the ramp. Now they were among American ships.
“I’m sorry you lost your airplane, Tommy.”
“I didn’t lose it, Syl. It was stolen from me.”
“Be thankful that’s all that was stolen from you,” she replied.
The way she said stolen—it seemed so personal, as if she’d been wounded so deeply by something unknown to him, something far worse than the loss of a mere machine.
When he asked what was on her mind, she told him of her banishment from French 1st Army Headquarters. There was no shame in her voice, no regret, just the bottomless disappointment of a woman who had given everything to a country which no longer had any regard for her sacrifice.
Now Tommy understood that her comment about leaving France and coming to the States wasn’t the liquor talking. It was her broken heart.
He told himself, But there has to be a way to fix this.
So he tried.
“What about your uncle?” he asked. “Didn’t he get you into Affaires Civiles in the first place?”
She just shook her head. “He was the first to show me the door, Tommy.”
“But with all your ties to the maquis…surely there’s someone.”
Sylvie didn’t bother shaking her head this time. “The maquis doesn’t exist, Tommy. To de Gaulle, it never existed.”
He had an idea. “I know,” he said. “Why don’t we try to get you a job here with us Americans? You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
She looked decidedly unimpressed. Her voice cold and sarcastic, she replied, “You mean as a secretary or translator? Or maybe I can join your Red Cross and serve donuts to your pilots. How exciting that would be.”
“So what do you want to do? Will you go back to France now?”
She just shrugged.
He felt helpless. A few hours ago, when he was with Sean, everything had seemed so clear. He knew what he had to do, and he’d assumed Sylvie would be there, somehow. But the world had shifted beneath her feet. She was on the outside looking in now, a woman whose wartime deeds could put most soldiers to shame, yet a woman no one wanted.
Except him.
“Dammit, Syl…tell me what I can do,” he said.
“You can start by not asking so many questions, Tommy.”
She wrapped her arms tightly around him as they started walking again, weaving their way through the flying war machines being armed and fueled for their next mission.
* * * * *
About The Author
William Peter Grasso’s novels explore the concept change one thing…and watch what happens. Focusing on the WW2 era, they weave actual people and historical events into a seamless and entertaining narrative with the imagined. His books have spent several years in the Amazon Top 100 for Alternative History and War.
A lifelong student of history, Grasso served in the US Army and is retired from the aircraft maintenance industry. These days, he confines his aviation activities to building and flying radio-controlled aircraft.
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