V for Vengeance

by Dennis Wheatley

  Taking Madeleine’s arm with his free hand he strove to comfort her as they hurried down a narrow turning that brought them to Les Halles. The great central market was shut, but as they twisted in and out among the stacks of bales and crates which lined the pavements and the streets adjacent to it they felt that they were now safe from pursuit, and Madeleine managed to regain control of herself. Heading north-west, they reached the Bourse, from which they got a bus that took them up to the Place Malesherbes, Madeleine keeping her hands in her pockets while she was in it, from fear that their bloody state should attract unwelcome attention.

  When they reached Luc Ferrière’s house they found that Kuporovitch had not yet gone out on his nightly prowl. On hearing of her adventures he showed a new respect for Pierre, whom in secret he had always previously despised as a weakling, and while helping Madeleine to bathe her hands he very wisely forbore from upbraiding her upon her rashness in going to her old home against his advice.

  When her hands had been attended to, and Madame Chautemps had given her aspirin, and tucked her up in bed, Kuporovitch broke the news to Ferrière that he would have to accommodate another guest. The Mayor had no option but to agree, and by now he had become so used to the presence of the other two that he showed no resentment, only alarm that Pierre might be the cause of bringing the police down on the house before the night was out, which would prove the undoing of them all.

  However, Pierre assured him that he was quite certain that Madeleine and himself had not been followed; and after Kuporovitch had given him a stiff brandy, which he badly needed owing to the strain he had undergone, he was accommodated in a little room at the top of the house next to Madame Chautemps’ bedroom.

  For the next few days Madeleine was unable to carry out her nightly duties at the Marquise de Villebois’ house, and it distressed her very much that there could be no question of attending her mother’s funeral; but the Mayor’s household soon settled down again with its new occupant, and Pierre now went out every night with Kuporovitch as his assistant.

  As a result of the bitter wrangling between the governors of France over Christmas, on the 3rd of January it was announced from Vichy that Unoccupied France would now be ruled by a triumvirate, consisting of Admiral Darlan, General Huntziger, and Monsieur Flandin, under the direction of Marshal Pétain. On the 5th the British captured Bardia with 40,000 prisoners, and on the 10th great excitement was caused from the R.A.F. having carried out their first heavy daylight raid on aerodromes and other objectives in Northern France. As usual, the Germans endeavoured to cover the matter up by lying about it, but everybody knew from the whispering campaign which now carried the B.B.C. broadcasts into every corner of the capital that the raid had been most successful and that the British had got away without losing a single aircraft.

  By the following week Madeleine’s hands had healed sufficiently for her to resume her duties, and Kuporovitch attended another conference at the house in the Avenue d’Orléans. On his return he was able to tell her from Lacroix that, although Gregory was out of the game, all the information the Colonel had sent by him had got safely through, as arms and explosives were now reaching Lacroix’s nominees through his secret channels in the south of France.

  The cold continued to be intense. Food was becoming more difficult than ever to obtain, and their situation was now aggravated by the fact that soap was running terribly short; so they could not afford to wash themselves with it more than once a day, and laundry could now only be rinsed in almost freezing water.

  Their condition would have been even more miserable had not Kuporovitch continued to bring in supplies of illegally obtained foods, and towards the end of the month he had excuses to hold two of his celebrations. On January the 22nd the British took Tobruk with a further 25,000 prisoners, and on the 28th news came through that earlier in the month the Camel Corps of the Free French Forces, based in Equatorial Africa, had raided the Italian air base of Murzuk in Southwestern Libya, destroying a number of enemy planes and all their facilities there.

  At the end of January there were further signs of how uneasily Unoccupied France was bearing the German yoke. Marstal Pétain had written to Hitler pleading for the release of some of the French prisoners-of-war, and Hitler had replied by a refusal to make any further concessions unless Vichy would give him full collaboration; upon which anti-Vichy articles began to appear in many of the papers. On February the 2nd Admiral Darlan paid another visit to Paris for a meeting with Laval, who had now gone over openly to the Germans, but the results of the meeting were kept secret. Darlan returned to Vichy on the 4th, came back to Paris with counter-proposals from Pétain on the 6th, and returned again to Vichy on the 7th. On the 9th Pétain appointed him Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister; so it was clear that he had now managed to gain control of the situation and henceforth would be the moving spirit in the Vichy Government.

  In the meantime, the people of the United States were at last becoming conscious of the extreme peril in which they would stand if Hitler succeeded in defeating Britain, and the American Administration was exercising all the pressure that it could to restrain Vichy from collaboration with the Axis. On February the 5th a writ of attachment was issued on all funds held by the Bank of France in New York, and on the 8th the Lease and Lend Bill was passed.

  The Greeks were going from victory to victory in their Albanian campaign and by February the 12th the Italian losses there were estimated to be in the neighbourhood of 90,000 men. But the German diplomats were now very active in the Balkans, and on the 13th the Yugoslav Prime Minister was summoned to Berchtesgaden. On March the 1st Bulgaria joined the Axis, and on the 3rd German troops were reported to have crossed Bulgaria and reached the Greek frontier.

  With the capture of Benghazi on February the 6th General Wavell’s brilliant campaign was brought to a magnificent conclusion, but this great soldier seemed tireless in his efforts to secure Britain’s position in the Near East, despite his terribly limited resources. Italian East Africa was now receiving his attention, and the Generals under him were displaying extraordinary vigour and enterprise. On February the 25th Mogadishu, the capital of Italian Somaliland, fell to the South African Forces, and on March the 16th Berbera, the capital of British Somaliland, was recaptured; while Imperial Forces had now penetrated far into Abyssinia and Eritrea.

  On March the 25th Yugoslav representatives signed a pact with the Nazis in Vienna, but the following day there were great patriotic demonstrations against the Government, and on the 27th General Simovitch effected a coup d’etat by which the Regent Prince Paul was deposed and the young King Peter assumed power. On the same day Keren and Hara, two most important points in the Abyssinian campaign, fell to the Imperial Forces. These British victories on land were followed next day by one at sea. Admiral Cunningham caught the Italian Fleet off Cape Matapan and mauled it severely.

  But in early April the tide turned against the British. The Quisling Sayid Rashid Ali effected a coup d’etat, instigated by the Nazis, in Iraq, and the British were taken by surprise in Libya, where the Germans, who had sent over their armoured Afrika Korps to reinforce the Italians, unexpectedly took the offensive, compelling the British to evacuate Benghazi. That distant Addis Ababa was entered after an amazing forced march on April the 5th was a small compensation for these much more serious setbacks; and on Sunday, April 6th, the Nazis struck again with all their force, invading Yugoslavia.

  During all these weeks Madeleine, Kuporovitch and Pierre carried on with their work. They could foresee no ending to the war, but had an absolute conviction that it could only be hastened by the sort of efforts they were making, which was a big consolation to them in view of the hard and dangerous lives that they were leading.

  From time to time, all three of them were summoned to conferences at the house in the Avenue d’Orléans, and occasionally the two men had exciting moments when their plans went wrong, or they were in temporary danger of being caught, but by fire-raising, interference with railwa
y points, and the sabotaging of shipping in the Seine, they managed to do quite a considerable amount of damage.

  It comforted them, too, to know from the conferences which they attended that the secret movement was ever-growing, and that, whereas in September they had been a few lone men against a mighty enemy, they could now count upon the help and support of great numbers of the French people. Their exploits, too, had now become far less hazardous, since in an emergency there were nearly always strangers at hand who were willing to give them aid in getting away when they were pursued, or temporarily hiding them from the police.

  To obtain supplies became more difficult than ever, but as the year advanced they suffered far less severely from the cold, and it was with immense relief that they saw the first budding of the trees in the Bois and the Jardins des Tuileries.

  As April advanced, however, the bulletins became more and more depressing and the pro-Nazi announcers on the Paris radio more raucous as they bawled accounts of the Nazi victories. By the 9th the Germans had occupied Salonika, cutting off the Greek armies in Thrace and Eastern Macedonia. On the 10th General Rommel scored a great triumph in Libya, capturing 2,000 British prisoners, including three generals. On the 11th Zagreb fell to the Germans, and their forces reached Monastir, thereby cutting Yugoslavia off from Greece. By the 13th the British Forces in Greece were already in retreat, and on the 14th the Greeks were compelled to evacuate Koritza, Few people doubted now that the gallant Greek Army was doomed and that the British, having with such crazy rashness established a front on the mainland of Europe, would soon be driven out of it.

  It was on the 16th that Madeleine and her friends were seated at supper with the Mayor, rather gloomily discussing the latest bulletins, when they heard a sharp rat-a-tat on the front door.

  Luc Ferrière’s lifelong meanness had stood them in admirable stead since they had taken up their residence with him. Owing to the fact that he never entertained, and had lived almost as a hermit, they were never troubled with unwelcome visitors whom the Mayor could hardly have ceased to receive had it been his custom to do so, and which would have meant their constantly going into hiding upstairs when such visits occurred.

  At the sound of the knocking alarm showed in all their faces, as they had no idea who it could be.

  ‘Into your sitting-room!’ Kuporovitch whispered swiftly to the Mayor. ‘No one must be allowed in here to see that there are four places laid at the table.’ Then he bundled Madeleine and Pierre out of the room, and followed them upstairs.

  Madame Chautemps had come out in the passage. Directly she saw that they were safely out of the way, and that the Mayor was settled in his room, she went to the door and opened it. A lean-faced man with a soft hat pulled well down over his eyes, and his collar turned up, was standing there. On his asking for the Mayor she held the door open for him to come in, and while she closed it he stood for a moment under the light in the hall.

  Kuporovitch had sent Madeleine and Pierre into the nearest bedroom, but had remained on the landing himself. He was peering over the banisters, his gun in his hand, ready for action, anxious to ascertain as soon as possible if the visitor were just a casual caller or might prove a threat to their safety.

  Suddenly he gave a shout of joy and came bounding down the stairs.

  ‘Gregory, by all that’s holy! My son, my friend, my brother! What a joy to see you here!’

  The lean man turned and limped forward, a bright smile lighting up his face, as he greeted the Russian with equal affection.

  Kuporovitch’s shout had brought the others out of the bedroom, and they too ran down to crowd round Gregory and shake him warmly by the hand.

  ‘But how did you know where to find us?’ Madeleine exclaimed after a moment.

  ‘Can we talk freely?’ he asked, with a quick glance at the housekeeper, who was still standing near the door.

  ‘Yes, yes!’ Kuporovitch assured him. ‘Madame Chautemps is a de Gaullist and has proved an invaluable friend to us; but you must exercise caution in front of our host.’ He pointed to the closed sitting-room door.

  Gregory lowered his voice. ‘I telephoned Ribaud as soon as I got to Paris, and he gave me your address. You’ve no idea how glad I was to know that you were still safe and sound after all these months.’

  ‘How did you get to Paris this time?’ Madeleine asked.

  ‘Not by sea, thank you,’ he laughed. ‘I’ve had enough clandestine crossings to last me a lifetime, but I’ll tell you about my ghastly trip home later on. I came over by plane last night and was dropped by parachute near Beauvais.’

  ‘Have you had anything to eat?’ Kuporovitch enquired anxiously.

  Gregory shook his head. ‘No. It took me the best part of the day to get here, and I brought only a few bars of chocolate in my pocket, so I’m hungry as a hunter. I hope to goodness you’re not all starving.’

  ‘I never starve!’ laughed the Russian. ‘Come in, my friend, come in, and we will resume our supper.’

  Luc Ferrière was called out of his sitting-room and introduced. He muttered a little unhappily when he was told that his house must now shelter yet another secret guest, but Kuporovitch said that Gregory could share his room and went down to the cellar to fetch the two best bottles of burgundy remaining in it. Five minutes later another place had been laid, and they were all seated round the table laughing and talking again.

  Pierre had a job to do that night, so he left them soon after the meal was finished, and Luc Ferrière went off to bed at ten o’clock; so Madeleine, Kuporovitch and Gregory were then able to talk with complete freedom. Gregory laughed a lot when he heard about how Kuporovitch had trapped the Mayor into providing them with a safe and comfortable hideout. Then he told them of his difficult trip back to England and gave details of his own narrow escape from death in the previous November.

  He had been in a ghastly state when the faithful Rudd and a rescue party had pulled him out of the ruins of his home thirty hours after it had been bombed, but that was five months ago, and he was now completely recovered, except that he still limped a little, although the doctors said that, too, would be all right in time. For the first two months or so he had suffered severely from the dressing of his wounds; but his ill luck in being blitzed had had its compensations. As soon as he was well enough to be moved Sir Pellinore had sent him up to Gwaine Meads, so that Erika could nurse him, and all through the late winter and early spring, while he was convalescing, he had the joy of being with her.

  During these months Lacroix had managed to establish safe contacts with a number of de Gaulle’s officers at the Free French Headquarters in London; so once Gregory had set the ball rolling his inability to continue as a link between Lacroix and the British Government had not materially hampered the Colonel’s operations. But when Gregory had felt himself really fit again he had insisted upon getting back into harness, and Sir Pellinore had suggested that he should make a trip to Paris so that on his return he could put in a full appreciation of the state of things there from his own unbiased observations.

  Kuporovitch then told him how well things were going and gave him an outline of some of his own more recent activities.

  Madeleine had sat silent for some time when suddenly she broke in: ‘I know you’re doing good work, Stefan, and that lots of our other friends are too. You’re all doing everything you can and risking your lives almost nightly, but what do the results amount to? Please don’t think I’m trying to belittle your work, but it’s seemed to me for a long time now that we’re not really getting anywhere. Naturally, it annoys the Germans when you derail a troop-train or succeed in blowing up one of the plants that are making munitions for them; but these things are only pinpricks.’

  ‘I don’t see how Stefan and his friends can do very much more at the moment,’ Gregory said mildly.

  ‘But don’t you realise,’ she insisted, ‘that these isolated acts are not really bringing us nearer to winning the war? Any damage that is done can easily be repaired w
ithin a week or two, and it can’t be one-hundredth part of what the Germans are doing by their bombing of Plymouth, Coventry, Southampton, Bristol and Liverpool. Now that the Nazis are in control of practically the whole of Europe they have simply thousands of factories working for them, so even with American help it’s going to be years before Britain can possibly catch up in the armaments race. Then there’s the question of man-power. The British are gallant enough, but even with their Empire and the bits and pieces of Free Forces that are fighting with them they simply haven’t the population ever to be able to put into the field an army which will be able to defeat the combined forces of the Germans, Italians and their puppet states on the mainland of Europe.’

  ‘That’s true enough,’ Gregory agreed; ‘but if we can hold the Germans in their cage by our blockade that ought to have its effect in time; and sooner or later we’ll achieve the air superiority which will enable us to blast hell out of the German cities. Between them these two weapons will bring the Germans to their knees.’

  ‘But when?’ demanded Madeleine impatiently. ‘Don’t you see that it may take years, and that while you’re slowly building up your Air Force and trying to starve out the Germans you’ll be starving the people in all the countries that they’ve conquered, too? It was grim enough here last winter. What it’s going to be like next I can’t think, and as long as there is anything left to eat at all you can be certain that the Germans will take it for themselves. Surely you see that in time the spirit of the people in the occupied territories will be broken by sheer starvation, unless you can devise some means to bring them aid or stir them into revolt while there is still some fight left in them.’