The Darkest Hour(15)

Before Laurent departs he whispers, “Safe travels to you while you’re gone.”

“Oh, I’m not going to Reims. I’ll be staying here.”

“In Paris? But aren’t you going to Cherbourg?”

Cherbourg? Why would I go to the northern French coast? Laurent doesn’t elaborate any further, though, simply waves good-bye and disappears down the hallway.

“Join us at the table, Blaise,” Major Harken says sourly, and I take the chair next to Tilly. She has donned her Laverne alias, complete with a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. Despite the night that she has had, she gives me a tired smile.

“Did Laurent bring news about Delphine, sir?” I ask.

“No, he did not,” replies Major Harken. He leaves his chair to pace in front of us, and I notice that he hasn’t changed since last night, either. “I’ll get right to the point. There has been a change of plans. Agent Chevalier, you’ll no longer be traveling to Reims.”

From the look on Sabine’s face, he might as well have slapped her. “I beg your pardon?”

“You’ll be heading to Cherbourg.” Major Harken looks over to me. “And you, Blaise, will be going with her.”

I’m not sure that I heard him right. “Me?”

“Yes, you. Who else is named Blaise in this room?”

“You cannot be serious, sir!” says Sabine, her face twisting from shock to suspicion. Meanwhile, my own face is stuck in plain shock. I wonder if Major Harken is pulling my leg, but he isn’t the sort to do any leg-pulling.

“What about Delphine?” Sabine says. “Yesterday you were determined to rescue her, but today you’ve changed your mind?”

“Far from it, and do watch your tone. Agent Fairbanks and I will continue to Reims as we discussed last night,” Harken replies, “but I’m sending the two of you on a different mission.”

Sabine’s eyes fill with daggers. “May I speak with you in private?”

“No, you may not.”

“Then might I point out that Lucienne is a trainee?”

“I’m well aware of that, yes.”

“With all due respect, she’s simply not ready.”

“Careful, Agent Chevalier, or I’ll bump you back to trainee status, too.”

That makes Sabine stop talking. I feel a smile bubble up, but Major Harken turns his furrowed brow toward me.

“Don’t look so smug, Blaise,” he says. “You’re not ready for another mission by a long shot, but you’re here and you’re alive and you’re what I have to work with. That’s why I’m sending you out—is that understood?”

His words carve a hole in my chest, but somehow I find a way to nod. “Why do you need us in Cherbourg?”

“Laurent gave me new intelligence that requires our presence. This is the type of mission that will require two of us, and since I’m running low on agents I’m sending you along.”

He’s criticizing me yet again, but I’ll take his sharp words over desk duty. “What do you need us to do?”

In reply, Major Harken reaches into his pocket and draws out two handkerchiefs. One side of them is printed with a pretty rose pattern, but the other side shows a map. This is a common trick we use in Covert Ops, disguising maps that lead to safe houses and key locations. If it’s folded and worn a certain way—say, tied around your neck—the Nazis should never notice it.

The map on this particular handkerchief shows a northern region of France called Normandy, specifically a sliver of the coast. The city of Cherbourg is charted out clearly, from its massive seaport to its neighboring villages. And at the very bottom of the kerchief, I see two lines of coded text. An address, perhaps.

Major Harken taps a finger on the code. “The first line of text is the address to a safe house in Cherbourg. You’ll rendezvous with a branch of the Resistance there, and they’ll take you to speak with a man called Alexander Dorner.”

Dorner. That’s certainly not a French name. “You want us to meet with a German?”

“He’s Austrian by birth. At least he claims to be,” Major Harken corrects me.

That doesn’t remove the bitter taste in my mouth. Hitler himself is Austrian-born, after all.

“This man also claims to be a Nazi officer with classified information for the Allies,” Major Harken goes on. “He escaped from Germany to Belgium and then made his way into France, where he made contact with the Resistance.”

Tilly shakes her head. “That’s quite the story.”

“Nevertheless it’s a story we need to check out, because Dorner supposedly has information about Operation Zerfall. He’s willing to trade this information for safe passage to England. A new life in Allied territory.”

“How do we know that we can trust this man?” Sabine asks coolly.

“We can’t trust him at this point, and that’s why I need you and Blaise to interrogate him. If Operation Zerfall is as important as we think it might be, we have to follow every lead.” He knocks his knuckle against the map, right over Cherbourg. “Find him. Question him. If his intelligence is worth considering, take him to the village of Auderville two days from now at zero four hundred hours, at these coordinates.” He moves his knuckle toward the second line of coded text. “The Brits will send a submarine to retrieve him, just north of the village. One of their agents in the Special Operations Executive will meet you on shore and take Dorner to the sub via rowboat. After that, you can return to Paris.”