Code Name Verity(99)

I don’t at all remember the story about her grandmother’s sister shooting her husband. Of course Julie would have had to fudge a lot of our conversations to keep the flow going, none of them run exactly as I remember. Mostly it’s all there and I recognise it, only I don’t think she ever told me that story. I have no memory of it at all.

It’s eerie and unbearable. It’s as though she’s trying to tell me what she wanted me to do. But she couldn’t have known what was going to happen, or even that I’d read this. She thought I was dead. So it must not have been aimed at me, but then – why tell it?

What’s strange about the whole thing is that although it’s riddled with nonsense, altogether it’s true – Julie’s told our story, mine and hers, our friendship, so truthfully. It is us. We even had the same dream at the same time. How could we have had the same dream at the same time? How can something so wonderful and mysterious be true? But it is.

And this, even more wonderful and mysterious, is also true: when I read it, when I read what Julie’s written, she is instantly alive again, whole and undamaged. With her words in my mind while I’m reading, she is as real as I am. Gloriously daft, drop-dead charming, full of bookish nonsense and foul language, brave and generous. She’s right here. Afraid and exhausted, alone, but fighting. Flying in silver moonlight in a plane that can’t be landed, stuck in the climb – alive, alive, ALIVE.





Cd B = Chateau de Bordeaux

H d V = H?tel de Ville [town hall]

O.HdV.A. 1872 B. No. 4 CdB

O = Ormaie? perhaps A/Annals? Archives B/Box/Bo?te 1872 - could be year, Archives 1872 box no 4

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I SEE IT


ORMAIE TOWN HALL ARCHIVES 1872 BOX No. 4 CHATEAU DE BORDEAUX

We have them. WE HAVE GOT THEM.

—

Our prison cells are only hotel bedrooms but we are guarded like royalty. And also, there are dogs.

these cellars are empty because they are not secure

There are a number of service lifts, dumb waiters for hauling trays upstairs in addition to the great big one for loading crates and things from the main street

—

There’s more – I know there’s more – Engel’s underlined all the instructions in red – red’s her colour, Julie said. The pages are numbered and dated in red too. Julie mentioned Engel had to number the pages. They’ve created it between them, Julia Beaufort-Stuart and Anna Engel, and they’ve given it to me to use – the code’s not in order, doesn’t need to be. No wonder she was so determined to finish it –

Ugh, there is SO MUCH PAPER HERE

here it is –

—

there was an air raid and everybody scrambled to the shelters as usual. . . for two hours

‘Cd B’ = Chateau de Bordeaux

as with all the prisoners’ rooms my window has been boarded shut

The Gestapo use the ground floor and 2 mezzanines for their own accommodation and offices

‘H d V’ picked out in red = H?tel de Ville

through the cellars and out to a little stone courtyard [where there is] a gate to the lower lane

—

We can get in through the cellars, front and back. There is an entrance in the lower lane at the back and a loading lift through the street at the front. The cellars are not secure and they use the bedrooms as cells. During air raids the whole place is left unguarded apart from the dogs. We will have up to two hours. We can pull the fuses, disable the generator and fill the dumb waiters with Explosive 808 when we leave.

Julie put in the great-aunt story because she thought we might have to blow the place up with her inside. That there might be no other way. And she wanted us to do it anyway.

But we won’t have to leave any of the prisoners inside. We can break into the rooms with crowbars and lock picks and get everyone out. The official-looking numbers at the end in red ink are a CITY ARCHIVE REFERENCE. It will be the ARCHITECT’S DRAWINGS for the Chateau de Bordeaux. We will have a map of the building.

It is coming down. We are still a sensational team.





SOE LONDON – W/T MSG, DRAFT FOR ENCODING

Regret report your organiser code name Paul of Damask Circuit and Flt Officer Julia Beaufort-Stuart both killed in action 1 Dec 1943 STOP request RAF operational flight w/in France route overhead Ormaie this full moon Sat 11 Dec to create diversion enabling Operation Verity