The Fragile Hour (26 page)

She
was surprised. “I’d no idea.”

“
Now he daren’t move them in case the Allies make a second great landing on Norwegian shores!”

Then,
because the war was ever with them, they talked softly of what they hoped for in a future together. Soon it was time for him to leave. She went with him down to her street door. They kissed again.

“
I’ll see you at Jessheim,” he said, his gaze serious. “I’ll be there.”

He
cupped her face tenderly in his hand and then left.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Anna was in good time to catch the train that would stop at Jessheim and was early enough to get a window seat. The countryside out of Oslo was gently undulating with stretches of birch woods and pine forests that were the haunt of elk. She had dressed unobtrusively in a plain skirt and blouse with her knitted
kofte
as well as her leather lace-up shoes in case she had to run for her life in an emergency. Excitement and trepidation were high in her, intoxicating as alcohol, but outwardly she appeared quite relaxed, her gaze fixed on the passing view. The forest flirted with the railway line, closing in for miles, and then drawing back again as Jessheim came nearer.

There
the platform was crowded with soldiers and airmen waiting to board the train, some lined up with sergeants barking orders and officers looking on. As the train drew to a halt, she saw that one of them was Leutnant von Heller, whom she knew from the hotel in Alesund. He was young and alert, very physical and virile, with the blue-eyed, fair-haired colouring and chiselled features that made him the Nazi stereotype of the pure Aryan soldier. Fortunately he was not looking in her direction and she jumped out quickly to thread her way to the barrier. But luck was not with her. He reached her side just as she had shown her papers and was about to pass through.

“
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 helped 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.