V for Vengeance (23 page)

In that case, I'll put your request forward immediately I reach London,' Gregory agreed. ‘I've no idea what the British Government will be able to let you have, but they must have pretty big stocks of explosives on hand, and you'll need that for carrying out acts of sabotage, long before you're in a position to arm all your people for a general rising. Anyhow, you may be certain that they'll spare you anything they can and increase the supplies as time goes on. You'll have to let me know, though, full particulars about the channels you suggest and the names of the consignees on whom we're to make a start.'

‘Good! Before your return I will give you all details. Now, about money. This question is of far greater urgency, and one in which I hope your Government will be able to give us immediate assistance. You will appreciate that we have absolutely no official funds at all. We started from scratch; just a handful of my friends and myself, and unfortunately none of us are rich men. We each put up what we could to cover general expenses, and all those who have joined the movement contribute what they can; but many of the best of them are already in hiding, so they cannot get at any private funds they may possess, or earn any money. They must be supported, and there are constant outgoings in the shape of rentals for headquarters such as this, upkeep, bribes, travelling expenses, and so on. We have been lucky in receiving several handsome donations from wealthy people, mainly elderly women who can do little themselves but wish to make their money fight; yet such occasional gifts are quite inadequate if we are to expand the movement until it is large enough to be a real menace to our enemies.'

‘I quite understand that,' Gregory replied at once. ‘As you're aware, I have no official position whatsoever, but I feel confident that the British Government would never allow the activities of the French freedom-fighters to be hampered through lack of adequate finance. It would be extremely risky, though, for me to endeavour to bring back from London
any great sum of cash on my person. Have you any ideas as to how it could be conveyed to you safely?'

‘Yes, I have managed to get a good friend of mine appointed to a post in our Embassy at Lisbon now; so if you, or any British agent, could get the money that far, which should not be difficult, he would do the rest.'

These main points settled, they began a more general discussion of the European situation. In the past ten days there had been great diplomatic activity. On October the 22nd Hitler and Laval had met to discuss Franco-German collaboration. On the 23rd, accompanied by his Army and Air Force Chiefs, Hitler had travelled to the Franco-Spanish frontier to talk with General Franco. On the 24th, under conditions of the greatest secrecy, Hitler had met Pétain with a view to forcing yet further concessions personally out of the old Marshal. There had also been fresh tension in the Balkans, which had culminated on October the 28th in Hitler meeting Mussolini in Florence, and the Italian Forces in Albania invading Greece.

The Greeks had been driven some way back from their own frontier, but they were said to be putting up a stout resistance. Authentic news was still scarce, but Lacroix, who was in a better position to know than most people, expressed the opinion that, although the Greeks were comparatively ill-armed, now that they had been called upon to defend their own soil they would give the Italians some very hard fighting before the country was overrun.

General de Gaulle had landed in the French colony of Gabon on the previous Sunday, and although fighting was reported to be in progress there considerable numbers of the garrison had come over to him. As Lacroix was a great friend and admirer of the General's he was particularly elated by this first success of the Free French Forces, and the others congratulated him upon it.

They had been in conference for about an hour, and Lacroix was giving Gregory all the information he could regarding the German preparations for the invasion of Britain, when to their consternation the alarum bell tinkled.

All three of them came to their feet, and the Colonel said swiftly: ‘I have yet to give you those details, Gregory, about
the arms-running and the delivery of money in Lisbon. The four stout fellows who are acting as mutes will be coming in to fetch me, and it may not be safe for me to return here tonight; but it will take them some minutes to get the coffin downstairs. Quick! Slip up to your rooms, get your clothes on, then follow me out of the house as though you are mourners. If you are questioned the body is that of your old friend Professor Fresnais, the ethnologist.'

He was still speaking when Madeleine and two of the mutes came hurrying into the room. She was calm, but a little pale, as she said: ‘It's the police, but they don't seem ill-disposed. Nurse Yolanda and your other two men are keeping them occupied for the moment down in the hall.'

Lacroix was already getting into the coffin, and no sooner was he lying at full length in the satin-lined shell than the mutes seized the coffin-lid, placed it over him and began to screw it down.

Gregory and Kuporovitch, meanwhile, were scurrying quietly but quickly upstairs. In frantic haste they tore off their dressing-gowns and began to pull on their clothes. Barely two minutes elapsed before they were ready. Their underclothes had been tucked in anyhow, and their ties and collars were still undone, but each had a muffler round his neck and a heavy overcoat over his clothes, so that to outward appearances they were fully dressed. Thrusting the automatics with which Madeleine had furnished them from the secret armoury of the home into their pockets, they met on the landing.

Tiptoeing down to the first floor, they saw that the four mutes, now carrying the coffin, had just reached the hall. Madeleine was walking behind it, and the unwelcome visitors, who consisted of an inspector and three
agents de ville
, stood respectfully aside with bowed heads as it was carried towards the door.

Side by side, looking suitably mournful, Gregory and Kuporovitch came down the last flight; but the inspector stepped forward and said: ‘
Pardon, messieurs
, where are you going?'

‘We are about to follow our poor friend Professor Fresnais on his last journey,' Gregory replied sadly.

‘I regret,
messieurs
,' the inspector's voice was courteous but firm, ‘that, I cannot permit. We have reason to suspect that this house is used for subversive activities, and it is now surrounded. I have orders that no one is to be allowed to leave.'

Gregory's face showed only shocked surprise, but he was now acutely anxious. Things were evidently much worse than they had first believed. Fortunately, owing to the careful routine which Madeleine maintained, everything in the home was in apple-pie order. There was little chance of the police finding anything they could bring a charge upon, unless they happened to recognise one of the “patients” as a man that they were after. The great thing was that Lacroix had safely passed through the net. The four mutes, shouldering the coffin, were already out in the street, and the motor hearse was backing towards them.

These thoughts had raced through his brain as he took the last two steps downstairs. Instantly he began to protest, although only as a matter of form, since he now felt certain that Kuporovitch and himself would not be allowed out of the house until the police had completed their investigation.

Madeleine was outside on the pavement. She, too, now realised that this was no formal visit, as, even in the semi-darkness, she could see that a little knot of
gendarmes
had been posted on either side of the house, a little way down the street.

As she stood there uneasily watching the mutes slide the coffin into the back of the hearse she caught the wail of a klaxon horn. A large car came hurtling round the corner and drew up within a few yards of the house. Madeleine's heart missed a beat. Major Schaub jumped out of the car, followed by two other S.S. guards.

He did not appear to notice her, but his glance swiftly took in the hearse, the mutes and the inspector and the others, who were standing in the open doorway of the hall.

‘What's going on here?' he barked in staccato French.

The inspector came forward and saluted. ‘It is the funeral of Professor Fresnais,
Monsieur le Major
. He died last night from weakness after a severe operation. There are two men
here who wished to follow the hearse to the cemetery, but I have detained them.'

‘You have done rightly,' said the Major. ‘As for the hearse, we can let that go. Our business is with the living, not with the dead.'

It was at that moment that, swinging on his heel, he came face to face with Madeleine. Even in the half light his recognition of her was instant.

‘
Ach, so!
' he exclaimed, his eyes narrowing. ‘Surely you are the pretty girl who is willing to provide Russian refugees with a little amusement for the price of a good dinner. Mademoiselle Mirabeau was the name, if I'm not mistaken. So you have become a nurse! I must say the uniform suits you! But the last time we met you were pulled in for having been in conversation with an anarchist who shot a French detective. And now I find you as a nurse in a home which is under suspicion as a rendezvous for saboteurs. This is most interesting!'

Suddenly he swung round again. The hearse was just on the point of moving as he called out: ‘Halt there! Halt!' And pulling out his pistol he sent a warning shot over the head of the driver.

The hearse pulled up with a jerk. At the sound of the shot the French inspector and his men came running out on to the pavement. Gregory and Kuporovitch, knowing now that there was real trouble ahead, followed.

Major Schaub walked up to the back of the open hearse and tapped the coffin-lid with the barrel of his automatic. ‘I have heard of tricks being played with coffins before,' he said coldly, ‘and I am not now prepared to accept the statement that this one contains the body of a dead professor.'

The mutes had left their stations beside the hearse and gathered round him. With a sudden flourish of his gun towards them he rapped out: ‘Take it back into the house! I wish to see what's inside it!'

The doorway of the nursing-home stood open and was now empty except for Nurse Yolanda. The inspector and his men had all come out of the house and stood grouped together on the edge of the pavement. Kuporovitch had stepped up to Madeleine and, taking her by the arm, drawn her back a little. The Russian did not want to start anything himself, but he was determined to put up a fight rather than allow Madeleine to be arrested. With his right hand he firmly grasped the automatic in his pocket, which had its safety-catch off and was ready for instant use.

Night had come now. The light from the doorway of the nursing-home lit the scene, but the ends of the street were obscured in darkness. The infringement of the black-out regulations, the hearse, the S.S. men, and the French police had attracted the attention of numerous passers-by. They now formed a small crowd at either side of the doorway but some way back from it, consumed with curiosity yet fearful of being involved.

Gregory had followed the inspector out of the house, and he now stepped forward off the pavement. He had heard Major Schaub's order to the mutes that the coffin was to be carried into the home and opened, and he knew that all other considerations must be disregarded in an attempt to prevent that.

He had seen the small groups of police posted further down the road, but in the immediate vicinity there were only the inspector, the three
agents de ville
and the three S.S. men. As the four mutes were not really mutes at all, but Lacroix's people, Gregory felt certain that they would be armed. There
were also himself, Kuporovitch, and the driver of the hearse, so the odds were exactly even—seven against seven.

He knew that if a fight started it would be a desperate business, since all fourteen would be firing at one another at pointblank range. It was a certainty that several of them would get killed, and probably some of the bystanders would be injured. Madeleine and the other inmates of the home would also have to be sacrificed, as in any attempt to get the hearse away there would be no time to get them away with it; so they would be arrested afterwards. But it had not taken Gregory two seconds to sum up the situation clearly and form his decision.

Lacroix was the very heart and soul of this great and growing conspiracy which in time might break the Nazi stranglehold on France and thus play a huge part in bringing the war to a successful conclusion. That was the thing that mattered above all else. If Lacroix was captured, even if the whole movement were not broken up entirely, it would set it back by many months. At all costs that must be prevented. Whoever else fell a victim to shots or capture, an attempt had to be made to save the all-important brain of the movement.

Stepping off the pavement, Gregory walked quietly up to Major Schaub and said in excellent French: ‘
Monsieur le Major
, if you will think for a moment you will realise that you can't do this sort of thing.'

‘Why not,
monsieur?
' said the Major icily, staring at him in surprise.

‘Because it's not decent,' Gregory replied firmly. ‘How can you expect us French people to collaborate with you if you insult our dead?'

‘I do not insult your dead!' retorted the Major. ‘I simply require that this coffin should be opened in order that I may inspect its contents before it is despatched to the cemetery—or wherever they propose to take it at this late hour.'

Gregory glanced round at the four mutes, endeavouring as best he could by his glance alone to warn them that he meant to make trouble; then he said: ‘Am I not right,
messieurs?
To disturb the newly dead by wrenching off a coffin-lid is to insult them.'

Before any of the men could reply Major Schaub cried
angrily: ‘To hell with that! We're wasting time. I intend to have this coffin opened. Come on, you men! Get that coffin back into the house, or there'll be trouble for you!'