Read Online Jackdaws by Ken Follett - Free Book Online

rehearsed this. "On
your instructions, I've been visiting key installations that might be
vulnerable to attack by the Resistance and upgrading their security."
    "I've also been trying to
assess the potential of the Resistance to inflict serious damage. Can they
really hamper our response to an invasion?"
    "And your conclusion?"
    "The situation is worse than we
imagined."
    Rommel grunted with distaste, as if
an unpleasant suspicion had been confirmed. "Reasons?"
    Rommel was not going to bite his
head off. Dieter relaxed a little. He recounted yesterday's attack at
Sainte-Cécile: the imaginative planning, the plentiful weaponry, and most of
all the bravery of the fighters. The only detail he left out was the beauty of
the blonde girl.
    Rommel stood up and walked across to
the tapestry. He stared at it, but Dieter was sure he did not see it. "I
was afraid of this," Rommel said. He spoke quietly, almost to himself
"I can beat off an invasion, even with the few troops I have, if only I
can remain mobile and flexible—but if my communications fail, I'm lost."
    Goedel nodded agreement.
    Dieter said, "I believe we can
turn the attack on the telephone exchange into an opportunity."
    Rommel turned to him with a wry
smile. "By God, I wish all my officers were like you. Go on, how will you
do this?"
    Dieter began to feel the meeting was
going his way. "If I can interrogate the captured prisoners, they may lead
me to other groups. With luck, we might inflict a lot of damage on the
Resistance before the invasion."
    Rommel looked skeptical. "That
sounds like bragging." Dieter's heart sank. Then Rommel went on. "If
anyone else said it, I might send him packing. But I remember your work in the
desert. You got men to tell you things they hardly realized they knew."
    Dieter was pleased. Seizing his
advantage, he said, "Unfortunately, the Gestapo is refusing me access to
the prisoners."
    "They are such imbeciles."
    "I need you to intervene."
    "Of course." Rommel looked
at Goedel. "Call avenue Foch." The Gestapo's French headquarters was
at 84 avenue Foch in Paris. "Tell them that Major Franck will interrogate
the prisoners today, or their next phone call will come from
Berchtesgaden." He was referring to Hitler's Bavarian fortress. Rommel
never hesitated to use the Field Marshal's privilege of direct access to
Hitler.
    "Very good," said Goedel.
    Rommel walked around his
seventeenth-century desk and sat down again. "Keep me informed, please,
Franck," he said, and returned his attention to his papers.
    Dieter and Goedel left the room.
    Goedel walked Dieter to the main
door of the castle.
    Outside, it was still dark.

CHAPTER
    SEVEN
     
    FLICK LANDED AT RAF Tempsford, an
airstrip fifty miles north of London, near the village of Sandy in
Bedfordshire. She would have known, just from the cool, damp taste of the night
air in her mouth, that she was back in England. She loved France, but this was
home.
    Walking across the airfield, she
remembered coming back from holidays as a child. Her mother would always say
the same thing as the house came into view: "It's nice to go away, but
it's nice to come home." The things her mother said came back to her at
the oddest moments.
    A young woman in the uniform of a
FANY corporal was waiting with a powerful Jaguar to drive her to London.
"This is luxurious," Flick said as she settled into the leather seat.
    "I'm to take you directly to
Orchard Court," the driver said. "They're waiting to debrief
you."
    Flick rubbed her eyes.
"Christ," she said feelingly. "Do they think we don't need
sleep?"
    The driver did not respond to that.
Instead she said, "I hope the mission went well, Major."
    "It was a snafu."
    "I beg pardon?"
    "Snafu," Flick repeated.
"It's an acronym. It stands for Situation Normal All Fucked Up."
    The woman fell silent. Flick guessed
she was embarrassed. It was nice, she thought ruefully, that there were still
girls to whom the language of the barracks was shocking.
    Dawn broke as the fast car