CODENAME: ATHENA (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 35 – COLDITZ CASTLE

15:04 (Berlin time)

Thursday, June 26, 1941 ‘B’

Inner courtyard, Colditz Castle

Saxony, Germany

Major William Anderson,

from the Royal Engineers, was

chatting with Major Pierre Renaudin of the French Foreign Legion in the western corner

of the inner courtyard when a German guard suddenly ran past them, coming from the

main gate and going towards the sick ward. He was soon back in the courtyard, pushing

a wheelchair and followed by the German Army doctor, Major Hans Frankel. As the two

Germans were passing near Anderson and Renaudin, another German guard inquired in

German about what was happening, getting an excited response from the soldier

pushing the wheelchair.

“The She-Wolf is here! She was captured a few days ago and is going to be held

here.”

“Die Wolfin? Mein Gott! This could put some life in this place.”

“Too true, Hans.”

Anderson, who had a fair knowledge of German, couldn’t help scratch his head as the

Germans walked away.

“I don’t believe this, Pierre: the Germans are bringing in a female prisoner

nicknamed the She-Wolf. As far as I know, we have no women serving in combat arms,

especially one considered dangerous enough to be sent here. Could she be French?”

“We have women only in our auxiliary services. But again, we have both been

stuck in German prison camps since the spring of 1940, like most prisoners here.

Things could have changed. Too bad that our clandestine radio receiver set is still not

completed: we could have learned about that woman from the BBC.”

“Yes! Still, a woman here should improve the scenery greatly.”

“Naah! With a nickname like hers, she must be a real matron.”

“Well, we’ll see soon enough.”

“What’s all the excitement about, lads?”

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Anderson and Renaudin turned around to face Squadron Leader Mark Lindsay, a RAF

Bomber Command bomber pilot who had arrived in Colditz four months ago.

“It seems that a female prisoner nicknamed the She-Wolf by the Germans has

just arrived. You were captured much later than us, Mark. Maybe you know who that

woman could be?”

Lindsay thought only for a short moment before replying.

“It must be Colonel Nancy Laplante, the Prime Minister’s Special Military Advisor.

She’s a Canadian Intelligence specialist who won the Victoria Cross in the fall of last

year while on a commando raid in France. I can see nobody else.”

Anderson stared in disbelief at his friend.

“A woman, winning the Victoria Cross on a commando raid? You must be pulling

my leg! Besides, how could the Prime Minister be dumb enough to take a woman as a

military advisor?”

“Look, William, I know little about her, but this I know: that Laplante was

considered important enough by the Germans to send a team of assassins to kill her in

London. She plugged all four of them in a wild shootout in Green Park.”

“My God! I can’t wait to see her. Is she cute?”

Lindsay smiled at Anderson’s question.

“Cute? The whole of Bomber Command wished that they could jump her bones.”

Before Anderson could reply to that, their attention was caught by the opening of the

main gate. A group of five Germans then entered the inner courtyard, one of whom

pushing a wheelchair on which sat a tall young woman dressed in a dirty, wrinkled

Canadian Army female dress uniform and wearing a dark green beret on her head. She

was also barefoot and sported bandages around her hands and feet, apart from having

prominent bruises on her face. Her beautiful face reflected both pain and fatigue.

Colonel Ernst Schmidt, the camp commandant, hurried out of the post office where he

had been conducting an inspection and walked to the newcomer, his adjutant at his back.

What followed both surprised and shocked the two British and the Frenchman. The

woman on the wheelchair spoke in German with the commandant, apparently making a

joke that made him laugh. The other Germans also conversed with her in friendly tones.

One officer who had escorted the woman in then gallantly kissed one of her hands

before saluting her and leaving.

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“Merde! C’est une collabo ou quoi?”25 said Renaudin in a low, hateful voice.

Anderson knew enough French to understand that. He himself felt doubt about the

woman as Lindsay spoke to him while staring at the newcomer.

“It is Laplante alright. She seems in pretty bad shape.”

“She’s in good shape enough to joke with those Germans.” replied Renaudin,

getting a warning look from Lindsay.

“Listen, Pierre, don’t judge her too quickly. A lot of new, very advanced

equipment and weapons entered service with us since she appeared out of nowhere last

Fall. I am led to believe that she is at the center of it.”

“How could she? She’s just a woman!”

“A woman who won the Victoria Cross and who has the full confidence of the

Prime Minister, Pierre. So, cut her some slack.”

As the woman was wheeled past them, Anderson saw the impressive double row of

medal ribbons on her vest, which effectively included the Victoria Cross… with Bar. She

also wore the rank insignias of a brigadier general. Snapping to attention, he saluted her

crisply. Laplante returned his salute slowly, the mere movement of raising her arm

apparently causing her pain, then stared at him with a surprised expression before

speaking in German to the guard pushing her wheelchair.

“Stop! Back up! I need to speak to Major Anderson.”

“How the hell could she know me?” muttered Anderson as Renaudin and Lindsay

looked at him, as surprised as him. Laplante was smiling as the guard stopped her

wheelchair in front of the Royal Engineers officer. Anderson could now see plainly her

battered face, bandaged hands and feet and even some whip marks on her lower legs.

“Major William Anderson, Colditz’s resident painter and artist. Maybe I should

pause for you, when I will be a prettier sight.”

“How do you know all this about me, Brigadier?”

“Because I saw your paintings and drawings… after the war. You are a quite

talented man, Major.”

“After the war? I don’t understand.”

Laplante’s smile was then replaced by a serious expression.

 

25 Shit! She’s a collaborator or what?

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“Major, I’m a time traveler from the year 2012. You didn’t know it because this

was not a publicly known fact at first when I arrived last September in England. I hope to

see you again later, maybe at supper time.”

Colonel Schmidt then cut in politely.

“If I may be bold enough, Brigadier Laplante, I was actually hoping to invite you

for supper this evening. As you may guess, we don’t get female prisoners very often

here.”

“Hmm, another first in my list of achievements. I accept your kind invitation,

Colonel.”

Laplante then looked back at Anderson.

“Tomorrow then, Major?”

“Any time will be my pleasure, Brigadier.”

She smiled again as the guard pushing her wheelchair turned her around and headed

towards the sick ward, Doctor Frankel in tow. Anderson stared hard then at the Camp

Commandant.

“Who did this to her, Colonel?”

Schmidt lowered his head in embarrassment.

“The Gestapo did it, against the explicit directives of the Führer.”

“And why would your beloved Führer care about what happens to one woman?”

Renaudin’s sarcastic question made Schmidt snap his head up.

“Major, believe it or not, but not all Germans are like the Gestapo. Brigadier

Laplante, while a formidable opponent, always fought cleanly and avoided as much as

possible to cause German civilian casualties. That earned her the respect of the Führer,

who personally ordered her transfer to Colditz.”

“Great! A friend of Hitler, here.”

Renaudin’s disdainful remark got him hard stares from Schmidt, Anderson and Lindsay.

It was however Schmidt, stepping forward and staring hard into his eyes, who replied to

him.

“Always trying to pass as the toughest one around, Major Renaudin? Beware not

to screw around Brigadier Laplante: when healthy, she could break you in two with no

problems, something I would love to see.”

“HA! A woman, break me in two? You must be joking, Colonel?”

“You have never seen a woman like Laplante before, Major. The world hasn’t,

until she arrived from the future. If not for this war, you would probably be in a jail

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somewhere, for knifing somebody in the back or some other petty crime. You will be no

match for her, I am sure of that, Major. And if you dare attack that woman while she is

helpless, you will pay dearly for it.”

As Schmidt and his adjutant, Captain Eggers, walked away, Lindsay looked towards the

sick ward and spoke softly.

“The year 2012… that actually explains many things.”

Renaudin then shook his head angrily.

“She’s still way too friendly with those damn Germans. We should keep an eye

on her.”

Anderson gave the Frenchman a dirty look.

“Pierre, leave her alone, or you will have big problems with me.”

Inside the infirmary, Major Frankel pulled a set of curtains around one of the beds,

to give some privacy to Nancy as three German soldiers helped Captain Schririe, the

British military doctor of the camp, to take Nancy off her wheelchair and lay her on the

bed. Nancy clenched her jaws and managed not to cry out in pain when their hands

touched her wounds, but her suffering was evident enough to her handlers. Frankel

then sent away the soldiers, keeping only Schririe with him to help him. He then spoke

gently in English to Nancy as he started undoing her jacket.

‘’I will have to undress you in order to examine you, miss, unless you object to

that.’’

Nancy, sweat on her forehead, shook her head.

‘’Don’t worry about that, Major: I just spent two days completely naked while the

Gestapo was torturing me. Go ahead!’’

Frankel, like Schririe, became progressively more horrified as they took as delicately as

they could her clothes off, with the extent of her wounds now fully evident.

‘’Fucking Gestapo!’’ said Schririe as he examined visually Nancy’s body. Frankel

listened to her heartbeat and lungs before paying particular attention to her hands and

feet. Nancy spoke before he could comment on them.

‘’The bones in my fingers and toes were crushed with hammers and screws,

Major. I already expect to lose permanently the use of my hands.’’

Frankel gave her a pained look in turn.

‘’I am truly sorry for you, miss.’’

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‘’I am not the only one to have suffered in this war, Major, and it would not do me

any good if I started crying on my fate. I have the firm intention to continue acting like a

brigadier, tortures or no tortures. Captain Schririe, could you tell me who is the most

senior ranking prisoner here, apart from me of course?’’

‘’Un, there are a number of lieutenant colonels of various nationalities here in

Colditz, Brigadier. The most senior British officer until your arrival was Lieutenant

Colonel Guy Robertson, from the Gloucester Regiment.’’

‘’Then, Captain, could you inform Lieutenant Colonel Robertson that I will take

from him the charge of senior British officer tomorrow morning, after the roll call? Also,

could you have someone clean and press my uniform before tomorrow morning? I

would do it myself but my hands are useless.’’

‘’I will take care of your uniform, Brigadier.’’ said Frankel. ‘’Captain, you may go

and pass the Brigadier’s message to Colonel Robertson.’’

‘’Thank you, Major.’’

As Schririe left the infirmary, Frankel called to him one of his German medics and gave

him Nancy’s clothes, with the order to have them washed and pressed quickly. The

medic was about to leave when Nancy recalled him.

‘’Wait! I have in my pockets some special medications given to me in the

Luftwaffe hospital of Tempelhof.’’

Frankel went through her pockets, putting on the bedside table the set of syringes and

the medication patches. He examined with curiosity the compresses in their sterile

plastic wrappings.

‘’What are these, Brigadier? I do read English but I can’t read those labels.’’

‘’That is because they come from the future, Major. I will tell you how to use

them on me.’’

‘’Not before I could wash you and clean your wounds, Brigadier. Let me go get a

few things for that.’’

16:17 (Berlin Time)

Room 217, senior officers’ quarters

Colditz Castle, Saxony

Captain Schririe found Lieutenant Colonel Robertson in his room, apparently

holding a meeting with other senior allied officers of the camp. He came to attention

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once inside the room and saluted Robertson, a solidly built man but also an officer who

could prove quite obtuse at times.

‘’Colonel, Brigadier Laplante asked me to pass to you the following message: she

will take the position of senior British prisoner tomorrow morning, after the roll call.’’

‘’We will see about that.’’ replied coldly Robertson. ‘’Where is that supposed

brigadier right now?’’

Schririe, surprised at first by Robertson’s attitude, then tightened his jaws with anger,

understanding what was happening.

‘’In the infirmary, being treated by Major Frankel. Colonel, this woman wears the

insignia of a brigadier, along with the ribbons of the VC with Bar, the DSO with Bar, the

CBE, the DFC and the MC. To refuse to accept her authority would amount to

insubordination, Colonel.’’

Robertson shot up from his chair, irritated by the tone of the military doctor.

‘’And you really are ready to believe that a woman can attain the rank of brigadier,

earn twice the VC and also be the military counselor of Prime Minister Churchill? If yes,

then you are more naïve than I thought, Captain. She is probably an impostor sent by

the Germans to sow confusion in our ranks.’’

Schririe stared at him with big eyes, as if Robertson was an utter imbecile.

‘’Colonel, I am a doctor and I just examined that poor woman from up close. She

was flogged on most of her body, was branded dozens of times with red hot irons, had

all her nails pulled out and also had all her fingers and toes crushed. I doubt that any

German would be ready to endure such a treatment just to confuse us, Colonel. On my

part, I have the firm intention to recognize her as my senior commander here, despite

whatever you may think.’’

Schririe then left, ignoring the furious order to stay from Robertson. The latter was about

to run after him when a tall French lieutenant colonel got up and blocked his path.

‘’Let him go, Robertson! What your doctor just said changed many things in my

mind. For one thing, I agree with him that no German woman would go through such

tortures just to play a trick on us.’’

‘’And you would let a woman take command of the prisoners in Colditz, Colonel

Brunet?’’

‘’If she is really a brigadier general, then yes! I believe that I have nothing left to

do here anymore. Good evening, gentlemen.’’

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To Robertson’s fury, the majority of the senior officers who had been discussing with him

about what to do with Laplante got up and left, leaving him alone with two French and

two Polish officers.

16:32 (Berlin Time)

Prisoners’ infirmary

Colditz Castle

Doctor Frankel, helped by his medic, was nearly finished washing delicately

Nancy with the help of wet sponges when he heard the voice of Captain Schririe, who

was speaking to him through the curtains surrounding Nancy’s bed.

‘’Major Frankel, Lieutenant Colonel Brunet and his batman26 are here to see

Brigadier Laplante.’’

‘’She is not decent right now. They…’’

‘’Wait, Major!’’ said Nancy. ‘’Cover me from the groin to my chest, so that I could

speak with Colonel Brunet.’’

‘’As you wish, Brigadier.’’ replied Frankel, who then quickly covered her partially

with a bed sheet before inviting Schririe, Brunet and his batman to come close to the bed,

letting Nancy look at them. Brunet was a tall and lean man but he was also fit and quite

young for his rank, while his batman was a young corporal of the French Army with a

sympathetic face. Brunet came to attention and saluted Nancy as he spoke in French.

‘’Lieutenant Colonel Fernand Brunet, of the French Chasseurs Alpins. I came to

propose to you the services of my batman, Caporal Jean Bigras, whom I frankly use very

little. In view of your medical condition, I believe that you will need someone to help you

go around and do certain tasks for you, General.’’

‘’You are a true gentleman, Colonel.’’ said Nancy, smiling and repressing her

pain for a moment. ‘’I accept the offer of your batman’s services with pleasure. I have to

inform you that my uniform has already been sent for washing by Major Frankel.

Corporal Bigras can thus relax until tomorrow morning. While you are here, Colonel, you

may confirm to me something I heard about Colditz. Is it true that, after the arrival of a

 

26 Batman: military term for a low-ranking subaltern assigned to a senior officer in order

to clean and maintain the uniforms and personal equipment of the said officer.

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large group of French officers in February, some of them objected to the presence in

their ranks of officers of Jewish denomination, then had them segregated?’’

Brunet nodded his head, embarrassed.

‘’You are well informed, General. I was part of that group and saw it happen. I

objected to it but Lieutenant Colonel Vermandois, who is senior to me, ignored my

objections.’’

‘’I see!’’ said Nancy, irritated by that state of affair. ‘’You will tell tonight to

Colonel Vermandois that I expect him to reintegrate those Jewish officers with the rest of

the French officers by tomorrow. If he doesn’t, then he will have to explain himself to the

senior officer of the camp: me! I will not tolerate any racial or religious discrimination

between prisoners which could undermine us as a group.’’

Brunet smiled, satisfied.

‘’I will certainly pass that point to Colonel Vermandois, General. Before I go, I

must however warn you that some are ready to dispute your authority as senior prisoner

and are even calling you a fraud.’’

Nancy took a deep breath, exasperated.

‘’How often will I have to prove myself before the misogynistic morons of this

world will take me seriously? Who leads those doubters, Colonel?’’

‘’Lieutenant Colonel Robertson, General.’’

‘’Hum! I should have known. Thank you for everything, Colonel Brunet. I will

deal with that Robertson personally.’’

‘’In your present state? But you are basically confined to a bed, General.’’

‘’Maybe, but I am not dead yet.’’

19:21 (Berlin Time)

Room 217, senior prisoners’ quarters

Colditz Castle

Guy Robertson had managed after some talking to gain the support of a dozen

more senior allied officers and was in the process of expounding his case against that

female supposed brigadier that was cozying up to the Germans. The noise of the door

of his room opening made him twist his head to check if it was not the Germans

conducting a surprise search or inspection. He stiffened in his chair when he saw that

the newcomer was a woman sitting in a wheelchair pushed by Corporal Bigras, followed

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closely by Captain Schririe, Major William Anderson and Lieutenant Colonel Brunet. The

woman wore a British female dress uniform, complete with the rank insignias of a

brigadier general, and had a stern expression on her face as Bigras pushed her

wheelchair towards the sole table in the communal room. The woman made the young

French soldier stop her wheelchair three paces from the table, then looked severely at

Robertson, who had been the ranking British officer in the room until her arrival. She

waited a few seconds, saying nothing and apparently expecting something, while

Robertson debated in his mind what to do.

‘’Well? You always ignore like this the entrance of a superior officer and a twice

recipient of the Victoria Cross, Colonel?’’

Robertson was then faced with a dilemma: if he saluted her, he automatically

acknowledged her authority over him and thus would make baseless all the arguments

he had just used to convince the allied officers present in the room. On the other hand,

if he refused to salute her, he opened himself to charges of insubordination. His

stubbornness finally won over his fears and he stayed on his chair, not saluting.

‘’Your scandalous conduct with the Germans disqualified you as an officer of the

King…if you are even one.’’

Seeing that Robertson was even more obtuse than she had expected, Nancy decided to

take off the gloves with him at once.

‘’So, you would deny my commission, my rank and my two VCs, which were

pinned on me by the King himself, just because you never heard of me before being

captured? By doing this, Lieutenant Colonel Robertson, you are not only insulting me.

You are also insulting Prime Minister Churchill, who took me on as his special military

advisor, as well as King George the Sixth, by showing disrespect to a VC recipient. As

for your stupid notion that my conduct with the Germans was scandalous, did it enter

your thick head that the Germans would not torture a collaborator the way they tortured

me?’’

Robertson was about to reply to her but Nancy cut him off, raising her voice to a shout.

‘’NOT A WORD FROM YOU, COLONEL! YOU JUST DEMONSTRATED

GROSS INSUBORDINATION TOWARDS A SUPERIOR OFFICER WHILE

CONSPIRING TO DENY MY AUTHORITY AS THE LEGITIMATE SENIOR PRISONER

IN COLDITZ, WHICH AMOUNTS TO AN ACT OF MUTINY. YOU NOW HAVE ONE

LAST CHANCE TO ACKNOWLEDGE MY AUTHORITY WITHOUT RESERVATION,

BEFORE I CHARGE YOU OFFICIALLY WITH INSUBORDINATION AND MUTINY. WE

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MAY BE PRISONERS OF WAR OF THE GERMANS RIGHT NOW, BUT BE ASSURE

THAT YOUR CONDUCT WILL BE REPORTED TO THE WAR OFFICE AND TO FIELD

MARSHALL BROOKE. NOW, WHAT WILL IT BE?’’

Seeing that the other officers around him were starting to take their distances from him,

Robertson swallowed his pride and got up at attention, saluting Nancy.

‘’It won’t be necessary, Brigadier. I see that my initial misgivings about you were

unfounded.’’

Nancy saluted him back, then said only four words.

‘’Good! Carry on, Colonel!’’

She then had Bigras turn her wheelchair around and push her out of the room, leaving a

discomfited Robertson to face the other officers still inside. Nobody said a word to him

as the small group dispersed to their respective rooms. Those who lived in the same

room as him went to their beds, ignoring him and making Robertson feel even more

bitter.

In a room of the guardhouse, some thirty yards away, a German linguist finished

scribbling down frantically what he was hearing from a microphone hidden in room 217,

then stopped his recording machine and passed his written transcript to a waiting soldier.

“Corporal, bring this at once to Colonel Schmidt: most urgent.”

As the corporal hurried out of the listening room, the army linguist smiled to himself.

“Die Wolfin sure plugged that loud mouth well. I wonder who will fall next in her

gun sights.”

20:04 (Berlin Time)

Sick ward, Colditz Castle

With the help of the German soldier assigned to guard the sick ward, Corporal

Bigras lifted Nancy from her wheelchair and laid her gently on her bed, then touched

softly her right hand.

“Do you need anything else, Brigadier?”

“Yes.” said Nancy weakly, tired by the constant pain. “This is the only uniform I

have. Could you help me take it off, so that it doesn’t get all wrinkled up?”

“Anything you ask, madame.”

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Again helped by the German soldier, whom Nancy asked to stay, Jean cautiously took

off her uniform, careful not to cause her too much pain. The severity of the torture marks

on her body shocked him as well as the young German soldier.

“And they accused you of faking your wounds. What a bunch of fools.”

With Nancy now down to her bra and panties, Jean delicately covered her with a linen

sheet, then saluted her.

“Permission to leave for the night, madame.”

“Permission granted, Corporal.”

Bigras then left after suspending carefully her clothes so that they would not get wrinkled.

The German soldier, on his part, saluted Nancy as well before posting himself near the

entrance of the ward. As for Doctor Frankel, he took five minutes to brief the German

Army medic due to take the night shift, then left for his quarters.

22:43 (Berlin Time)

Sick ward, Colditz Castle

Nancy was sobbing quietly in her hospital bed as she thought about her friend

Farah, wondering how the gentle giant was faring in Berlin, when a voice speaking in

Old Sumerian echoed in her head, startling her.

“First, you give away a precious medical device, so that others could use it, even

though that would leave you in agony. Now, you are crying for a friend while you lie

crippled and in pain. You are truly worthy of becoming my Chosen, Nancy.”

Despite looking around her bed, she saw no one, apart from the German medic and

German soldier on night watch. Both were were completely immobile, as if they would

have been frozen stiff.

‘’Who, who are you? Where are you? I can’t see you.’’

“Someone who cares for you deeply. Once, thousands of years ago, your spirit

was that of Saraï of Ur. You were also Jeanne d’Arc27. You are destined for great

things, Nancy, but your road will be long and difficult, albeit beneficial to billions of

people.”

‘’And who are you?’’ insisted Nancy, who got a mental answer at once.

27 Jeanne d’Arc: French name of Joan of Arc. Also known as ‘Jeanne de Domrémy’ and

‘Jeanne la Pucelle’.

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‘’I am The One! I have existed for billions of years and will exist for more billions

of years to come. I am a spiritual entity who has been following Humanity since its

emergence on Earth, millions of years ago. Before you ask: no, I am not the God of one

of your religions. I did not create the Universe: I was formed along it. I am presently

invisible to you, being a purely spiritual entity, but I can take any form I wish if I wanted

to.’’

‘’The men in this room: they are not moving at all. They are not dead, I hope?’’ “I froze them in time.” explained calmly the voice in her head. That statement

suddenly brought hope to Nancy.

“You can travel through time? Can you return me to the year 2012?” ‘’I could but I won’t, Nancy: someone else will do it for me.’’

‘’Then, please do something else for me.’’

“What is your wish, Nancy?”

“My friend, Farah Tolkonen, can you help her out and return her to the year

3384?”

“Again, you think of the needs of others first. Yes, I can help her. You are being

tested, Nancy, and have been found very promising so far. However, your courage cost

you dearly, to the point where you cannot go on without help. I have thus decided to

assist you directly tonight. As long as you act out of kindness and compassion, I will be

with you. One day, you will be at my side, after you die. You will now become better

and stronger than you have ever been, both mentally and physically, so that you could

serve me better as a Chosen. Take good care of Agar once out of Germany. She, as

well as you, has been tested and was found by me to be worthy.”

A white halo then enveloped Nancy, who felt herself levitate off her bed as a marvelous

sensation ran through her body. A bright light also exploded silently inside her mind and

she lost completely track of her surroundings and of time as seemingly countless spirits

fused together in one huge mass mingled with her own spirit, filling her with new images,

notions and knowledge.

The German medic and guard, along with the two male patients in the infirmary,

came out of their frozen state to see Nancy’s body enveloped in a bright white halo and

levitating silently above her bed.

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“Mein Gott!” whispered the medic before frantically grabbing his telephone and

dialing the number for Major Frankel’s room. Frankel answered his phone after two

rings.

‘’Major Frankel!’’

‘’Major, this is Obergefreiter Winkel, in the infirmary. Something is happening to

Die Wolfin, something incredible.’’

‘’What is happening exactly, Winkel?’’ asked Frankel impatiently, irritated by the

vagueness of the medic’s report.

‘’She is floating above her bed and is as bright as a spotlight, sir. You better

come here quickly.’’

‘’Floating above her bed? As bright as a spotlight? Is this a joke, Winkel, or are

you drunk?’’

‘’I’m very serious, Major, I swear!’’

‘’Very well, I’m coming, but this better be serious, or you will hear me, Winkel.’’

Frankel then put down his receiver, cutting the line. The medic then looked at the soldier

who had been playing chess with him. The guard appeared to be as dumbfounded as

him.

‘’You better get the officer of the watch here, right now!’’

The soldier nodded and grabbed his rifle before running out of the infirmary, sprinting to

the guard house while shouting.

‘’CAPTAIN EGGERS! CAPTAIN EGGERS! THERE IS AN EMERGENCY AT

THE INFIRMARY WITH DIE WOLFIN.’’

His shouts, apart from getting Captain Eggers out of the guard house at a run, also were

heard by Captain Schririe, who was in his room and taking some fresh air through his

opened window. The British doctor assumed at once that Nancy’s medical state had

suddenly deteriorated and hurried to put back on his shirt before running out of his room

and going down the stairs towards the inner courtyard. He nearly bumped into Major

Frankel, who was also on his way to the infirmary.

‘’What is happening with Brigadier Laplante, Major? Did she collapse or pass

out?’’

‘’I don’t know yet, Captain.’’ answered Frankel, unwilling to say more at the time.

He however let Schririe follow him inside the infirmary. What he saw there, along with

Captain Eggers and a number of German soldiers plus the two allied patients, made him

stop dead in his tracks, stunned.

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‘’Teufel! What is happening to her?’’

As Frankel slowly approached the floating, shining body of Nancy, Eggers pointed one of

the soldiers near him and gave him a curt order.

‘’GO INFORM COLONEL SCHMIDT OF THIS AT ONCE!’’

The soldier then left at run after a last disbelieving look at Nancy’s body. Schmidt had

time to come to the infirmary at a run and see the incredible spectacle there before

Nancy floated down to her bed and became normal again.

Nancy now felt none of the intense pain that had dodged her all day. Sitting up in

the bed, then getting up beside it, she inspected her hands and feet and found them

normal and healthy, with nails grown back fully. Taking off her bra and ripping away the

two medicinal pads covering the tips of her breasts, she saw with immense joy that her

nipples had grown back as well and that all her recent wounds had completely

disappeared. Only the scars of her old battle wounds were left on her now smooth skin.

Touching her nipples, she found out that they had their original sensitivity. Tears of joy

in her eyes, Nancy realized only then that a small crowd was watching her from beyond

the curtains surrounding her bed. Too shaken by what had happened to her to care

about her nudity, she walked past the curtains and looked at the assembled Germans

and British while sobbing.

“A… a miracle! A miracle happened to me.”

‘’Gott und Himmel!’’ Swore quietly Colonel Schmidt while looking at her from

head to toe, seeing no wounds left on her body. He then made three steps to go grab a

blanket on an empty infirmary bed and went to Nancy, draping her with the blanket.

‘’Please, Brigadier, you should preserve your dignity. Let’s go back to your bed,

behind the curtains, so that Major Frankel can examine you in detail. DOCTOR, COME

EXAMINE HER! THE OTHERS, EXCEPT CAPTAIN EGGERS, GET OUT!’’

‘’Can I stay and examine her as well, Colonel?’’ asked Captain Schririe, not

moving as the others filed out of the infirmary. Schmidt thought for a second before

nodding his head.

‘’Very well, Captain Schririe. You may be useful in convincing the other prisoners

that this was not staged by us.’’

‘’Thank you, Colonel.’’

535

Schmidt guided Nancy, who was still under the shock of what had happened to her, back

to her bed and, letting Frankel and Schririe examine her in detail, went to see his

adjutant.

‘’Eggers, get a camera, quickly, and come back here to photograph Brigadier

Laplante in detail while she is still naked. We need to document this as best as possible,

as I suspect that it will be very hard to convince Berlin that we did not hallucinate or

something like that.’’

‘’I understand, Colonel. I will be back in less than five minutes.’’

Once Eggers was gone, Schmidt approached again Nancy’s bed and, forcing

himself not to ogle her beautiful naked body, watched Frankel examine Nancy with the

help of Schririe. He already expected the verdict which Frankel finally delivered with a

disbelieving look on his face after a few minutes.

‘’This should be impossible, Colonel, but she is now in perfect health. Her nails

have regrown, the bones of her fingers and toes are now intact and well-formed and all

of her external wounds have disappeared. The only proper word to describe this is

‘miracle’, Colonel.’’

Schmidt then looked gravely at Nancy, still lying naked on her back on her bed.

‘’Do you have an explanation for all this, Brigadier? Could some science from the

future do this?’’

Nancy shook slowly her head, still digesting what had happened to her and all the new

things she now knew thanks to her brief mental contact with The One.

‘’No human science could do this, Colonel. A scientist and doctor from the 34th

Century who tried to bring me back to my own time period and is now being held in

Berlin treated my wounds yesterday and, while her medical science was far in advance

of your German medical science, what happened to me tonight was completely beyond

her. Colonel, you have shown yourself up to now to be a decent, understanding man, so

I will tell you this: during my miraculous healing, something touched my mind, something

too powerful and wonderful to be human.’’

‘’God?’’ asked Schmidt, his heart accelerating suddenly as he thought of the only

possible explanation. Nancy nodded gravely her head.

‘’I believe that you may call him so, Colonel. It presented itself to me as ‘The

One’. I say ‘it’ because it is neither male nor female, but is a spiritual entity of

unbelievable power.’’

536

‘’Why? Why did God decide to heal you like this?’’

‘’I am not sure, Colonel. The one thing I understand is that The One expects me

to act with kindness, compassion and generosity.’’

What Nancy didn’t tell Schmidt, so that he would not be alarmed and think of her as a

possible threat, was that she had received a number of supernatural powers during her

healing, powers she was only now starting to review. She would definitely need a few

days to sort out her mind and know what exactly she had become. One thing was for

sure in her mind: she was no ordinary human anymore. Captain Eggers then came back

in the infirmary at that moment, a camera in his hands. Nancy smiled on seeing the

camera and winked mischievously at Eggers.

‘’Would you like me to take a sexy pose for you, Captain? I can be a really bad

girl when I want to.’’

Eggers, a man with a deep sense of humor, swallowed hard while eyeing with lust her

now pristine, magnificent body.

‘’Uh, I will keep this professional, Brigadier, unless I want Colonel Schmidt to skin

me alive afterwards.’’

Schmidt laughed at that, then patted Eggers’ shoulder.

‘’Take this as a test of your self-control, my good Eggers. I will now let you alone

with Brigadier Laplante. I have an urgent phone call to make to Berlin.’’

07:18 (Berlin Time)

Friday, June 27, 1941 ‘B’

Sick ward, Colditz Castle

Corporal Bigras entered cautiously the sick ward, not knowing what to expect

after whatever happened here last night. The only thing he and the other prisoners

knew thanks to Captain Schririe was that Laplante had been healed in some miraculous

way. Of course, Lieutenant Colonel Robertson had wasted no time then to insinuate

again that her previous condition had been faked. He then saw Nancy, sitting on her

bed and combing her hair, wearing only her bra and panties. None of the hideous scars

which had been plainly visible yesterday were left on her back now. Approaching slowly,

Bigras was even more surprised when she turned her head and smiled to him. The

missing teeth knocked out by her interrogators were now back in place, her smile a

perfect one.

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“But… how could this be possible, Brigadier?”

“A miracle happened last night, Corporal.” she replied softly. “It may sound

impossible, but it is the truth.”

“And all your wounds are gone?”

“All! I will now be able to attend the eight O’clock roll call without your

assistance.”

Those words immediately made Bigras uneasy.

“Some other prisoners may take this as proof that you faked your wounds,

Brigadier. Your explanation of your healing through a miracle won’t get too many buyers,

madame, even with the testimony of Captain Schririe.”

Nancy got up and stepped to Bigras, stopping close enough for her chest to nearly touch

the young Frenchman.

“You saw my wounds yesterday, Corporal. Did they look faked to you?”

Jean had a hard time not to stare at her large, firm breasts, so tantalizingly close.

“No, Brigadier. Still, a miracle is not something easily believed by those who

didn’t witness it.”

“Right now, the only opinion that counts to me is yours, Corporal. If you believe

that I faked my wounds and that I am a collaborator, then I will understand if you choose

to quit as my orderly.”

Jean only hesitated for a second before answering her.

“Brigadier, I still believe in you. I want to stay as your orderly, even if it gets me

in trouble with the other prisoners.”

Nancy smiled and kissed him on the forehead.

“Your confidence in me warms my heart, Corporal. If anyone causes you trouble,

I want to know about it at once. I will see you at the roll call parade. Thanks again for

helping me yesterday.”

“It was a pleasure, madame.”

As he was leaving the ward, Jean saw the look the German guard was giving to

Nancy. It was not fear, nor was it truly admiration. Rather, it had a sort of religious

quality to it. Jean himself felt somewhat like that now. In the inner courtyard, he met

Major Anderson and Lieutenant Colonel Brunet, who were loitering around the entrance

of the sick ward. Brunet signaled him discreetly to join him and got close to the chapel’s

entrance with him and Anderson.

538

“Corporal, can you tell me how Brigadier Laplante is this morning?”

“Brigadier Laplante is fully healed from her wounds this morning, sir. She herself

doesn’t know how it happened, apart that saying that a miracle happened to her. I saw

her from very close and there are no bruises or burns left on her body. Even her missing

teeth are back. She will attend the morning roll call, sir, so you will be able to see this by

yourself.”

Anderson and Brunet looked at each other, not knowing what to believe. Anderson

shook his head slowly, bewildered.

“I’m going inside to see her: all this is too incredible.”

“I will come with you, Major.”

Both senior officers resolutely walked into the sick ward, where the German soldier on

guard duty challenged them.

“Halt! What is your business here, sirs?”

“We are here to see Brigadier Laplante, Gefreter28.”

“She is still getting dressed, Colonel.”

“Then we will wait here.”

“NO NEED TO!” shouted Nancy from behind a mobile curtain hiding her bed from

the entrance area. “You can come close, gentlemen.”

Somewhat hesitantly, the two male officers walked to the mobile curtain, behind which

they could see the silhouette of Nancy as she was putting on her uniform. She then

spoke again.

“I suppose that you are here to ask me how come I am healthy only two days

after being tortured by the Gestapo, gentlemen?”

“Something like that, miss.” replied Brunet, keeping his voice neutral. “Then, I can only say that I have God to thank for that.”

She then drew the curtain open, revealing herself to Anderson and Brunet. She wore

her dress uniform, complete with her green beret and a pair of black shoes. The gap in

her front teeth was now gone, something revealed by her friendly smile.

“Good morning, Colonel Brunet. I need to thank you for providing me Corporal

Bigras as a personal orderly: he is an able young man.”

“It was the least I could do, General. About yesterday, may I say that I am sorry

about my colleagues’ haste in accusing you?”

28 Gefreter: corporal

539

Nancy nodded her head gravely, obviously concerned.

“I was kind of hoping for a better welcome after all that I went through, Colonel. I

however am not planning on changing my ways with the Germans: I fight them but I

don’t hate them… generally. This war is already bad enough without adding racism to it.

By the way, I have to inform you that Colonel Schmidt offered to let me go under escort

in the town, so that I could buy some essential female supplies and clothes: until I can

receive a parcel from England, this will be my only uniform… and my sole set of female

underwear.”

“I see no problem with that, General. Colonel Schmidt is a true gentleman.”

Brunet fell silent, not knowing how to go on. Anderson then jumped into the fray.

“Were you awake when that miracle occurred, Brigadier? What happened

exactly?”

“I was awake, Major. The only thing I can say is that a bright light hit me and I

felt myself levitate from my bed. When the light went out, I found myself healed

completely, as you see me now. I know that this is very hard to believe but I can’t

provide you more information. Shall we join the others for the roll call, gentlemen?”

“Er, why not?”

Nancy led the two officers out of the sick ward and into the inner courtyard, where about

a hundred prisoners were already slowly assembling for the morning roll call. All eyes

immediately turned on her, with most being less than friendly. Hauptman29 Eggers and

an old feldwebel30 stood on one side, along with a dozen German soldiers. Flanked by

Brunet and Anderson, Nancy joined the officers’ platoon, where Lieutenant Colonel

Robertson greeted her with a poisonous look.

“So, you faked your wounds, after all.’’

Anderson expected Nancy to lash back at Robertson, but she instead looked at him

coldly and kept her voice controlled.

“Think what you want, moron. I don’t expect you to be able to understand what

happened to me last night.”

The German feldwebel then started the roll call, preventing Robertson from replying.

The prisoners were called in order of rank, with Nancy being first to be called.

“BRIGADIER GENERAL NANCY LAPLANTE!”

29 Hauptman: captain

30 Feldwebel: warrant officer

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“Present!”

Hauptman Eggers then briefly took over from the feldwebel.

“Brigadier Laplante, please see me after the roll call, so that you can be assigned

a room.”

“Yes, Hauptman!”

Major Renaudin, standing four steps to the left of Nancy, stuck his head out to mock her.

“Nobody will want to be with you, you German-loving bitch!”

“MAJOR, WATCH YOUR WORDS!” Growled Brunet. Nancy touched his arm to

calm him down, then stared at Renaudin.

“Major, if you want an explanation with me, I will be more than happy to meet you

between four walls, just the two of us.”

That brought a mean smile on Renaudin’s face.

“You won’t stand a chance.”

“Don’t bet on that, asshole!”

All the while, Eggers was watching carefully the verbal confrontation from a distance.

When the roll call was completed, Nancy went to him as the others were dispersing.

Eggers then gave her a warning.

“I see that you have met Major Renaudin, Brigadier. Be careful: he is a

dangerous man. He is known to have attacked other prisoners before, and not always

from the front.”

“I will deal with him at the proper time and the proper way, Hauptman. So, what

do you have to offer me?”

“I actually have a choice for you, Brigadier.” said amicably Eggers, then pointing

at the four-story building on the east side of the courtyard.

“In this building, we have a few cells for prominent, meaning high risk prisoners.

They are a bit Spartan but you will have there the proper privacy a woman deserves in a

place like this. The other choice is the senior officers’ quarters, in the southwest corner

of this courtyard. The accommodations are nicer but you will be surrounded by men,

with no separate shower or washroom facilities for women.”

“Put me in the southwest wing, Hauptman.” replied Nancy without hesitation. “I

don’t want to be separated from the other prisoners. There are already enough nasty

rumors about me running around this place.”

Eggers gave her a warning look.

“Brigadier, you would be safer in the east wing. Think again.”

541

“Hauptman, I appreciate your concern for me, truly, but my mind is made up and I

can fend for myself. I will arrange a schedule for my use of the showers with the senior

prisoners.”

“As you wish, Brigadier. Don’t say later that I didn’t warn you. Now, before I

show you to your room, I will guide you to our clothing store: you could use some spare

clothes.”

“Don’t tell me that you have female uniforms here, my dear Hauptman.”

“No such luck for you, Brigadier. We do have however things like bathrobes,

slippers, T-shirts and shorts that can basically fit anybody. You will also get towels and

other hygiene items.”

“Then lead on, Hauptman.”

The visit at the clothing store took less than twenty minutes, at the end of which

Nancy had enough items to fill a suitcase. Eggers then led her back out in the courtyard

and in the southwest building, climbing the spiral stone staircase up to the fourth floor.

Many of the prisoners who met Nancy either avoided her eyes or looked at her with open

contempt. Eggers noticed that too and looked worriedly at Nancy.

“You are sure that you don’t want to change your mind, Brigadier?”

“Absolutely sure, Hauptman.”

Once on the fourth floor, Eggers led her around a light well, opening the door of a small

room facing South and inviting Nancy in.

“Your new home for the rest of the war, Brigadier.”

Putting her pile of clothes and personal items on the bed pushed in one corner of the

room, Nancy quickly glanced around her new surroundings: a large window with steel

bars provided ample light, while the furniture consisted of a storage cabinet, a small

table with a chair, a single wall shelf, a table lamp and a steel framed bed. Going to the

window and opening it, she admired the outside view through the steel bars for a

moment before turning to face Eggers.

“This will be perfect, Hauptman. Thank you!”

“You are welcome, Brigadier. A feldwebel will come at ten O’clock to pick you up

for your shopping tour.”

“I will be ready then, Hauptman.”

Eggers was about to leave when Nancy stopped him.

542

“Before you go, I must warn you, Hauptman. I may be polite and correct with

German soldiers, but we are still at war. I will try my best to escape, except on the

occasions when I give my word not to, and I will cause as much trouble as I can. I will

however not use deadly force in any escape attempt. Please pass this to Colonel

Schmidt.”

Eggers stared at her in silence for a moment, then came to attention and saluted her.

“Brigadier, I expected no less from Die Wolfin. Have a good day.”

“You too, Hauptman.”

Once Eggers was gone, Nancy put away her new possessions in the storage

cabinet, which took her a mere two minutes. She then returned to the window to

examine in detail the countryside surrounding the castle. She had already visited the

place in the future while accompanied by a German Army officer and her knowledge of

Colditz would probably send Colonel Schmidt into a nervous fit if he ever learned of the

extent of it. Nancy was relieved to see that the village outside the southern moat of the

castle was basically the same as when she had toured it in 2003. With any luck, that

could simplify her oncoming shopping trip. She was still examining the countryside ten

minutes later when someone knocked on her door.

“Come in!”

Nancy smiled when Corporal Jean Bigras timidly stuck his head inside.

“Please come in, Corporal.”

“Er, I’m not disturbing you, Brigadier?”

“Not at all! Make yourself comfortable.”

Jean closed the door behind him and stood near it, facing her.

‘’Since you don’t need me anymore to push your wheelchair, I came to inquire

about what you will be expecting of me as your orderly, Brigadier.’’

‘’About your duties as my orderly, you will find me a most undemanding boss,

Corporal: I am from a time period when most of the privileges the officers of this present

time take for granted have been abolished. I will serve myself at the kitchen and I will do

my own washing. I also don’t believe in those barrack room inspections this time period

is so fond of. Actually, your biggest task as my orderly will be to guard the entrance to

the showers when I will be using them.”

“Madame?” Exclaimed Jean, turning red.

“You heard me well, Corporal. By the way, what room are you in?”

543

“In room 504, just under the attic, Brigadier. If you want, I could give you a tour

of the building.”

“That won’t be necessary: I know the whole castle well.”

“You do?”

“Corporal, I hold a Master’s degree in International Relations and a B.A. in

Military History. Apart from visiting extensively this castle in the future, I read many

books about it and studied its history in detail, with particular attention to the period of

this war. I probably know things about this castle that Colonel Schmidt himself doesn’t

know.”

“That… that is a pleasant surprise, Brigadier. Do you plan to escape from

Colditz?”

Nancy grinned devilishly at that.

“What do you think, Corporal? Anyway, time for you to go: my escort should

show up soon.”

“Then, have a good walk in town, Brigadier.”

On his way out, Jean nearly collided with an old feldwebel about to knock on Nancy’s

door. Excusing himself, the Frenchman then left in a hurry, watched by the suspicious

German. Nancy, grabbing her beret, got out of her room and closed the door before

smiling to the German.

“He’s my orderly, Feldwebel. I was giving him my instructions for his daily

routine.”

“Ach so! Ready for your shopping trip, Brigadier?”

“I certainly am, Feldwebel. Lead on!”

Going down the stairs to the inner courtyard, the two of them walked to the wide,

arched passage leading to the entrance gate. Five armed soldiers were waiting for them

in front of the massive doors. Before one of them knocked on the doors to have them

unlocked by an outside sentry, the feldwebel took out a pair of handcuffs and looked

apologetically at Nancy.

“I’m sorry, Brigadier, but I have orders not to take any chances with you.”

“Do what you have to do, Feldwebel. Just don’t clamp them on too tight.”

The German was actually careful when he put the handcuffs around Nancy’s wrists,

tightening them progressively and leaving some loose in them. With the soldiers

surrounding her, Nancy was then escorted out of the entrance, along the ramparts and

544

the outer courtyard and through the Clock Tower gate, emerging on the moat bridge and

the street leading into the medieval town of Colditz.

Nancy’s group immediately attracted the curiosity of the civilians present in the

streets or visible at windows or balconies. While the words ‘Die Wolfin’ could be heard a

number of times, nobody showed real hostility or hurled insults at Nancy. Seeing a

street she recognized from her 2003 visit, Nancy pointed it to the feldwebel walking

besides her.

“I believe that there is a jeweler’s shop down that side street. I would like to go

see if I could sell my engagement ring there, Feldwebel.”

The German looked at her with unmitigated surprise.

“How could you know about that shop, Brigadier? You just arrived yesterday!”

“Actually, I visited Colditz before, in 2003. The shop was run by a Herr Molders,

who succeeded his father in his business.”

The feldwebel shook his head in disbelief while the other Germans stared at her as if

she was a witch.

“Brigadier, you’re one different woman, I’ll give you that. Let’s go see that

jeweler.”

Moving down the side street with Nancy in the lead, they soon stopped in front of a small

shop with a name displayed on the front window.

“Molders and Son, jewelers. It didn’t change a bit in 62 years.” said Nancy

playfully before entering the store. A man in his forties was sitting behind a glass

counter where jewels and watches were displayed. A small boy was also sitting near the

door giving into the rear of the shop, reading an illustrated book. Both looked up at

Nancy and nearly jumped out of their chairs.

“Dad, it’s Die Wolfin!” shouted the boy excitedly, running to Nancy to examine her

from head to toe. The boy was maybe ten years old and had blond hair and blue eyes.

Smiling to him, Nancy crouched in front of him.

“Hello, Hans! You’re quite a handsome boy.”

The jeweler instinctively made the sign of the cross at those words.

“How do you know my son’s name, miss?”

“Let’s say that I spoke at length with him before… in 2003. Do you buy gold, Herr

Molders?”

“Er, yes. What would you like to sell, Miss?”

545

“My engagement ring. I need some cash to buy female articles: those

incompetents at the castle don’t have size 40C bras in stock.”

The jeweler and the soldiers burst out in laughter as Nancy took off her engagement ring.

Molders took it and, using a magnifying lens, examined it carefully.

“Nice little diamonds on this ring, miss. The gold is 18 karats.”

The jeweler then weighed the ring on a precision scale before looking back at Nancy.

“I can give you 1600 Reich marks for this ring, miss.”

“I will take your word on this, Herr Molders. Deal!”

As the jeweler counted out Nancy’s money, the feldwebel got close to the counter and

extended his right hand.

“I’m sorry, Brigadier, but I have to hold on to your cash: prisoners can’t keep

large sums on them. Whatever is left after your shopping tour will be held for you and a

receipt will be given to you.”

“Fair enough, Feldwebel. You certainly follow all the rules on the proper

treatment of prisoners of war.”

“We are not the Gestapo, Brigadier.” replied softly the German. Nancy gave him

her money, then caressed the jeweler’s son’s hair playfully.

“See you in 62 years, Hans.”

“I will never forget your visit, Miss Wolfin.” said proudly the child. Something

enormous then struck Nancy, who paled visibly. The older Hans Molders did not

remember her at all in 2003, meaning only one thing: she was now in a parallel timeline.

Simply waiting a few decades would not return her to what she knew as her own time.

“Are you alright, Brigadier?” asked the feldwebel, seeing her wobbling. “I… I will be. Let me go out for some fresh air.”

The six German soldiers accompanied her out of the shop, concern on their faces. It

took her a minute or so before she felt well enough to continue on.

“I’m alright now, Feldwebel. Let’s find a women’s clothing store now.”

Going back on the main street, the group walked slowly along it. They encountered

newspapers stand one block down, where a big front-page title and a picture in a Berlin

newspaper immediately caught Nancy’s eyes. Grabbing a copy with her cuffed hands,

she detailed the picture showing her in a wheelchair, flanked by Luftwaffe soldiers in

front of the Tempelhof Hospital.

“Die Wolfin caught.” read Nancy aloud. “The infamous Canadian time traveler

will now spend the rest of the war in Colditz Castle.”

546

Nancy then looked at the feldwebel.

“Could I buy a couple of copies of this newspaper?”

“Er, I don’t see a problem with that. Go ahead, Brigadier.”

“Could you pay, then, since you have my money?”

“Oh… of course! Silly me!”

Folding the two newspapers under one arm, Nancy resumed her slow walk, stopping

eventually in front of a clothing store.

“This looks like a good place for me. Let’s go in!”

Nancy filled two shopping bags in that store, then went to a nearby drugstore, where she

bought various female hygiene and beauty items. On leaving the drugstore, the

feldwebel looked at his watch and shook his head.

“Twenty past eleven already. You’re as bad as my wife when she goes shopping.

We better hurry up or we will be late for lunch. Brigadier?”

Nancy, who had been gazing at a storefront display, looked at him, hopeful.

“Could I please buy one last item? It would mean a lot to me.”

“What it is now, Brigadier?” said the German, sighing.

“Just a plain, used guitar.”

“A guitar? Er, I don’t know about that.”

“I could serenade you from my window.” she said playfully. The old soldier just

didn’t feel like saying no to her: she was so attractive and nice in many ways. Besides, a

guitar, even broken down into its components, could hardly be of any use in an escape.

“Oh, alright! I’ll probably catch hell for this but I’m counting on you being a good

guitar player, Brigadier.”

“I can play it nearly as well as I can fight, Feldwebel.”

“Himmel! That’s enough of a reference for me. Let’s buy it.”

As the ecstatic Nancy got out of the music store five minutes later, her newly

acquired guitar in her hands, the noise of a convoy coming up the street made her and

her guards look to their right, in time to see a column of Luftwaffe trucks appear at a

bend. Led by a Krupp Boxer light vehicle in which sat a Luftwaffe lieutenant colonel,

twelve trucks full of troops rolled past Nancy, followed by six anti-aircraft quad 20mm

cannons mounted on half-tracks. Twelve more half-tracks followed, six of them towing

88mm anti-aircraft guns.

547

“Mein Gott!” exclaimed the feldwebel. “Did they bring all this just because of you,

Brigadier?”

“Yes!” said Nancy gravely. “I sincerely hope that my presence here will not bring

death and destruction to this town.”

The six German soldiers stared at her, not knowing how to react to those words.

13:09 (GMT)

Cabinet conference room

10 Downing Street, London

England

Everyone in the conference room rose to their feet when Prime Minister Churchill

entered, his face reflecting deep concern.

“Please sit down, gentlemen, and let’s deal with this situation at once.”

Churchill sat, then nodded to Brigadier General Menzies, head of the M.I.6, who was

one of the nine ministers and senior officers sitting around the conference table with

Churchill.

“Brief us on your findings, General.”

“Yes, Mister Prime Minister.”

Menzies, with his deputy Claude Dansey to his right, took a pile of papers and

photographs lying on the table in front of him and extracted a document out of it as he

spoke.

“Gentlemen, we finally have some news about what happened to Brigadier

Laplante after her capture four days ago. Unfortunately, those news are mostly bad. To

resume quickly what became of her, the Coastal Command aircraft she was traveling on

apparently crashed in the North Sea due to extremely bad weather. A German

submarine then picked her up, still alive, and was told to turn back to port to bring her to

Germany, where Brigadier Laplante was supposed to be picked up by Abwehr agents.

Unfortunately, it seems now that it was a team of Gestapo agents masquerading as

Abwehr agents that picked her up in Wilhelmshaven.”

“My God!” said softly Anthony Eden while lowering his head in despair. General

Ismay also appeared shaken by this. Menzies went on, showing the document taken

from the pile.

548

“What followed is still a bit confused to us, but it seems that Brigadier Laplante

was brought to a Gestapo center in Berlin and tortured for over two days until the

Abwehr, acting on Hitler’s orders, found her and freed her. She was then brought to a

Luftwaffe hospital near Tempelhof airfield and briefly treated there before being shipped

under escort to Colditz Castle, an old fortress in Saxony used to keep prisoners of war

deemed dangerous by the Germans. We learned of all this via this report from a

representative of the Red Cross, who was able to see and speak with Brigadier Laplante

in the Tempelhof hospital, thanks to the good offices of the Abwehr. An attaché of the

American embassy in Berlin was also present and took numerous pictures of Laplante,

apart from writing down for her a note meant for her husband, who is the American

Assistant Army Attaché in London. The Red Cross representative also happened to be

a doctor, so we have a medical assessment of her as well. It is not pretty, gentlemen.”

Menzies passed around the table two sets of pictures and gave a third set directly to

Churchill. The old politician winced as he looked at the pictures one by one.

“My God! The poor woman.”

Similar exclamations went around the table as the sets of pictures passed from hand to

hand. Menzies waited until most of the participants had seen them before speaking

again.

“According to the Swiss doctor from the Red Cross, Brigadier Laplante bore

extremely severe marks of tortures and was in constant, severe pain. All her nails were

pulled out and her fingers and toes were smashed, among other atrocities done to her.

According to a military doctor working at M.I.6 who looked at both this report and the

photographs, Brigadier Laplante was subjected to the worst tortures imaginable. This

raises a crucial point: did she reveal any secrets to the Germans while under torture?”

“Could anyone actually resist such barbaric treatment?” asked Admiral Pound,

the First Sea Lord. General Ismay looked resolutely at him.

“If anyone can, it is Brigadier Laplante. She is the toughest and bravest woman I

ever met.”

“But can we go only on presumptions, General Ismay?” cut in Menzies.

“Brigadier Laplante is possibly the one single person who holds the most precious

secrets in this country. Anything that she could have given up under torture would cause

grave damage to our war effort. Besides, she may have given secrets to the Germans

even without the tortures. Before you all jump in indignation at this, hear me out,

gentlemen.”

549

Menzies then took a sheet of paper out of his pile of evidence.

“This is a copy of the small note which Laplante dictated to the American

diplomat, to be given to her husband in London. We managed to copy the original

before Major Crawford received it. Brigadier Laplante was under the effect of morphine

when she dictated it, which would explain its slightly disjointed text. My deputy, Claude

Dansey, analyzed it and came up with a few interesting points. Claude…”

The old Secret Service bureaucrat cleared his throat and consulted a notepad as he

spoke slowly.

“That note actually confirmed a few things we already suspected about Brigadier

Laplante, gentlemen. I…”

Anthony Eden’s fist slamming on the table cut off Dansey. The Foreign Minister glared

at the bureaucrat as he shouted angrily at him.

“That woman lies physically broken in a prison cell in Germany and you dare try

to dirty her name when she can’t even be here to defend herself? I haven’t seen you on

the frontlines lately, mister. Mister Prime Minister, why do we even listen to this?”

“Sir Anthony, while I am furiously tempted to call Mister Dansey to order, this

subject is too important not to consider all the possibilities. Mister Dansey, you may

continue, but be convincing if you want to keep your job.”

“Er, yes, Mister Prime Minister.” said Dansey, now sweating, before looking back

at his notepad. “Apart from the expected declarations of affection to her husband,

Laplante also wrote, and I quote, tell our beloved daughter Ingrid that I love her very

much and that I want her to still be proud of what she is, unquote.”

Dansey looked up from his notepad and examined the now confused expressions on the

faces around the conference table.

“As you may know already, Brigadier Laplante doesn’t have a daughter, either

here or in the year 2012. She however helped capture a young German female auxiliary

during a raid in France last January, along with other female German prisoners. The

name of that girl is Ingrid Weiss.”

Dansey then held up high a black and white picture of a most beautiful teenage girl

wearing a Luftwaffe uniform.

“The said Ingrid Weiss has apparently forged quickly a special bond with

Brigadier Laplante while being held in the Tower of London, to the point where she was

called a traitor by another German prisoner, who attacked her. The guards at the Tower

of London are unanimous in saying that there is a lot of affection between Laplante and

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Weiss. Then, a week ago, our hidden microphones in the prisoners’ quarters of the

Tower told us that Major Crawford has managed to obtain the American citizenship for

Private Ingrid Weiss. We thought at first that he had done this on his own, without his

wife’s knowledge, but Laplante’s note shows that they must have secretly adopted that

German girl.”

“But… that is tantamount to treason!” shouted Clement Attlee, the Deputy Prime

Minister. “Why would Brigadier Laplante do such a thing?”

“Because she is a Germanophile, sir.” replied Dansey, making many eyebrows

rise around him. “She has always been overly scrupulous about treating German

prisoners well and on insisting on not targeting German civilians.”

“That makes her a humane person in my books, Mister Dansey, not a

Germanophile.” shot back Anthony Eden.

“Then, what about this, sir? When we found out about that Ingrid Weiss, we

reviewed our information on all the other female prisoners held in the Tower of London.

We then made quite a discovery just yesterday: one of those German women who was

masquerading as a simple Luftwaffe auxiliary is in fact none other than Flugkapitan

Hanna Reitsch, a famous female test pilot and a hardcore Nazi to boot.”

“So? Brigadier Laplante must have been fooled by her, like the rest of us.”

“I don’t think so, sir. The electronic files in Laplante’s computer were checked

this morning to find out as much as we could about that Hanna Reitsch. To our surprise,

we found a very extensive file concerning that test pilot. That file was in fact bigger than

any other file on Germans of this war, save for one on Adolph Hitler and another on a

Waffen-SS officer named Otto Skorzeny. The file on Reitsch was in fact so extensive

that it is nearly unthinkable that Brigadier Laplante didn’t recognize her the minute she

saw her in the Tower of London.”

“So, what are you saying, Mister Dansey?” asked pointedly Clement Attley. “That

our greatest war hero is a traitor?”

“If fraternization with the enemy is considered a treasonous act, yes sir.”

“Wait a minute!” shouted General Ismay. “All this makes no sense! Why would

the Gestapo torture Brigadier Laplante if she is on such good terms with the Germans?”

“On that, I don’t have an answer, sir.”

They were then all silent for a long moment, until Attley spoke again.

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“What do we do about Brigadier Laplante, then? She is still held prisoner in

Germany, where she can give away information, either willingly or under torture. Do we

try to break her out of prison or do we let her rot in a cell for the rest of the war?”

“What about killing her, so that the Germans have no more chances to get

secrets out of her?”

Dansey’s suggestion got him a few angry stares, but also a few nods. Churchill then

decided that it was time to take personal control of this meeting.

“Gentlemen, we are now speculating with very few facts in our hands. I

personally will not tolerate public accusations of treason against Brigadier Laplante

without a lot more evidence than what we have now. We also need as much information

as we can on that Colditz Castle, to see if we can in fact break her out of there. I thus

want a photo-reconnaissance mission of Colditz as soon as possible.”

“I will take care of that, sir.” replied at once General Ismay. Dansey was next to

speak.

“What about those two Germans, Weiss and Reitsch? We should at the least

have them interrogated to see what they could tell us about their true relationship with

Brigadier Laplante.”

Churchill thought that one over for a moment.

“Leave the young girl alone, Mister Dansey. I will do the inquiring about her

myself. You may question the test pilot, though. However, I don’t want any brutalities

involved.”

“I understand, sir.”

“Then this meeting is adjourned until more information becomes available. Have

a good day, gentlemen.”

Menzies and Dansey met with an anxious Wing Commander Winterbotham once

outside of the conference room. Winterbotham went straight to Menzies.

“Sir, what is the word about ULTRA? Is it still safe or should we consider it

compromised?”

“We don’t know yet: the Prime Minister judges that there is not enough evidence

to accuse publicly Brigadier Laplante of treason, yet. He also won’t speculate on

whether she talked under torture. Personally I fear that our biggest secret, along with

many others, have been compromised, either willingly or unwillingly, by Laplante. We

will have to analyze ULTRA traffic carefully to watch for inconsistencies from now on.

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Wing Commander, I want you to especially watch for any intercepts from Colditz Castle,

where Laplante is being supposedly held. Any transmission from there will be analyzed

on a top priority basis. Claude, you go to the Tower of London with a security team and

grab that German test pilot. I want to know exactly what were Laplante’s motivations

about her.”

“She will talk, sir. I can guarantee that.”

Menzies gave a warning look to his deputy.

“The Prime Minister said no brutalities, Claude. I don’t believe in using torture

myself, so don’t go overboard with that German.”

“No need for tortures, sir: there are other, non-violent means that are as

effective.”

“Hmm, alright! Keep me advised of your progress on this.”

The three men then went their separate ways, none having many thoughts about Nancy

Laplante’s well-being in their minds.

14:48 (GMT)

Tower Green, Tower of London

Ingrid Weiss was cutting the grass around the inner yard of the Tower of London,

with her comrades similarly busy around her, when three men in civilian suits showed up,

escorted by Brigadier Browning. The group stopped in front of Katharina Fischer, who

was gathering cut grass into large canvas bags. The lead civilian, a tall and lean old

man in his sixties, spoke to Katharina in a most unfriendly voice.

“Flugkapitan Hanna Reitsch, you are coming with us. Grab her!”

Ingrid, now alarmed, saw Katharina pale instantly as the two burly men following the tall

civilian stepped forward and firmly grabbed the petite woman by the arms before

pushing her towards Bloody Tower’s gate. Abandoning her hold on the lawnmower she

had been using; Ingrid sprinted towards the group. A female guard ran after her, trying

to catch her, but the teenager was too fast for her and she braked to a halt in front of the

civilians and Katharina, cutting off their path.

“Where are you taking Katharina?”

The tall civilian looked at Ingrid with something akin to morbid interest.

“Your friend’s real name is Hanna Reitsch, Private Weiss. Now, get out of the

way before we get rough.”

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Ingrid gave a fake blank look at her friend, who appeared quite scared.

“Katharina, what are they talking about?”

“I’m sorry, Ingrid, but they are right: I am in reality Flugkapitan Hanna Reitsch, a

test pilot.”

The female guard caught up with Ingrid and grabbed her by one arm to try to pull her

away. Resisting the guard, Ingrid shot a poisonous look at the tall civilian.

“Don’t you hurt my friend!”

“Or you will do what, Private?” replied the civilian, mocking her. That turned the

teenager into an instant fury. Breaking free from the female guard, she jumped on the

civilian and kneed him in the groin with savage strength. As the British bent over with a

groan of pain, Ingrid followed up with an uppercut on the man’s nose, breaking it and

starting some serious bleeding. The female guard then immobilized her two arms in her

back as the two M.I.5 security men flanking Hanna Reitsch finally reacted. One of them

was tripped by Hanna and fell flat on his face, while the other swung his right fist at

Ingrid’s face. At the last second, the teenager bent her torso forward, ducking under the

swing. The British female guard, pulled forward by Ingrid’s bending, was the one who

got the fist on her jaw. As the guard fell backward, knocked out, Ingrid punched the

security man in the throat, using every bit of the teaching on martial arts and fighting that

Nancy had given her. The man emitted a gurgling sound and stepped back two steps

before Susanna Berghof, having sprinted towards the scene of the fight, tackled the

British to the ground while Frida Winterer and Johanna Fink jumped on the other security

man, who had been struggling with Hanna Reitsch. Female guards and male soldiers

were now coming at a run from every direction, some of them with guns drawn. A pistol

shot suddenly froze all the protagonists of the fight: it was Brigadier Browning, now

looking furious, who had fired once skywards.

“EVERYBODY WILL NOW CALM DOWN! PRISONERS, FORM IN ONE RANK

OVER HERE!”

Slowly, reluctantly, Ingrid and her friends picked themselves up and joined the lineup of

female prisoners now forming. The three Secret Service men where clearly the worst for

wear, with the tall civilian putting a handkerchief under his heavily bleeding nose and the

two security men sporting long, deep scratches on their faces, where Susanna, Frida

and Johanna had clawed their fingernails. Dansey shook a fist at Ingrid.

“One day you will pay for this, Weiss.”

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“OOOH, I’m scared! If you think that this is bad, wait until Nancy gets her hands

on you.”

“Your adoptive mother is in no position to hurt us: she is rotting in a cell in Colditz

Castle right now.”

Everybody except for Hanna Reitsch looked with stunned surprise at Ingrid at the

mention of the words ‘adoptive mother’, making the teenager blush. Gruppenführerin

Hartmann appeared particularly shaken by this.

“Brigadier Laplante adopted you? Mein Gott!”

Ingrid kept her head up and looked resolutely at her officer.

“Yes, she did and I am proud and happy to have her as my mother, even if she is

technically supposed to be my enemy.”

“Alright, we will discuss this later.” cut in Brigadier Browning. “Oberhelferin

Berghof, Helferinenen Fink and Winterer, you will spend the next two weeks in the cells

in Beauchamp Tower, with rations of water and bread, for joining this fight. Helferin

Weiss, for starting this fight and assaulting a British security official, I condemn you to

four weeks of solitary confinement in the basement of Beauchamp Tower. Guards, take

them away!”

“Hang tight, Hanna!” shouted Ingrid to Reitsch as two guards grabbed her by the

arms. The test pilot gave Ingrid a military salute.

“You too, Helferin Weiss. You are a brave girl.”

The security men then dragged her away, leaving the rest of the prisoners facing

Brigadier Browning, who gave a quick order to Hartmann.

“Gruppenführerin Hartmann, have your women resume work.”

“Yes sir!” replied Lisa, coming to attention and giving him the Nazi salute in a

gesture of defiance. That drew a dark look from Browning, who turned and walked away

in exasperation. Lisa then directed her subalterns back to work. As Anna Hauser

walked past her, she whispered softly in the ear of the NCO.

“Decidedly, this Brigadier Laplante is full of surprises.”

“Are they good or bad surprises to you, Gruppenführerin?” replied Hauser

cautiously. Lisa thought over that for a second.

“Mostly good. Ingrid is lucky to have her.”

A big black government sedan car was waiting outside Middle Tower for the

Secret Service team. Before being pushed inside on the rear bench seat, Hanna

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Reitsch was handcuffed and blindfolded. As they drove away, Hanna spoke to no one in

particular.

“What do you want from me?”

“Answers!” replied Dansey. Saying that one word sent pain from his broken nose

to his brain. Clenching his jaws tight, he swore mentally at Ingrid Weiss. The rest of the

trip to M.I.5 headquarters was spent in silence. By the time the car stopped in front of

the main entrance, the bleeding from his nose had mostly stopped but not the pain,

putting him in a foul mood indeed. Hanna Reitsch was roughly led inside and down

towards the basement, where cells and interrogation rooms were. She was sat forcibly

in a chair, then had her blindfold removed. She blinked a few times, partially blinded by

a spotlight directed at her. Dansey sat in front of her, across from a small table, then

lined up a series of photographs on the table. Hanna looked at them and immediately

winced in revulsion: they showed Nancy Laplante, naked and bearing the marks of

horrible tortures.

“Mein Gott! Who did this to Brigadier Laplante?”

“Don’t you recognize the handy work of your Gestapo, Flugkapitan?” said Dansey

softly, trying to minimize the pain from his nose. “How would you like for us to give you

the same treatment in return?”

“You’re bluffing! I know for a fact that you British don’t commit such atrocities on

prisoners. As for the Gestapo, I may be a German but I don’t approve of their methods.”

“Miss, right now I need answers and I don’t care much how I will get them. You

will now tell me why Brigadier Laplante hid your true identity from us.”

“I don’t know.” lied Hanna. Dansey gave her a black look. “Think carefully, miss. There are ways to make you speak which won’t leave a

single mark on you. Why did Laplante hide your identity? Just answer that question and

we will leave you alone.”

The truth then hit Hanna, making her stare in anger and disbelief at Dansey.

“You are not after me. You are after Brigadier Laplante. Why?”

“Because she may be a traitor.” replied Dansey, getting angry. “A traitor? Are you mad or just stupid? She was making you British win the war.”

“She is way overrated.” said Dansey disdainfully. “We would be winning the war

even without her. The fact is that she acted treacherously by protecting your identity and

by attaching herself to that Ingrid Weiss.”

Hanna stared at him with open contempt.

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“No! The true facts are that you are a petty, small-minded man who can’t accept

that a woman did all the things that Brigadier Laplante did. Now that she lies in a cell in

Germany, her body broken by tortures and unable to defend her name, you try to stab

her in the back with your senseless accusations. She is not a traitor, only a woman of

great kindness and tolerance. As for you, you are nothing more than a cowardly

bureaucrat and a man beyond contempt.”

Dansey returned her stare for a moment, then looked at the two security men flanking

Hanna.

“Make her talk! I don’t care how as long as there are no marks on her body.

Keep at it until she breaks.”

Dansey then left the interrogation room. One of the security men looked at his comrade

with a mean smile.

“Fred, go fill a nice, cold bath for the Flugkapitan. Then get Jim and Mark here:

we will need some extra hands.”

The petite Hanna couldn’t help feeling scared as Fred left the room: she had heard

before about the bathtub interrogation method, which was used by the Gestapo among

others. It consisted of dipping the head of a person in a tub of icy water and of holding it

under the water until the person was nearly drowning. If the prisoner didn’t speak after

that, his or her head was promptly dipped back under water. That treatment could be

kept on for hours and left absolutely no telltale marks, apart from complete physical

exhaustion for the prisoner and from the horrible and repeated feeling of suffocation he

or she endured. The security man then proceeded to strip Hanna of her clothes, leaving

her only with her bra and panties. He looked down with cold eyes at his nearly naked

prisoner.

“Questioning that young Weiss bitch would have been much more fun: she’s

quite cute actually.”

“Go to Hell, you damn sadist. I will not tell you anything.”

The man did not answer. Instead, he pushed away the small table and the chair which

were in front of Hanna, then fetched a thick telephone directory book and a heavy club.

“As you can see, there are a lot of people living in London, miss. Do you want to

hear their names?”

Hanna didn’t understand him until he applied the telephone directory against the right

side of her face and, holding it there, struck it hard with his club. The blow, its force

distributed along the surface of the book, shook her brains to bits and made her right ear

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buzz. The man then hit again and again, alternating between both sides of her head.

Five minutes of this was enough to make Hanna dizzy and confused. Fred then

returned to the interrogation room.

“The Flugkapitan’s bath is ready.”

Both men grabbed Hanna and dragged her to a nearby bathroom, where two burly men

were waiting besides a bathtub filled with water. Fred pulled Hanna’s hair hard while

staring into her eyes.

“This is your last chance to talk. Why was Laplante hiding your identity?”

“Screw you!”

“You asked for it.”

Hanna was forced to kneel besides the bathtub, then a piece of foam mat was put on top

of the tub’s edge, so that it would not leave a bruise on her belly when she would be

forced to bend forward. The first contact with the icy water on her face was a shock to

Hanna, but the bursting of her lungs after over a minute of being held under water felt

much worse, with Fred pulling her head out only after she had actually swallowed some

water. Hanna had only two seconds to vomit the water and struggle for air before the

man pushed her head back in the water. His first question came only after the fourth

immersion.

“Why did Laplante protect your identity?”

Half suffocated and with her lungs on fire, Hanna could only shake her head in denial,

prompting an immediate immersion. That process went on for forty minutes, until Hanna

passed out. Fred looked coldly at the inert German.

“Time for a smoke break, guys. We will continue the dipping as soon as she

regains consciousness. I will keep watch over her.”

Waiting for the three others to leave, Fred then pushed the locking bolt on the door of

the bathroom, then pulled down Hanna’s panties and raped her while she was still

unconscious. He had ample time to dress up and pull her panties back in place before

the others came back.

“That little Ingrid would have definitely been much nicer.” he said to himself while

unlocking the door.

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17:35 (GMT)

Basement cells, Beauchamp Tower

Tower of London

Ingrid rose from the hard wooden bench which doubled as her bed in the tiny,

damp stone cell when the locking bolts of the door were pulled. A British soldier pushed

the massive door open and Mike Crawford entered, a briefcase in his left hand. Ingrid

immediately ran to him and hugged him happily.

“Mike, I’m so happy to see you now. I knew that you would come and help me.”

She then saw the sad, dejected expression on his face.

“What’s wrong, Mike?”

“Many things are wrong, Ingrid. You better sit down.”

Ingrid did so hesitantly, with Mike sitting beside her on the bench and opening his

briefcase. He took a letter and a set of photographs out of it and handed them to Ingrid.

“Nancy fell in the hands of the Gestapo. Before the Abwehr could free her, she

was severely tortured for two days. These pictures were taken by an American attaché

in Berlin after she was brought to a Luftwaffe hospital.”

Taking the photographs with shaking hands, Ingrid forced herself to look at them. She

had to stop after the fifth one, tears choking her.

“Bastards! I hate them all. I don’t want to be a German anymore.”

Mike grabbed her solidly by the shoulders and spoke firmly to her, looking straight into

her eyes.

“Ingrid, listen to me! Nancy left a message for both of us. She says that she will

be alright and that she wants you to still be proud of who you are. She also asked me to

take care of you during her absence. I will however not be allowed back in the Tower

after this. I already called Captain Dows, who agreed to take over my duties here as a

neutral representative. I however managed to convince Brigadier Browning to seek

permission from higher British authorities to let me bring you with me to the United

States.”

“The United States? Why? Are you leaving England?”

Mike nodded his head slowly, more moved than he wanted to show.

“I have been recalled to the United States. I will leave in two weeks, hopefully

with you. My ambassador is backing me up on this.”

“And… and Nancy?”

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Mike’s shoulders sagged at Nancy’s name.

“I already miss her terribly, but there is nothing I can do for her at the moment.

The most I can do is to ensure that you are well and safe. Lieutenant Commander

Stilwell promised me that he will safeguard Nancy’s apartment and belongings during

her absence. As soon as she is repatriated after the war, we will come back for her.”

Ingrid lowered her head, then started crying quietly. Mike hugged her until the worst of

her tears had dried out.

“Mike, if you can, take me with you: England will only remind me of Nancy’s loss.”

“I will do my best, Ingrid. By the way, I was told about your fight with the British

security men. Nancy would have been proud of you.”

Ingrid’s smile at those words faded when she thought about Hanna Reitsch.

“I wasn’t good enough to protect my friend from being taken away, Mike.”

The noise of footsteps approaching and of the locking bolt being pulled open made their

heads turn as they were still holding each other. The iron door opened and, to their utter

surprise, Prime Minister Churchill entered, accompanied by General Ismay, Brigadier

Browning and two of Churchill’s bodyguards. Mike and Ingrid got up at once and saluted

Churchill, who was looking around at the old stones dripping with humidity.

‘’Well, this certainly isn’t a palace.’’ said Churchill on a jovial tone. He then saw

the pictures of Nancy on the bench and gave a sad look to Ingrid.

‘’I see that you already got the bad news, miss. Do you mind if I sit down?’’

‘’Uh, of course not, Mister Prime Minister.’’

Inviting Ingrid to sit as well, Churchill took place besides her and examined her juvenile

face for a moment before speaking again.

‘’You could indeed be my grand-daughter, miss. How old are you in reality?’’

‘’Fifteen, Mister Prime Minister.’’ answered Ingrid in a resigned tone, not seeing

any utility left in that charade. Churchill exchanged a look with General Ismay before

looking back at her.

‘’Miss, I came here because I was curious to see what kind of German girl could

have conquered the heart of my special counselor. Could you quickly tell me how she

came to adopt you?’’

Ingrid did so with good grace, explaining first what had happened to her family in Berlin,

her being a Jew and how she had been captured and then had learned to know and

admire Nancy. She also revealed to him Nancy’s project to send her to the United

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States, so that she could start a new life far away from Germany. Churchill was left

thoughtful at the end of her story.

‘’A simple cry from the heart, prompted by kindness. When I think that some of

my ministers are calling her a traitor for that.’’

‘’How could anyone in England call her a traitor, Mister Prime Minister? You are

winning the war because of her. And why would the Gestapo torture her if she was

really a traitor to you?’’

Churchill scrutinized her face, looking into her big blue eyes.

‘’You seem to know her very well, miss. Maybe you could clear out another

mystery about her. Why did Nancy hide the true identity of Flugkapitan Reitsch?’’

‘’To prevent Reitsch from being tortured, Mister Prime Minister. Nancy did

recognize her the first day she saw her. I was with her and pushing her wheelchair

when she spoke in private with Flugkapitan Reitsch. In fact, Hanna did not understand

at first why Nancy wanted to protect her. Nancy’s answer was that she and your

government already knew everything of importance about Hanna and that she was

afraid that some zealous secret services official would use harsh mental techniques on

Hanna. Nancy acted only to avoid unnecessary suffering to a woman who was not a

threat anymore to England. Now, Hanna is probably being brutalized by the goons of

that old bastard whom I broke the nose this morning.’’

Churchill surprised Mike and Ingrid by smiling in amusement then.

‘’You broke Dansey’s nose? I can’t say that I will cry for that old fart.’’

As Ingrid eyed him, confused, Churchill exchanged a knowing look with Ismay, who

nodded slowly his head.

‘’It seems that we have the answers to our questions about Brigadier Laplante,

Mister Prime Minister. I now recall numerous mentions of information concerning that

Hanna Reitsch in the reports I was getting from Laplante. I thus don’t see any valid

reasons left to interrogate that test pilot. She should be returned to the Tower of London

and be allowed to spend the rest of the war here.’’

‘’I agree, General. We will pass by M.I.5 headquarters after this to get that

Reitsch. Brigadier Browning, you are someone in whom that Reitsch could probably

trust. Could you come with us and two female guards in a vehicle?’’

‘’I will take care of that right away, Mister Prime Minister.’’

Browning was about to leave when Churchill recalled him.

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‘’Brigadier, do not advise M.I.5 of our impending visit. Mister Dansey had an

order from me not to brutalize that pilot. I would like to make this a surprise visit, in order

to see if the M.I.5 is following my instructions.’’

‘’Could I come as well, Mister Prime Minister?’’ asked eagerly Ingrid, making the

old politician smile.

‘’I don’t think that this would be appropriate, young girl. I am afraid that you will

have to stay here in the Tower of London…until your departure for the United States.’’

Ingrid and Mike were left stunned by that, not believing their luck, allowing Churchill to

continue.

‘’Miss Ingrid Weiss, do you swear before me that you will not fight anymore

against Great-Britain and its allies in this war? Do you also swear never to help the Nazi

cause?’’

Ingrid got up at attention before answering in a firm voice.

‘’I swear on my honor, Mister Prime Minister. After what the Gestapo did to

Nancy, I now consider myself as an enemy of the Nazis.’’

‘’Excellent!’’ said Churchill while getting up. ‘’I think that the good Brigadier

Browning could move you to a more comfortable cell until your departure for the United

States, miss.’’

Browning understood the implicit order from Churchill and faced the soldier who had

opened the cell door for them.

‘’Private Thomas, once I will be gone with the Prime Minister, you will transfer

Helferin Weiss to the same cell occupied by the three other prisoners upstairs.’’

Ingrid, moved, exchanged a long embrace with Mike once the Prime Minister and his

group were gone.

‘’I will finally be able to live with you and, eventually, with Nancy in the United

States. I am so happy, Mike.’’

‘’And I am happy for you, Ingrid. I promise that you will not regret your choice.

18:09 (GMT)

Interrogation room, M.I.5 headquarters

London

‘’Now!’’ ordered George while he helped hold Hanna Reitsch’s head in the water.

Fred, sitting on a stool, rapidly turned the handle of the field telephone, which was wired

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to the denuded nipples of the German test pilot. The German’s body stiffened as the

electricity went through her, making her let go the little air left in her lungs. Now totally

naked and about to pass out, she had her head pulled out of the water for a moment,

enough for George to scream a question at her.

‘’WHY DID LAPLANTE PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY?’’

‘’S…scheisse31 !’’ said weakly Hanna. ‘’WRONG ANSWER!’’ Screamed George before dipping again her head under

the water. He then looked at Fred with a mean smile.

‘’Turn the crank non-stop from now one, Fred: it is high time to break her.’’

‘’With pleasure!’’ Said Fred. ‘’Two fried tits, coming up!’’

He then started turning the crank as fast as he could, making Hanna convulse under the

pain while she tried desperately to hold her breath. The four M.I.5 agents in the room

were too busy with Hanna to notice the entrance of two of Churchill’s bodyguards,

followed closely by General Ismay and by Churchill himself, then by Brigadier Browning.

Fred, still turning the crank, turned his head a bit late, assuming that it was Claude

Dansey coming to check on their progress with Reitsch. His smile changed to a horrified

grimace at the sight of Churchill, who was turning red with anger as he contemplated the

scene.

‘’STOP THIS IMMEDIATELY!’’ screamed Churchill, furious. His two bodyguards,

as well as Ismay and Browning, took out their revolvers and pointed them at the M.I.5

agents. The latter, realizing that they were now in very big trouble, immediately raised

their hands high and stepped away from the bathtub. Sergeant Bailey, who had just

entered, hurried to the bathtub and raised out of the water the head of Reitsch, who was

drowning. The German coughed repeatedly and spat out water while taking air in.

Bailey swore on seeing the wires taped to Reitsch’s nipples and delicately removed

them. She then eyed the German’s face, red and swollen from hundreds of blows

through a telephone book and with eyes red.

‘’My God! Those bastards really went at it with you, Flugkapitan.’’

‘’Bailey?... Would never believe to…to be happy to see you.’’

‘’Thanks! We will take you out of here, Flugkapitan. Don’t worry anymore.’’

 

31 Scheisse : Shit in German.

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In the meantime, Churchill’s bodyguards had disarmed the agents and forced

their back against a wall, while the Prime Minister eyed the M.I.5 men with disgust.

‘’Never in my whole career have I seen something more disgraceful than this.

Who ordered you to torture this German like this?’’

Fred, who had no intention to take all the blame to protect Dansey, answered him at

once.

‘’Mister Dansey did, Mister Prime Minister. He told us to make this German say

why Laplante hid her true identity, also saying that he didn’t care what methods we used

as long as they didn’t leave marks on the prisoner, sir.’’

‘’Is that true?’’ asked Churchill while looking at the other agents, who all nodded

their heads.

‘’Yes, Mister Prime Minister.’’ Said George. ‘’We were simply following orders,

sir.’’

Instead of calming him down, that made Churchill even more furious.

‘’Orders? You want to excuse your conduct the same way the Nazis do? You

damn bastards! General Ismay, take the names of these men: they will be judged for

torturing a prisoner of war and for abuse of power. Brigadier Browning, find the clothes

of Flugkapitan Reitsch and get her to the infirmary of the Tower of London. Until further

notice, nobody from the Secret Services will be allowed inside the Tower of London, not

even Brigadier Menzies. As for Mister Dansey, I will deal with him personally. So,

where is your boss, misters?’’

‘’Probably in his office on the second floor, Mister Prime Minister.’’ answered

George. ‘’He was quite anxious to get answers from the prisoner.’’

‘’I see!’’

The two female guards were about to pass in front of Churchill, supporting a Hanna

Reitsch too weak to stand by herself, when the Prime Minister stopped them briefly so

that he could speak to the German.

‘’Flugkapitan, I am Prime Minister Winston Churchill. I am truly sorry for what

happened to you. Please accept my excuses in the name of the British government.

You will now be returned to the Tower of London, where you will not be bothered

anymore.’’

‘’Th…thank you, sir.’’ managed to say weakly Hanna. The two female guards

then left the room with her, followed by Brigadier Browning. Churchill, still inside the

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interrogation room, then heard the voice of Claude Dansey, who was screaming in the

corridor.

‘’WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE? WHO PERMITTED YOU TO TAKE THAT

PRISONER?’’

Churchill, followed closely by a bodyguard, rushed in the corridor and, seeing Dansey

thirty paces away, walked rapidly to him. Before Dansey could try to find some excuses,

Churchill slapped him furiously on his left cheek. The hit reverberated in his broken

nose, with the pain making Dansey fall to his knees, while his nose started bleeding

again. Churchill eyed him with contempt as he whimpered.

‘’Mister Dansey, you are a disgrace to the government of His Majesty. You are

fired as of now and will have to answer for your acts in front of a judge. Now, get out

and never step foot in this building again!’’

17:51 (North America Central Time)

Saturday, August 8, 3384 ‘A’

Time laboratory, New Lake City University campus

American Great Lakes area

Maran Tolvek, feeling total discouragement, looked

blankly at the screen of his videophone as the communication

link with the Global Science Administrator was terminated.

Pivoting his chair around, he looked up at Mona Zirel, who

had been listening quietly to the conversation. Like Maran,

Mona was a young engineer in her early twenties. The two of

them were the sole assistants Farah Tolkonen had on the time

travel project, which was housed in an annex of New Lake City

University.

“What do we do now? The Science Administrator has

impounded the time ship and has forbidden any further time travel. The laboratory will

be closed down in a week, after we dismantle the equipment here.”

“But…what about Farah?” protested the young, shapely Mona. “She will be

trapped forever in that barbaric time period.”

“I know, but what could we do? We have no other time ship.”

A look of revelation then downed on Mona’s face.

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“Why use a ship? We still have that experimental time distorter we used in our

remotely controlled heavy probe. We could adapt it to my personal air scooter, which

can seat three persons.”

“By the stars, you’re a genius, Mona! I could kiss you.”

“Only after the scooter is ready, you handsome boy. We have a lot of work

ahead of us and we must be gone before someone comes in to check on us.”

With hope returning to them, the two young engineers then frantically got back to work.

21:16 (Berlin Time)

Friday, June 27, 1941 ‘B’

German military quarters

Southwest wing, Colditz Castle

Germany

Old Feldwebel Buhlingen, his duties finally over for the day, sat tiredly on his bed

and pulled off his dusty boots before throwing them in a corner of his small room.

Wanting some fresh air after sweating all day in his uniform, he went to his window,

which faced East into the outer courtyard, and opened it. A woman’s voice singing a

love ballad in English and accompanied by the music from a guitar then caught his

attention. Looking up and to the left towards Nancy Laplante’s window, which was a

mere ten yards away, the old soldier saw the Canadian sitting on the inner ledge of her

opened window, her new guitar in her hands. She saw him and, continuing to sing in her

lovely voice, winked at him. Feeling his fatigue evaporate, Buhlingen sat on the inner

ledge of his window and listened to her with contentment.

“God, that was lovely.” said Mark Lindsay, lying in his bed while writing a letter to

his wife. Laplante’s voice and music could be heard easily through the opened windows,

as well as from the central light well.

“Maybe we should name her our morale officer.” suggested William Anderson,

making Lieutenant Colonel Robertson wince.

“A German lover as our morale officer? No thank you, Major! She even sang in

German this afternoon.”

“So? She sang in French, Spanish and Russian as well, sir. She simply proved

that she is a cultured woman, and a hell of a singer and guitar player. Thinking about it,

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I’m going to take a break from our routine tomorrow. Laplante accepted to pause for

me.”

“Drawing or portrait?” Asked Lindsay.

“I will try a drawing at first. She told me that she was not planning to stay here

long enough for me to complete a painting of her.”

“HA!” snickered Robertson. “She is not the one deciding when she will attempt to

escape: the escape committee decides that. She will have to wait her turn.”

22:40 (Berlin Time)

Room 413, senior officers’ quarters

Southwest wing, Colditz Castle

Like every night, the German soldier slowly went around the prisoners’ quarters,

checking the doors of each room. As a routine security precaution, the prisoners were

locked up in their rooms at night, a tribute to their reputations as inveterate escapees.

The soldier looked through the peephole of each door, checking the number of

occupants against a list he held in one hand. Most of the prisoners were already asleep

and the soldier had to use his flashlight pointed through the peephole to check on them.

The German found light showing under the door of room 413, though. Being intensively

curious about the prisoner occupying it, the German quietly approached the door and

looked inside. His eyes bulged immediately in both surprise and fear: her legs crossed

and her hands on her knees, palms up, Nancy Laplante was in a classic meditative

position, her eyes closed. She also was floating a foot or so above her bed, her back to

the door! The German could see no way for her to be suspended in midair like this

through some kind of trick. Nancy then slowly rotated around and faced the door, still

floating above her bed. Her face was serene and her eyes reflected indifference as she

looked back at the soldier. Making the sign of the cross, the German ran away, nearly

panicked, to report on this to the night duty officer.

08:04 (Berlin Time)

Saturday, June 28, 1941 ‘B’

Inner courtyard, Colditz Castle

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Feldwebel Buhlingen, Hauptman Eggers at his back, had just started the morning

roll call when the sudden noise of twelve 88mm anti-aircraft guns opening fire all at once

made him and all others present jump. Looking skyward with alarm, he saw the

condensation trail of a lone, fast flying aircraft crossing the sky over the castle from

South to North at high altitude, pursued by exploding 88mm shells.

“AIR RAID! TAKE COVER!” shouted Hauptman Eggers over the din. The

prisoners and the guards dispersed at once, running inside the buildings surrounding the

courtyard. To Eggers’ surprise, Nancy Laplante was the only one not running for cover.

Instead, she calmly walked to the center of the courtyard and, facing East, looked

skyward while raising her right hand and making the ‘V’ sign. Eggers was thinking that

she had gone crazy when a British jet fighter-bomber overflew the castle from an altitude

of at most a thousand feet, coming from the East. The quad 20mm guns stationed

around the castle, caught by surprise, opened fire too late and the British aircraft,

dropping back to extremely low altitude, made good its escape.

“Mein Gott! A photo-reconnaissance run.” said Eggers to himself. He then

understood that Laplante had caught on to that fact from the start. Walking angrily to her,

he stopped one pace from her and pointed an accusing index.

“How did you know that this wasn’t a bombing raid, Brigadier?”

The Canadian woman grinned to him, making Eggers angrier.

“How? Hauptman, I rewrote the book on British air reconnaissance tactics.”

“And what is next? A British commando raid?”

“Now, now, my dear Hauptman. You know better than expect me to answer that

question.”

Eggers then fully realized how dangerous that young, beautiful woman was. Last night’s

incident had already brought many unnerving questions about her to him and Colonel

Schmidt, the latter becoming more and more nervous about hosting that troubling time

traveler. Looking around, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“EVERYBODY BACK IN THE COURTYARD! THE ROLL CALL WILL RESUME!”

He then looked back at Laplante, who was looking calmly at him.

“Get back to your place, Brigadier.”

“Yawol, Herr Hauptman!” She shouted back sarcastically before walking away

with a big smile. Lieutenant Colonel Robertson, taking back his place in the ranks, gave

Nancy a dark look.

“You had to show off again, Brigadier?”

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Something in the look she gave him back scared Robertson, shutting him up.

19:28 (Berlin Time)

Shower house, Colditz Castle

Jean Bigras returned to the entrance of the showers and baths house, where

Nancy was waiting, dressed in T-shirt and shorts and with her washing kit in her hands.

“All clear, Brigadier. I will guard the entrance while you shower.”

“Thank you, Jean. You’re a sweetheart.”

Jean couldn’t help stop imagining what the tall Canadian looked like naked as he posted

himself just inside the entrance to the shower room. Absorbed in his dreams, he didn’t

see a group of prisoners approaching silently until it was too late.

Nancy undressed in the locker room, then walked into the shower room proper,

her bar of soap and a towel the only items she kept with her. The water coming out of

the showerhead was none too hot, since she had booked the showers just after the hour

of usage of all the other prisoners. She was already soaked and was about to soap up

when she heard a short, interrupted shout from Jean Bigras.

“BRIGADIER, WATCH…”

Alarmed, she stepped out from under the shower and was going for her towel when five

men ran in the shower room, led by Pierre Renaudin. He, along with the others, was

armed with an improvised club and the hatred on his face told plenty about his intentions.

Nancy knew immediately that she was going to have to fight for her life. Renaudin, not

even slowing down, raised his club and charged her. Stepping sideways, Nancy

grabbed the Frenchman as he swung his club and, pivoting on her heels, sent him

slamming hard face first in the stone wall of the shower room. She next blocked a swing

from another attacker and hit him hard in the plexus. The man collapsed to his knees as

a club struck Nancy’s exposed left ribs. Despite the sharp pain, she managed to break

her attacker’s nose with a foot kick before another club hit her, this time on the back of

the head. Stunned for a second, she staggered on her feet. That gave a chance to the

two attackers left standing to deluge her with punches and club hits. Her face and head

bleeding, Nancy collapsed on the cold floor, where her attackers kept kicking and hitting

her until she passed out. Renaudin, his own face bruised and bloody, looked down at

her with hatred and took a pair of scissors out of a pocket.

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“Time for her to look like the dirty collaborator she is.”

Quickly and roughly, Renaudin cut off Nancy’s hair. When she had only a few very short

clumps of hair left, he gave her a last punch, breaking her nose and starting a heavy

bleeding.

“Let’s go now before the Germans find us.”

Helping the two men Nancy had hit, Renaudin and the three other men who made up his

group left the shower house as discreetly as they could, walking past the inert body of

Jean Bigras.

Nancy, still unconscious and lying naked in a pool of blood, was found along with

Bigras just before eight O’clock by two German soldiers doing a last patrol before the

curfew was enforced on the prisoners. Quickly alerted by them, Hauptman Eggers

arrived in the shower house at a run with Feldwebel Buhlingen and four more soldiers.

What Eggers saw angered him to no small degree.

“The stupid, cowardly bastards! Feldwebel, take four men and quickly bring

Brigadier Laplante to the infirmary.”

Colonel Schmidt arrived at the shower house as the soldiers were carrying Nancy out.

The feldwebel had summarily covered her nakedness with her towel. Schmidt looked

down with concern at the battered face of the Canadian, then at Eggers.

“What happened, Hauptman?”

“We don’t know yet, Colonel, but I would say that some prisoners attacked

Brigadier Laplante while she was in the shower. They also beat up her orderly, Corporal

Bigras. They then cut off her hair, probably to mark her as a collaborator.”

The two officers had to step out of the way as two soldiers carried out Bigras,

unconscious and with a nasty bruise on the side of his head that bled profusely.

Schmidt swore loudly.

“Himmel! Hauptman, round up immediately any prisoner that shows marks of a

fight. I doubt that Brigadier Laplante went down without giving back a few punches.”

“Yawol, Herr Colonel!”

A group of four prisoners taking a late walk in the courtyard watched on as

Feldwebel Buhlingen and his men carried Nancy Laplante past them, only a few feet

away. The taller one of the lot, a hulking blond Norwegian fighter pilot, looked on in

disgust at Nancy’s battered face and shaved head. He and the three others with him

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refused to believe that she could be a collaborator, having heard tales of her war exploits

in the past months before her arrival.

“Some bastards went way too far this time. If I find them, I will squash them.”

“Count me in, Sven.” said firmly Flight Lieutenant Jim Milner, a tall American who

had enlisted with the RAF as a navigator/bombardier, out of a lust for adventure.

“Me too!” added Captain Jan Nierman, a Dutch Army Engineers explosive expert.

The fourth man of the group, an American Jew named Samuel Goldman who had also

joined the RAF, swore as the unconscious Jean Bigras was carried past them: Bigras

was his best friend in Colditz. A German soldier then came to them and, after

suspiciously examining their faces for a few seconds, walked away towards another

group of prisoners to check them out as well. Sven Larsen nodded his head in

understanding.

“They are looking for any of her attackers who may have been hit. Knowing

Laplante’s reputation, the Germans should find quite a few bruised faces around.”

Effectively, French major Pierre Renaudin and a Polish Army lieutenant, both with blood

on their faces, were escorted out of the southwest wing a few minutes later and led

roughly by grim-faced German soldiers to the solitary confinement cells. Nierman spat

out in contempt at their sight.

“Renaudin! I should have known. It takes only a jackal like him to attack a naked

woman.”

Feldwebel Buhlingen then walked out of the sick ward and shouted at the prisoners

present in the courtyard.

“ALL THE PRISONERS WILL GO BACK TO THEIR ROOMS NOW! THE

CURFEW IS LENGTHENED TONIGHT.”

Nobody knew then that this simple change to the castle’s routine would have important

consequences in the hour to come.

20:31 (Berlin Time)

Lead Gloster METEOR fighter-bomber

18 miles west of Colditz

Squadron Leader Peter Welland, breaking radio silence for the first time since

crossing the British coast, clicked on his microphone.

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“All Blue Angel call signs, this is Blue Angel leader. We have just overflown our

final point. Veer 095 and accelerate to 500 knots. Arm your bombs now.”

Turning his own aircraft sharply eastward while staying barely above treetop, Welland

then pushed his two turbojet engines to military power setting and armed the two rocket

pods under his wings. He and the three other aircraft in the lead flight were tasked to

take out the self-propelled quad 20mm German guns first with rocket fire, in order to let

the eight other aircraft of his squadron launch their bombs with maximum accuracy. The

whole idea of this raid was to cause maximum damage to the part of the castle occupied

by the German garrison, while keeping the prisoners’ quarters intact. If they could

achieve that, either the prisoners would be able to escape through breaches in the walls,

or the Germans would be forced to transfer them to a less secure facility, which would

help any later attempt to break Brigadier Laplante out of captivity. Accuracy was thus

everything on this mission.

The high pitch sound of jet engines alerted the German anti-aircraft gunners only

seconds before salvoes of air-to-ground rockets hit their positions. To make things

worse, the British fighter-bombers were coming with the low, setting sun at their back.

One of the quad 20mm gunners, protected by the forward shield of his gun, saw both of

his loaders and his gun crew commander swept away by a hail of shrapnel. Rendered

deaf by the nearby blasts, he could not point his guns quickly enough to track the first

wave of attacking aircraft. With the two other self-propelled flak guns in his position

destroyed, the desperate German was able to fire a long burst at one of the aircraft of

the second wave. The gunner’s joy at seeing that aircraft being hit turned into horror

when the fighter-bomber, still loaded up with its bombs, dropped out of the sky and

plowed into the houses of the old town of Colditz, exploding in the middle of the houses

in a giant fireball. The grief-stricken German then died when the bombs of the second

wave bracketed the southern part of the castle.

The series of terrifying explosions from rockets and bombs made Doctor Frankel,

who was examining Jean Bigras in the sick ward, jump out of fright. The whole castle

shook repeatedly while Frankel prayed fervently that the sick ward would be spared a

direct hit. It was, although dust fell from the ceiling and most of the windows broke into

pieces. Luckily, the drawn curtains prevented the flying glass from showering the

occupants of the sick ward. The screams from wounded men then told Frankel that he

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was going to be busy tonight. Incredibly, the air attack was over in less than two

minutes. Drawing open the curtains of the windows facing out of the castle, the German

doctor saw with horror that the town itself had been hit hard, with dozens of houses

destroyed or burning. He called up his medic at once and ordered him to prepare a field

medical kit, then went in the dispensary to prepare his own medical bag. When he

emerged back into the ward, he saw Nancy Laplante sitting up in her bed and looking

around her with a confused expression. Frankel ran to her and tried to force her to lie

back down.

“Please, Brigadier, stay in bed: you suffered quite a few blows to the head and

need some rest.”

“Those explosions, what were they?” she asked, still looking dizzy. “British air raid, I’m afraid. I have wounded soldiers and civilians to take care of

now. Now, rest.”

“Civilians?” she said, alarm appearing on her face.

“Yes. I’m afraid that a few bombs went astray in town, Brigadier.”

“Then I must help.” she replied resolutely while throwing away the bed sheet

covering her. “I was probably the reason why the British bombed Colditz.”

Only then did she catch on to the fact that she had been naked under the sheet. Frankel

tried again to push her gently back on the bed.

“You are in no state to go anywhere, Brigadier. Now, please stay in bed: I have

wounded to take care of.”

As an answer, Nancy closed her eyes and concentrated for a few seconds while

resisting Frankel’s push. The German doctor recoiled in surprise and disbelief when her

facial wounds started healing at an incredible rate, her broken nose even straightening

up by itself as well. In less than thirty seconds, only her shaved hair was left to show

that she had been attacked earlier. Frankel, completely overwhelmed by this, fell on his

knees.

“How… how could this be possible?”

“No time to explain, Doctor. I need my clothes now, so I could go heal those

unfortunate souls outside.”

“OBERGEFREITER HIRSH, GET ME BRIGADIER LAPLANTE’S CLOTHES

NOW!”

His nearly panicked scream brought the German medic out of the pharmacy at a run.

Hirsh then braked to a halt at Nancy’s sight, his jaw dropping. Running inside the

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guardroom of the infirmary, he grabbed Laplante’s clothes and went back to her bed,

only to find the Canadian standing naked besides Jean Bigras’ bed. He looked on,

along with Frankel and two soldiers on guard duty in the sick ward, as Nancy put both of

her hands on each side of Bigras’ head. Her hands then started glowing with a faint

white halo. Bigras opened his eyes a few seconds later and spoke in a weak voice.

“Brigadier? Are you alright?”

“You should ask yourself that, my dear Jean. Yes, I am fine now. Stay here and

rest. There was a bombing raid on the castle and the town and I’m going out to help the

wounded.”

“Then I want to help too, Brigadier.”

“I’m sorry, Brigadier,” objected the senior German guard, “but you are to stay in

the infirmary.”

Still naked, Nancy walked to him and looked calmly into his eyes while raising both of

her hands, which started to glow again.

“There are lots of wounded outside, most or all of them German. Can you really

afford not to let me go out and help them?”

“Let her go under escort, Obergefreiter.” intervened Doctor Frankel. “I will take

full responsibility for this with Colonel Schmidt.”

“Then I will escort you, Brigadier.” replied the soldier after a last hesitation.

“Please dress now.”

“What’s the matter? You never saw a naked soldier before, Obergefreiter?”

joked Nancy while grabbing her clothes from the German medic. The soldier grimaced

at her humor.

“I never got this horny before because of a naked soldier, Brigadier.”

She didn’t reply to that, instead looking at Jean Bigras.

“Corporal, I want you to stay here and help Doctor Frankel as much as you can:

he will most probably become swamped quickly with wounded here.”

“But…”

“That’s an order, Corporal!”

Nancy was just finished getting dressed when the two first wounded German

soldiers were carried in the infirmary by four of their comrades. The senior soldier of that

group shouted at Frankel as they were entering the sick ward.

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“Doctor, Feldwebel Buhlingen is stuck under a pile of debris and is gravely

wounded. We need your medic at the guards’ quarters quickly.”

“Stay here: I will go!” cut in Nancy. Ignoring the bewildered stares from the

German soldiers, she quickly inspected the two wounded just brought in: they had been

peppered by shrapnel and were bleeding heavily. She took two minutes to heal them

with the touch of her hands, then ran outside with her escort, leaving behind six

awestruck soldiers. She was about to reach the main entrance of the inner courtyard,

whose heavy doors had been blasted down, when a shout froze her.

“HALT OR I SHOOT!”

Slowly raising her hands while turning around, she saw Hauptman Eggers approach her,

his pistol drawn and pointed at her. He looked angrily at the soldier accompanying her.

“Are you mad, Obergefreiter? Why were you letting out our most important

prisoner?”

The soldier came to rigid attention and nervously told Eggers about what had happened

in the sick ward. The German officer listened on with growing disbelief to the soldier

before looking at Nancy. Only then did he noticed that her facial bruises were gone. He

lowered slowly his pistol while staring at her with bewilderment.

“What… what are you?”

He expected her to boast about her supernatural powers. Instead, she looked humbly at

him while answering in a soft voice.

“I am just a woman whom The One was kind enough to grace. There is a man in

need of help, Hauptman. We should go now.”

“Then I will go with you, Brigadier.”

The trio then walked over the broken gate and turned left towards the guards’ quarters.

In the growing darkness they saw that the building housing the guards had collapsed in

a pile of stones and wood beams. A lone soldier was kneeling by the debris, comforting

a man whose legs were stuck under a beam covered with rubble. Kneeling besides

them, Nancy saw that the wounded man was the old feldwebel who had escorted her on

her shopping tour. The soldier standing vigil besides him looked with discouragement at

Eggers.

“I was hoping that more men would show up, Hauptman: it will take at least a

dozen men to even start moving that beam.”

“I don’t even know if I have twelve men left intact, Schwartz. Most of them are

dead.”

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“Then the feldwebel is finished.” said sadly the soldier. “He is bleeding badly and

won’t last very long.”

“Wait!” said Nancy. “Let me try! Be ready to pull the feldwebel away from the

debris.”

Eggers looked at her as if she was crazy.

“How do you expect to move that beam by yourself? There must be at least a

few tons of rubble holding it down.”

“Just be ready to pull him out.”

Bracing herself against the beam, Nancy concentrated for a few seconds, then tensed

her muscles.

“Ready?”

“Ready!” answered Eggers, still wondering why they were even bothering to try.

Nancy then pushed upwards on the beam. To Eggers amazement, the beam and the

rubble covering it moved at once. Despite his surprise, he and the soldier pulled quickly

the wounded feldwebel from under the beam and dragged him away from the rubble.

Nancy then joined them besides the wounded and put her hands on his crushed legs.

Eggers’ eyes nearly popped out when Nancy’s hands started glowing and Buhlingen’s

wounds healed in seconds. The feldwebel soon opened his eyes and looked at Nancy,

who was bent over him.

“Brigadier Laplante? What are you doing here?”

“Helping save lives, Feldwebel. Take it easy for a while: you lost a lot of blood.”

Getting back on her feet, Nancy looked with sorrow at the burning houses in the town

below the castle. Eggers could swear that tears were running down her cheeks.

“All this killing… just because of me. I have a lot to atone for. Hauptman, there

are probably civilians down there who desperately need help right now. Please let me

go in town.”

Eggers didn’t know at first what to do or say. Here was what had been considered

Germany’s most dangerous foe, now transformed through some kind of miracle into a

being with supernatural powers. His superiors would have Eggers’ head on a platter if

he ever let Laplante escape. Yet, she had just proved that she both could and would

save German lives out of simple kindness and compassion. The sad fact was that there

were actually many Germans, including civilians, who were in need of help at this

moment.

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“I will go with you, Brigadier. Obergefreiter, advise Colonel Schmidt that I am

escorting Brigadier Laplante into town to provide assistance to our citizens. Follow me,

miss.”

With Nancy behind him, Eggers started cautiously climbing down the steep slope formed

by the rubble from the destroyed guards’ quarters. Ten minutes later, they were in the

town itself, walking towards the burning houses. In the light provided by the fires, they

could see and hear dozens of civilians running around, either trying to put out the fires or

to save some of their personal belongings. Most of them were women or old men and

few paid notice to Eggers or Nancy, being too busy or scared. The pair soon arrived

near a house, which was half engulfed by flames. A fire truck was parked in front and

half a dozen firemen were trying to fight the fire, without much success. Nearby were a

young woman and two small children, all dressed in nightshirts and looking anxiously at

the top floor of the house. Nancy saw tears on the woman’s face and decided to

approach her. Eggers followed close behind her.

“Excuse me, Frau, is anyone left inside this house?”

The woman looked only briefly at Nancy and, probably not recognizing her, answered

while looking back at the house, her voice choked by tears.

“My younger sister’s room is in the attic. Nobody saw her come out and the

staircase is already on fire.”

Nancy looked at the house and grimaced: the whole ground floor was already engulfed

in flames and anyone trying to put up a ladder would be roasted alive before getting to

the top floor. Nancy looked back at the woman.

“Which window is the one of your sister’s room?”

“The second attic window from the left. Why?”

“What is her name?”

The German woman then looked more closely at Nancy, surprised by her questions.

“Her name is Ingrid. Why do you want to know all this? Nobody can get inside

that house now.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Nancy then went to the firemen manning a high-pressure water hose.

“Spray me! I’m going in.”

“Are you crazy, Fraulein? Nobody can enter that inferno.” replied the senior

fireman.

“I have a way in. Spray me, now!”

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The fireman swore quietly but had his men turn the hose on Nancy, dousing her

copiously before returning the spray on the burning house. Eggers grabbed Nancy’s

arm as she was about to walk towards the house.

“Brigadier, this is suicide! You don’t need to do this to win my respect: you

already have it.”

Nancy smiled at the German officer and took his hand, forcing it off her arm.

“I’m not doing this to gain anybody’s respect, Hauptman. I’m doing it to save a

life.”

Under the incredulous eyes of the Germans present, Nancy then flew off the ground and

floated silently upwards towards the attic of the house. The German woman, imitated by

her two children, went to her knees and made the sign of the cross.

“Mein Gott! Who is she?”

“I’m not sure anymore, Frau.” answered Eggers as he anxiously watched Nancy

disappear through the attic window. Thick smoke was already pouring out of the top

windows. After a long minute, Nancy reappeared at the window, the inert body of a

teenage girl in her arm. As she stepped out of the window, a back draft sent flames

through the window, enveloping Nancy for a second. Eggers heard her scream briefly

with pain, then saw her fly down towards him, the teenager still in her arms and the

clothes of both of them on fire. The firemen, despite being overwhelmed by the show of

Nancy’s powers, quickly reacted and directed their water hose on them. Nancy landed

in front of Eggers and promptly put down the unconscious teenager on the street

pavement. Eggers saw immediately that both women had been burned badly, yet Nancy

concentrated first on healing by the touch of her hands the young blonde. Only after

Ingrid started coughing and moving again did Nancy heal herself, a halo of light

enveloping her for a few seconds. Eggers joined the others in kneeling around Nancy

and looked up in her green eyes.

“Brigadier Laplante, you must be an angel.”

Nancy shook her head slowly, sadness on her face.

“After all the killing that I did? An angel of death, maybe. Let’s move on: there

may be more people in need of help.”

578

08:36 (Berlin Time)

Sunday, June 29, 1941 ‘B’

Inner courtyard, Colditz Castle

“Has anyone seen Brigadier Laplante this morning?” asked William Anderson to

Mark Lindsay, keeping his voice low as the prisoners’ roll call went on.

“No! She must be still in the sick ward, recovering from yesterday’s beating.”

Being reminded about that made Anderson angry again at Nancy’s assailants.

“That Renaudin! I’m going to kill him once he gets out of solitary confinement.”

“You better take a number, then. That big Norwegian fighter pilot has claimed

first rights on Renaudin, followed by Milner.”

Whispers and exclamations then made Anderson and Lindsay look towards the main

entrance gate. They saw with dismay Nancy Laplante and Captain Eggers walking in

through the main gate at a tired pace. Laplante in particular seemed exhausted and was

covered with soot and dust. Her clothes were also half burned away and the little hair

she had left after being attacked yesterday was now badly singed.

“My god,” exclaimed Lindsay, “it looks like she walked through fire.”

All the prisoners on roll call parade followed with their eyes Nancy Laplante as she made

her way to the sick ward, still accompanied by Eggers. The latter went in with her for a

minute, then got out of the infirmary, alone this time, and walked out by the main gate.

Whispered comments went around the prisoners during the rest of the roll call, until

dismissed by Feldwebel Buhlingen. Both Anderson and Lindsay quickly walked towards

the infirmary as soon as they were let go, only to nearly bump into six more prisoners

heading the same way. Anderson saluted Lieutenant Colonel Brunet, who was

accompanied by Corporal Bigras. The four others, Sven Larsen, Jim Milner, Jan

Nierman and Samuel Goldman, were following close behind the two Frenchmen.

“Good morning, Colonel Brunet. It seems that you are heading the same way as

me and Squadron Leader Lindsay.”

“And for which purpose are you heading towards the infirmary, Major?” asked

Brunet, suspicious. “Not to accuse Brigadier Laplante of treason, I hope?”

“Of course not, sir. We were just worried about her, since she looked to have

been burned somehow.”

“In that case, follow me.”

579

The eight of them arrived at the entrance of the infirmary only to be stopped by two

German soldiers who put their rifles at the ready.

“Halt! Prisoners are not allowed in the infirmary at this moment.”

“Gefreiter,” said Brunet with authority, “a number of prisoners are already inside

the infirmary, wounded. It is only our right to visit and comfort them.”

“They should be out soon, Colonel: Brigadier Laplante is taking care of them

now.”

The prisoners exchanged confused looks at those words. Brunet finally looked back at

the German sentry.

“Gefreiter, at least tell Brigadier Laplante that I want to see her.”

The German seemed tempted for a second to just ignore those bothersome prisoners,

but finally looked at his comrade.

“Johan, go tell Brigadier Laplante that she has visitors.”

The younger soldier then disappeared inside the infirmary, reappearing after a minute or

so and addressing Brunet.

“She is very busy, Colonel, but she will receive you for a short while.”

“How considerate of her.” muttered Lindsay to Anderson, attracting a warning

look from Jim Milner as they followed the German inside the infirmary. The group

stopped cold and fell silent when they saw Laplante in the sick ward. The ward had

been full to overflow with both German soldiers and Allied prisoners wounded in

yesterday’s air raid. Now, five of the previously wounded men, four of them German,

stood beside their beds, apparently healthy again. Nancy was just then healing a sixth

man, her hands glowing as she touched the wounds of the patient. Her face was one of

absolute concentration.

“Sweet Mother Mary!” whispered Anderson to himself, unable to take his eyes off

that impossible scene. “Nobody will believe me back in England when I will tell them

this.”

They watched in fascinated silence as Nancy healed two more men before stopping,

looking haggard. Brunet took that opportunity to approach her respectfully, the others

behind him: he just didn’t know how to treat a person able to do what she had just

demonstrated.

“Brigadier Laplante, are you alright? You look awful.”

She somehow managed a weak smile as she looked up from the bed on which she was

sitting.

580

“I actually feel both happy and grateful, Colonel Brunet: happy for being able to

save lives and grateful to The One for making this possible. It is true though that I am

dead tired: healing drains my energy quickly.”

“And… may I ask how you manage to accomplish such miracles, Brigadier?”

She looked down at the floor, silent for a moment.

“Colonel, the human spirit is something poorly understood in this time, or even in

my own time. When I was healed over two days ago, my own spirit went through a

radical metamorphosis and became fully attuned with my body, making possible things

you can hardly imagine. As a result, I am now a better being and am able to atone for all

the violence I caused.”

“And… who gave you this power of healing, Brigadier?”

“One you can call The One, Colonel Brunet.” said Nancy humbly. “And before

you ask, I am not an angel. I am still a woman, with faults and still able to make

mistakes.”

“Why you, Brigadier?” asked cautiously Samuel Goldman. “Why were you

chosen to receive these powers and not someone else?”

Nancy looked at Goldman, then at the others.

“Gentlemen, my spirit has been under scrutiny for millenniums, being tested

during the course of many past lives. The final factor that designated me was when I

was transported back in time to 1940 and, by my actions, split time in two. Feel free to

believe me or not but you, the persons in Colditz, this whole world you and I live in

presently, were created involuntarily and unconsciously by my actions. This timeline

would not exist without me.”

Goldman, Brunet and the others could only stare silently at Nancy, so enormous were

the consequences of what she had just said. Brunet had to sit down, close to fainting.