“This is so kind of you. Will you excuse me while I put these lovely flowers in water?”
“Of course, and I must run off as well. Much to be done. I’m sure we shall see each other again.”
“Yes, sir, I would enjoy that.”
He nodded, then turned to her parents “Herr and Frau Schnaubel. It is always a pleasure.”
As soon as the colonel had left, Posie Winfield turned to her daughter. “Your first!” She flashed a bright smile. “First bouquet, that is. You should go into the kitchen immediately and put them in water. There’s a vase on the shelf by the sink.”
Posie made sure to close the door behind her daughter as Alice reached for the vase and unwrapped the paper. She placed it on the counter and smoothed out the crinkles with her hand. The message was written in code one, as her legend had previously stated.
The principle subject is the Führer. His code name is Starling.
Alice’s eyes opened wide. Perfect, she thought. Starlings were the most hated birds in Europe, and destructive to native wildlife. Large flocks could lay waste to fields of crops. They were also great transmitters of disease. She continued reading.
After the end of the school term, you will be installed in the Starling’s Berlin household. This will bring you into the innermost domestic circle of the Führer, which includes his mistress, Eva Braun. She is easily impressed by the following: knowledge of movie stars, fashion, and silly romance novels. Make special note of these interests. Your duties will be to closely observe any changes in Starling’s mental condition. We are anticipating an acute deterioration in his state of mind with the approach of the Allied invasion.
D-Day, the day that the Allied troops of British and American soldiers would land on the beaches in France, was the biggest secret in the world right now. Everyone knew it was coming, but the precise date and location were unknown. Most people were betting that the Allied forces would land near the Pas de Calais in northern France.
Alice continued reading.
Monitor Starling’s condition with care, and report back when there are any signs of weakness. One indicator might be an increasing spasticity in his left arm—irregular or jerky movements. Another indicator would be a growing obsession with Wagner’s Ring cycle.
You shall be contacted on or before June 15. As a member of the inner domestic circle of Starling’s household, you will accompany the domestic staff to his retreats, the Wolfsschanze—Wolf’s Lair—in East Prussia and the Berghof in the Bavarian Alps. Be prepared to bring a small valise with personal belongings. When and if you sense that Starling is on the brink of absolute collapse, you must signal your fios/handler, code name Wotan.
There it was, in black and white. Her fios and case handler were one and the same—Stauffenberg, the one-eyed colonel. Just like the one-eyed Wotan from the operas!
There was of course no name on the letter, but there was a faint sketch. Alice drew the paper closer to her eyes—it was the feather of a swan. Of course! The Valkyries had cloaks that were made of the plumage of swans. In the German and Norse myths, these creatures, the Valkyries, were winged young women who would swoop down across the battlefields and fly off with the most heroic soldiers killed in battle, carrying them to Valhalla. For this reason, they were called the choosers of the slain.
Like the first light of a breaking dawn it came to Alice. She was to document Hitler, in his growing madness, and report back to the British so that they would know when he was becoming weaker. Hitler did not want to die, but if he did, he wanted to be one of the chosen heroes taken to Valhalla. That was her mission, to document his every move and mood, identify his weaknesses, make him feel his destiny as one of the chosen.
Next, she found a list of her signal sites in Berlin, with the dead drop spots.
* Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, mailbox on the southeast corner of the Breitscheidplatz (shrub hedge at the back of the church’s cemetery)
* Traffic trash bin at the Palace Bridge, just in front of the Alte Kommandantur building (telephone booth at the corner, slide any message under the floor mat)
* Lamppost near the Americano Café on Heidestrasse (fifty feet from the lamppost is a linden tree with a small hollow on the north side)
* Alley number seventeen trash bins behind the Americano Café (walking out of that alley there is another telephone booth—leave a message under the floor mat)
* Bench near the bear exhibit of the Berlin Zoo (twenty feet from that bench is a disused toolshed. Slip any message under the loose board on west side)
* Bench in the Tiergarten near the Folksong Memorial statue (empty fountain one hundred feet to the right of the bench. The rim of the fountain has several loose flat stones. On the north side there are three in a row. Pick any one of those three for a message)
You will know your signal has been received if a thumbtack or a small piece of adhesive tape has been attached within inches of where you left the chalk mark. In case of a life-threatening emergency, to say “I am in danger,” make the chalk mark, then proceed to the dead drop and leave something edible, like an apple, a small crust of bread, or a piece of candy.
Fourteen
“You-Tah Beach”
For the next several days Alice had almost purposely avoided going to the alley when she thought that David might be there. How could she explain to David that she was really working for the other side? It was of course tempting to tell him. He might take heart, but it would be very dangerous. And yet not telling him was equal to lying. It was, in fact, living a lie. She had to face it—he was her only friend. Birgit, Margret, and Lena weren’t really friends. They were, if anything, tools through which she plied her trade—that of being a spy. She fit in with them—with their school life, with their gossip.
She had never really had had any friends except the Rasa kids that she met at camp. And outside of Rasa camp, she hadn’t needed any friends because . . . because she had a sister. She clamped her eyes shut. She didn’t want to think of Louise. Think of her new face. Think of her perfume. But even worse was the fact that she could not be honest with David, and it pained her. Yes, she actually felt a sharpness someplace deep within her, like a small piece of glass cutting her.
She could not bear to think of him starving to death. So mostly she would go quite late at night and leave the food in a trash can. She could not risk coming back to see if he had retrieved it. She might say something—like the truth, she thought miserably. She might confess that she was a spy, and that would endanger them both. She just had to think positively, believe that he would find the food each time she left it.
June 15 loomed in her mind, as that was the day she would be accompanying the Führer to his Bavarian retreat. She knew her parents were dreading her departure. However, on June 5, she came to the breakfast table and found her parents with anything but dread on their faces. In fact, both their faces seemed bathed in a glow of happiness. “Any day now the invasion—any hour! The Allied troops will land.” Alice dropped into a kitchen chair in disbelief. Her eyes opened wide.
“Truly?” she asked.
Her mother nodded. “I have no doubt.” She sighed and then mused, “I wonder how our Louise is?” A silence fell on the family. Alan Winfield reached across and patted his wife’s hand to quiet her. Posie got up and went to a cupboard where she had some of the sweet paper rolled up. She took a sheet and began to write out her message in code.