In the early months of the First World War, a young Canadian soldier uses quick thinking and ingenuity to evade capture after being wounded fighting in Flanders. While escaping through Germany to the Swiss border, he becomes intimately entwined with...
He put the basket under his left arm and extended his right hand to shake. "David Berry." He smiled. "I'd been told about the white feather women."
"William." He shook David's hand firmly as he continued lightly chuckling. "These women need more of that happening." He turned to his driver. "Take his luggage, Simms."
Simms led the way to the motorcar and opened the door of the passenger compartment for them. William motioned for David to get in, then followed him, sat and turned his head to address Simms. "The quiet place in Hyde Park."
"Very good, Sir." Simms nodded and closed the door.
William turned to David. "I like your spunk. I like what I've read so far in your dossier. What time's your train to Oxford?"
"Sixteen forty-five, Sir."
"Dispense with the sir." He looked at his watch. "Nearly two hours. We'll stroll in Hyde Park. Tell me about the engineering drawings and the photographs?"
"Two collections. The major one was assembled as a hobby by my wife's great uncle, Aaron. He was a partner in an engineering firm and had helped design some of the bridges and viaducts on the Höllentalbahn and the Schwarzwaldbahn..."
"Your German sounds natural."
"I've been knocking off the rough edges and polishing it the past two months. I'm told I pass well as a Schaffhausen native."
"So the drawings... Continue."
"Three rail lines run from central Germany to the southern Rhine basin, the Hell Valley Railway, the Black Forest Railway and the one called the Pig Tail line because of its twists and curls. Aaron had assembled drawings of all the bridges and viaducts, most of the tunnels and many of the rock cuts on all three, plus he had taken photographs of the completed work and collected photos taken by others. He was fascinated with the engineering. The line that runs from Donaueschingen over the Continental Divide to Freiburg has forty tunnels in one twenty kilometre stretch."
"You had mentioned in your letter to the Embassy you have Swiss identification papers."
"Yes, the birth certificate of my wife's dead brother. We were born within weeks of each other, and there's no way to either confirm or refute the document as being mine. The Swiss are introducing a new photo passport format this autumn, and my grandfather will apply for one for me. He was a colonel in the Swiss Army, and he's still well-connected."
"Yes, we've also revised our format here. They all have photos now. You mentioned you had safe hiding places in Germany."
"When we escaped across the mountains of the Black Forest, we easily found places to hide our camps. One was a frost-shattered granitic intrusion sticking up from an area of gentle forested slopes. Nobody would take the trouble to traverse it because of the easy terrain all around. We saw many places with natural deterrents."
"You sound familiar with geology and the mountains."
"I enjoyed five years of exploratory mountaineering. Many pioneering ascents in the Canadian Rockies, the Purcells, the Selkirks, the Bugaboos. I sat in on geology lectures while in university, and I did some geology field work at two Alpine Club camps."
"Crossing the border into Germany. You can do that with your Swiss papers, but you had mentioned a tunnel."
"My wife's great aunt, Bethia, has vineyards on both sides of the border, separated only by the patrol path. A tunnel can be dug under the border to link the vineyard tool sheds. They're only forty or fifty yards apart." David looked up at the sound of the door being opened. "A remarkably quiet automobile. It reminds me of Evelyn's... Mr Grant Duff... the Ambassador to Switzerland."
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"His is likely also a Rolls Royce. They're superbly crafted." He stepped out and waited for David to join him. "Paddington's only a five-minute motor from here. Let's stroll through the park."
They slowly ambled along the paths as William continued to ask questions. Then he motioned to a bench at the edge of the Serpentine and they sat in silence as they watched the swans. After a long interlude, William said, "It's dangerous, David. The life of a spy is not easy. Combining spying and sabotage is even less easy."
"I'm aware of that. I've read spy fiction, and I can extrapolate."
"This isn't fiction, David. This is reality. When it gets tense, when things go wrong, you can't simply close the book or skip a few pages. You cannot expect us to rescue you. We'll support you, certainly, but we can never admit to any knowledge of what you're doing, nor can you ever talk about it. You'll have to live two entirely separate lives, but we'll acknowledge only one of them."
David nodded as he listened. "What will you have me do?"
"We've plenty of time to learn to work together, then after that, we'll explore possibilities. Your commissioning course will be a good cover, and its four months will be more than sufficient to allow us to set up communications protocols and codes."
"The explosives training? Colonel Picot had mentioned..."
"That's been arranged, plus a few other things. You'll see them evolve. We'll be in contact as you go through your training. Anything from me will be signed R."
"R? What's that stand for?"
"It stands for R." William smiled and glanced at his watch. We should go, you've a train to catch and we've a war to win."
