The Royal Resistance

Chapter 3 - The Name

Voices. Deep and fierce-sounding. Incomprehensible except for the few words she had learned, Luftwaffe and kommandant, air force and commander. She held her breath as the voices became nearer and louder. The conversation slowed and then she heard the greeting. The two words that made her simultaneously clench her jaw in anger and cower in fear: Heil Hitler.

Deep breaths. One. Two.

~

The third bell rang for morning prayers. Maria had gotten there early in hopes of catching the nun and getting some information but she hadn't appeared until the last chime of the bell. It's alright, she thought, I'll just ask her after.

Maria watched entranced as the nun swayed and sang, an anomaly in the code of rigidness. She kept wondering if her strange ways had something to do with the symbol. Perhaps she was just part of the holy division of the RAF. In any case, she needed to ask her if she had any information on her brother and if he was okay.

As if sensing her watching eyes, Sister Martha Rose turned around, with a kindly smile on her face and winked. She turned to leave - the prayers had finished -and exited out the side door. Maria followed her, hastily walking to try and catch up to the nun who had seemingly transported herself to the other side of the stone corridor.

"Sister Martha Rose." She called out attempting to stop the nun who had just turned the corner. Maria looked quickly around, making sure there was nobody before running to the end of corridor. She turned the corner into another long stone corridor. The nun wasn't there. The corridor had only one door in the middle of it. Maria knocked and slowly opened the creaking door when there was no response.

"Hello? Excuse me, Sister Martha Rose?" Silence greeted her. She looked around, the room was a meeting room, with a grand oval mahogany table situated in the middle and a dozen chairs encircling it. On the left side, a wooden cupboard stood, with a variety of different tea-sets, the wall on the right side was decorated with a map of Europe, a spherical globe underneath it; behind her, the wall was lined with portraits of royals and important military personnel that had been to the consulate. She noticed that there was only one woman, Queen Victoria.

She turned around ready to leave when she heard a faint sound. She stopped and listened, someone was speaking. She followed the voice to the right side of the room and put her ear to the wall. There was a barely audible accent... and another voice. It sounded familiar but she couldn't quite place her finger on it. She cupped her hands around her ear, hoping it would make the voices clearer, but still, she only managed to hear snippets.

"...the war will be over... the operations?" A female voice was saying.

"Garbo working... mission... but we need the codes," A male voice replied. "I think she knows something...seemed suspicious."

"... cannot know, he told us... safe," the female replied. The words were muddled and Maria could barely make them out. What were they talking about? What mission? What codes? Who was "she"?

Maria looked around, no one. Reaching up, she grabbed the map off its hook, and leaned it on her, balancing it's weight, she slowly lowered it to the ground, hoping to hear the voices clearer. She leaned in to the wall again and her blood turned to ice as she heard the name that would always remain clear to her, "Blackbird." The name her brother used for their secret notes when they were young and wanted to have a midnight meeting or a horse-riding getaway. Surely, it was a just a coincidence. A coincidence that her brother was in the RAF, Blackbird was his name, the nun had the RAF's logo and now they were using her brother's code name. Something was up and she needed to figure it out. She strained to hear the conversation but a cough from behind her made her freeze.