Half Sick of Shadows » Band of Brothers [2]

24: The Distinguishing Mark of Man

"The distinguishing mark of man is the hand, the instrument with which he does all his mischief." -  George Orwell, Animal Farm

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Eindhoven, as it turned out, didn't actually need to be liberated by the time they got there. One woman hanging an orange flag outside of her house told them all they needed to know: the Germans had already fled.

By the time the presence of American troops had become common knowledge, the streets of the city were filled to bursting with Dutch citizens, waving flags and sweeping the Americans up into their revelry. There was music playing, people were dancing, and the paratroopers were gaining themselves lipstick marks on every available patch of skin.

Juliette stuck close behind Thomas with Will behind her and Martin at the back. They had had to remove their helmets to draw less attention to themselves in the crowd, and Jules tried to keep her head down lest anyone start asking questions as to why there was a girl in their midst dressed like a paratrooper.

The four of them quickly managed to slip away from the crowd, darting into a road leading off from the main one and then navigating via alleyways. Right before leaving the revels and celebrations behind, Jules stole one final look back at the crowd, searching for the yanks scattered in amongst it. It was better this way, she knew; they would slip out unnoticed and the Americans wouldn't even know they were gone until much, much later. Still, she hadn't expected their entrance into Eindhoven to be so easy, and, ultimately, so quick. This really was it.

Their contact was a British spy who had been operating in Eindhoven throughout the entirety of its occupation. She met the group next to a letter box on a street tucked out of the way, just as they had been told she would, and led them into where she had been staying whilst undercover.

"I have clothes for you all to change into. There'll be no easy way to blend in dressed like that," she said with a small laugh.

The woman showed Juliette to a bedroom and handed her a red dress, fashionable but relatively plain, as well as a pair of heeled shoes and a red ribbon to tie in her hair. And, of course, some lipstick. "I'm sorry about the lack of eye makeup," the woman told her apologetically. "It's been especially hard to get ahold of recently."

Jules nodded and gave her a grateful smile. "Oh, that's okay. Thank you for all of this, it's really more than enough."

Juliette made quick work of getting out of her ODs, not thinking too hard on the fact that that was the last time she'd ever wear them, and changed into her dress. She tied the front of her hair back with the ribbon, brushed on the lipstick, put on her heels, and all of a sudden she was an entirely normal Dutch citizen - which, thinking about it, was actually a bit of a problem, because she really didn't speak too much Dutch.

When she came back down into the living room the boys were all already waiting. The woman turned once she heard her enter.

"Unfortunately, I'm not the one you need to speak to where your orders are concerned," she began once they were all gathered. "The rest of my team are waiting with a Dutch Resistance contact, so if you bring the weapons you've got we can head there directly."

Jules, Tom, Will, and Martin each picked up their bags full of various types of ammunition and weaponry and followed the woman back out of the front door, leaving their ODs and helmets behind.

It was only a short walk before they came upon a small café, deserted aside from a group of people sat at a table in the back. It was almost entirely wooden inside and had a rustic sort of feel. In the absence of any other patrons it was almost eerie, the quiet only punctuated by the distant sounds of whoever was working in the back bustling around.

The woman led the four of them in and they sat at the table in silence. After a few moments the man with the orange band tied around his forearm spoke. "I understand you have weapons for us?"

They each nodded and slid the bags under the table towards him. He discreetly unzipped one of them and nodded his approval at the contents before zipping it back up and turning to them again. "Thank you," he said sincerely. "This means a great deal to the Resistance."

Tom smiled at him. "We're happy to help." Then he looked from the man to the three other men gathered at his side. "Apparently you have our orders?"

One of them, a slight, blond man, nodded curtly. He glanced back over each shoulder to make sure they were entirely alone before removing a piece of paper from his pocket and spreading it out across the table.

"The reason why every spy in the Netherlands has been calling for reinforcements is because the Germans are trying to round us all up," he began to explain. "A lot of the captured have been able to bail out, but, naturally, there are a few who didn't get so lucky." He looked up at each of the four to ensure he had their full attention. "There is one very high value prisoner we need to get out. Our orders are to stay here and keep an eye on Eindhoven, so that's why we're passing this on to you. The prisoner is due to be transported from where they're currently being held here," he pointed to a building on the map which looked a lot like a hotel, "to Berlin tomorrow morning at 0800 hours."

Tom had a concentrated frown on his face. "What ideas do you have for the extraction?"

The blond man looked between each of them. "Which of you is the undercover specialist?"

"I am," Jules said, lifting a tentative hand to identify herself.

The man sent her a small nod of acknowledgement. "We want to send you into the building they're holding the prisoners in, a hotel about an hour outside of the city. You'll find their primary intelligence office and retrieve the details on where the prisoners are being held as well as a map of the building. That way, you can follow them to Berlin at a safe distance, undercover, and get our prisoner out relatively easily based on the layout of the building. As quickly as you can, ideally."

Juliette nodded. "When will the intelligence office be empty?"

"You'll have a window of about fifteen minutes at 0745, when they're preparing to transport the prisoners. We've got identification papers for you to get in and you'll be disguised as a maid. In the chaos of prisoner transportation there shouldn't be any guards on the door to the office. If there is, you'll just have to leave, but I'm almost one hundred percent sure that there won't be."

"Okay," she replied, running over the plan in her head.

"I'll leave you to work out the details," the blond man said to Tom, rising to his feet now. He shook Tom's hand over the table. "And, off the record, we really can't thank you enough."

Tom smiled. "As I said, we're happy to help."

When everyone else stood up, too, signalling the end of the small meeting, the blond man turned to Juliette. "Good luck," he said, offering a nod and a quick smile.

Jules smiled politely back at him. "Thank you. I won't let you down."

One of the men who had been sitting beside the blond man passed Juliette what looked to be an incredibly ordinary bag, and gestured to it once it was in her hands. "The maid uniform and identification papers you'll need are in there, as well as a map that tells you where to find the hotel and the layout of the building. That way you shouldn't have too much trouble finding the intelligence office."

Jules nodded. "Thank you."

The woman who had given them their clothes led them to a car and gave Tom the keys. "Take the back roads out of the city. We've outlined them on your map. The celebrations aren't likely to finish for another few hours yet, so that's your best bet for getting out of the city uninterrupted."

They each nodded to the woman and gave her a smile.

Just as Jules was about to get into the back of the car she felt a gentle hand on her wrist and turned back. The woman was smiling softly at her. "Be careful," she said. "And good luck."

Juliette smiled at her, "Thank you. You too," and got into the car. With that, the team of four drove away, navigating the backstreets of Eindhoven and leaving the city, on their way to rescue yet another prisoner.