The Bavarian Gate By John Dalmas

Anna’s stunned gaze didn’t leave Macurdy till the sergeant arrived. They repeated their identities for him, then he ushered them inside and phoned his superiors. That done, he gave the phone to Macurdy, who reached Grosvenor Square by the confidential number he’d memorized. Afterward the home guard fed them porridge, bread and jam, cheese, coffee–even bacon!

A jeep from MI5 arrived from London in about an hour, in the charge of a green 2nd lieutenant, to take them into custody. Macurdy fended them off with obstinacy and lies, insisting that he was a 1st lieutenant, and not about to be ordered by a junior officer. Minutes later an OSS jeep arrived with an American captain, and took them away, leaving the unhappy lieutenant behind.

What stuck in Macurdy’s mind, though, riding off down the road to London, wasn’t his small victory over MI5, or even how quickly things had developed. It was that he’d never suspected Anna’s disloyalty to the Nazis. Apparently she’d lived sod ong in secrecy that her aura had adjusted!

They hiked through heath for much of a mile, while the dawnlight strengthened. Then the heath ended. Ahead was what had been a farm cottage, now a home guard outpost, with two jeeps parked outside and a uniformed sentry by the door. Anna headed straight for it, Macurdy following, wondering.

At fifteen yards, the middle-aged sentry pointed his rifle at them. “Stop right there,” he said, and they did. “Who are you, and what’s your business here?”

“My name is Anna Hofstetter,” Anna replied in upper-class English. “We were just put ashore by a German submarine, and wish to report our mission to the authorities.”

31

“Should Auld Acquaintance…”

Before the day was over they’d both been debriefed, which took until evening because the OSS wanted everything. Among other things, he emphasized that it was Anna who led them to the British Home Guard station and turned them in.

Normally his mission officer would have debriefed him, but the man was away, and a young lieutenant did it. Handling it ite professionally, even the description of the Voitar and eir ears, and the drills Macurdy had done-until Macurdy told about his visit to Hithmearc. The lieutenant got nervous then; it showed in his eyes, and conspicuously in his aura. He’s afraid of me, Macurdy realized. He thinks I’m crazy.

Awakening spontaneously the next morning, Macurdy went to breakfast and found Anna there. Someone had arranged for MI5, the British counter-espionage service, to pick her up. “And Curtis, I’m afraid,” she said. “I feel threatened by them. I was, after all, born here to an English mother, and they may consider me a traitor.”

Her aura told him she really did feel threatened, though he couldn’t imagine the threat being real.

“I’ll see if I can do something about it,” he said.

When the MI5 man arrived-a lieutenant less greenMacurdy was with her, and explained that she was a German national, working with him. “We’ve got a mission,” he lied. “We’ll be leaving before noon.”

“Sorry, chap,” the Englishman said, “but I’m afraid you’ll have to find someone else. She’s our responsibility now.” Scowling, Macurdy stepped close, pushing his broken nose in the man’s startled face. “Look, shit-for-brains, she and I have been working together for months. She may have been born in England, but you people never even heard of her until yesterday. So hear this, and hear it well. The only way you take her with you is to whip my ass first, and you don’t have a chance in hell of doing that.”

The man didn’t flinch, only grimaced, as if he found such language and behavior offensive. “Your superiors shall hear of this,” he said stiffly, and turning, stalked away.

They probably will, Macurdy thought ruefully, then turned and grinned at Anna. “Let’s you and me go get a mission officer assigned to us right away,” he said. “We need to find our Abwehr contacts and get them rounded up. Okay?”

She cocked her head at him. “Lieutenant Macurdy, you are a never-ending source of surprises. And yes I think we should.” She paused thoughtfully. “Right now you’re the only friend I have here, actuary The only friend I have anywhere:”

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