Chapter 16

Holland.

"Do you know what's in the French car?" Gerry asked as he assisted her with disposal of the water from the tub. Maike looked relieved that she had not been involved sexually with Karla.

"I haven't looked, Wim said that he would organise a friend to take it away," Maike said.

"I want to see if there's anything useful in it before it's taken away."

They walked out of the back gate and he showed her the bullet holes just above the running board in the French car.

"Wim was lucky," she said as she shook her head slowly.

"We all were! I want to see what's in the trunk," he said as he opened it.

"I can use this," Gerry said as he opened a wooden case that housed a portable communications set. He lifted it out of the trunk and placed it in the back yard just inside the back gate.

Returning to the car, he lifted some old rope and underneath it he found a pistol in a leather holster. He gave it to Maike to hold and she immediately shoved it into her coat pocket. He moved the spare wheel and found a cardboard box. He prised it open and inside was a hundred rounds of ammunition for the pistol.

"Do you have a pistol," he asked.

"No I don't have one."

"Store it somewhere safe. Later, if we get an opportunity, I'll show you how to use it."

He closed the trunk and opened the car's rear door. Fishing under the rear of the front seats, his hand brushed a smooth flat object and he pulled it out and stood up. It was expensive leather, a hand tooled wallet made in Paris. He jammed it into his coat pocket and continued searching the car. In the glove box, he found another wallet.

"There's nothing else worth having, I'll take the communications set into the house and see if it's working."

The communications set was portable but it was heavy and he strained as he hefted it onto the kitchen table.

He opened the wooden case and found that it had a power pack that connected to a car battery. It was removable and could be replaced with a mains power pack that was housed in a separate compartment.

"Do you know the mains voltage that's used in France," he asked Maike.

"No but I could find out for you," Maike said.

"No, I want to see if it works now. I'll take a chance that they use 220V ac."

He pulled the power pack and searched for a label that might tell him. There wasn't one, the set appeared to be home made. He extracted the mains cable and found that the plug was the wrong type.

She saw his problem and searched through a drawer in the kitchen counter. Finding a spare plug, an old set of pliers, and a screwdriver, she handed them to Gerry. He looked puzzled.

Laughing, she snatched them back and taking the mains cord, she expertly took the French plug off and wired the Dutch plug onto the end of it.

"I can't believe that you've never changed a plug before," she said as she handed the cord back to him.

"You forget that I was a schoolboy when I was snatched away to the camp in Germany."

He reached up and plugged it into the wall socket above the counter and before he switched it on, he picked up the set and moved it to the counter top. He closely examined the settings on the transmitter then he found a lid to a compartment that housed a Morse key and a small microphone, he plugged the Morse key in and unrolled the antenna cable. It was a single cable and stored with it was a cord with a weight attached to the end. He had seen Chris use such an antenna and knew that the cord was useful. The weight is tied to the cord. The far end of the cord is attached to the antenna cable. When the weight is thrown into a tree the cord loops over a branch and the cord is then used to hoist the antenna cable gaining height for the antenna. The cord is tied off on a lower branch allowing the antenna cable to be retrieved easily. He knew that sometimes when the cord became tangled, it meant a climb into the tree.

He draped the antenna cable over the kitchen window, switched the set on, and waited until it had warmed up. He turned the volume up.

"What are you waiting for," Maike asked.

"I wanted to see if there was anyone operating on the frequency that this set is tuned to. Would you get me a pencil and paper, I want to record these settings."

The set burst into life, "Terugspringen," the male voice said.

"Terugspringen? I haven't heard that word before," Gerry said.

"It's Dutch. You do speak that language don't you," Maike teased.

"I remember now, its 'rebound'. It must be a code word. Do you know who might be using it?"

"No, our communications are in Morse code because we can reach further in bad conditions. It might be the German's; they have voice communications," Maike said.

"In Dutch? And just one word. I don't think so."

Gerry spent the next hour exploring the set and finally satisfied he rolled up the cables and stowed them back in the box.

"Have you ever been told that the Germans look for transmitters in this area?"

"Never, but it's something we worry about" Maike said.

"Do you have somewhere that I could put this set, out of sight but easy to get to so that I can operate it tonight,"

"You know how to transmit Morse," Maike asked curiously.

"Yes I do."

"You'll be a great addition to our movement."

Maike led him to the smaller cupboard near the basement stairs. She opened the doors and cleared a space on the top shelf. Gerry pushed the communications set onto the cupboard shelf; satisfied with its location.

He went to his coat hanging on a peg near the backdoor and extracted the two wallets that he had taken from the car.

Maike was in the final stages of preparing coffee. He was about to sit at the table when Maike asked him to find out if Karla wanted coffee. Gerry went to the head of the stairs and called, "Karla would you like coffee?"

"No! I want you!" she yelled angrily.

"If you want coffee come and get it."

They sat at the table as he emptied the wallets onto the table. He gathered the paper money into one pile and Maike counted it. There were two sets of personal identification in French with German ministry stamps on them.

He showed them to Maike, "These are false."

When she didn't answer, he looked and she was holding her breath.

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" she repeated, "What's wrong. There's enough money here to fund our operations for the next two years."

"It's mostly French occupation currency, you can't use it."

"We have our contacts and sometimes we get together with contacts from the French resistance and the exchange of currency takes place quite often," she said.

After dinner Karla sat quietly watching Maike cleanup and when the kitchen counter was cleared Gerry went to the cupboard near the stairs and took the communications set and placed it on the counter. He took the antenna cable and opening the kitchen window, he threw the weighted end out into the backyard. He fitted the Morse key, reached up to wall outlet, and switched it on. He dragged a kitchen chair and sat patiently waiting for it to warm up.

He tuned across the dial but was unable to find many distant stations. He remembered that the antenna should be high up to be effective and took his coat from the peg near the backdoor. In the yard, he saw that the antenna was lying in the snow. Picking up the weighted end he walked across the yard to an old fruit tree, it had long since shed its leaves. He heaved the weight and it caught in a branch fork about three metres up. He heard a message coming through loudly in the kitchen and knew that he had fixed the problem. He raced into the kitchen and turned the volume down.

He sat and roamed through the three-megahertz band, hearing many active stations.

"What time is it?" he asked Maike.

She walked into her living room and reading the time from her wall clock, she yelled, "Ten before nine." It was the Dutch custom of telling the time.

He switched to a lower frequency that covered the broadcast band.

Martial music was playing, which was suddenly interrupted, "The Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands, Seyss-Inquart has issued a statement that Romania has joined with Herr Fuehrer in also declaring war on the United States. This is Radio Netherlands, now we return you to your local program of music."

Gerry tuned across the band and found similar music playing on every station. He went to the living room and saw that it was two minutes before nine.

Returning to the set, he switched to three-megahertz band and then localised onto the frequency that Anna would be listening on. Placing the Morse key comfortably under his right hand, he switched to Transmit and tapped 'ANNA', and then he switched to Receive. Thirty seconds later he received 'GERRY' and the Morse for 'AK' that Anna used for acknowledgement.

Tears flowed down his cheeks and unable to continue he stood and went to the dining room. He sat on the sofa, in the dark, and sobbing he buried his head in his hands.

In the kitchen Karla stood and was preparing to go to him but Maike quickly stood in front of her, "Leave him be, it must be something private. He'll tell us later if he wants to."

Maike made coffee and sat with Karla, "I asked Wim to talk to Jan about getting you back to Eindhoven. I suggested that you would be ready to travel on the sixteenth, three days from now."

"Thanks Maike for putting up with me and for the care that you organised for me. You're a good friend and I hope that my outlandish conduct has not turned you against me, I don't have many friends."

Jan arrived early on the sixteenth; Karla had been restless since breakfast. Maike heard him drive into the back lane and park where the French car had been. Gerry and Maike walked with Karla and met Jan as he opened the gate.

Jan was a short red-haired man, his face riddled with freckles and he looked startled when the gate opened and he saw three people advancing on him.

Maike introduced Gerry and then "Coffee Jan?"

"Please, I left early and missed breakfast."

Gerry walked with Jan back to house, "You live in Eindhoven?"

"Yes I do, there's lots of very unsettled people there since the Philip's executive moved out and went to Canada. They took all of the company's liquid assets with them. The Germans think that they can run the factories but there's lot's of ill feeling from the workers, many of them are sabotaging the production facilities that they helped to construct. And what does our Royal family do? They go to London! Can't say I blame them, if the Germans had captured them I don't think that they would have survived.

We're getting a lot of old SS Germans policing us now, the young one's are being sent to the Russian front. The old SS are a cruel and vicious lot but it's making it easier for us to recruit new members because of the way we're being treated."

In the kitchen, they consumed coffee while Jan ate a hearty breakfast that Maike had prepared for him. She told Jan about the mission and how, while they had been successful, they had lost five members of the team including two Dutchmen. Karla told him of Gerry's part in getting them home.

"Why don't you come down to Eindhoven and help us down there?" Jan asked Gerry.

"I don't think so Jan, I'm really missing Germany."

"What? Missing Germany you must be mad!"

"Yes I am. In reality, I'm missing my home in Amsterdam but I can't go there because my papers identify me as a German citizen who lives near Goppingen."

"Where's that?" Jan said.

"It's in the countryside west of Stuttgart."

"What's so good about it?" Jan asked.

"Being in the country we're far from any policing. If I want to try new weapons, I can do that without fear of detection. If I want to move around we're not as tightly policed as you are here."

Jan looked frustrated as he stood and walked to his coat hanging on a peg near the back door. He put his coat on and walked back to Gerry.

Jan held his hand out, "Good luck Gerry, you're a braver man than I am," he shook hands firmly. Turning he gave Maike a hug, "Thanks for breakfast," he beckoned to Karla, "Let's go."

Karla hugged Maike and as she kissed Gerry her hand slid down and firmly grasped his cock.

"Good bye lover!" she said gaily as she pushed her fur cap jauntily back on her head before she strode quickly out the door.

Gerry watched her wiping her eyes as she disappeared through the back gate with the snow swirling around her.

Gerry began to feel uncomfortable as Maike hurried to attend to his every need. Yesterday he felt relieved when Karla had departed, he was sure that she was mentally unbalanced, but now Maike was smothering him with attention.

She was cleaning up after the evening meal and when he attempted to help, she had pushed him away. She made coffee; placing a cup in front of him, she sat along side him.

He was drinking as he felt her hand sliding across his thigh. The suddenness made him gulp and he looked sideways at her. Her face was red, he didn't know if it was because of lust or embarrassment. He locked eyes with her and her face reddened further.

"You don't have to sleep in the basement," she said, her voice different, hoarse and breathy.

"You want me to bring the palliasse upstairs?" he said, pretending not to understand what she really meant.

"I want you to sleep with me."

Her breathing was laboured but her hand continued to caress his thigh.

"I need to tell you what I feel. You're a kind, attractive woman but I'm not in love with you. You may have guessed that I'll be moving on soon. I would not like to deceive you into thinking that there would a future for us..."

"I'm not a young starry-eyed girl," Maike interrupted, "I'm a mature woman with needs that I can't satisfy on my own. I'm also married, if God brings my husband back to me. I'm probably using you but I don't feel that I would be doing that if we both enjoyed sex together," she said as she moved her hand onto his aroused erection.

Gerry placed his cup on the saucer, his arm reached around her shoulder, "As long as you don't have any false hopes," he said as he twisted her face and kissed her with urgency.

Maike broke from his kiss, "Bed?" she said simply.

"Could we have another coffee? I have something to do at nine."

"Of course," she said as she stood and went to the stove. Her hand was shaking as she placed sugar into their empty cups.

He went to the cupboard drew out the communications set, placing it on the counter he attached the antenna that he had left jammed in the window to avoid a trip outside in the snow.

After the set warmed up, he went into the dining room and checked the time.

"Is your clock accurate?" Gerry asked as he returned to the kitchen.

"I adjust it every morning when the main news comes on."

He tuned the three-megahertz frequency. Listening, he was certain that Anna was sending a message to Chris. He waited for a minute after the transmission ended to give Anna time to switch to reception, then he tapped out 'ANNA' he waited and thirty seconds later he received 'GERRY' then he tapped out 'ANNAH'. Anna tapped back... --... The Morse for a query or a question mark but he ignored her.

'I hope she follows me every night, ' he thought as he closed down the transmitter and packed it away.

He sat with Maike and now he felt elated that he had started to put his plan into action.

"That was a short message," Maike said.

"It's a pre-arranged code that I said I would send if I was safe."

"Is a woman involved?" Maike asked. She had listened to his transmissions and had heard 'ANNA' being transmitted three nights ago and his name being echoed back to him. At the time, her heart went out to him when he went to the dining room and sat sobbing in the darkness. She wondered now if he would tell her the truth.

He hesitated, his mind racing. In a flash, he realised that she understood Morse code.

"Yes, she's a German Jew and she's become my closest friend, someone that I can talk to, about anything really. We've shared our lives since I was rescued from the concentration camp. She's a widow and sadly, she saw her husband and two children executed. It happened about four years ago."

Maike put her arm around his shoulder, leaned close, and kissed his cheek, "You don't have to share my bed if it worries you."

When she saw that he was confused she stood, "I'm going to bed, sleep well Gerry."

He sat finishing his coffee, wishing that he were able to resolve his dilemma.

He put his cup on the counter and descended the stairs to the basement.

The next day Maike was as friendly and attentive as she had been previously but he was reproaching himself because he had not gone straight to her bed.

'After all she told me that she was a mature married woman. She doesn't have stars in her eyes. She needs sex she said, and I have needs too.' Gerry groaned in frustration.

Gerry spent the day doing odd jobs for Maike. Late in the afternoon, they were relaxing together, sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee.

"I need a bath," he said, "Do you?"

"I do, but only if you wash my back." she smiled, 'I'm behaving like Karla, ' she thought briefly.

"If you'll wash mine I'll wash yours," he said laughing lightly.

She moved the kitchen table, laid the canvas protector, and dragged the large tub on to it while he filled the large kettles.

When the kettles boiled, he filled them into the tub. He refilled the kettles and set them on the stove for his own bath.

He locked eyes with her and she responded, her face red with excitement. Unlike the previous occasion, she needed no prompting to undress. She disrobed and placing her toe in the water, she quickly withdrew it.