Page 56 of Winter’s End

MILA

She was still in Pieter’s office when the call came from Zoe.

“You are not hurt?” she heard him ask.

He listened quietly, gave a quick instruction, then hung up and turned to Mila.

“The Gestapo has been and gone from the petkliniek. They tore the place apart, found nothing, and left Zoe with an unholy mess and a warning.”

“How can I help?”

Pieter’s fingers tapped a rhythm on his desk. “I need to talk with the rest of the council. I cannot go forward without support, and it will take every contact we have to determine where they are holding Daan.”

He paused.

“This much I know,” he said finally. “If we can be sure that de Boer sold him out, that traitor is our next priority.”

Briefly, he drummed his fingers on the desk. “But Zoe needs help – now – and reassurance that she is not alone. Can you go thekliniek,Mila? Perhaps call on a few more hands to help clean up the chaos the bastards left her with?”

“Of course.” Mila rose and gathered her things.

She knew whose help she would enlist.

EVI

The young woman had been delivered to the barge in the wee hours before dawn – a small, dark-haired woman, a research scientist called Rachel, who had been spirited out of Germany by friends in the dead of night and who, with the grace of God, and help from the network of Resistance volunteers, might one day find refuge in Belgium.

Mam had taken the girl in, fed her soup and tea, and persuaded her to sleep for a while, huddled under blankets in the hold. Now, at close to eleven in the morning, she was explaining to Rachel her plan to move her downriver when a knock sounded at the door.

Evi froze at the sound of the knock, and the young woman, Rachel, jumped nearly out of her skin, her dark eyes as big as saucers.

“Who is there?” Mam asked.

“Hallo, Lotte, it is I – Mila.”

Evi exchanged a glance of relief with Mam. She touched Rachel’s arm. “Not to worry,,” she assured her, opening the door. “Mila is with the Resistance.”

Mila glanced at the three of them, quick to understand “I am so sorry,” she said. “I did not mean to frighten you. I just – we need your help, Evi, if you can.”

Mam, who was pulling an extra sweater over the young woman’s head, watched warily.

Mila wasted no time. “Zoe Visser needs help at the petkliniek. The Germans have seized Daan Mulder. They broke into theklineikthis morning and left it in ruins. I am on my way there now, and I hoped you might come along to help.”

It was not what Evi expected.

“Of course,” she said finally. She turned to Mam, whose hands covered her face. “I expect I will be back here, Mam, by the time you return. If not, please do your best not to worry.”

She touched the shoulder of the young scientist. “Rachel,” she murmured. “God speed.”

“Mila, take my bicycle if you like,” Lotte called. “Be careful – and please tell Zoe my prayers are with her – and with Daan.”

Evi grabbed her coat and the blue knit cap with the yellow butterfly. She followed Mila out onto the wharf and opened the shed to retrieve the bicycles.

...

They were halfway to thekliniek, pedaling in tandem, when they were stopped at a makeshift checkpoint. Two young German guards, faces inscrutable under their combat helmets, looked them over slowly. One muttered something in rapid German.

The other snickered, then raised his rifle. “Papers!”