Family of Spies, page 17
The pews, tapestries, monuments, and smoky candles faded away. The crypt reappeared.
Ford yanked out his earbuds and stared at Gavin. They needed that grate open. Now. “What are the chances Ellie has a crowbar in that backpack of hers?”
Chapter 33
“A crowbar?” Ellie asked, her voice a bit too loud. Aunt June turned and gave them the hairy eyeball.
Ford opened a pack of gummy fruit snacks and dumped the entire contents into his mouth. As he swallowed, the nausea from his vision receded.
“Are you kidding?” Ellie whispered to Ford.
“Afraid not. We need one, or at least something we could use as one. Great-Granddad hid a package for Scout in this building and it’s hidden under a floor grate. I—we need to see if the envelope is still there.”
Ellie carefully twisted her backpack around, her gaze locked on the backs of the adults. When they didn’t turn, she slowly unzipped her bag. “Let me see…”
After a few long seconds, she passed Ford an umbrella, followed by a pair of black-handled scissors. She shrugged and whispered, “That’s all I have.”
Ford nodded. They were better than nothing. He and Gavin snuck through the other tourists and raced to Great-Granddad’s hiding spot.
He kneeled down and opened the scissors into a “V” and slipped one blade under the lip of the brass grate. He pushed down on the handle, the blade pushed up and the grate moved a fraction of an inch.
“Almost…” Ford murmured.
“What if we work together?” Gavin asked.
“Good idea.”
Gavin held onto the handle of the umbrella and stuck its tip through the grate near the edge of the stone floor. He twisted it up and lifted. The umbrella creaked. The grate remained in place. He withdrew the umbrella and flipped it around. He shoved the handle through the rungs and pushed down, using it like a lever.
“Now you use the scissors and—” but Gavin didn’t continue as the umbrella popped out, a metal ringing echoing around them as the umbrella sprung backwards and clipped him on the chin. “Ow!”
“Shhh!!” Ford said. “You’re too loud.”
“Gee, thanks for your concern.”
“I think we need to ditch the umbrella before someone gets hurt. I have an idea. Get ready to pull up as soon as I jimmy the grate up a bit more.”
Gavin poked his fingers into the grate and gripped so hard his knuckles whitened. Ford fit the scissor blade under the rim again and pushed down. Once more, it only moved a millimetre. He moved around to the other side and pushed. Over and over he tried.
Ford stared into the dark vent. “This is pointless.”
“Don’t give up, Ford,” Gavin said.
Ford moved to a corner and inserted the scissors as he had already, countless times. He pushed down with all his might and the grate lifted a good inch this time. Gavin yanked hard and the grate scraped over to the side. Ford reached into the hole, his fingers gliding over the wooden underbelly of the floor, over a ridge, until he bumped into something metal. He withdrew his hand and peered inside. Too dark. Ford turned his phone on and used the screen glare as a flashlight. There, within arm’s reach, was a compartment fitted to the underside of the floor and on the edge of it was an old metal clasp. He flipped it open and a long door flopped open. Ford reached inside, expecting to find it empty. Instead, his fingers found paper.
Ford pulled out the manila envelope that he had seen in Great-Granddad’s vision.
“It’s still here?” Gavin said. “That means—”
“Scout never made it here.” Ford slumped against the end of a pew and opened the envelope while Gavin silently moved the grate back into place. “Here’s the passport.” Ford opened it to the photo. “It’s her picture, but with a Swiss name—Ingrid Bussinger. I guess that was to be her alias.”
Gavin picked up the envelope and pulled out a bundle of cash. “German and French currency, for safe passage to Switzerland.”
Ford nodded. “My guess is the passport was to disguise her nationality. But she didn’t make it.”
“You can’t know that for sure. Just because she didn’t pick up this envelope doesn’t mean she didn’t find another way out.”
The passport fell from Ford’s hands to the floor. “She didn’t. I can feel it, Gav.” Ford tapped his chest. “In here.”
Gavin stood and helped Ford to his feet. Slowly they walked through the church and joined their group, squeezing in front of a couple from Australia who were bickering over where to go for lunch. They inched around the other tourists to the front and stood a foot or so to the left of Ellie.
Ford coughed and Ellie looked his way, raising her eyebrows when she saw him as if to ask, “Well? What did you find out?”
Ford shook his head and mouthed, “Bad news.”
As their party moved along to examine Les Grand Mays series of paintings, the cousins let other tourists squeeze in front to take pictures. Their parents seemed enraptured by the guide’s thorough explanation of each painting’s depiction of the lives of the Apostles. The cousins moved to the back of the group.
Ford patted the rectangular shape outlined in his hoodie pocket. “Scout never picked up Great-Granddad’s package. He had left her money and a fake passport.”
“We think she was supposed to use it to get safely back to England disguised as a Swiss citizen,” Gavin said.
“But it’s still here, which means what?” Ellie asked.
Ford stuffed his hands in his back pockets. “I think the SS got her.”
“And I told Ford we have no proof of that.”
“That doesn’t change my gut feeling. My instincts tell me the reason Scout didn’t pick it up is bad. Really bad.”
Ellie patted him on the back. “Your instincts have never been wrong. Gav, I trust Ford. If he says Scout was arrested, that’s good enough for me.”
Gavin nodded.
Ford flipped the bookmark over and read the Bible verse out loud. “Then you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.’ The truth is Scout didn’t just get arrested—she wasn’t set free at all.” His voice was quiet. “I think, no—I know it. They killed her.”
Chapter 34
The rest of the tour was a blur to Ford. In a daze, he followed along until the tour guide finally came to the end of his wealth of Notre Dame Cathedral knowledge. The only word Ford heard clearly was the man’s “Merci” and then a round of applause. The clapping awoke him from his fog.
“Are you okay?” Ellie asked as they strolled through the graveyard while their parents surrounded the guide to bombard him with more questions.
“It’s like you’ve been in some sort of trance—not a vision-type trance, but something else. You’re weren’t really with us,” Gavin said.
“Yeah, sorry. I’ve been thinking about Great-Granddad and Scout and Owl. Can you imagine how Great-Granddad must have felt? He lost both his agents. And Scout was his friend.”
Ellie kicked a pine cone across the grass. “It doesn’t seem fair, does it? The war ended in 1945 and all this happened at the beginning of ’44. They were so close to making it. I feel so badly for all of them.”
“That’s the point though, isn’t it?” Gavin said. “It was because of the sacrifice of men and women like Owl and Scout that we won the war. And who knows how many people returned, like Great-Granddad, changed in ways we may never understand, carrying painful secrets with them for the rest of their lives.”
“But we still don’t know why their mission was so important, do we? Lots of people sacrificed their lives, but not everyone had their service records sealed, like Great-Granddad did,” Ellie said.
“We still have to visit the catacombs tomorrow,” said Gavin. “Maybe we’ll find our answers there.”
“True. What do you think Ford?” Ellie pulled the old pamphlet from her bag and held it out to him. “Are you getting any messages from this?”
Chills raced up his spine.
“Yes,” he whispered.
Chapter 35
Ford peered out Gavin’s window, down to the street below. “They’re out there again. Those spies. Watching us. Why don’t they arrest us or something? What are they waiting for?”
“Who knows, but they can’t just arrest us if we haven’t broken any laws,” Gavin said as Ford paced the room. “And you were probably right when we were at the Louvre. For whatever reason, they need us to follow Great-Granddad’s clues. Ford, you need to get some sleep. The visions are wiping you out and the parents are really getting concerned by your appearance. You’re growing paler after each one.”
“Fine.” Ford lay down and plumped his pillow.
“I could take the floor tonight,” offered Gavin.
“One more night on your bedroom floor isn’t going to kill me. And anyway, I’m so tired I could sleep on a bed of nails.”
Gavin laughed. “Okay, but if you change your mind in the middle of the night, just wake me up and we can switch.”
“Thanks. G’nite, Gavin.”
“G’nite, Little Brother.”
Ford shut his eyes and thought through the day. Great-Granddad’s words from the cathedral memory filled his mind. “Safe travels, my friend.” What must it feel like to fear for someone else like that? To be responsible for someone’s life? Ford shuddered. Poor Great-Granddad. He was a tortured soul. And that Bible verse, And then you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. What truth? And set you free from what? More questions to ponder.
He sighed, breathing deeper, as the lull of sleep pulled at his conscious mind. He couldn’t focus his thoughts. Tomorrow. He yawned. He’d figure it out tomorrow…
¶
With Jacques at his side, he walked swiftly across the street towards the Catacombs. A wooden box was wedged tightly under his arm, hidden beneath his trench coat. He slowed as he neared the entranceway. The French Resistance had set up their network inside and he had to get through the maze of tombs and burial chambers without being seen. There could be traitors anywhere, even within the French Resistance. He shifted the box under his arm. It wouldn’t be easy, but he had little choice. Radley’s betrayal had shaken him. There was no one left in Paris he trusted and if the Nazis caught him with this, the lives of dozens of agents and crucial missions could be compromised. He could lose more than Scout and Owl. If this box got into the enemy’s hands, he could jeopardize networks that the Crown had established not just during the war, but in some cases for decades.
He glanced over his shoulder. A car rounded the corner. He frowned and crouched next to Jacques, fiddling with the dog’s collar.
Had his cover been blown?
Gritting his teeth, he watched the car race past him and out of sight.
No time to waste.
Nearly sprinting, he entered the Catacombs.
Chapter 36
Ford stared up the street to the entrance of the Catacombs. “I had another dream about Great-Granddad last night,” he said to Ellie and Gavin. “He was here and he was carrying a wooden box. He was worried the Nazis would find it—and he knew Radley had betrayed them. Wilhelm wasn’t the mole after all.”
“What was inside the box?” Ellie asked.
“No idea. My dream ended when he entered the tombs. But the box is why we’re here. I’m certain of that.”
The cousins followed closely behind their parents, who were chatting excitedly amongst themselves. Mom led the pack, nearly dragging her sister by the elbow to the ticket booth. What would she say if she knew what they did about her Grandfather? Would she be thrilled to hear of his secret-agent status or appalled by how brutally he had attacked Wilhelm? What else was Great-Granddad capable of? Ford frowned. Maybe his mom and Aunt June didn’t need to know what they found out.
“How do we want to handle this one?” Ellie asked, Great-Granddad’s frayed Catacombs pamphlet in her hand.
“It’s not likely the tour will take us where we need to go, so we’re going to need to break away from the rest of the group and search the passageways on our own,” Ford said.
Gavin shook his head. “That is a seriously dangerous idea. The catacombs are immense. Over six million people are buried here and there are close to 200 miles of caves and tunnels. Some routes have never been mapped. People have taken a wrong turn, gotten lost, and have never been found.”
Ford fought off a chill. “I don’t want to get lost in a graveyard with millions of dead people any more than you do, but we have to find Great-Granddad’s box. It’s the missing piece to the puzzle.”
Gavin pursed his lips. “I don’t like it, but if there is no other choice…”
“And this time we are sticking together,” Ellie said. “We need all of us working as a team.”
“Agreed,” said Gavin.
“Plus, it’s no fair you two having all the fun!” She forced a smile on her face. It trembled and failed.
“Kidoooooos!” Mom called, beckoning them over with a wide swoop of her arm. “We’re starting now.”
As they stepped into the catacombs, the light dimmed and the air grew cooler. Moldy damp filled Ford’s nostrils and caused him to sneeze. A flood of déjà vu crashed into him, making him stumble sideways into Ellie.
“Careful,” she whispered. “Don’t draw any unwanted attention.”
The tour guide cleared her throat. “Please, patrons. We have a few rules to review with you before we begin. For your safety, we insist you stay with our group,” she instructed as they entered a large antechamber. “We have yet to lose anyone to the maze of the catacombs; however it has happened many, many years ago and not everyone who was lost was found—alive.”
Ford gulped as they slowly walked down the first passageway. Wave after wave of nausea churned in his stomach. He clenched his teeth, willing himself not to be sick. He slowed and moved to the side, his hand grazing something damp and smooth. A skull! He pulled his hand away, wiping it furiously on his jeans.
“Ford, are you okay?” Gavin whispered in his ear. Ford leaped straight upwards. Ellie peered at him in the dim light.
“It’s just, there are so many dead people down here. I can feel them,” he said, his voice quivering.
“All of them?” Gavin asked.
Ford closed his eyes and focused on the swirling visions. Men, women, and children’s memories circled him. “Not all of them, but lots of them. It’s different than with Great-Granddad, but I can still sense their presence.” He gulped, opened his eyes, and continued. “Not everyone down here died of natural causes.”
A line of sweat laced Ford’s top lip. He wiped it away with a shaky hand. He didn’t want to be down here any longer than necessary. They needed to get in and get out fast.
Ellie stepped directly in front of Ford. “Don’t let your nerves take over. You can do this. Remember what Mme. Bellerose taught you and remember what she said. You have to have a connection to see someone’s past and you aren’t connected to anyone but Great-Granddad right now. You don’t need to worry about anything else. Try to push everything else you are sensing away. And Mme. Bellerose also said you are going to do great things. So you need to believe in yourself. And we’ve got your back, right Gav?”
“Right! And remember to trust your instincts,” Gavin added.
“That’s right. And what are those instincts telling you right now?” Ellie asked.
“That I should run a million miles in the other direction.” A lame Uncle Jim joke. No one laughed.
They slowed their pace even more so they soon fell to the tail end of the group. Their parents were closer to the front.
“As soon as we can, let’s sneak away,” Ellie said quietly, so only Ford and Gavin could hear.
They walked a few paces along a skull-lined tunnel and gathered around a large, round fountain filled with nothing but dust—dust from decaying bones. A full-body shiver trembled through Ford. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Ellie pulled on Ford’s sleeve. His eyes popped open. The group was moving. Ellie nodded to a darkened corridor that branched off at a slight angle from the well-lit path the group was following. Quietly, the cousins tiptoed along the edge of the skull-walled room, slinking down the corridor. It grew darker with every step. They ducked around the first corner they came to and stopped. Ford could only just make out the shape of Gavin and Ellie next to him. He placed his hand on his pounding heart, hoping to mute the thudding he was sure would give them away.
Gavin slid his phone from his pocket and turned it on. The glare momentarily blinded them.
“Let’s creep back, so we start right where Great-Granddad entered the catacombs in my vision,” Ford said. “Then as I relay to you where he goes, we need to follow so we can find the box.”
“How is that going to work, if you’re trapped in a trance?” Gavin asked.
“We’ll have to guide him. Nudge him along,” Ellie said, nodding her head as if to convince herself. “It should work, in theory.”
Gavin’s eyes bulged. He looked ghoulish in the phone’s glow. “Nudge him along? Really? Does that sound like a good plan? We have never tried to move Ford during one of his visions and you really think the best place to test out this theory of yours is in a maze of pitch-black tombs?”
“Gavin, it’s the best plan we have. We don’t have time to waste. The moment our parents notice our absence, they will send out a search party,” Ellie explained.
Gavin crossed his arms. “I don’t like it, and the second things start to go wrong, I am waking Ford up.”
Ford sighed. “Gavin—”
“No. That is nonnegotiable. Otherwise I pull the pin on this now. I am dead serious.”
