The Oslo Affair (Shadows of War, #2) by CW Browning (read after .txt) 📗

Wesley chuckled again and began pulling down maps, searching for one of Scandinavia and Denmark. When he found it, he clipped it up and stepped back to study it thoughtfully.

“Well?”

“It looks like it might be Esbjerg, sir,” Wesley said slowly, “but it’s clear across the country from Copenhagen, not to mention quite a bit of water in between.”

Bill got up and carried his cup over to study the map. While he stared at it, Wesley drank his tea, knowing what was coming. He’d worked with William Buckley for over a year now. He knew him well.

“You’d better go find out where the ship will dock,” he finally grunted. “If it’s not Copenhagen, we need to arrange addition transport. And contact the base in Scotland while you’re at it. Make sure there’s no reason for us to get her back sooner.”

Wesley nodded and set his empty cup down, turning towards the door. Once he’d gone, Bill continued studying the map with a frown. Once Evelyn was on the western side of Denmark, he had a few different options to get her home. The most straight-forward would be by ship across the North Sea. If that wasn’t feasible in their unexpected time table, then he could move her down through the Netherlands and Belgium, then across from France. That option would take significantly longer.

With a sigh, he turned away from the map and went back to his desk. It all hinged on where the ship would dock, and whether or not she was on it.

He sank down into his chair and stared at the message on his desk. When this was sent, she was obviously still safe. But he knew how quickly that could change, especially with both German and Soviet agents on her tail. Even with the Norwegian helping, it was still damn tricky. There was no guarantee that Evelyn would make that ship, and every minute she was still in Stockholm was another minute she was in danger.

He hoped to God she’d found a way out of this mess.

Stockholm, Sweden

The more blocks Evelyn put between herself and The Strand Hotel, the more her pounding heart slowed and began to return to normal. The sun was almost gone now and long shadows covered the city as she moved through the crowds, her hands buried in her coat pockets and her head bowed against the frigid wind.

The trembling in her hands and legs had finally eased and she knew that the after-effects of her run-in with the man in the alley were fading. Sifu had tried to warn her of the effects of adrenaline and how it would affect her movements in a hostile setting, but she hadn’t fully understood. After all, she had trained with other students and they had sparred together daily. Wasn’t that the same thing?

Evelyn shook her head and glanced behind her as she turned to cross the road. It wasn’t the same thing at all. She’d had her first taste of it last summer in France, and now she’d had another rush of it. Her Wing Chun master had been right. The adrenaline made her movements sloppy and impaired her thinking. Her breathing had been more labored than it should have been and, when it was all over and she walked away, her legs had almost given away completely. Sifu had tried to prepare her, but now she knew that there was no way anyone could have truly prepared her for the rush of nerves and energy that flooded through her. Only experience could be her teacher now.

It was her rigorous training and repetitive practice of the basics that had saved her in that alley. Her movements had been sloppy, yes, but they had been made on instinct and without thought. She had reverted back to the long hours of training in the balmy gardens of Hong Kong, and that was the only thing that had kept her from making a costly mistake.

Biting her lip, Evelyn reached the other side of the road and turned down a street, following the map she had memorized earlier that day. She had walked away the victor in that battle, but she knew that with each Gestapo agent she touched, her anonymity and safety were compromised. The man in the alley was the second one of their agents that she’d knocked unconscious. The first was last summer, and Herr Untersturmführer Hans Voss was well aware that she’d been the one responsible then. But where that incident could be explained away as a lucky shot, the man in the alley tonight would not be. One women would not be that lucky twice. They would realize she had special training, and that would make her more of a threat to them. Maggie Richardson was about to become a woman whom the SD would stop at nothing to catch.

Evelyn paused under a street light and looked at her watch. Anna should be well on her way to the train station now, and Herr Renner would have discovered his agent in the alley. She had to keep moving. Lifting her head, she strode down the sidewalk until she came to the entrance of a small cafe on the corner. With a last furtive look behind her, she opened the door and went inside.

The warmth and smell of good coffee and simple food enveloped her, welcoming her in from the cold outside, and she breathed deeply, looking around. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten since that morning, but there was no time now. Every minute she remained in the city was another minute one, or both, of the enemy agents could find her. Anna was drawing Renner and his men away from her, but she had no idea where her Soviet friend was, or how long Renner would be distracted.

A tall man at one of the tables near the back raised his hand, and Evelyn moved towards him. He was younger than she had