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

just complicate things needlessly. After all, her Russian Comrade had never seen Anna. He was no threat to her.

As they ran around the city gathering the supplies they needed to stage a performance for the SD, Anna had been a great help to her. She was able to procure almost everything Evelyn needed to change her appearance while Evelyn sent a telegram to Horace Manchester at the embassy and another one to Daniel Carew in Oslo. Then, while Evelyn was closeted in a restroom at the back of a cafe darkening her blonde hair until it was almost black, she went to purchase appropriate clothing. When she returned, Evelyn couldn’t have been happier. Everything the other woman had selected was perfect, right down to the black-rimmed spectacles she’d got for herself. In fact, Evelyn admitted now, she couldn’t have done it without Anna.

“Here. Take this.”

Lucas was back beside her, holding out a long, thick scarf. Evelyn looked at him in surprise.

“I couldn’t!”

“Yes, please do! I have two, and you need this more than I do. It’s long, so you can wrap it around your head, and it’s very warm. Take it.”

“Thank you very much. It’s very kind of you!” She took it and began to wrap it around her neck and head. “You must let me give you some money for it!”

“No, no. I don’t need money for it. Just think of me when you wear it and offer up a prayer for my safe return to our beloved France,” he said with a grin.

Evelyn finished wrapping it around herself and sighed in relief. The heavy wool was very warm indeed, and it blocked the harsh wind from whipping down inside her coat.

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” she breathed with a smile. “Thank you so much!”

He nodded and grinned, then turned to leave again.

“I have to get back to my station. Don’t stay out here too much longer. Even with that scarf, you’ll be frozen soon!”

Evelyn nodded and turned to look at the coastline in the distance as Lucas left, her hands back in her pockets. Anna had to be on the train by now. She should be on her way back to Oslo, where she would once again be safe. Evelyn wished there was a way to know if she made it safely back, but she would have to wait until she reached England to know for sure. In the meantime, all she could do was hope and pray that everything had gone according to their hastily conceived plan.

As the last stretch of coastline slid by, Evelyn finally turned away from the railing and turned to go inside. She had made it safely away. She could get something to eat and then go to her room and sleep in relative peace. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry about how she was going to make it back to England.

Tonight it was enough that she had escaped.

Comrade Grigori strode through the lobby of The Strand, his face folded into a scowl. The Englishwoman was gone, and so was her companion. He’d followed the other woman to the station, where he watched as she joined the crowds of commuters. He’d been able to keep track of her easily enough until she went into the ladies’ washroom. While he waited for her to come out again, he had ample time to examine his options. He would follow her to the train in case the Englishwoman was waiting for her there, but he knew it was unlikely. The Englishwoman would have realized that the Germans would follow the other woman. In fact, that was probably the reasoning behind this whole trip to the station. The other woman was probably a decoy, distracting the SD agents while the Englishwoman made her escape by a different route. Unfortunately, he couldn’t take the chance that it wasn’t.

And so he’d still been there when the dark-haired woman emerged from the washroom several minutes later. She had looked around cautiously, then moved quickly into the crowds. A few minutes later, they emerged onto a train platform just as the conductor was calling for the last passengers. She boarded the train alone, with no sign of the Englishwoman anywhere in sight.

Grigori was ascending the stairs again when the tall SD agent from the hotel lobby had come tearing down them, a shorter man huffing to keep pace. The two hadn’t paid any attention to the other people on the stairs and certainly hadn’t noticed himself as they ran for the train. He’d gone to the top of the stairs and waited off to the side, watching. Not five minutes later, they were coming back and the tall one looked furious.

A small smile pulled at his lips now, lightening the scowl as he strode, not to the lift, but to the stairwell. At least the Germans had come up empty-handed as well.

Except he wasn’t empty-handed, he reminded himself as he started up the stairs. He may not have had to opportunity to question the British agent as he wanted, but he wasn’t returning to Moscow with nothing to show for his efforts. Moscow had sent him to find a traitor, and that was just what he’d done. He might not know how the Englishwoman had turned Comrade Niva, or even how she’d become acquainted with him, but now they knew who the leak was and could stop the flow.

The frown returned. What bothered him was how Niva had managed to access some of the information that had been released to the British. Much of it he could have obtained easily, but some would have been impossible for him get his hands on.

Grigori shook his head. He wished he could have interrogated the Englishwoman. She could have cleared up all these niggling little details that he knew would keep him awake for many nights to come.

Reaching the third floor, he went down the corridor to his room and unlocked the door, stepping inside. The door closed behind him and he