• Sign up or login, and you'll have full access to opportunities of forum.

Last Liaison in Lyon

Go to CruxDreams.com
29.

I had lied. By telling Barbie and Schwarz that Klaus was traveling to Spain by train over Perpignan, I knew I was sending them on a wild goose chase. And I knew that when they returned empty-handed, I would ... as Barbie had prophesied ... ‘pay the price’. But I took solace in the thought that Sir Geoffrey and Freddie would have been proud of me. My lie, along with my future suffering, had bought Klaus and the mission a piece of valuable time.

Meanwhile, in Barbie’s absence, Fritz and Heinz had faithfully seen to their assigned duties. I was ‘cleaned up’ by hosing me down with icy cold water, removed from the metal phallus equipped chair on which I had been impaled and shocked, and taken to a cell, where I was shackled spreadeagled against a wall and brutally raped by both men, not once but twice ... or was it thrice or even more than that? I lost count, but the assaults came so often that the inside of my thighs were literally decorated with gobs of their creamy spunk.

And there I remained for the rest of the day, and through the night ... exhausted, stiff and sore all over, hungry and at times barely conscious. Sleep proved impossible, not only because of the discomfort of being shackled naked against a cold stone wall, but also in that a bright light had been positioned to shine directly in my face, in addition to which any nodding off was promptly attended to by Fritz and Heinz with a slap or two across the face or a fist in the gut.

But then things went from bad to worse. As anticipated, Barbie and Schwarz returned the next morning, empty-handed and in an exceedingly foul mood.

“Get her to the chamber! Now!” bellowed Barbie as he and Schwarz swept brusquely down the corridor outside my cell.

“Jawohl, Herr Hauptsturmführer!” shouted Heinz and Fritz, jumping hastily to their feet and raising their arms ... far too late ... in a stiff-armed salute.

I was hastily unshackled and gripping me by the arms, my two companions unceremoniously dragged me ... face-down, knees and feet dragging on the floor ... to the interrogation room.

“Rack her!” ordered Barbie, sounding peeved.

“Jawohl, Herr Hauptsturmführer!”

I was promptly ushered to the room’s monstrously large torture rack. After a few moments of hopeless struggle against the combined strength of the two brutes, I found myself pinned, flat on my back, to the heavy wooden frame, with arms stretched and shackled overhead to metal cuffs, each sporting sharp little protruding spikes. My ankles were fitted and clamped into holes in a solid metal bar at the base of the rack. A cranking apparatus began to turn and the head of the rack was elevated to an angle where I could face my interrogators, who drew close, positioning themselves ... one to each side of me.

“You lied to us, Frau Moser!” snarled Schwarz, poking at my bare right breast hard enough with a pudgy finger to make it jiggle about.

“Every train running between Lyon and Perpignan was stopped and searched ...” interjected Barbie, addressing me in English as he pinched the nipple of my left breast between his thumb and forefinger and twisted it violently, causing me to yelp in pain. “and no trace of Klaus Schumann!”

“Maybe he missed his train?” I gasped, as Barbie twisted my nipple hard in the other direction.

“Tell me, Miss Moore, did your SOE trainers introduce you to the rack and what it can do?” replied Barbie, tracing his finger thoughtfully from my breast to my armpit and up the inside of my outstretched arm to where a cuff encircled my wrist, it’s sharp little points already pricking my skin.

“Yes,” I allowed, remembering ruefully my mock interrogation time stretched naked and taut on the rack back in the cellar of SOE headquarters in London. An experience that not only was painful, but ended in my being raped, hood over head, by Freddie’s pals while he calmly watched.

“Good, then you have plenty of incentive to tell us the truth this time, don’t you?”

“I’ve already told you the truth ... Schumann’s traveling by train. I can’t imagine how you missed him. Perhaps he was delayed, and hasn’t left yet?”

“If so, we’ll get him. Our people are watching the trains. But just the same, I am convinced you're lying. You don't fool me for a second, Moore. You know perfectly well how he’s getting to Spain, but are deliberately offering misinformation. Spiriting Klaus Schumann safely to London is, after all, your mission and you are a professional. Like any professional in your shoes, you would have given him precise instructions and contacts, and accepted no arguments to the contrary. Professionals leave nothing to chance. Am I right?”

I said nothing, as his finger returned to my mounded breast and began tracing small circles around the areola of my erect nipple ... much as Freddie had done to me in his rooms at his club in London ... except that rather than finishing the teasing circling by lovingly kissing my eager nipple, Barbie pinched it..

That hurt and I cried out.

“Oh, and speaking of professionals, I do want Sir Geoffrey ... and what’s his right-hand man’s name ... Freddie-something-or other-hyphenated ... to witness you blurting out secrets under torture. They will be both impressed and dismayed at how easily I will have you singing like a canary. Fritz! Did you get a cameraman down from Paris as I ordered?”

“Jawohl, Herr Hauptsturmführer! He’s waiting outside in the corridor. Should I have Heinz fetch him?”

“Please do.

“I am going to enjoy this so much,” chortled Schwarz as he lit a cigarette, took a drag and exhaled smoke in my face.

A man wearing a Wehrmacht uniform and bearing a movie camera and tripod over his shoulder entered the room, drew himself up sharply in the presence of Barbie, clicked his heels and saluted.

“You can set up over there facing the rack,” instructed Heinz, pointing to a place on the floor.

The cameraman took a long drawn-out look at me, stretched out naked before him, then at the overhead lighting, frowned, and proceeded to set up his equipment without comment.

“Now,” began Barbie. “Suppose you tell us where Klaus Schumann is and how he’s really making his way to Spain.”

The cameraman signaled that he was ready and that the film was rolling.

“Sorry. I’ve nothing to tell,” I sniffed, showing some false bravado that I hoped Sir Geoffrey and Freddie might appreciate if they actually ever saw the film.

“Pity that,” sighed Barbie, nodding to Fritz, who pressed a button, which started the electric motor coupled to the large cylinder that rolled up the pair of chains to which the cuffs on my wrists were attached. In seconds the slack disappeared and the cuffs began to tug at my wrists, stretching my arms full-length overhead, and forcing the ring of sharp points within the cuffs to dig into my flesh.

“Owww!” I cried, craning my neck to observe the trickles of blood appearing under the cuffs and winding their way down my forearms.

“Talk!” growled Barbie.

I said nothing.

“More! Stretch her to near the breaking point,” he said waving a hand at Fritz, who started the motor again.

The motor whined, the cylinder turned, the chains rattled and groaned, and I began to feel the stress of being stretched beyond comfortable limits. My nerves were sending distress signals to my brain. Sweat broke out on my forehead. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on my breathing in a desperate effort to shut out the urgent complaints of over-stressed muscles and joints.

As the stretching continued, a low animal-like moan escaped my trembling lips. There was intense pain now in my lower back, knees, hips and shoulders. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the dislocations and the unbearable pain began.

But Barbie held up a hand. The motor stopped.

“Last chance, Miss Moore,” he said quietly, turning my head by the chin to force me to look into his pale eyes. “Yes, I checked. That is your real name, isn’t it? Now tell me. What is the escape plan for Klaus Schumann. Where is he now?”

“Better talk!” chimed in Schwarz, who chose that moment to add to my discomfort and terror by touching the burning end of his cigarette to the tip my right nipple.

I flinched, and tried to twist away but failed to escape the searing heat.

“Ahhh, yes. Excellent idea my dear Schwarz,” said Barbie, with a nod of approval when the burning heat of the Kriminalkommisar’s cigarette was successful in eliciting a shrill scream. “I must do the same. Heinz, fetch me a hot iron!”

“Jawohl , Herr Hauptsturmführer!”

“Now you are in double jeopardy, little miss American spy-hero. Talk or Fritz will be obliged to renew the stretching while I apply searing heat ... to where? ... perhaps a light tracing right across those raised ribs to begin, then a short pause in the well of your delightful little navel ... followed by perhaps a long slow meander around your mound to ignite that enticing triangle of brown hair, and then ... not last or least ... there are those sensitive private places between your thighs. Now, answer the question! Where is Klaus Schumann?”

“He’s cycled to Spain. And I hope he’s there by now!” I replied through gritted teeth.

“Well, well. Another lie, or the truth this time, Miss Moore?”

I said nothing.

“Answer him!” snarled Schwarz, pressing the lit end of his cigarette into the base of my other nipple.”

I somehow choked out a garbled affirmation that it was the truth in the midst of a long drawn out scream.

“Good that you’ve decided to cooperate at last, Miss Moore. Sir Geoffrey will sadly be very disappointed in you. He should have known better than to send a woman ... an American, no less. Quite foolish of him. Now the details, please ... Schumann’s route, the intended border crossing, his contacts in Spain and Gibraltar. Fritz, kindly take notes. Heinz, you may tell the cameraman to shoot a closeup of her face while she talks.”

But instead, Heinz handed Barbie a note, just given to him by a messenger.

Barbie read the dispatch, crushed it his hand, picked up the hot iron that Heinz had placed at the foot of the rack, and in a fit of blind rage, pressed the glowing tip into my pussy with enough force to penetrate and held it there for several seconds while I screamed hysterically and bucked my hips to the degree that my stretched condition made possible.

“It appears we are too late,” said Barbie at last, a look of calm spreading over his face. “I have a report here that says two of our men were shot dead at a checkpoint on the French-Spanish border pass known as Col du Puits”. And earlier a man, who fits Schumann’s description, was reported cycling west by an informer in Céret, a town not far from the approaches to the pass. Under the circumstances we must conclude that Schumann is in Spain, and that we unfortunately have no further need for Miss Moore. Take her back to her cell and arrange for her summary execution in the morning. And, Fritz, make sure the cameraman is there to film the event so that the good chaps at SOE in London may have the enviable pleasure of witnessing her sorry final moments.”


“Jawohl , Herr Hauptsturmführer!”

Okay...I really despise the Nazis now....burning Barb's incomparable nipples and branding her magnificent womanhood...bomb the Fatherland into the stone age!!!
Leave to the Germans to motorize the rack...the electric motor no doubt made with Teutonic precision by Siemens.
 
Under the circumstances we must conclude that Schumann is in Spain, and that we unfortunately have no further need for Miss Moore. Take her back to her cell and arrange for her summary execution in the morning.
I am appalled about Barbies unconcerned and desinterested attitude! Is that really the real Barbie? Or a doppelganger? What about the "deutsche Gründlichkeit" (german efficiency)? Interogation Made in Germany?
As much as I know the German, there has to be a rulebook. They have rulebooks for every possible and unpossible situation. So there has to be a "How to interogate and torture a female american spy working for the SOE, particulary with a tight little and a beautiful Barb Area".
Never ever would it be allowed to execute Barb without at least a three-week-inhabition!
 
I am appalled about Barbies unconcerned and desinterested attitude! Is that really the real Barbie? Or a doppelganger? What about the "deutsche Gründlichkeit" (german efficiency)? Interogation Made in Germany?
As much as I know the German, there has to be a rulebook. They have rulebooks for every possible and unpossible situation. So there has to be a "How to interogate and torture a female american spy working for the SOE, particulary with a tight little and a beautiful Barb Area".
Never ever would it be allowed to execute Barb without at least a three-week-inhabition!

Maybe he just finds her annoying.
 
Maybe he just finds her annoying.
Now why would anyone find her annoying?:confused: Constant complaints and wisecracks are charming aren't they???
Barbie gives up a little bit fast! If they could intercept Klaus before he reaches his contacts… problem solved. Do not tell me there are no German agents in Spain guarding key locations. Just ask Barb where he might show up.
She told them which pass he would take and he took a different one. So whatever she told him wouldn't be worth much perhaps.
SOE's main role was to work with resistance groups and so it often ended up claiming the credit and then conveniently forgetting to mention how many of its field agents it got tortured and killed.
There are those who claim the Resistance groups had no real impact on the end result. There is certainly a case to be made in that direction.
 
There are those who claim the Resistance groups had no real impact on the end result. There is certainly a case to be made in that direction.

I think the argument is not that it made no result but that the cost of resistance to the occupied populations was too high relative to the result. Also there is an argument over methodology, resistance and partisan operations were most effective when timed to coincide with regular military operations look at both Overlord and Bagration. When tried as an alternative to regular military enterprises it resulted in a massacre cf Vercors and Warsaw.
 
Last edited:
28.

March 1943, Near the French-Spanish border

Klaus was sore. Of course, he couldn’t compare his pain to that which Barta would have suffered, assuming she had fallen into Barbie’s hands, but still he ached from head to toe.

With the soldiers he had seen and the possibility that they had dragged the truth out of her, he had decided that sleeping in a barn or abandoned house was too risky, so he had found a place in the forest near the Col du Puits trailhead and made a bed out of pine boughs. He had put on pretty much all of the clothes in his knapsack to try to stay warm, though he was still shivering when he woke up and looked at the glowing hands of his watch-almost 2300.

Although he had only slept perhaps a couple of hours, between the cold, the worry over Barta’s fate and the fear of being captured, Klaus didn’t think he could sleep any more. The night was clear, which had added to the cold and the moon was not yet full, but gave enough light that one could see a short distance ahead of oneself.

‘So why not move forward under cover of darkness?’ he thought. At least the exertion would warm him up. Sitting in one place shivering all night long didn’t seem like a good idea. Klaus dipped into his knapsack and extracted a chocolate bar, which he ate quickly. He had hoped to buy some food in Céret for the hike over the mountains, but that hadn’t been possible. He had one more bar and some nuts left-those would have to last.

He made his way through the forest back to the road, working from his memory of the route he had followed earlier in the evening. A short distance ahead, he came upon a rough wooden sign-in the moonlight, he could just make out the letters that said “vers le Col du Puits”.

The trail was a dirt track, used, Klaus surmised, by shepherds and cowherds to take their flocks up to higher pastures in the summer. It climbed steadily. Klaus was breathing hard from the effort, but his long cycling trip had prepared him well, and the exertion was warming his blood. There was a small stream running beside the path. Klaus could hear the water, fed by the snow from above that was gradually being melted by the increasing angle of the spring sun during the previous day.

It got colder as he climbed and he had to make his way over patches of snow, taking great care not to slip. A twisted ankle would be the end of the road in these circumstances. Progress was slower than he would have liked, but steady.

Klaus noticed that the walls of the mountains on both sides were closing in as he approached the col. That was probably a good sign-it meant that the top of the pass, which was the border, couldn’t be that far away.

Klaus checked his watch-almost 0200. He was making good time. Then he heard it, coming from straight ahead-the sound of voices! He couldn’t make out what they were saying from this distance, so he carefully crept a bit closer.

The pass was narrow here and Klaus didn’t think there was a way to get by the people guarding the route without being detected, especially since the forest had thinned out to just scattered small trees as the trail had ascended.

He ducked behind a large boulder at the side of the trail trying to decide what to do. Should he turn around and try the other route? It would be almost light by the time he got to the same point on the other trail and he would be exhausted. Plus, they were doubtless watching that one and probably with more troops if Barta had told them he was going that way.

So he waited, hoping he could come up with a plan.

From here, with the narrow walls funneling the sound, Klaus could hear the voices fairly clearly. It seemed there were two of them and they were speaking German!

“Pass that schnapps over here, Fritz! It’s so cold, we might as well have been sent to Russia,” Klaus made out.

“Too bad we couldn’t bring those two whores from Bordeaux out here, Werner. They would keep us nice and warm, or our cocks anyway,”

“They were something, Fritz. The way the brown-haired one rode me, while the blonde licked her tits.”

“Yeah and I was plowing into the blonde from behind and she was squealing, begging me to go harder!”

“These French girls are hot blooded, that’s for sure. They know they have to please us because their men are useless. Maybe when we finish smashing the Russians and the British and the Americans beg for a truce, we should settle down here with a couple of nice French girls.”

“So you don’t think Stalingrad was a problem, Werner?”

“Nah, Fritz, it was just a temporary retreat. Our Fuhrer would never let us be beaten by a bunch of Bolshies. Once Spring comes we will smash them and on to Moscow! Let’s drink a toast to victory!”

Klaus couldn’t help chuckling at the gullibility of these two devoted followers of that little Austrian Corporal. ‘A temporary retreat, my ass!’ Klaus thought, shaking his head.

It was quiet for a bit, then he heard, “I’m very tired, Werner. I’m going to catch a bit of sleep.”

“The Sergeant said we both have to stay awake. This engineer that’s trying to escape is valuable. If he gets away, we’re in big trouble.”

“Look around you. It’s the middle of nowhere and the middle of the night. Besides, he’s going via that other trail. They know that. The Gestapo has that information and you don’t want to know how they got it. Why we’re even here, I don’t know.”

“But, the Sergeant said…”

“Is the Sergeant here, Werner?”

Klaus didn’t hear a reply. The one called Fritz continued. “Just a little nap, an hour or so. Then you can wake me and I’ll stand watch while you take a nap.”

“Ok, OK,” Werner replied. “Take a nap. But in one hour, it’s my turn.” And then there was silence. Klaus counted fifteen minutes on his watch. That had to be enough time for Fritz to have passed out, given the boring, useless detail they were on and the amount of schnapps he had doubtless consumed.

It was now or never. Once it got light and he hadn’t yet been apprehended, they would likely conduct a rigorous search with the full contingent of troops and he would be a dead man and not pleasantly either.

Klaus reached into his knapsack and felt around until his fingers closed on hard, cold metal. He carefully extracted the Mauser, sticking it into the waistband of his pants. He left his hiding place and, moving carefully so as to make no noise, he advanced slowly, crouching almost on all fours towards where he believed from the sounds that he heard that Fritz and Werner were camped.

He rounded a slight bend and there they were! About twenty meters ahead, just off the trail to the right was a human shape standing, stamping his feet and clapping his hands to try to stay warm on this cold night. That had to be Werner.

Klaus couldn’t make out the sleeping Fritz among the rocks that lay strewn on the ground, but he had to be stretched out nearby.

Klaus didn’t dare come any closer. He couldn’t tell if Werner was holding his rifle or had laid it on the ground, but either way, he couldn’t count on the possibility that he would get more than one shot.

Klaus had never fired a gun before but practice wasn’t an option. He pulled the Mauser out of his pants and aimed it at Werner’s head. It looked like a damn small target, one that would be very easy to miss. He lowered the barrel and pointed it at the soldier’s chest instead. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

The noise ricocheted off the rock walls of the pass between the two mountains. Klaus opened his eyes. Werner had fallen over. He charged forward until he reached the prone figure. Werner’s rifle lay on the ground next to him. Klaus grabbed it.

From a short distance ahead he heard Fritz call “Werner? What’s happening?” his voice dazed with sleep and schnapps. Klaus moved quickly towards Fritz, who was reaching for his rifle. He was almost on top of him now. He aimed Werner’s rifle at Fritz’s chest and fired.

Scheisse!” he heard. He turned the rifle around and hit Fritz in the head with the butt. He hit him again, then again. ‘This is for Barta, you bastard,’ he thought. He picked up Fritz’s rifle and heaved it away off the trail, just in case either of them were still alive. Then he went on, as fast as he dared to go in the semi-darkness.

The trail climbed more. Klaus’ heart was pounding, both from the exertion and from the excitement of his confrontation with his two countrymen, or perhaps he should say former countrymen. He had never imagined himself killing any one, but now he had killed two most likely. It was war and he was doing so to save his own life and perhaps those of countless others with the plans for the fighter jet, but still he was shocked at himself.

The moon was setting now and it had become very dark. He thought about stopping, but the sound of the shots might have been heard by the troops down in the town. Also, Fritz and Werner probably had a field radio and when they failed to respond, their comrades would come looking for them.

So, Klaus felt his way slowly over the rocks. The course the trail followed was fairly obvious since the pass was now very narrow and there was really only one way to go.

Soon, Klaus noticed that the terrain was levelling off. He checked his watch; it was nearly 0400. Now he noticed that the trail was descending, gradually, but definitely trending downhill. This must mean that he had passed the border, which ran along the height of land. He was in Spain!

Still he couldn’t be sure that the Germans wouldn’t violate the border in pursuit of him, so, tired though he was, Klaus kept going, picking his way carefully as the trail descended. Soon, he saw the eastern sky was brightening.

By true daybreak he was passing sheep grazing on the hillsides and soon he saw the houses of the village ahead, perched on a hillside. That had to be Massanet. As he approached the village, Klaus saw a roughly dressed man around fifty years of age accompanied by a large sheepdog coming up the path towards him.

Klaus didn’t speak a word of Spanish and certainly none of Catalan, which was the local language. “Sprechen Sie Deutsch? The man just stared at him blankly. “Do you speak English?” Nothing. “Parlez-vous français?” The shepherd just shook his head.

Klaus thought for a moment, then reached into the money belt around his waist and pulled out a few large Pound notes. He made a driving motion with his hands and said “Figueres?”

The shepherd thought for a moment, then beckoned for Klaus to follow him. He led the way into the village, which was just rousing itself and knocked on the door of one of the stone cottages common in this mountainous region.

It took a few minutes, but an elderly man opened the door. The shepherd said something Klaus didn’t understand. The man nodded and turned to Klaus. “You come from France?” he asked in good, but heavily accented English, pointing towards the Pyrenees which Klaus had just traversed.

“Yes,” Klaus replied nodding.

“You are British? American?

“I’m German,” he replied. The man frowned. Catalonia had been strongly against Franco and there would naturally be resentment against Germany, which had backed him in the very bloody Civil War that had ended only a few years ago.

“But I’m with them,” Klaus explained. “I hate the Nazis. They’re after me. I need to get to Barcelona. If you can drive me to Figueres, I can catch the train. I can pay you.” He showed the man the British money.

“During our war I helped many people go in the other direction, to France. Now they are coming into Spain,” the old man said, shaking his head, trying to understand the ways of the world. “Give me fifteen minutes,” he said. Klaus handed one of the bank notes to the shepherd, who smiled and left to tend to his sheep.

Soon, Klaus was riding with the old man in a truck that seemed even older than the driver down a dirt road that was little better than the trail he had hiked over the mountains on. They descended the mountains at a speed barely faster than a walking pace, until they reached the coastal plain and the main highway. They turned south, away from France, and soon the man deposited Klaus at the Figueres train station, accepting Klaus’ money after some persuasion.

“Travel safely,” the man said. Klaus had a coffee and a pastry at the station café while waiting for the train. It was the best breakfast he had ever eaten. By midday he was knocking on the door of the British consulate in Barcelona, telling the middle aged woman at the front desk that he needed to speak with Richard Allenby on an urgent matter. “Tell him, it’s Klaus Schumann. Barta Moser sent me.”
Nice shooting, Klaus! Well, and nice clobbering, Klaus. :)
 
“Answer him!” snarled Schwarz, pressing the lit end of his cigarette into the base of my other nipple.”
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:


Take her back to her cell and arrange for her summary execution in the morning. And, Fritz, make sure the cameraman is there to film the event so that the good chaps at SOE in London may have the enviable pleasure of witnessing her sorry final moments.
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
A brief aside: Barbara Moore was not the only fascinating person to work for the OSS. I'd like to mention two others:

1. Moe Berg- Born to a Jewish family in Harlem, he attended Princeton University, where he studied Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Sanskrit, graduating magna cum laude while also captaining the baseball team. He played shortstop and he and the second baseman communicated in Latin when an opposing player was on second base.

Berg played in the Major Leagues as a catcher for 15 seasons, from 1926-1941, with the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox. During that time, he managed to earn a Law degree from Columbia and worked for a Wall Street law firm during the winters. He traveled with Major League All Stars to Japan, helping to plant the seeds of the sport in that country, where it remains very popular today.

When war broke out, he worked with the precursor of the OSS in Latin America under Nelson Rockefeller and later joined the OSS, where he helped prepare Slavic Americans to parachute into Yugoslavia. In December 1944, he was assigned to attend a lecture in Zurich by Werner Heisenberg. His orders were that if he concluded that the Germans were close to obtaining an atomic bomb, he was to shoot Heisenberg. He concluded that they were not...

After the war, he worked briefly for the CIA, who decided he was too "flaky". He spent the last 20 years of his life unemployed living with his siblings for as long as they could tolerate him.

2. Julia Child-Born to a wealthy family in California, she attended Smith College. She joined the OSS because she was too tall to enlist in the WACs. She started as a typist, but quickly rose to become a top researcher, reporting directly to William Donovan. She was posted to China, where she met her husband, Paul Child, who ended up posted to Paris with the USIA.

Julia fell in love with French food and attended the Cordon Bleu. She wrote the first really popular French cookbook published in the US and had a long-running cooking show on PBS. She was truly a beloved character.
 
30.

And so I spent the night ... my last night ... and the end of my SOE career ... languishing in a cold SD cell in the heart of Lyon. No one bothered to shackle me to the wall. No one even bothered to rape me. I was left alone ... left to my wounds and my thoughts, sitting naked and forlorn on the hard concrete floor, knees drawn up and encircled by my arms.

They said I would be executed in the morning. They didn’t say how. I imagined being hanged, guillotined or shot ... all possibilities according to my trainers at SOE. None of them appealing. I wished I had a suicide capsule, but I didn’t.

Fritz and Heinz did offer me something to eat ... a sliver of stale bread and some watery gruel ... a last meal of sorts. The proud thing would have been to refuse it, but I was famished and greedily ate and drank it all. What was there left, after all, to feel prideful about?

Well, on reflection, there was the fact that Klaus Schumann had apparently made it safely to Spain. Without my resistance to breaking during the first two days of interrogation and torture, he’d have never gotten there without being apprehended. He was, after all, just a nice guy caught up, with no special training, in something that was probably beyond him. But, at the same time, I had failed ... failed to smell a rat when Alain offered me a chance to see Marie ... how could I have been so duped when I knew full well she was likely dead? I had even been gullible enough to go along with Alain’s street sex, believing him when he insisted that going along with it would throw off any informers observing us on our way to meet with Marie!

No, Sir Geoffrey and Freddie were likely to see me as at least a partial failure, especially if Barbie made good on his intention to deliver that film of me stretched out and confessing everything on that torture rack ... as well as film of my execution ... into their hands. Would they stare at it open-mouthed, transfixed by my naked helplessness? Would they be saddened by my fate? Or would I just be another cypher on the books ... just another agent lost. Agent sacrificed, mission successful. Fully expendable. On with the game!

And what of Klaus? Assuming he’d made it to Gibraltar, he'd be in London soon enough, where he would be subjected to weeks and weeks of debriefing ... ‘tell us everything you know, Schumann, and if we’re satisfied, we may ... just may ... make good on what Barta Moser may have offered you ... she wasn’t fully authorized to promise you anything for certain, mind you ... indeed, she probably made some of it up to entice you, but we’re sure you found her to be a jolly good shag, right? Just compensation in itself, old boy!’

And they’d be right too. Poor sod believes I’m really Brenda McKinley from Cincinnati, Ohio. Sad. If only I had told him the truth. He deserved better from me.

Feeling uncomfortable and weary of sitting in the pool of gooey blood-streaked juices I kept leaking onto the floor, I shifted position and turned my mind to taking inventory of my body. Three days of torture under the artful direction of the Butcher of Lyon had left their toll. My hair was filthy, matted and tangled. I was certain I had a broken nose. My tongue was swollen and sore from having bitten it under electric shock. My wrists and ankles were bruised and scarred from being shackled, and all of my joints ached from my being stretched to the limit on the rack. My poor nipples were swollen, battered, bloody and frightfully sore from the abuse meted out to them, and my entire crotch area, vagina and anus, burned incessantly from being subjected to so many rapes, electric shock, hot iron burns and hours of straddling the business edge of a wooden horse.

And so I waited. The long hours passed and morning finally came. I became highly agitated and felt a deep hollow feeling inside as I waited for Fritz and Heinz to show their ugly faces. Time continued to move slowly, but eventually they came for me.

“On your feet,” commanded Fritz, as he unlocked my cell door.

I rose slowly and obediently turned my back to him ... I had become accustomed to the routine ... and winced as he slapped cuffs on my sore wrists.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Upstairs to the lobby. The Hauptsturmführer is waiting for you there.”

“But, I’m naked."

“Put these on,” he said curtly, placing a pair of shoes ... I recognized them as my own ... on the floor before me. As I slipped my feet into them, he gently laid a threadbare gray Wehrmacht shirt over my shoulders. The buttons were missing, leaving me only partially covered in front, but it was large enough to hang down nearly to my knees.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

Moments later I was passing down the cell-block corridor for the last time, with Fritz leading the way and Heinz following close behind. Word must have gotten around. The denizens of the other cells ... at least those of them capable of standing ... kept silent respectful vigil as I was led past.

We ascended a flight of stairs, emerging in the hotel lobby. Accustomed to the relative gloom of the cellar, I blinked at the bright light. Then I spotted Barbie and Schwarz, standing stiffly on the polished marble floor next to a potted plant, not far from the front entrance. Heinz poked me in the back. We moved off in their direction.

“We came to see you off, Miss Moore,” Barbie said softly, as though he was bidding me farewell after a social visit. Schwarz stood silently behind him, leaning on his crutches and grinning wickedly.

“Tell me how you plan to have me executed!” I demanded, skipping any pleasantries.

“Ahhh, good question,” replied Barbie, steepling his fingers and frowning as though he was considering how best to respond politely. “We ... that is Kriminalkommisar Schwarz and I ... have given considerable thought to that very issue. At first we’d decided to have you hanged, thinking that Sir Geoffrey and his people would find watching film of you dancing and writhing about nakedly at the end of a rope for fifteen to twenty minutes most entertaining. But then Kriminalkommisar Schwarz, being the fine gentleman that he is, pointed out quite rightly that the final throes of strangulation can be appallingly gruesome, and that subjecting our dear British friends to such a scene would be most unkind and unprofessional.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m quite serious, Miss Moore. You should be pleased to learn we've decided instead to have you shot ... a quick and relatively clean solution. Now, please understand ... normally we’d make quick work of it. We’d simply have you kneel at the edge of a pit, and shoot you in the back of the head. But, again, we had to consider how that might be seen as most disrespectful by our good British friends. So we’ve arranged for a formal firing squad execution with all the trappings, although the current draw-down of personnel for glorious service on the Eastern Front unfortunately necessitates a firing squad of three rather than the customary six.”

“Good British friends? You talk as though you and Sir Geoffrey are bosom buddies. Do you actually know him?”

“We’ve met ... years ago. But that’s not the point. He and I are both professionals and I like to say that our profession can be likened to a chess game, in which pawns and knights ... people like you, Miss Moore ... are moved around the board to capture or be captured ... the captured are, of course, removed from the board ... they die ... often as expendables purposely sacrificed for a greater good ... and they rarely know or are even aware of one another ... but the chess masters who move them about ... who control their destinies ... often do know one another well. That’s important, you see; how else does one anticipate and counter the other’s moves?”

“Uh huh,” I said, looking away with obvious disgust, and wishing to change the subject. “Alright, so you’ve decided to have me shot. Where? Certainly not here in the lobby amongst the potted plants.”

“Don’t be cynical, Miss Moore. Ordinarily it would be in the courtyard behind the building, but we make it our practice to make a public show of the execution of resistance members and enemy spies ... a deterrent, if you will ... so you shall have the honor of meeting your end bound to a post in the Place Carnot, a lovely square a mere few block’s stroll from the Hotel Terminus front entrance. And, having said that, may I take this opportunity to introduce Hauptscharführer Reichenbach, who along with Fritz and Heinz will escort you there.

On cue, a tall, handsomely aristocratic-looking SS officer with pale blue eyes and fair blond hair, who had been hovering in the background, stepped forward to execute a formal little bow.

“What? You’re not going to witness my execution?” I said to Barbie, with raised eyebrow.

“No, I’ll watch it ... like Sir Geoffrey ... on film. No offense, but Kriminalkommisar Schwarz and I have other urgent business to which we must attend. So we leave you now in the very capable hands of Hauptscharführer Reichenbach. Die bravely, Miss Moore.”

“This way, please,” said Reichenbach, taking my elbow and leading me towards the door and the promised stroll to Place Carnot. We exited and turned right, then left. Fritz and Heinz followed at a respectful distance.

It seemed so strange ... surreal ... walking down the pavement on the arm of an SS officer, as though he and I were lovers ... except for the fact that I was half-naked, with wrists cuffed behind my back, and on my way to keep a date with a firing squad.

We drew curious glances from each passerby as we covered the distance to Place Carnot. A few followed. Most didn’t.

I took the opportunity ... what else was there to do? ... to chat with Reichenbach.

“Does this happen often? Do you enjoy it?”

“No, Miss Moore. I’m not the monster you imagine me to be. I abhor it! I only do it because it is my duty.”

“I see.”

“Frankly, there is much that I am ordered to do here in Lyon at Barbie’s behest that I find morally offensive. I would sooner take a lovely young intelligent woman like yourself out for a fine dinner. In different circumstances we could well be friends ... I truly sense that ... even lovers!”

“I doubt that.”

“No seriously. I can tell you now ... they’ll never know, will they? ... that I belong to a small circle of men ... mostly officers from good families, like myself ... that plot against that madman, Hitler ... plot to rid Germany of his evil ...”

“Good luck with that.”

“Hopeless, perhaps. But I want you to know it’s so. Forgive me for what is about to happen. And bear in mind that I truly believe that in another time and place we could indeed be friends and lovers. I admire you as a person ... and for your beauty,” he declared, his eyes glued to the gentle sway of my breasts visible through the open front of my shirt.

“I’ll keep that in mind when the bullets fly.”

On arrival we crossed a small grassy plot to the large statue to the Republique that dominated the center of the leafy square. There, planted in the gravel path to one side of the statue, beneath a cast iron street lamp, was a heavy wooden post ... I guessed it might have once been a railway tie ... backed by a buttressed wall of sandbags. The whitewashed wooden post was bloodstained, in addition to being splintered and holed from the impact of bullets. Some of the sandbags directly behind were torn and leaking sand.

Standing at attention nearby, holding rifles at the ready across their chests, was a firing squad, consisting of three Wehrmacht soldiers, and a Feldwebel. One of the riflemen looked rather young, the other two appeared to be quite old ... somewhere near the upper bounds of military service age. Clearly the war in Russia must be going badly, I thought to myself.

Off to one side, the cameraman who had filmed my previous day’s ordeal on the rack was waiting with his camera mounted on its tripod. A small but growing crowd of curious onlookers had gathered on the lawn behind the cameraman.

“Secure the prisoner,” barked Reichenbach, releasing my elbow and turning to Fritz and Heinz with an air of authority in his voice.

“Jawohl, Herr Hauptscharführer!” they chorused.

I was rushed over to the post, uncuffed and relieved of the Wehrmacht shirt Fritz had draped over my shoulders back in the cell-block ... but oddly not my shoes.

They backed-pedaled me up against the wood, drew my wrists sharply behind and bound them with a length of rope to a railroad spike embedded waist-high in the backside of the post. I winced and stomped my feet as Heinz drew the knot tight.

A quick glance at the cameraman told me I was being filmed. I imagined Sir Geoffrey, Freddie and God knows who else, back at SOE, leaning forward in their seats ... the flickering image of me being bound naked to the post and stamping my feet reflected in their eyes.

Fritz appeared in front of me and reached over my head to nail a placard to the top of the post, with the words “Barbara Moore, espionne britannique” scrawled across it in large Gothic block letters. Then he dipped his forefinger in a small metal cup he fished from his pants pocket and proceeded to smear a dark smudge on my breastbone ... presumably to give the firing squad a target point.

As the squad lined up, facing me, it was Reichenbach’s turn to draw near. He wanted to know if I wished to be blindfolded. I thought for a moment and nodded yes, after which he produced a strip of black cloth from his tunic pocket, and reaching around my head, tied it in place. It was rather small, and I found that by looking down past my chest I could quite easily see the ground at my feet, but that the firing squad was out of my restricted field of vision.

Then he asked me if I wanted a smoke. I said no, and he responded by asking whether I had any last words.

“Too melodramatic,” I replied. “That only happens in Hollywood motion pictures!”

“As you wish, Miss Moore.”

He gave me a gentle pat on the shoulder and withdrew.

The Feldwebel meanwhile was engaged in giving instructions to his squad. Judging from the chiding tone of his remarks, it was pretty clear that his charges were inexperienced. Their confusion was causing a delay, prompting Reichenbach to chastise the Feldwebel.

But at last they seemed to have things sorted out, and I heard the unmistakable metallic clank of bolt actions ramming cartridges into the breach and the Feldwebel ordering his men to take aim, followed by the rustle of movement that accompanied the shouldering of weapons.

I sucked in my breath, set my jaw, braced myself for the inevitable, and was immediately aware of the near simultaneous order to fire, the report of the guns and the impact of bullets tearing into me and slamming me back against the post.

Then I must have fallen into a complete state of shock as I felt no pain even though I knew I had been shot. I felt myself slowly slumping forward ... the blindfold slipping from my head. Through tear-filled eyes I could make out a bright red splash of blood on my right breast ... and a bloody gash on my left side. I tasted blood in my mouth.

I heard the Feldwebel cursing his men, and slowly came to the realization that the fools had missed the target. I was still alive!


Warm pee trickled down my legs. I coughed up blood. I swooned. The ground at my feet faded in and out of focus. I became aware of my shoes, noting that they were spattered with blood and pee.

A pair of shiny black jackboots suddenly entered my downcast field of blurred vision. I heard a metallic click near my left ear and felt the cold muzzle of Hauptscharführer Reichenbach’s sidearm pressed against the base of my skull ....
 
Last edited:
30.

And so I spent the night ... my last night ... and the end of my SOE career ... languishing in a cold SD cell in the heart of Lyon. No one bothered to shackle me to the wall. No one even bothered to rape me. I was left alone ... left to my wounds and my thoughts, sitting naked and forlorn on the hard concrete floor, knees drawn up and encircled by my arms.

They said I would be executed in the morning. They didn’t say how. I imagined being hanged, guillotined or shot ... all possibilities according to my trainers at SOE. None of them appealing. I wished I had a suicide capsule, but I didn’t.

Fritz and Heinz did offer me something to eat ... a sliver of stale bread and some watery gruel ... a last meal of sorts. The proud thing would have been to refuse it, but I was famished and greedily ate and drank it all. What was there left, after all, to feel prideful about?

Well, on reflection, there was the fact that Klaus Schumann had apparently made it safely to Spain. Without my resistance to breaking during the first two days of interrogation and torture, he’d have never gotten there without being apprehended. He was, after all, just a nice guy caught up, with no special training, in something that was probably beyond him. But, at the same time, I had failed ... failed to smell a rat when Alain offered me a chance to see Marie ... how could I have been so duped when I knew full well she was likely dead? I had even been gullible enough to go along with Alain’s street sex, believing him when he insisted that going along with it would throw off any informers observing us on our way to meet with Marie!

No, Sir Geoffrey and Freddie were likely to see me as at least a partial failure, especially if Barbie made good on his intention to deliver that film of me stretched out and confessing everything on that torture rack ... as well as film of my execution ... into their hands. Would they stare at it open-mouthed, transfixed by my naked helplessness? Would they be saddened by my fate? Or would I just be another cypher on the books ... just another agent lost. Agent sacrificed, mission successful. Fully expendable. On with the game!

And what of Klaus? Assuming he’d made it to Gibraltar, he'd be in London soon enough, where he would be subjected to weeks and weeks of debriefing ... ‘tell us everything you know, Schumann, and if we’re satisfied, we may ... just may ... make good on what Barta Moser may have offered you ... she wasn’t fully authorized to promise you anything for certain, mind you ... indeed, she probably made some of it up to entice you, but we’re sure you found her to be a jolly good shag, right? Just compensation in itself, old boy!’

And they’d be right too. Poor sod believes I’m really Brenda McKinley from Cincinnati, Ohio. Sad. If only I had told him the truth. He deserved better from me.

Feeling uncomfortable and weary of sitting in the pool of gooey blood-streaked juices I kept leaking onto the floor, I shifted position and turned my mind to taking inventory of my body. Three days of torture under the artful direction of the Butcher of Lyon had left their toll. My hair was filthy, matted and tangled. I was certain I had a broken nose. My tongue was swollen and sore from having bitten it under electric shock. My wrists and ankles were bruised and scarred from being shackled, and all of my joints ached from my being stretched to the limit on the rack. My poor nipples were swollen, battered, bloody and frightfully sore from the abuse meted out to them, and my entire crotch area, vagina and anus, burned incessantly from being subjected to so many rapes, electric shock, hot iron burns and hours of straddling the business edge of a wooden horse.

And so I waited. The long hours passed and morning finally came. I became highly agitated and felt a deep hollow feeling inside as I waited for Fritz and Heinz to show their ugly faces. Time continued to move slowly, but eventually they came for me.

“On your feet,” commanded Fritz, as he unlocked my cell door.

I rose slowly and obediently turned my back to him ... I had become accustomed to the routing ... and winced as he slapped cuffs on my sore wrists.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Upstairs to the lobby. The Hauptsturmführer is waiting for you there.”

“But, I’m naked."

“Put these on,” he said curtly, placing a pair of shoes ... I recognized them as my own ... on the floor before me. As I slipped my feet into them, he gently laid a threadbare gray Wehrmacht shirt over my shoulders. The buttons were missing, leaving me only partially covered in front, but it was large enough to hang down nearly to my knees.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

Moments later I was passing down the cell-block corridor for the last time, with Fritz leading the way and Heinz following close behind. Word must have gotten around. The denizens of the other cells ... at least those of them capable of standing ... kept silent respectful vigil as I was led past.

We ascended a flight of stairs, emerging in the hotel lobby. Accustomed to the relative gloom of the cellar, I blinked at the bright light. Then I spotted Barbie and Schwarz, standing stiffly on the polished marble floor next to a potted plant, not far from the front entrance. Heinz poked me in the back. We moved off in their direction.

“We came to see you off, Miss Moore,” Barbie said softly, as though he was bidding me farewell after a social visit. Schwarz stood silently behind him, leaning on his crutches and grinning wickedly.

“Tell me how you plan to have me executed!” I demanded, skipping any pleasantries.

“Ahhh, good question,” replied Barbie, steepling his fingers and frowning as though he was considering how best to respond politely. “We ... that is Kriminalkommisar Schwarz and I ... have given considerable thought to that very issue. At first we we’d decided to have you hanged, thinking that Sir Geoffrey and his people would find watching film of you dancing and writhing about nakedly at the end of a rope for fifteen to twenty minutes most entertaining. But then Kriminalkommisar Schwarz, being the fine gentleman that he is, pointed out quite rightly that the final throes of strangulation can be appallingly gruesome, and that subjecting our dear British friends to such a scene would be most unkind and unprofessional.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m quite serious, Miss Moore. You should be pleased to learn we've decided instead to have you shot ... a quick and relatively clean solution. Now, please understand ... normally we’d make quick work of it. We’d simply have you kneel at the edge of a pit, and shoot you in the back of the head. But, again, we had to consider how that might be seen as most disrespectful by our good British friends. So we’ve arranged for a formal firing squad execution with all the trappings, although the current draw-down of personnel for glorious service on the Eastern Front unfortunately necessitates a firing squad of three rather than the customary six.”

“Good British friends? You talk as though you and Sir Geoffrey are bosom buddies. Do you actually know him?”

“We’ve met ... years ago. But that’s not the point. He and I are both professionals and I like to say that our profession can be likened to a chess game, in which pawns and knights ... people like you, Miss Moore ... are moved around the board to capture or be captured ... the captured are, of course, removed from the board ... they die ... often as expendables purposely sacrificed for a greater good ... and they rarely know or are even aware of one another ... but the chess masters who move them about ... who control their destinies ... often do know one another well. That’s important, you see; how else does one anticipate and counter the other’s moves?”

“Uh huh,” I said, looking away with obvious disgust, and wishing to change the subject. “Alright, so you’ve decided to have me shot. Where? Certainly not here in the lobby amongst the potted plants.”

“Don’t be cynical, Miss Moore. Ordinarily it would be in the courtyard behind the building, but we make it our practice to make a public show of the execution of resistance members and enemy spies ... a deterrent, if you will ... so you shall have the honor of meeting your end bound to a post in the Place Carnot, a lovely square a mere few block’s stroll from the Hotel Terminus front entrance. And, having said that, may I take this opportunity to introduce Hauptscharführer Reichenbach, who along with Fritz and Heinz will escort you there.

On cue, a tall, handsomely aristocratic-looking SS officer with pale blue eyes and fair blond hair, who had been hovering in the background, stepped forward to execute a formal little bow.

“What? You’re not going to witness my execution?” I said to Barbie, with raised eyebrow.

“No, I’ll watch it ... like Sir Geoffrey ... on film. No offense, but Kriminalkommisar Schwarz and I have other urgent business to which we must attend. So we leave you now in the very capable hands of Hauptscharführer Reichenbach. Die bravely, Miss Moore.”

“This way, please,” said Reichenbach, taking my elbow and leading me towards the door and the promised stroll to Place Carnot. We exited and turned right, then left. Fritz and Heinz followed at a respectful distance.

It seemed so strange ... surreal ... walking down the pavement on the arm of an SS officer, as though he and I were lovers ... except for the fact that I was half-naked, with wrists cuffed behind my back, and on my way to keep a date with a firing squad.

We drew curious glances from each passerby as we covered the distance to Place Carnot. A few followed. Most didn’t.

I took the opportunity ... what else was there to do? ... to chat with Reichenbach.

“Does this happen often? Do you enjoy it?”

“No, Miss Moore. I’m not the monster you imagine me to be. I abhor it! I only do it because it is my duty.”

“I see.”

“Frankly, there is much that I am ordered to do here in Lyon at Barbie’s behest that I find morally offensive. I would sooner take a lovely young intelligent woman like yourself out for a fine dinner. In different circumstances we could well be friends ... I truly sense that ... even lovers!”

“I doubt that.”

“No seriously. I can tell you now ... they’ll never know, will they? ... that I belong to a small circle of men ... mostly officers from good families, like myself ... that plot against that madman, Hitler ... plot to rid Germany of his evil ...”

“Good luck with that.”

“Hopeless, perhaps. But I want you to know it’s so. Forgive me for what is about to happen. And bear in mind that I truly believe that in another time and place we could indeed be friends and lovers. I admire you as a person ... and for your beauty.” he declared, his eyes glued to the gentle sway of my breasts visible through the open front of my shirt.

“I’ll keep that in mind when the bullets fly.”

On arrival we crossed a small grassy plot to the large statue to the Republique that dominated the center of the leafy square. There, planted in the gravel path to one side of the statue, beneath a cast iron street lamp, was a heavy wooden post ... I guessed it might have once been a railway tie ... backed by a buttressed wall of sandbags. The whitewashed wooden post was bloodstained, in addition to being splintered and holed from the impact of bullets. Some of the sandbags directly behind were torn and leaking sand.

Standing at attention nearby, holding rifles at the ready across their chests, was a firing squad, consisting of three Wehrmacht soldiers, and a Feldwebel. One of the riflemen looked rather young, the other two appeared to be quite old ... somewhere near the upper bounds of military service age. Clearly the war in Russia must be going badly, I thought to myself.

Off to one side, the cameraman who had filmed my previous day’s ordeal on the rack was waiting with his camera mounted on its tripod. A small but growing crowd of curious onlookers had gathered on the lawn behind the cameraman.

“Secure the prisoner,” barked Reichenbach, releasing my elbow and turning to Fritz and Heinz with an air of authority in his voice.

“Jawohl, Herr Hauptscharführer!” they chorused.

I was rushed over to the post, uncuffed and relieved of the Wehrmacht shirt Fritz had draped over my shoulders back in the cell-block ... but oddly not my shoes.

They backed-pedaled me up against the wood, drew my wrists sharply behind and bound them with a length of rope to a railroad spike embedded waist-high in the backside of the post. I winced and stomped my feet as Heinz drew the knot tight.

A quick glance at the cameraman told me I was being filmed. I imagined Sir Geoffrey, Freddie and God knows who else, back at SOE, leaning forward in their seats ... the flickering image of me being bound naked to the post and stamping my feet reflected in their eyes.

Fritz appeared in front of me and reached over my head to nail a placard to the top of the post, with the words “Barbara Moore, espionne britannique” scrawled across it in large Gothic block letters. Then he dipped his forefinger in a small metal cup he fished from his pants pocket and proceeded to smear a dark smudge on my breastbone ... presumably to give the firing squad a target point.

As the squad lined up, facing me, it was Reichenbach’s turn to draw near. He wanted to know if I wished to be blindfolded. I thought for a moment and nodded yes, after which he produced a strip of black cloth from his tunic pocket, and reaching around my head, tied it in place. It was rather small, and I found that by looking down past my chest I could quite easily see the ground at my feet, but that the firing squad was out of my restricted field of vision.

Then he asked me if I wanted a smoke. I said no, and he responded by asking whether I had any last words.

“Too melodramatic,” I replied. “That only happens in Hollywood motion pictures!”

“As you wish, Miss Moore.”

He gave me a gentle pat on the shoulder and withdrew.

The Feldwebel meanwhile was engaged in giving instructions to his squad. Judging from the chiding tone of his remarks, it was pretty clear that his charges were inexperienced. Their confusion was causing a delay, prompting Reichenbach to chastise the Feldwebel.

But at last they seemed to have things sorted out, and I heard the unmistakable metallic clank of bolt actions ramming cartridges into the breach and the Feldwebel ordering his men to take aim, followed by the rustle of movement that accompanied the shouldering of weapons.

I sucked in my breath, set my jaw, braced myself for the inevitable, and was immediately aware of the near simultaneous order to fire, the report of the guns and the impact of bullets tearing into me and slamming me back against the post.

Then I must have fallen into a complete state of shock as I felt no pain even though I knew I had been shot. I felt myself slowly slumping forward ... the blindfold slipping from my head. Through tear-filled eyes I could make out a bright red splash of blood on my right breast ... and a bloody gash on my left side. I tasted blood in my mouth.

I heard the Feldwebel cursing his men, and slowly came to the realization that the fools had missed the target. I was still alive!


Warm pee trickled down my legs. I coughed up blood. I swooned. The ground at my feet faded in and out of focus. I became aware of my shoes, noting that they were spattered with blood and pee.

A pair of shiny black jackboots suddenly entered my downcast field of blurred vision. I heard a metallic click near my left ear and felt the cold muzzle of Hauptscharführer Reichenbach’s sidearm pressed against the base of my skull ....

Wonderful! Well written, Barb.
 
I heard a metallic click near my left ear and felt the cold muzzle of Hauptscharführer Reichenbach’s sidearm pressed against the base of my skull ....
Have I ever told you that there are cliffhangers that I really, really hate?
Very well written. The situation and the emotions are replicable depicted. And Barb is wonderful. Despite her hopeless situation she keeps her composure. Very british :) Sir Geoffrey and Freddie will be proud.
The old trick of a fake firing squad? I am going to guess the pistol bolt goes click too.
Hope dies last.
 
Wonderful! Well written, Barb.
The old trick of a fake firing squad? I am going to guess the pistol bolt goes click too.
Have I ever told you that there are cliffhangers that I really, really hate?
Very well written. The situation and the emotions are replicable depicted. And Barb is wonderful. Despite her hopeless situation she keeps her composure. Very british :) Sir Geoffrey and Freddie will be proud.

Hope dies last.

Thanks guys ..... (I think I really have them guessing;)) ... this has been a fun story to write ... happy that everyone seems to be enjoying it.

:popcorn::)
 
Back
Top Bottom