Madelaine's War

My body was stiff from my recent exertions, and I knew that split seconds counted, but, worse still, the housekeeper now had a gun to hand and I could not take the chance that she did not know how to use it.

Madelaine was crying piteously and I could see the vivid red welt that had been raised across her exposed buttocks. I knew that there was only one way out of this.

Heinzer knew she had won and she relaxed once more. I was almost in a trance as I knelt behind her. Those twin hemispheres filled my vision but I felt as if I were seeing the gates to perdition.

As I drew closer I was taunted by the sight of her half hidden sex. It seemed almost welcoming but I knew that I was simply trying to avoid the inevitable.

I could feel an almost unnatural heat radiating from her as I fought the last few inches until the tip of my tongue made the first illicit contact.

Pausing to gather myself I noted that her skin tasted of her arousal where her sex had seeped but, as I hazarded a first tentative survey, slowly moving upwards, I caught the tang of salt overlaying the musty hint of perspiration.

I wanted to feel repelled but my tongue in some way welcomed the varying stimuli. I licked again forging a long trail from the boundary of her sex almost up to the small of back.

She squirmed a little and I repeated the process keenly aware of the smoothness of her skin but I could not avoid the beckoning hollow in the darkest shade of the valley. The tight contours emphasised its forbidden nature but I knew her too well now to expect any benevolence.

She had me lick for a long while, heightening the tension, but then she reached back with both hands to cast light into the shadows.

"You know what I want..."

I wanted to look away but the spell was cast. It only had to be done once, and never again, but then came a revelation. For a few seconds I looked into a possible future, a future with Madelaine, and the knowledge that I would willingly do anything for her.

In some manner it felt like a betrayal but it gave me the strength that I needed. I imagined it was her before me, welcoming me adoration, and I experienced a blissful sense of fulfilment which seem centred on my sex.

Riding this wave of mild euphoria I brought my mouth to that inviolable place and braced my tongue.

It seemed unassailable but, as I redoubled my efforts, I felt her working with me, slowly relaxing. We gradually became attuned and I felt the threshold yield to the tip of my tongue. I paused briefly then, with one final, determined, push I was through.

The pressure of her muscles was almost painful but then it eased as she began to accommodate me and it felt as if my tongue were breathing inside her. The taste, thus revealed, was little different to that I had discovered in first licking at the entrance and for that I was grateful.

She kept me there for some minutes, and I guessed that she was trying to scale the peak one final time, but she had no more to give. With a petulant sigh she had to let me go thinking, no doubt, of the many days to come.

It took me a few moments to recover but I was anxious to see Madelaine freed. So it was with disbelief that I turned to find the housekeeper sitting with her legs wide open and a single finger pointed meaningfully down towards her sex.

Chapter 7

I gave it two hours after we were returned to our room. I woke Madelaine and led the way back to the Heinzer's office. Fortunately, the marshalling yards were operational through the night and, by opening the curtains, we were granted enough light to see by.

It was a while since I had honed my safe cracking skills but fortunately Heinzer had an old model and I could feel the worn tumblers as well as hear them. It took less than five minutes to gain access.

There were few documents in there but I felt an exhilaration when I saw that they included detailed manifests. I quickly worked out that the white sheets represented through traffic whilst the yellow sheets represented local services including those destined for the facility.

As I separated out the yellow sheets Madelaine whispered.

"If they're concerned about this place why don't they just bomb it?"

"We're too far south. A precision raid would probably take heavy losses and they won't make the sacrifice unless they're certain.

With the sheets separated I took a pencil and wrote out a formula. Madelaine could not speak German but she could still be useful.

"Go through this pile and see if you can find anything that looks like this."

I took the other half and began looking for the same formula which I had committed to memory. After ten minutes I had found nothing in my pile and looked hopefully at Madelaine.

"Sorry, nothing, but if you are looking for heavy water I don't think you'll find it near a centre of population."

As she said the words I did not breathe. I was convinced, in those seconds, that Madelaine was not who she seemed and my instincts were telling me that she was now a very serious threat.

I had only heard those words spoken by one other person. That person was the Prime Minister's personal scientific advisor and the meeting was at the highest security level that I had ever attended.

Madelaine realized what was amiss.

"I'm a physicist for Christ's sake! The Americans were looking at using heavy water to facilitate a bomb before the war even started. Professor Einstein has published papers on the subject. I think what you're looking for is this."

She pointed to a sheet on which another chemical formula appeared a number of times.

"This is molybdenum and they seem to shipping it on an industrial scale."

"What is it used for?"

"It can be used for tempering steel, making it more resilient."

"So you think that they are producing armour...or shells perhaps?"

"If I had to guess, given that it's BMW, I would say turbines."

"Turbines?"

"Think of them as fans, to be used in aircraft jet engines. Our people have been working on them at home for years. If the Germans were to get viable jets into the sky in any substantial numbers it might just turn the war in their favour."

I could have kissed her. It was now imperative that we got the information out. I quickly gathered the documents and locked them away but as I stood up the room blazed into light.

The housekeeper stood in the doorway with a Mauser hunting rifle and the way she held it slightly low, to allow for recoil, told me she knew exactly how to use it.

"What is going on here?

She had obviously reached her own conclusion and did not wait for an answer.

"Out!"

If I had been alone I would have rushed at her but Madelaine was petrified to stillness. I took her by the arm and allowed the housekeeper to shepherd us down into the basement of the building. The area was taken up by the former police cells but they were still clearly functional.

She pushed Madelaine, screaming, into a single cell with a solid door. I was thrown into a more traditional cell with jail bars. Seated in the corner, dressed in nothing more than a grubby white shift, was a young woman. As soon as I saw her I knew who she was.

"Elise? We thought you were dead."

"As good as."

"They found out who you were?"

"No. I got onto her staff, I managed to smuggle a couple of messages, then it was my turn. When younger girls are in short supply she's quite happy to take her pleasure where she can. My cover shows no listed relatives, no one to report me missing."

"Are you okay?"

Her eyes looked into the middle distance as she replied.

"I refused at first...the things she tried to make me do...but she can be very persuasive."

She lifted the shift a little, almost shamefully, and I drew a sharp breath. Her legs were a tapestry of bruises, old and new, and the criss-cross of welt marks bore testament to their origin.

She covered herself and, taking my hand, spoke more urgently.

"When did you get here? What's happened?"

"There's no time to explain. We need to get out of here. How long before we can expect the Gestapo?"

"Does she know what you were doing?"

"The housekeeper found us in Heinzer's office, she can't be in much doubt, she brought us straight down here."

She thought for a moment.

"If Heinzer is in her bedroom she wouldn't dare to disturb her. We may have a little time."

"We have to get her to come back in here so that we can overpower her."

"She's no fool. She won't come in."

"There must be something. Could you feign illness?"

"She'd ignore it. Not unless you were one of the 'special ones'."

"There has to be something..."

The solution came to me at the same time that it came to her.

"Would it work?"

"She's like clockwork. She'll check back on the hour."

I checked my watch, saw that that gave us less than five minutes, and took her hand.

"It would have to be for real...she would know otherwise."

She looked back at me trying to brave face on her otherwise uneasy countenance.

"I understand."

I touched her on the shoulder.

"Sit on the edge of the bed...open your legs."

She blinked uncomprehendingly and then stood up abruptly.

"No. It has to be you. I'm not strong enough to take her."

My mind raced. It was true that she was physically weakened; I did not wish to add to her trauma but there was no time left to argue.

I lifted my dress and quickly removed my underwear before settling onto the bed. She, for her part, took the thin pillow and placed it on the cold stone floor to protect her knees.

As she made her obeisance I felt adrenaline coursing through my bloodstream. My body was readying itself for an act of physical violence and also something more but I had no time to consider guilt.

For a moment she stared at my wantonly displayed sex but I could see that her resolve was faltering. It was one thing to be forced to this but another altogether to undertake it of her own volition.

In a moment of clarity I knew what I had to do. I took hold of her chin and raised her eyes to mine.

"Eat me!"

I do not know where the words came from but the shock of the command had the desired effect. She leaned in and I had to bite my lip when I felt the warmth of her mouth closed about my sex.

She shuddered when she found that I was already wet but she kept to her task. She found a rhythm and, as she continued to labour, I tried to listen out.

I became convinced that the housekeeper had returned and that, somewhere out of sight, she too was listening.

I relaxed a little and began to moan as I gave in to the pleasurable sensations. She had nothing of Madelaine's innate skills but her training had imbued her with a slavish enthusiasm.

Still the housekeeper did not appear and I recognized that I was reaching a dangerous tipping point. I was losing the essential muscular tension that I needed to act and I made a rapid decision.

"Make me come!"

She looked up at me, wide eyed, through the fuzz of my sex but she understood. I felt her tongue lancing deep inside of me and then she took my clitoris between her lips and began to gently suck.

"Yes!!"

The resultant orgasm drove all else from my mind. Everything seemed wiped out by a blinding white light whose intensity was only matched by the rapidly expanding ripples of ecstasy radiating from my sex.

When I was finally able to compose myself it was to find the sneering smile of the housekeeper looming over me. She was still armed with the rifle which was pointed squarely at my supplicant urging her not to stop.

For the space of a few insane seconds I was almost tempted to surrender to her continuing ministrations but then I got a grip. A coldness came over me as she used the end of the rifle to playfully raise the thin shift to reveal a breast scarred by the whip.

I was still breathing hard but now I channelled it. I pushed Elise from me and, caught unawares, she fell backwards with the rifle still snagged in her shift. The housekeeper, in trying to keep hold of it, was momentarily off balance and, from my prone position, I punched her in the kidneys with all the force of which I was capable.

It was a punch that would have put most men down but she fell to her knee with a roar and started to rise. I stood and drew back my hand ready to use my open palm to drive her nose upwards into the front of her brain but Elise acted quicker.

She pulled the rifle free and swung it in a wide arc. The heavy stock caved in the back of the housekeepers head with a lethal crunch of bone. She was probably dead before she hit the floor.

Elise was in shock and I had to shake her vigorously.

"Look for her keys!...I'll check outside."

A quick survey of the anteroom turned up nothing of use and I ran back to the cell. Elise looked up at me.

"No keys..."

I checked the door where there was a single key in the lock. A few seconds later I knew that the same key would not open Madelaine's cell.

I tried to stay calm and trawled my memory. In my time in the building I could not remember seeing any keys stored.

Elise came to my side.

"We have to go. As soon as they find her there will be hell to pay. We have to put some distance between us."

She was right but, more importantly, I had to relay what I now knew.

I looked at the forbidding door of Madelaine's cell knowing that she was terrified with no idea of what was going on. I desperately wanted to shout out to her but knew that it be would more cruel to give her false hope.

She was expendable. It had always been that way.

Elise pulled at me but I pushed her away. I cursed and hot tears blinded my eyes. I put fingers against the door as if I could feel her on the other side.

My legs would hardly move as Elise dragged me away and it was only the sharp night air that finally brought me to my senses.

The plan had been to leave by night and to make our way on foot to the border. The Maquis had agreed to be at the rendezvous point at midnight each night and to wait for exactly one hour.

Elise was in no state to walk the whole way; she was weak and without clothes but I was not going to leave two of them behind. I took the rifle and left her sheltering in the shadows whilst I darted back into the building.

All still seemed quiet and I hurried up to my room to collect clothes and shoes. As I did so I wondered about the others in the house, the 'special ones', but there was little I could do for them. That thought triggered something.

Checking my watch I padded along the corridor and down the flight of stairs. My heart was beating fast as I arrived at Heinzers room and put my ear to the door.

I slowly turned the handle and gave a silent prayer when I found that the door was unlocked. I slipped into the room but nothing could have prepared me for the sight that greeted me.

Heinzer was standing sublimely naked in the centre of the room, an amazon queen, mistress of all she surveyed. She was being attended by two acolytes, one kneeling before her lavishing oral attention on her sex whilst the other knelt behind echoing my own submission only hours before.

It was some seconds before they even noticed me but then all three of them turned towards me in shock. Heinzer recovered quickly and then, to my astonishment, she looked down at the two young girls.

"I did not tell you to stop."

With obvious nervousness they took up where they had left off and it was a second or two before I had the presence of mind to raise the rifle.

"I want the key to the cell..."

She looked at me as if weighing me up.

"Or what? You'll shoot me in cold blood? I don't think so."

I despised the way that she was capable of getting into my head. I had been called upon to kill just two people but neither of them in cold blood.

I was tempted to wound her but a shot from the rifle was capable of tearing off her arm. Then something else came to me. I crossed the room and rapped the barrel across thigh. The two girls fell away in flight and with Heinzers sang-froid now disturbed I ushered her towards the sawhorse.

"Bend over it."

Her expression spat defiance but she knew, as I did, that time was not on my side. She prostrated herself and I turned to the girls.

"Bind her!"

They balked at the command but the menace of the rifle was sufficient. They retrieved the straps and tied her down. As soon as she was secure I put down the rifle and took out the dog whip.

I did not ask the question again, I simply slashed the whip down across her perfect cheeks with all the strength at my command.

Showing more resilience than I anticipated she grunted through gritted teeth and then spoke.

"I don't have the key. My housekeeper is in charge."

I remorselessly struck her a second time.

"The door to that cell locks automatically. My guess is that you want to keep "the special ones" all to yourself. That's why I think that there is only one key...and you know where it's kept."

I could see from her eyes that I had hit on the truth but I also saw her total defiance. Time was running out but I had one last card to play. I had one of the girls stand behind her and pull up Heinzer's head by the hair...then I drew back the whip.

"At best this is going to open up your cheek...at worst you are going to lose an eye...do they still prize duelling scars in Heidelberg?"

I saw immediately that I had found her weakness. Her look was venomous but she gave me what I wanted.

Armed with the key I hastened to the cells taking the two girls with me. Madelaine cried and threw herself into my arms but I pushed her away.

"We must hurry."

I apologised to the two girls as I ushered them into the cell and locked it. It would be better for them to be found that way when the authorities inevitably made their appearance.

Elise looked angry when I returned after so long a delay but when Madelaine was introduced she calmed down.

The shoes were a poor fit and I asked her.

"How far do you think you can walk?"

Before she could reply Madelaine interjected.

"We can do better than that. Come with me."

We followed her to the rear of the building which gave on to the marshalling yards.

"There. I saw it yesterday. They keep a shunter permanently under steam."

I looked at her incredulously but she just smiled.

"My father spent his life restoring traction engines. I was brought up around steam, it's what led to my interest in physics."

It seemed like lunacy but, whilst there were still a number of workers around there were none in the immediate vicinity of the shunter.

The three of us crossed the narrow span of open ground and two sets of tracks. At the footplate Madelaine climbed up. She took a moment to survey the controls, and I feared that she had overstated her abilities, but then she beckoned us aboard. The dark space stank of coal and oil but the warmth of the boiler felt strangely comforting.

Madelaine began to work the controls when I perceived a new problem.

"This thing is pointed east..."

Madelaine laughed as she opened a valve.

"It can go backwards you know."

With that the locomotive began to move, slowly gathering speed, and Madelaine shouted above the increasing noise.

"Keep an eye out for points. We may have to switch them."

Two minutes later we were out of the yards and heading into open country and I started to think.

"We will have to cross the border on foot. Can you stop us this side of Bad Krozingen?

In the end we had to guess distances and Madelaine brought us to a stop under a canopy of trees. As we got down onto the damp undergrowth Elise looked back at the locomotive.

"Should we not try and put it beyond use?"

Madelaine looked at us and then climbed back aboard.

"We can do better than that..."

When she climbed down the engine started back the way it came slowly gathering speed. Ten minutes later, as we skirted Krozingen, the sky was suddenly lit up and we heard the distant sound of the crash.