On the Argentinian cargo ship Orpheila four individuals are plotting a hijack. They are Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Doctor Jackal, timid physician with his less than timid friend Mister Hades.

Cargo Ship Orpheila, Eastern Mediterranean Sea, August 1942

How about a leopard in the engine room?

Sven Hyse smiles a very feline smile and looks around the small cabin aboard the cargo ship Orpheila at his colleagues. Staring back at him with a mixture of surprise and amazement are his co-conspirators Madeleine Forsyth, Doctor Henry Jackal and Mimi Dubois.

Twenty four hours earlier.

Tobruk, Libya, August 1942

With the help of Madeline I disguise myself as a local and dress in the clothes that Ahmir provided, including a hijab which I pull across to partially conceal my face, and head out towards the docks from the safe house. I wander along looking into the hostelries, it is lunchtime and I am hoping to find a likely target. After a few minutes I spot a couple of foreign sailors finishing their meal and a drink at the bar of one of the eateries.

I wait for them to leave and make sure that I stumble into them. Having been knocked to the floor, I hold my hand out to be assisted back to my feet. One of the sailors, an Italian based on his profuse apologies, takes my hand and helps me up. As I am holding his hand I mentally reach out and ‘borrow’ his ability as a sailor. I then slip away into the afternoon crowd.

We spend the rest of the day resting in the safe house and checking all of our equipment. I make sure that the blade of my knife is keen and strip down and clean my pistol, the others do the same and the evening passes quietly. There is an air of tension, that normal feeling as we all gear up towards the start of a mission. An hour before dawn, dressed in our German clothes but with local garb over the top, we slip out of the safe house and head to wear we left the kubelwagen. As we near where we parked we step into a dark alley and remove our local disguises and step back out onto the street as Captain Orleff and his staff.

Sven, or rather Lieutenant Schlin, loads all of out luggage into the vehicle and then speeds towards the docks. Just before oh six hundred hours the kubelwagen screeches along the dock and comes to a halt next to the loan gangplank onto the Orpheila. Captain Orleff and his secretary, Miss Furhmann, walk up the gangplank and present their papers to the officer stood there. While we are standing there, a shadow detaches itself from the kubelwagen and slides up the underside of the gangplank and onto the side of the ship, it then begins to slide aft.

The Argentinian officer quickly looks at our papers and then looks up at the bridge and shrugs. A few minutes later, the captain meets us on deck. He reads through the travel orders that Captain Orleff handed over, he then looks up and in broken German says;

This is very irregular, I was not aware of any requests for passage, but your papers seem in order.

Captain Orleff replies;

These are last minute orders. The Reich has authorised a healthy payment as recompense for your inconvenience.

The ship’s captain smiles and states that he believes that he can accommodate us. He asks if it is all three of us. And Captain Orleff tells him that it will only be himself and his secretary, he also insists on two cabins. Captain Orleff orders Lieutenant Schlin to bring the luggage aboard and then we are shown to the ship’s saloon.

Once Schlin has brought all of the luggage on board, he snaps off a perfect salute to Captain Orleff and then leaves the ship. Lending great credence to our cover story. One of the ship’s crew serves us coffee in the saloon and moments later a shudder runs through the deck as the ship sets sail from Tobruk harbour.

Eventually we are shown to two cabins on the starboard side of the main deck, and the ship’s crew deliver our luggage. I stand in the doorway of Captain Orleff’s cabin, holding the door firmly open, for several minutes and while I am there the shadow of a woman passes across the deck and through the open door. At almost exactly the same time a large seagull, that had hastily flown from the mainland, alights atop one of the ship’s masts. All of the team are aboard.

I step into Captain Orleff’s cabin and close the blinds. We wait inside for a couple of hours and then, leaving Madeline in the cabin, I head for the ship’s galley and Captain Orleff takes a stroll around the deck talking loudly in German at the Argentinian sailors. None of them seem to understand him, and they politely point at the bridge.

I wander into the galley and find one of the crew preparing a basic breakfast, I ask if I can assist and he happily accepts. The rest of the crew are very pleasantly surprised when at oh eight thirty hours their breakfast is served to them by the beautiful German secretary. As I move about the tables I engage the crew in polite conversation, which they are very happy to indulge me in. I touch hands with several of the crew, but in particular, I hold the chief engineers hand for several seconds. During that time I ‘borrow’ his skill with the ship’s engines.

Henry/Captain Orleff has breakfast with the ship’s captain, during which he asks if he can have a tour of the Orpheila. The Captain is only too happy to show us around. We finally get to see below decks at the stern of the ship which houses the rest of the crew’s quarters and the engine room. The morning passes uneventfully, with Captain Orleff dictating numerous letters to me in the saloon.

After lunch we retire to Captain Orleff’s cabin, just before I close the door a seagull hops through it. We all settle down to work out how we are going to capture the ship with as little resistance as possible. Henry believes that the best time for us to change the ship’s course will be sometime between midnight and oh four hundred hours. If we want to do it gently, without anyone becoming aware, it will be better to do it just after midnight.

We all agree that we need to capture the bridge, engine room and the radio room. And we also agree the we will do it not long after the shift change at midnight. So oh oh thirty hours. Henry suggests that we drug some coffee, and that I can deliver it and encourage them to drink it. It is at that point that Sven surprises us all by suggesting that the best way to take control of the engine room is for him to enter it as a leopard.

The plan is then to round up the crew and, with the exception of one of the engineers, force them into the lifeboats and tow them behind the ship. With the outline of a plan agreed we go back to putting on a show of normal routine.

At approximately sixteen hundred hours we hear the sound of an airplane. From the deck it is obvious in the clear blue sky of the Mediterranean that there is a twin engined German plane flying over the ship. It banks and passes over us twice more before continuing onwards. As it was passing, Captain Orleff just happened to be stood outside the radio room and managed to overhear one of the sailors identifying the ship and it’s route in German.

The cargo ship Orpheila, in Tobruk harbour, is the target of a very gifted set of individuals. The prospective pirates are Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Doctor Jackal, timid physician with his less than timid friend Mister Hades.

Tobruk, Libya, August 1942

As Madeline continues to seek a route into the rear crew sections of the cargo ship I slide through the shadows towards it’s prow. I discover a set of four cabins, two of which are lit, I slide up the surface of one of the portholes and look inside. I see a man sat at a writing desk with his back to me, hanging on the back of his cabin door I can make out his coat and it clearly bears the insignia of a ship’s captain. Making a mental not of the captain’s cabin I move further forwards towards the structure at the very front of the ship.

The structure at the front of the cargo ship has three heavy doors, two of which are very obviously locked. Looking around, I spot a large seagull perched atop one of the ship’s communications masts. So Sven is still keeping an overwatch on things. I slide back across the deck, sticking to the deepest shadows and begin to glide up the mast by wrapping myself around it in a long spiral. As I near the top of the mast I whisper to the seagull the location of the captain’s cabin, and hoping that I haven’t just spoken to an actual seagull I start to descend once more.

When I am most of the way down one of the doors on the cabin doors at the prow of the ship opens and light spills out onto the deck. A sailor, with the air of an officer, walks towards the stern castle. I freeze, and hope that he doesn’t look up and notice the odd shadow wrapped about the mast. He doesn’t. As soon as he enters the stern castle I make the rest of the drop to the roof of the wheelhouse. I look back up and notice that the gull has gone. A moment later, and I spot another officer looking sailor walking back towards the cabins. Shift change I guess.

As I watch him walk towards his cabin, I notice movement near the captain’s porthole. I move so that I can get a better view and can see a large seagull perched on the edge of the porthole looking in. I carry on with my investigation of the cargo ship, I slide down the side of the sterncastle and in across the ceiling of what appears to be a chart room. I can see detailed charts of the seas around Tobruk harbour, a larger scale chart of the open Mediterranean Sea, and finally a detailed chart of the sea around the coast of southern Italy. That all ties in with our information of the ships planned route.

Believing Madeline to still be searching for a way into the rear crew quarters I focus my attention on the cargo bay. I am fortunate to find that the covers don’t fit very well and so there is enough room for me to slip in and across the roof of the main stowage area. The hold is eighty percent full, with at least a third of it being taken up by three gigantic fuel tanks. I get down to floor level and investigate the pallets of cargo. As we had been informed, it all seems to be dried food stuffs and machine parts. There is a single hatchway that leads from the hold towards the bow of the ship.

I look through the porthole in the hatchway door and the room beyond is in complete darkness. I solidify and turn the handle. The room beyond is filled with stowage cupboards filled with supplies to carry out basic repairs as well as tarpaulins and rope. There are also access hatches for the anchor mechanism and machinery. There is also a staircase that leads upwards, I head up and discover that it leads to the unlocked door in the structure at the prow of the ship. I retreat back to the cargo hold and very carefully draw out a map of what I have discovered. Once completed I retreat back to where Doctor Jackal is smoking in the shadows. Madeline, having found no way into the rear crew compartments, is already there and so with a quick wave at Sven seagull we then return to the safe house.

Once back at the safe house we discuss our next steps. I believe that we should slip aboard and stow away until we are out in the middle of the Mediterranean and then take the ship by force or subterfuge. Doctor Jackal believes that we should forge some travel documents and board at the last minute under the guise of Germans travelling to southern Italy. Sven and Madeline are not averse to either plan, and so the discussion circles for a while. Eventually we decided that if we are going to try and board the ship that we will need more detail and we will need an idea of what the papers should look like.

Sven transforms once more into a large raven and hops up onto the inside of the window, we open it and he flaps up into the night sky. Twenty minutes later he returns and informs us that the harbour masters is all dark and locked up. As Madeline is preparing the materials for forging some travel documents I shift once more into shadow form and slip out across the roofs of Tobruk.

The inside of the harbour masters contains an office running the full width of the building, with two doors leading further into the building. I search the outer office and find the harbour ledger, and after a few short minutes I find the entry for the Orpheila. It had docked empty two weeks previously and was due to sail on high tide at oh six hundred hours in two days time. The notes in the ledger were brief, but at least we now had confirmation of when the ship would set sail.

I moved through one of the doors into a back office, it was full of documentation with regards to the administration of the port. Shipping cargo volumes, port fees, time sheets and the like. But a complete lack of anything regarding the military operations moving through the port. Moving through a second door in the rear office I discovered a small kitchen and a toilet off of the interior corridor as well as a staircase leading to the upper floor. Upstairs consisted of three rooms. One of them was full of old and worn filing cabinets. They were wooden, and would once have been considered well made, but time had robbed them of any craftsmanship and they now seemed dilapidated. That, and the volume of undisturbed dust led me to believe that this room was not used.

The other two rooms on the upper floor were both offices. And not only that, but they were clearly the offices of German military officers. The papers on each desk pointed towards a Major Becker and a Captain Mayer. I quickly search both offices and turn up a pad of blank travel orders for military transport in the captain's office and a number of official looking stamps in the major’s. I steal a few of the blank travel orders, not enough to be noticed, and slip away once more towards the safe house.

I arrive back at the safe house not long before dawn breaks, the others have managed to get some sleep while I was on my nocturnal adventures and so I climb onto my cot and fall into a deep sleep as well. When I finally awake I discover that Sven and Henry have headed out to keep an eye on the Orpheila while Madeline has been had at work forging the travel documents. I spend most of the day resting, and just after eighteen hundred hours Doctor Jackal returns. Not long afterwards a large seagull lands on the windowsill and a few seconds later Sven is stood in our little room.

While Madeline is putting the final touches to the forged documents the discussion once again turns to how we are planning on taking the Orpheila. Yet again, Henry wishes to give the crew the opportunity of delivering the ship to Malta of their own free will. Possibly after we have bribed them. I, however, still believe that force is likely to be our only option. Sven then pitches in with;

A few deaths on their side might make for an optimum surrender.

That simple statement seems to end the discussion and we turn our attention to what both Henry and Sven observed during the day of watching the ship. It would appear that the remains of the cargo has been loaded and it looked like there was a change of watches about sixteen hundred hours. That, and the change of watch that we observed overnight points to an eight hour shift pattern with three watches in a day. With our estimation of twenty crew that puts six or seven sailors on each shift. That gives us a good chance of overpowering the crew if we are swift and decisive.

Our host, Ahmir, informs us that he is scheduled to make radio contact during the evening, and we inform him to say that we are on schedule. Madeline, who has been working all day on the documents, hands me the papers and informs us that all that is required now is the correct official stamps. As Madeline gets some rest, I prepare to head back to the harbour master’s offices. Just before I depart, Sven asks me to see if I can locate a ship’s manifest for the Orpheila while I am there.

Once inside the outer office I once again open up the port ledger and find the entry for the Orpheila. Next to it is a reference code that I realise refers to a file, I locate the file in question in the rear office and manage to locate the crew manifest. Quickly copy down the pertinent details, they are as follows;

Orpheila, Registered as an Argentinian vessel, Captain Santiago Garcia, First Officer Alvarez (pilot), Second Officer Fernandez (pilot), Chief Engineer Sanchez, Crew - Chief Petty Officer, two navigators, three engineers, five able seamen

Replacing the files as I found them I then move to the upstairs offices and after a short search find a couple of examples of the type of travel papers that Madeline has forged. I head for the Captain’s office and using his stamps, replicate them exactly on Madeline’s forged papers. I then slide back across the rooftops of Tobruk to the safe house. The Orpheila is due to set sail in just over twenty four hours.

Captain Stirling’s desert command tent was always a hive of activity, at this moment in time it was occupied by four special individuals planning to steal a cargo ship from Tobruk harbour. The co-conspirators were Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Doctor Jackal, timid physician with his less than timid friend Mister Hades.

El Imayid, Egypt, August 1942

In discussion with Captain Ledman we find out that the cargo ship is carrying food supplies, fuel and machine parts. Madeline and Henry raise their eyebrows at the mention of machine parts, Madeline believes that could mean anything including military hardware. Ledman tells us that the ship is due to sail in about a weeks time and that it will take us at least three days travel to reach Tobruk. We realise that we will not have time for a lot of planning and so we request a list of items from Captain Ledman and let him know that we will leave first thing in the morning.

The following morning Captains Ledman and Stirling meet us outside our tents and talk us through the loose plan to get us to Tobruk. We will be escorted by two jeeps from Captain Stirling’s detachment following a broadly similar route to that which we took in operation Black Cat, we will need to travel the last day of the journey on our own and make our way to the safe house in Tobruk. Captain Ledman tells us the pass phrase and the correct response to gain entrance to the safe house. He also issues us with a radio frequency and the code word that we will need to use to get the cargo ship safely into harbour at Malta.

Captain Stirling issues us with our fake documents; papers for a Captain Orleff, a Lieutenant Schlin, a Miss Furhmann and a Nurse Klum. We are not issued with any specific travel documents or orders, and so we will have to work something out if it becomes necessary. To that end, Madeline pulls together a quick forgers kit and some old German orders. Sven and Henry are issued with German weapons and Madeline grabs an MP40, I slip my Browning into a bag and strap my knife to my inner thigh. Finally, Captain Ledman hands Sven an oilskin containing enough currency for a significant bribe.

We climb into our kübelwagen, and bookended by the two jeeps, set out on our journey behind enemy lines. Two and a half days of travel finds us approximately thirty miles west of the German base that was the focus of operation Black Cat, it is here that Captain Stirling’s men leave us and we head north on our own. We have planned to enter Tobruk from the coast road to the east so that we can get a good view of the harbour and more importantly the cargo ship itself. We travel without incident for several hours, passing lots of local traffic and several German vehicles, and pass through a couple of checkpoints. Whenever we approach a population centre, Madeline shifts into shadow form, just in case we require the element of surprise.

Eventually, we can see Tobruk laid out along the coast in front of us. Sven slows down to a casual speed so that we can observe as much as possible. Ahead of us we can see a significant checkpoint and Sven pulls us into line behind a motorbike and a transport truck waiting to be checked. When it is our turn a German sergeant steps forwards, salutes Captain Orleff, and requests our papers. We hand over papers for the Captain, Lieutenant Schlin and Miss Furhmann. Anyone who had been following the kübelwagen may have spotted that there was no sign of the fourth passenger, a nurse, but fortunately no one had been following us.

The sergeant hands back the papers saying that everything is in order and then he asks for our orders. Captain Orleff looks him up and down and says that we are getting our orders in Tobruk. The sergeant nods and says;

May I ask who you are getting your orders from?

Henry, wearing the role of Captain Orleff very comfortably, sternly replies;

NO! YOU MAY NOT!

The effect of those four words is truly astounding. German troops scramble about like frightened rabbits and the barriers blocking our way are quickly drawn back and we are waved through. I remember thinking then that Doctor Jackal may have a future on the stage, but that was not to be.

Tobruk, Libya, August 1942

We pass through fields and olive groves as the road drops down to sea level and then we drive through what appears to be residential premises of the local population. We finally emerge onto the harbour road and Sven drives slowly by the docked ships. It is then that we catch the first sight of the Orphelia. Everything looks quiet as we pass, there are a couple of crew on deck carrying out some maintenance work but little evidence of anything else. We turn left up one of the side streets and drive past the safe house, it is situated in a quiet residential street and all looks quiet.

We park the kübelwagen on a side street and removing all of our bags we head to a local eatery to get some food and kill some time before dark. There are once again four members of our party and we have a very pleasant, and leisurely meal and at eighteen hundred hours we all head for a stroll along the harbour wall. We watch the Orpheila from the dockside and can see that she has two gangplanks and that there are a couple of crewmen standing chatting at the top of one of them. Henry also spots two other crew members in the ships wheel house.

Captain Orleff, Nurse Klum, and Miss Furhmann continue their walk along the harbour wall but there is no longer any sign of Lieutenant Schlin. In the shadows behind where Schlin was standing, a seagull takes to the air and, circling once, lands atop one of the Orpheila’s masts.

The German Captain and his two female companions circle from their harbour walk back into Tobruk and just happen to stroll by the harbour masters office. It’s door is guarded by two German troopers and it has been daubed with a large, white swastika. As the three walkers are passing a left turn towards the harbour, about three hundred feet from the harbour masters, Lieutenant Schlin steps out from the shadows and joins them once again. The four of them then walk to the nearest bar to the safe house and settle in with a drink and wait for dark.

Thirty minutes after dusk two men, and two women leave the bar and head towards the safe house. After a few seconds there is only Miss Furhmann arm in arm with Captain Orleff walking along the street. They are being followed by a large domestic cat and a shadow flitting from pool of darkness to pool of darkness. When we get to the safe house I step forwards and knock lightly on the door.

The door is opened by a small Egyptian man, who looks quizzically at the pair of us. Henry gives the pass phrase and after a moment of shock, the man utters the correct response. He then ushers us into the small hallway. The cat quickly slips through before he can shut the door and rubs itself around the legs of Miss Furhmann. The man calls his wife in from the kitchen and introduces them as Ahmir and Amin Al Hassir. He welcomes us and apologises for being shocked by our appearance, we are not quite what he was expecting. Little does he know.

As he is showing us around his small house, Madeline gives them a fright by stepping into the hall from the kitchen. We introduce her and once they have calmed down, they welcome her also. We inform them that we are expecting one more person to join us. Ahmir and his wife head to the kitchen to prepare some drinks and food for us, as soon as the door is closed Madeline listens to see what they are saying, but they are talking in Egyptian so we can not tell.

The cat transforms back into Sven, he walks to the front door opens it a little and slams it closed once more. The Al Hassir’s return once more with food and drink, when they do I introduce them to Sven. As I am doing so, I place my hand on Amin’s arm and ‘borrow’ her ability to speak Egyptian. We eat with the Al Hassir’s and discuss what has been happening in Tobruk. We also ask Ahmir to get us some local clothing so that we can pass through Tobruk in disguise.

Once we have spent enough time with them so as not to appear rude, we retire to our own room to discuss what Sven discovered. While Sven is retelling his tale, I ‘borrow’ Madeline’s ability to see in darkness and transform into shadow. This leaves me very tired and so I rest while Sven talks. Sven confirms that there were very few crew moving about on deck, and that there were only a couple of crewmen in the ship’s wheelhouse. Most importantly, Sven discovered an anti-aircraft gun under a tarpaulin behind the ship’s wheelhouse. It seems unusual for a neutral cargo ship to be so armed.

We decide that we are going to head back out and scout the Orpheila further. Henry dresses in local garb and heads for the docks. He is closely followed, or should that be shadowed, by myself and Madeline. Meanwhile, Sven takes to the sky as a seagull once more and lands again on the mast of the Orpheila to keep watch. Henry stops on the docks and lights a cigarette, he stands and watches the harbour. From the shadows that he is standing in, two smaller shadows break off and slide across the jetty towards the cargo ship.

I slide up the aft gangplank and slip around the sides of the aft castle and up to the top of the wheelhouse. I steal a glance into the wheelhouse and spot two sailors inside. Neither of them seem to be very alert, and one of them is even reading a newspaper. I slide down to the next level and glance through one of the portholes, all I can see is a corridor with a couple of exists leading off. One of them is clearly a staircase leading back up to the wheelhouse.

I hope that Madeline’s search is bringing better results.

It is early August 1942 and undergoing a full debrief by Captain Ledman of MI6s Counter Sciences section are Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Doctor Jackal, timid physician with his less than timid friend Mister Hades.

El Imayid, Egypt, August 1942

Mimi Dubois looked around the command tent at her comrades, and then finally her eyes came to rest on Captain Ledman;

So all you would like us to do is sneak behind enemy lines, steal a cargo ship, and deliver it to the island of Malta which is currently under siege. And once there, not answer any direct questions from the senior officer there?

Captain Ledman slowly nodded. Mimi smiled, looked around the tent once more and saw nothing but confidence in her colleagues eyes.

Six days earlier...

Western Desert, Egypt, August 1942

Leaving the bodies of the two checkpoint guards slowly cooling in the desert night we continue to move towards the reinforced gun bunker at the mouth of the canyon. Sven pulls the tank off to the side of the trackway just over a mile away from the bunker. With the tank hidden by the curve in the road, Sven and Madeline head in to deal with the gun. Doctor Jackal follows them for fifty yards until he has a clear view of the target, he then asks what the signal will be. Madeline, just before she slips into the shadows, looks back and says;

You’ll know!

A raven lands on the barrel of the large calibre field gun nestled low within the concrete slot. The two German crew who are carrying out some regular maintenance at first don’t notice it. As the bird hops further down the barrel one of the troops looks up and spots it. The raven cocks it’s head to one side and taps the gun barrel a couple of times with its beak. The trooper nudges his colleague and they both stand there for a minute watching the curious crow do it’s thing.

Slowly, one of the troopers backs away towards one of the doors at the rear of the gun box, he opens it and gestures into what looks like a kitchen. Quietly two more troops step forwards and watch the bird. Then one of them points out that it’s been a long time since they have had fresh meat. And after all it is a large, juicy bird. The original troop picks up a large metal bucket and begins to move slowly towards the raven.

Sven, not wanting to be dinner, avoids being captured. As he flaps away he can hear the German troops mock their colleague, and his ability to catch a bird of any variety.

Sven leaves it a few minutes and then flaps back into position. The door to the kitchen is once again closed but another of the doorways is open, and it looks like one of the troopers is working in the room beyond. Sven quickly lands inside the gun box using the large field piece as cover. In a matter of seconds the doppelgänger of the German trooper steps out from behind the gun and walks towards his co-worker.

The German trooper looks up from what he is doing and is surprised to see his mate walking towards him from the direction of the gun, especially as he saw him walk into the storeroom on the other side of the gun box a couple of minutes ago. That moment of surprise is all Sven requires. He leans in towards the trooper and as he does so his jaw extends and becomes that of a large canine beast, sharp teeth sink into bare flesh. Blood flows. There is a very low gurgle as the trooper drowns in his own blood.

Sven stands up and moves towards the storeroom door. With each step that he takes he looks less like the German trooper in the storeroom and more like the dead trooper bleeding out on the floor of the gun box. As he enters the stores his comrade glances over his shoulder and smiles. It is the last thing that he does as once more someone finds out that Sven’s bite is far worse than his bark.

Madeline, who unbeknownst to Sven, has been watching from the shadows of the stores re-materialises in a state of shock. She quickly gathers her wits, and while Sven lugs a few heavy boxes to block the doors, rigs up one of the field gun’s shells and the last of the teams grenades just below the breach of the gun. Madeline then lowers the temperature of the field gun to make sure that it is brittle.

Sven transforms once more into a raven and flies out of the gun slit, once he is clear Madeline pulls the det tape on one of the grenades. She turns into a shadow and slips out of the gun slot and up onto the top of the bunker. Seconds later there is a small explosion, followed very closely by a much bigger explosion. The boom is clearly heard by Henry and myself, and we simultaneously guess that’s the signal. I run for the Panther and as Henry clambers in I start her up and drive at full speed towards the canyon.

As I race towards the reinforced concrete bunker at the mouth of the canyon a large raven lands upon the top of the Panther, and moments later Sven is clambering inside. As I approach the bunker I have to slow down slightly, during this moment Madeline slides in her shadow form off of the roof of the bunker and onto the top of the tank. She then slips into the interior of the tank and re-materialises. With the team back together and the Panther pointing towards the narrow canyon and Allied lines I once again open the throttle and accelerate away.

As we drive away from the bunker the rear of the tank is raked with heavy machine gun fire, but it is harmlessly deflected by the Panther’s rear armour. Doctor Jackal lifts the tanks radio mic and broadcasts on the prearranged channel;

Black Cat calling Welcome Wagon! Black Cat calling Welcome Wagon! Come in Welcome Wagon!

He makes contact and is issued with a set of rendezvous coordinates. As we exit the far end of the canyon into the beginnings of the Qattara Depression we are met by two of Stirling’s jeeps and a brace of Sherman tanks. We are welcomed with slaps on the back and firm handshakes, and as the two Shermans pull into position blocking the canyon exit we are ushered back into the Panther and told to follow the jeeps. We drive for an hour and put some distance between us and anything that might be following, and at midnight we make camp and all get a short sleep.

We are woken just before dawn and with the help of Stirling’s men we refuel the tank once again. The day is spent travelling as swiftly as possible across hundreds of miles to reach the base at El Imayid. We arrive just before twenty hundred hours and are directed to deliver the Panther to the armoured corps that we had trained with previously. Not being ones to shy away from the limelight myself and Madeline ride the last mile on the top of the tank and are showered with whoops, hollers and offers of marriage.

We are met by Brigadier Simpson, who congratulates us on a significant achievement. We are then quickly ushered away by Captain Stirling’s batman and driven back to our camp. Where finally we flop onto our own camp beds and sleep like the dead.

The following morning we are debriefed by Captain Stirling, who does very well to avoid asking any direct questions about how we managed to get a prized German Panther tank from a secure military base deep in enemy territory, and deliver it to the Allies. He does however tell us that he has informed Captain Ledman of our success and that he believes that our time in Africa may well be coming to an end. He is of the opinion that Captain Ledman will be recalling us to England.

That night we celebrate a successful mission and discuss what we will do once we get back to England. Madeline and Henry seem pleased that we are going home, but for myself and Sven, that happiness is tinged with the knowledge that our homelands are not free.

After a couple of days of rest and recuperation we are once again summoned to Captain Stirling’s command tent. He informs us that there has been a change of plan and that Captain Ledman is coming to us, and that he has a new mission for us.

And so, a day later, we find ourselves sat once more in Captain Stirling’s command tent being debriefed about our Panther mission. This time however, it is being conducted by Captain Ledman and it contains all of the details of our exploits, including the use of our enhanced abilities. Ledman is both impressed and somewhat shocked by our achievements, he is even more shocked when Sven gives him a close up demonstration of his shape shifting ability when he turns into a doppelgänger of Captain Ledman himself.

Captain Ledman informs us that Counter Sciences has a potential lead on where the chemicals that were being transported on the train, and that have given us our enhanced abilities, might have come from. However, that will have to wait as a critical opportunity to assist in the Malta crisis has arisen. And Captain Ledman is sure that only we can pull it off.

Malta is under siege, but what is not publicly known is that it is on it’s knees and close to falling. Something needs to be done to turn the tide. Ledman tells us that there is a cargo ship in Tobruk harbour that is due to sail to Taranto in Italy, the cargo ship is laden with a cargo that could turn that tide. Captain Ledman does not go into detail as to what that cargo is but quickly moves on to discuss the fact that the ship is Argentinian, 13,000 tons, and with a crew of possibly twenty.

The ship is due to sail in a week, and Captain Ledman says that he can get us false papers and point us to a safe house in Tobruk. He then tells us that if we succeed and get the cargo ship to Malta that we would effectively be under the command of Lieutenant General William Dobbie, and that it is imperative that we do not reveal our true nature to him. Even if he gives us a direct order. None of us seem to have a problem with this.

Captain Ledman says;

Do you think that you can do it?

I look around the command tent...

Twenty miles south west of El Imayid, in the command tent of L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade four unique individuals are planning to steal a tank. It is early August 1942 and the co-conspirators are Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Doctor Jackal, timid physician with his less than timid friend Mister Hades.

El Imayid, Egypt, August 1942

Discussions went on into the night, with ideas and barriers being thrown around like a storm tossed boat. Eventually, we decide to head behind enemy lines and carry out a full reconnoiter of the base before we risk going into the camp undercover. As always, the sensible heads of Madeline and myself prevail over the slightly more bullish men.

With the decision made, we set about pulling together a list of the items that we believe that we will require for the mission. We request German military uniforms, matching those of our cover story, a German vehicle, an MP40 for Sven and several German stick grenades. We also put in a special request for eight demolition packs and several land mines, just in case we have to get creative. Our last request is for a meeting with a British military auditor.

The following morning over breakfast we discuss our plans with Captain Stirling, he is happy to follow our lead and informs us that he will be sending two vehicles from his detachment, with nine men to act as an escort. He pulls out one of the maps and says that he believes that we will be able to set up a base camp in the foothills ten miles from the German base. That will give us a good overview of the camp and will allow for us to sortie in for the reconnoiter. The ten miles between the foothills and the base is undulating but devoid of large amounts of cover and so it will be difficult to get a vehicle closer unseen. Our escort we pull out when we go in and will move to our extraction point.

Western Desert, Egypt, August 1942

Four days after that breakfast Madeline, Henry, Sven and I are hunkered down in a camouflaged observation post ten miles from the German encampment. Further back, hidden within the foothills is our Kübelwagen and the two jeeps manned by Captain Stirling’s troops. In the final days of preparation we had trained once more as a tank crew and Henry and myself had met with the Military auditors, during which I ‘borrowed’ the auditors administration knowledge.

Madeline, Henry and I watch the camp through binoculars from our hide, the great distance does not allow us to see any great detail but we can make out people moving about the camp. As we rotate watches, Sven slips away behind a rocky outcropping. Not long afterwards there is a desert hawk winging its way towards the German’s base.

I can make out four Panther tanks inside the large vehicle compound, I comment that I can’t see the fifth tank and Doctor Jackal corrects me that there are only four tanks. I know better than to argue with Henry’s memory, and besides, I really don’t wish to upset him. It is obvious that it is a busy camp and there are lots of people moving about their duties as we watch.

Around eighteen hundred hours things in the base begin to quieten down and most people move towards the east side of the camp where we know all of the barracks and mess blocks are located. Not long afterwards we begin to see what look like patrols carrying out a circuit of the inside of the perimeter fence, it looks like it takes about twenty minutes for the patrol to complete a circuit.

Just before nightfall Sven reappears in our watchpost. He sketches out a map of the camp in the dirt and tells us what he has found out during his avian investigations. He has managed to identify most of the buildings, including where the fuel and ordinance are stored. The four Panther tanks are parked up outside one of the vehicle maintenance sheds and one of them is definitely having some kind of work done to it. Sven also confirms that there are definitely two man patrols and that he also saw a patrol with a guard dog.

We agree to watch through the night and the following day, if nothing has changed in that time then Madeline and I will head in and investigate our options. At around dusk lights come on around the base, while they do illuminate the corners of the buildings and some of the main areas there is more than enough shadow for Madeline and I to move within. During our nocturnal observations it is obvious that, as well as the main and rear gates, some of the buildings are constantly guarded. We continue to feed this information to Doctor Jackal who builds up a mental schedule of activities and duties.

We continue our watch into the following day and observe very little of difference with the exception of the occasional steam train passing through the base’s station, but most importantly the Panther tank that is being worked on is taken for a run inside the compound.

Having ‘borrowed’ Madeline’s powers of shadow and ability to see in the dark, the pair of us begin the long trek to the German’s base at around nineteen hundred hours. We arrange to rendezvous in the dry canal to the south eastern corner of the perimeter fence, while Sven adopts the guise of a raven and places himself atop of the German’s headquarters to watch.

Madeline and I flow west along their bottom of the dry canal and slip across to the fence at it’s south western corner. We then move half way along it’s eastern edge and slide under heading for the back of the vehicle maintenance sheds and eventually to the four parked Panther tanks. We slide up the outside of the first tank and in through the drivers view slot. All of this has taken several minutes and, based on Doctor Jackal’s analysis of the timings, we sit tight and wait for the next patrol to pass us by.

Once the coast is clear I flick on the tank’s ignition and run a very swift systems check. While all of the dials are in German, they are very clearly labelled, and so I have no trouble discerning the information in front of me. The most important being that the vehicle only has half a tank of fuel, not enough to get us to our extraction point. Following the same procedure we move through the four Panther tanks. Finally we get to the tank that has been receiving attention from the German mechanics and find that it has a full fuel load.

Madeline suggests that we check out the vehicle shed and see if there is any information on what work was being carried out. We slide under the door of the vehicle shed and discover what you would expect in a tank mechanics workshop. We find several blackboards showing the details of all of the vehicles that are currently being worked on and current state of repair. I spend a few minutes studying the information and ascertain that three of the Panther tanks have been passed as ready for deployment but one of them still requires it’s final long run. I also spot that several of the scheduled repairs to other vehicles are overdue. Interesting!

We spend the next few hours moving through the shadows of the base identifying the buildings that Sven’s initial investigations had not covered, and once we had a full picture of the base we retreated back to the relative safety of our observation post.

Once we have regrouped we discuss our next move. Doctor Jackal believes that we should enter the base under the guise of the auditor and insist that we are there to observe the long run test on the Panther tank. We all agree. We instruct Captain Stirling’s men to blow up the rail line to the west of the base once they see a Panther leave the base and then all turn in for some rest. By oh nine hundred hours Major Himmelsdorf, his driver Corporal Ludwig and his secretary Miss Angela Kaupf are pulling up to the main gate in their Kübelwagen.

As we pull up to the main gate there is a truck in front of us having their papers checked. Doctor Jackal, or rather, Major Himmelsdorf says in a very loud voice;

What seems to be the hold up?

The gate guard lazily looks up from what he is doing, but when he sees a major sat in the car he quickly waves the truck through and snaps a very crisp salute as Corporal Ludwig pulls the car up to the gate. The Major tells the gate guard that he wants to speak to someone in charge immediately. The guard says that Captain Erline is the duty officer and he directs us to the base’s HQ building.

Sven, in his role as Corporal Ludwig, parks the car outside of the HQ and jumps out to open the door for Major Himmelsdorf and his secretary. The Major and I, for it is me in the role of secretary, enter the base’s HQ and are quickly met by Captain Erline who welcomes us to the base on behalf of Colonal Schmidt. He asks to see our orders, which I hand over, and quickly glances through them. He seems satisfied and asks how he can be of assistance.

Major Himmelsdorf asks to see the days maintenance schedule, and in particular that of the new Panther tanks. The Captain looks surprised and asks if there is a particular issue. Himmelsdorf says that he has been led to believe that they are running late on several projects, but in particular the Panthers. Captain Erline looks taken aback and says that things are almost ready with the Panther’s, that is his first mistake. Doctor Jackal, settling comfortably into the role of a German officer, says in a loud voice;

Almost is not good enough in this war! Would you like me to tell the Führer that we ALMOST won?

That sets the tone, and the base staff begin to rush about in the hope of not angering the Major any further. A staff car is brought around to the front of the HQ and we are driven to the maintenance sheds to inspect the Panthers and the maintenance orders. If anyone had of been paying attention, instead of trying not to look the Major in the eye, then they may have seen a dark shadow separate itself from the underside of the Kübelwagen and slide beneath the staff car.

I remember being very amused watching everyone being scared around Doctor Jackal, just imagine if they had met Mr Hades. Upon inspection, it becomes obvious from the paperwork that things have not been carried out as quickly as possible. Not slow by any means, but not as quickly as they could have been. Major Himmelsdorf jumps on this point and is told that the last Panther is due for it’s long run tomorrow morning. The Major insists that we will observe the final long run and that it will happen this afternoon.

They are worried looks between the German mechanics and Captain Erline, but eventually the Captain agrees. The long run is carried out by the two mechanics and the Panther goes out without any ordinance onboard. The tank will be followed by a supply truck carrying spares and again manned by two mechanics.

We spend the next hour being given a tour of the base and making notes about efficiencies that we have suggested, we have to make the visit look good. Eventually we are left on our own and we stand near the car discussing what we are going to do. Madeline, speaking from the shadow below the car, points out that we do not know the route of the long run. So I head for the base’s HQ and request an itinerary for the long run. It tells us that the tank only travels along the local road leading out from the rear gate of the camp, which means that it will never be any more than nine miles from the base.

At fourteen hundred hours Sven, or is that Corporal Ludwig, pulls the Kübelwagen up alongside the Panther tank. Yet again, no one spies the unusual shadow that seems to flow from car to the underside of the tank. We exit the compound via the back gate in convoy. The Panther followed by the supply truck and then finally our car. We head slowly along the track for the first couple of miles and then the Panther picks up speed as the road swings to the west, we pass another trackway leading south towards one of the local settlements and then the road begins to swing north back towards the main road and the railway track.

By this time the lay of the land is hiding us from being observed, and right on cue the tank skids to a halt at the side of the road. The truck pulls up forty foot behind and Sven brings the car to a halt just behind the truck. Within the blink of an eye both myself and Sven are out of the car and walking alongside the truck. Sven heads up the drivers side and I move towards the passengers door. As I move forwards I slowly slide my knife from it’s sheath in the small of my back. I hear the driver of the truck say to Sven that we should give it a minute and they will probably get it going once more. If I know Madeline, I very much doubt it.

Suddenly the tank hatch is opened and a German cap is waved from it. As soon as they see it, the truck driver and his passenger jump down from the truck. Once the passenger has his back to me I plunge my knife into it up to the hilt. I must have missed his vitals as he managed to turn and try and put up a fight. I stabbed again, this time at his throat, and this time he goes down. As soon as both of the mechanics are down Madeline appears from the top of the tank, she is using the German cap to wipe her knife.

We quickly remove the two bodies from the tank, and along with the two from the truck we dump them in a roadside ditch. As I am moving the body of the truck driver, I notice that he appears to have been mauled by some kind of animal. I shudder a little.

Sven and Madeline jump into the tank, while myself and Henry take the truck. With the Panther leading the way we head east as quickly as the terrain allows. We hug the foothills and try and stay out of sight of the German base, once we believe that we are beyond the base Sven swings us north east so that we can converge with the main road. Three hours after we stole the Panther we are back on the main road heading east, it is a tense couple of hours and we see very little but local traffic on the road. When we are thirty miles from the base we see a small village on the road ahead, it has a German checkpoint on it’s east side.

The Panther continues to roll into the village and I follow on in the truck, as we get closer it is obvious that there is a motorbike and sidecar parked up behind the checkpoint hut and on the other side of the road is a machine gun nest pointing to the east. We slow to a stop and then suddenly the tank lurches forwards at full throttle and smashes through the checkpoint hut and runs over the motorbike and sidecar. There is a moment of confusion, during which I quickly draw my Browning 9mm and shoot the machine guns nest’s gunner in the back.

The Panther rolls forwards and lines up it’s tail with the machine gun nest, I gun the trucks throttle and we shoot past the rear end of the tank just before Sven slams it into reverse and utterly destroys the nest. As we are speeding away Doctor Jackal hears the sounds of rifle fire bouncing off of the tanks thick armour plates. The tank falls in behind us on the road and we continue to race east.

After another half an hour of travel Henry informs me that we are coming up on another, larger, village. I signal to Sven that we are pulling off of the road and he follows. We stop and use the extra fuel in the truck to refuel the Panther. After a brief discussion we agree to ditch the truck and carry on in the tank and circumnavigate the village to avoid any unnecessary checkpoint excitement. I jump into the tank’s driving position to allow Sven to scout ahead in the form of a raven.

We rejoin the main road around nineteen hundred hours and continue east, after an hour we see a massive convoy heading west towards us. It is to late for us to hide or run, so we decide to try and bluff our way past them. I drive as casually as I can towards them. The two motorbike outriders continue past us and I start to believe that we will be ok, that is until the car at the front of the convoy stops and an officer steps out and into the road.

I begin to slow the Panther down and as I do, the scale of the convoy becomes clear. In addition to the outriders and the staff car there are ten troop trucks, a halftrack, and more worryingly two Panzer IV tanks. I look back into the Panther’s main compartment in time to see Sven’s clothing begin to change colour and shape. Within a few seconds, Sven is sat in the tank’s command chair wearing one of the German mechanics uniforms. He even seems to have a grease stain on his cheek and ground in dirt on his hands.

I bring the tank to a halt in front of the German officer and Sven opens the top hatch and stands up. He snaps off a crisp salute and smiles at the officer. Sweat begins to trickle down the nape of my neck as the tension inside the tank mounts, we are all feeling it, except Sven who seems to be calmly discussing the merits of the Panther over the older Panzer IV. The officer then questions Sven about the damage to the front of the tank, Sven quickly answers;

That is why we are having to deliver the vehicle to Major Himmelsdorf sir. He wishes to ascertain if the tank will still be ready in time. Audit Sir! Very important Sir!

The German officer agrees and says;

Well! I better let you get on your way. If I could just see your order?

Sven panics a little, and then grabs the orders that we are carrying. In spite of the fact that they are for a Major Himmelsdorf, his driver and secretary, Sven thinks that it is worth the chance. We all hold our breath. The officer gives the paperwork a brief glance, but he seems far more interested in looking at the new Panther. He hands the papers back and Sven snaps off another quick salute. We pull away slowly and all start to breath once more. That was way too close.

By twenty thirty hours we are only a couple of miles from the final checkpoint before the bunker. We pull the tank off of the road and hide the tank, Sven turns into his guise of a desert hawk and scouts ahead. He returns just before dusk and tells us that the checkpoint is only manned by two guards and that the bunker is a much tougher nut to crack.

With Sven driving the tank, myself and Madeline cling to it’s outside in shadow form. The Panther slows to a halt in front of the checkpoint and Sven passes a couple of words with the two guards, just enough to distract them so that they do not notice the two shadows slide behind them in the dark. Moments later there are two dead guards laying on the floor as the Panther slowly crawls towards the gun bunker.