Having just extracted La Résistance agent Duplix from the clutches of the Nazis, MI6s Enhanced Unit are starting to make the dangerous journey across occupied France. The team consists of 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.

France, September 1942

There is little detail that I remember about that mad dash across northern France in September 1942. We had just freed Duplix from the Le Château De Bourgoine and had made it as far as our hidden vehicle without being discovered, our problem was that it was oh one hundred hours and we were four hundred kilometres from our next contact in Le Tréport.

Madeline and I help Duplix into the backseat of the car and Doctor Jackal climbs in beside him. Madeline then leaps into the driver’s seat and I settle in next to her in the passenger’s. Sven takes to the air as a raven to keep an eye on the road ahead of us and provide an early warning to us so that we can try and avoid checkpoints and other vehicles.

On Doctor Jackal’s advice we head across country, Henry had studied several maps of the local area and with his memory he easily chose the least populated route. We pass through the village of Contrisson and head north to rejoin the main road, at one point Sven swoops down to warn us of an approaching vehicle and we hide off of the road as three German trucks trundle by.

As we approach the town of Châlons-en-Champagne we realise that there is no option but to risk passing through the town and bluff our way past the checkpoints. We are stopped on our way into the town and our papers are requested, we inform the guard that we are escorting a patient to Reims so that we can catch the train from there to Lille. The checkpoint guards seem far more interested in Madeline and myself, something that we both encourage with doe eyes and girlish laughter. After refusing two offers of staying for the night we are waved through the checkpoint, the guards had barely even looked into the back of the car.

We are stopped once again on the way out of the town, and this time the German Corporal in charge is more efficient. He checks our papers and questions us all in turn, we all stick to the story that we are travelling to Lille via Reims. When he tries to question Duplix all he gets is the mumbled code phrase that is all we have heard Duplix utter since we rescued him, Doctor Jackal leapt in quickly and pronounced that his patient was suffering from an extremely rare chromosome disorder that he was travelling to Lille to study. The Corporal looks a little worried and asks if it is contagious. Doctor Jackal says no, but the Corporal is quick to wave us through.

We hide in a field just outside of Reims until dawn and drive in. But this time the car is being driven by the German orderly Igor Swartz and there is no sign of the German nurse Heidi Klum. Madeline had gathered up any incriminating equipment, pistols and spare fake papers, and turned into shadow form under Duplix’s blanket. We pass through a significant checkpoint, but the guard sees that there are two German citizens in the car and waves us through with barely a check.

Sven drives us through Reims to the train station. We park up and are instantly accosted by a small luggage boy who expertly loads up his trolley with our bags. As we slowly approach the front of the station we realise that there are two Gestapo outside checking papers. The atmosphere gets tense but we walk straight up and Doctor Jackal hands over our papers when requested. I remember the Gestapo officer being a complete boudin, but Henry explained Duplix’s illness and the we were travelling to Abbeville at some length and we were once again waved through into the station.

Henry takes Duplix, with Madeline still hidden in shadow form under his blanket, to the station cafe to get some breakfast while myself and Sven head to the ticket office. We purchase a dozen first class tickets to Abbeville, enough to secure us an entire carriage, and are informed that our train will leave Platform three in twenty four minutes. Just enough time to purchase several packets of good French cigarettes and a coffee. We inform our luggage boy of the platform that we are leaving from and ask him to try and get us an empty carriage, he dashes off with our luggage towards the platform.

Fifteen minutes later we walk along platform three and join our luggage boy, as we are moving down the platform I acost the guard and inform him that we have purchased enough tickets to secure an entire carriage. He looks surprised, but I make a reference to him Germans think that they are important and he smiles and says that he will see what he can do for me. And he is good to his word and we secure the last carriage of the train all to ourselves. We tip the luggage boy handsomely and pull the blinds on our carriage for privacy, by oh eight thirty hours we are settled in smoking French cigarettes as the train pulls out of Reims station.

We set a watch and take turns in catching up on some much needed sleep. It had been a tense journey so far and now that we were moving the adrenaline drained out of our bodies and most of us fell into a deep sleep. While we sleep we pass through Laon and Tergnier and are woken up by Sven as the train pulls into Haute Picarde, there is a polite knock on the door and the train’s conductor informs us that we need to change here for Abbeville. I wave over another luggage boy and we disembark heading for platform two.

Yet again we take the luggage boys lead and stand where he suggests on platform two, I head off further into the station to purchase some provisions for the next leg of the journey and just enjoy the fact that I am back in my beloved France. For a moment I even forget about the war, that doesn’t last long.

Stood on the platform, Doctor Jackal looks down the length of it towards the main station entrance and sees a German patrol beginning to work it’s way along the platform checking papers. As he watches he can tell that they mean business and are being very thorough, and a little over zealous. They are less than fifty metres away, harassing a French family. Doctor Jackal tries to remain calm and whispers a warning to both Sven and Madeline. Sven looks down the platform at the patrol and wishes that his pistol wasn’t in shadowform with Madeline.

The patrol moves onwards leaving the family shaking in fear, and begin to check the papers of the next group. They are less than twenty metres away. A bead of sweat breaks out on Doctor Jackal’s brow. I arrive back at the group and very quickly realise what is happening. I start to look at my watch and pray that the train arrives very soon.

As the German patrol moves ever closer, and we get ever tenser, our luggage boy points down the track and says;

La voilà!

I have never climbed aboard a train so quickly and with so much relief. The German patrol were less than five metres from us, but as soon as the train was at the platform they moved off into the station. We did not have time to try and sort out a carriage to ourselves and so we shared the next part of our journey with a very elegant elderly French gentleman. We pass through Longeueau, Amiens, and pull into Abbeville at twelve fifteen hours.

Once more we encounter a Gestapo checkpoint exiting the train station. Doctor Jackal hands over our papers and informs the Gestapo officer that we have travelled from Meuse TGV. The officer meticulously checks through our papers and asks each of us in turn to confirm our details, we all answer to his satisfaction until he gets to Sven. The Gestapo officer asks Sven, or actually Igor;

You are Doctor Gebhardt’s orderly?

Sven answers that he is, but there is a little to much Norwegian in his German accent. The officer stares intently at Sven and then asks him very slowly and deliberately;

Are you not well?

As Sven manages to answer that he is tired in perfect German I notice that the vein in Doctor Jackal’s temple is pulsating rapidly. I hold my breath.

The Gestapo officer stares at Sven for a few seconds and then hands our papers back to Doctor Jackal and waves us through the checkpoint. When we get outside of the station Henry tells us that he was worried for a minute there, his blood pressure was getting dangerously high. We all breathe a sigh of relief.

I hail us a taxi from outside of the train station and we decide to get him to take us straight to Le Tréport. He looks a bit dubious until I show him five francs, he drives us out of town and we clear a very lax checkpoint. We are stopped once more on the outskirts of Le Tréport and again pass through without a hitch, the taxi drops us off in the centre of town and we head to the local cafe to decide our next move.

After fifteen minutes we are approached by fourteen year old girl who introduces herself as Marie. She asks us if we are looking for rooms, and then gives us the most unsubtle wink that I have ever seen. I reply that we are looking for accommodation and we follow her out of the village to an isolated, small, pale blue, farm house. Doctor Jackal gives the passphrase and we are hustled into the kitchen where Marie’s mother starts to cook for us.

Marie’s father tells us that he will be contacting the Allied Forces this evening, and that we can have the use of his barn to hide in. We settle in and Doctor Jackal once more tries to question Duplix. After a few minutes Duplix stops giving his coded response and starts saying;

Dijon. Toul. Metz. Saarbrücken. Frankfurt. Erfurt. Nordhausen. Dijon. Toul. Metz. Saarbrücken. Frankfurt. Erfurt. Nordhausen. Dijon. Toul. Metz. Saarbrücken. Frankfurt. Erfurt. Nordhausen...