In occupied northern France MI6s Enhanced Unit have just gained entry to Le Château De Bourgoine as part of their seek and rescue mission. 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.

Le Château De Bourgoine, west of Lavincourt, France, September 1942

Madeline and I slide under the doorway and into a large hallway at the rear of the chateau, there is a doorway to our left, a large opening directly in front of us, and to our right is a smaller opening. Based on the fact that Le Blaireau said that the basement entrance was off a small passage at the rear of the building we head through the right hand opening. We immediately find a set of stairs leading downwards and so we slide quietly across the ceiling towards the basement.

The stairs lead out into the middle of a long corridor with several closed doors and a couple of openings, we slide right once more towards the opening at the end of the corridor. Through the archway we find a short corridor with a solid looking metal door in the middle of the right hand wall, it looks very much like a cell door but the is no obvious lock on this side of it. Even though the door is well fitted, Madeline manages to find a way underneath it and finds herself in a small guardroom with a solitary German guard sat at a table reading a newspaper.

Madeline also spots a second cell door as well as a metal bed frame wired up to an electrical supply. It appears that Duplix has been tortured during his stay at the chateau. Madeline quickly slides back out of the room and we head back to the stairwell together. We spend a few minutes quietly debating our options and finally decide that time is of the essence and we should go in. We both solidify, draw pistols and fit silencers, draw our favoured knives, and then shift once again back into shadow form ready to enter the guardroom.

Madeline goes first and slides under the guardroom door. She slides directly towards the table and the guard reading his paper. She flows under the table without being seen and then slips below the guards chair and up the wall behind him. Meanwhile, I have slipped in under the door and moved directly towards the cell door within. I slide under the cell door into a small room with a camp bed in one corner. On the bed is a man, but it is difficult to tell if it is Duplix due to the severe beating that the man has received.

In the guardroom Madeline solidifies behind the German guard and plunges her knife deeps into his vitals. She then plunges the knife once more just to be sure. Convinced that the guard is now dead, Madeline arranges the body so that it looks like it has fallen asleep at the table. I slip back out of the cell and tell Madeline what I have found, she searches the guard and discovers the cell door key. We unlock the cell and attempt to wake Duplix, but he remains unconscious. Madeline looks at me and says;

You had better fetch the Doctor!

Leaving Madeline in the guardroom I slip quietly out of the chateau and slide across the lake back towards Henry and Sven. Once I have explained the situation to them both Doctor Jackal insists on going in. I remember thinking that this could get interesting, but there was no changing his mind. So Doctor Jackal and myself started to jog the long way around the lake while Sven provided us with ariel cover in the form of a raven.

We make it to the rear door undetected and I turn back into shadow form and slide under it, once inside I close my eyes and reach out with my senses once more and can detect that the two enemy enhanced are still in their bedrooms on the first floor of the chateau. I unlock the rear door and let my colleagues inside, I wave them towards the stairs down to the basement and then I close the door once again but leave it unlocked. I lead them to the cell door and get Madeline to let us in, once they are inside I head back down the corridor to the stairwell to keep watch.

Madeline joins me on watch in the corridor and Sven stands guard in the guardroom leaving Doctor Jackal to do his work with Duplix. After several minutes Henry appears in the cell doorway supporting a now conscious Duplix, Sven gives Doctor Jackal a hand with Duplix and they join us in the corridor. As soon as they step into the light of the corridor it is obvious that Duplix, who just minutes before looked like he had taken a severe beating earlier today, now looked like it had been several days ago that he had been injured. Not even the Doctor is that good a physician. Is he?

Henry tells us that we will not be able to debrief Duplix here as he has suffered some kind of mental trauma and is unable to communicate. We adopt a leapfrog pattern to exit the chateau, with either Madeline or myself moving out in front and then waiting for the others to pass before moving on once more. In this fashion we make it to the rear door and exit the chateau, I lock the door from the inside and then slide under it. With myself and Doctor Jackal supporting Duplix we head northwest along the lake shore towards the fence in the woods. Sven once again covers us from the air and Madeline watches our tail and keeps us from being observed by covering us with patches of darkness.

We make it through the woods and over the fence undetected and once we are out of the woodland Sven transforms himself into a small pony and carries Duplix allowing us to make better time. We get back to where we had hidden the car and are overjoyed to find it undiscovered. I help Henry get Duplix into the back seat and then jump into the passenger seat next to Madeline who is at the wheel. With all of us onboard, and Sven in the air once again, we make our getaway.

I look around at my colleagues and point out how lucky we were that we didn’t disturb any of the other German troops billeted in the basement. It wasn’t until much later that we discovered why none of the German troops had been disturbed, Madeline had made sure that they would never be disturbed again.