MI6s team of enhanced individuals have been sent on an urgent, undercover mission to the west coast of Ireland. They are tasked with neutralising a traitor and his German contact, and recovering the stolen information. 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.

Part Two:

One of the things that I never knew about Ireland was the diversity of its wildlife, especially its big predators. Strangely, there seemed to be more predators whenever Sven was in the area.

Clifden, County Galway, Ireland, October 1942

I return to the others and inform them of what I have discovered about Mr Carney. We decide that we need to call this in and so Madeline and I turn into shadows and head for the village hall. We slide into the village hall and Madeline calls the number that we had been given to contact MI6. Madeline gives the person at the other end of the line a very brief overview of the situation, alluding to what we have discovered but not giving any direct details. The person at the other end of the line asks if she wishes to hold for a response, Madeline says that she does. After a wait of fifteen minutes the person comes back on the line and tells Madeline that MI6s considered response is;

You should proceed with caution.

As if that wasn’t obvious enough. We head back to our room and try and get some rest.

The following morning Doctor Jackal and I had down for breakfast as normal, during breakfast I make a show of saying that I have a headache and that I am going back to the room. Henry heads out to visit Father O’Malley again and see if he can gain access to the villages log of births, deaths and marriages. The Father is more than happy that Henry is showing an interest in the villages history and talks him through a number of the prominent families in the area. Doctor Jackal asks about why he can’t see anything for the Carney’s and Father O’Malley tells him that they only arrived in the village four years ago. Henry continues with the polite conversation for a further hour and then excuses himself and heads back to the inn.

We take it in turns resting up throughout the day, making a show of going down for meals and out for the occasional walk with dog Sven. That evening, while Doctor Jackal and dog Sven sit at the bar having a drink and keeping an eye on Mr Carney, Madeline and I stealth to the lifeboat station. We slide in under the door and power up the radio set. Madeline pulls out a note of the correct frequency for this evening and I tune the radio set in. Back in the inn, just before ten o’clock in the evening Mr Carney disappears into the back of the inn and Mrs Carney takes over in the bar. Henry looks down at dog Sven and says;

About time you went out for your last walk of the day!

He heads out and then doubles back to the back of the inn where he sneaks along the wall to the office window. The curtains are drawn but through a small gap he can make out the feet of two men sat facing each other, but he can’t make out what they are saying.

Back in the lifeboat station just after ten o’clock the radio set crackles into life and we hear in Gaelic;

Falltur dearbhaithe socrú

Then the reply, also in Gaelic;

Socrú dearbhaithe Kirsch

I look at Madeline and tell her that they have confirmed arrangements, but that they didn’t give any details. It is definitely happening but we don’t know when.

We once again regroup back in our room and agree that we will have to watch them closely from now on as we do not know when they will be leaving. We make sure that all of our equipment that we wish to take with us is packed and ready to transport at a moments notice and then we take turns in watching Mr Carney and Maulwurf. The following morning Mr Hennessy checks out but everything else seems to carry on as normal.

That afternoon we formulate a plan to cover as much of the inn at night as possible. Doctor Jackal will wait in the room with all of our kit ready to move it to our car, Sven will watch the inn from the roof so as to see any coming and goings, and Madeline and I will wait as shadows beside the Carney’s car just in case they take that to the extraction point. Doctor Jackal and I have dinner and then make a show of retiring for an early night. As soon as we have got into our room Madeline and I grab one of the explosive packages that we had been supplied with, as well as some chloroform from our Mr Hades packs, and take up our positions by the car. Sven heads for the roof and keeps watch.

Our planning and vigilance are paid off just before midnight when we hear the sounds of people leaving the rear door of the inn. They cross the road, ignoring their car, and head south along the road to the southeast of the bay. Madeline and I follow them at as shadows at a distance of thirty foot. Sven returns to Doctor Jackal and lets him know where the targets are moving to and then flaps ahead of them to work out where they are headed. Doctor Jackal grabs the kit and drops it in our car before following on stealthily.

The targets leave the road and head south southwest towards a cove on the headland. Sven flies ahead of them and lands on the narrow pathway that leads down into the cove itself. He then transforms himself into leopard. I cannot imagine how surprised they were as they started to head down the narrow pathway and came face to snarling face with leopard Sven. They both backed up quickly straight into Madeline and I waiting with chloroform soaked cloths, we both manage to clamp the cloths over their mouths and then successfully both hold on while they struggle.

Eventually, both Falltur and Maulwurf go limp. I bind them hand and foot and Madeline ties bags over their heads. While we are doing that Sven heads for the skies in the form of a seagull, he flaps out into the bay and spots a surfaced submarine launching a boat with six German sailors onboard. Sven swiftly flies back to us. By this time Doctor Jackal has joined us and injects both of our captives with a heavy sedative to make sure that they will not wake up until we want them to. Madeline smiles at Sven and says;

Shall we go and have some fun?

Sven smiles back and nods. Madeline grabs the explosive package off of me and they both head down the pathway into the cove. Doctor Jackal and I head up to the cliff’s edge so that we have a good view of the cove. When Sven and Madeline get to the waters edge Sven transforms into a dolphin and Madeline transforms into a shadow and slides onto his back. Sven then starts to swim out into the bay.

Sven takes a wide berth around the dinghy and heads for the rear of the submarine. He drops Madeline off on the aft fin, as she is sliding off she whispers for Sven to pick her up from the submarines bow after the second explosion. Sven dives and begins to make his way back towards the dinghy. Madeline sets the first set of explosives against the aft hydroplane with a two minute fuse, she then takes a deep breath and slips along the underwater edge of the submarine towards the shelter of the fore of the conning tower.

From our position on the cliff we can see that the dinghy is clearly sitting a little way off shore, probably awaiting a signal to land. Doctor Jackal scans the submarine’s low profile with his binoculars and can tell that there are men moving about at the top of the conning tower. At that moment there is a large concussive force, that is felt rather than heard, and a huge gout of water shoots up from the rear of the submarine. Chaos breaks out on the German vessel, and below us the dinghy begins to paddle back towards the submarine.

I leave Henry on watch and run back to the inn to collect our car, which is why I missed all of the action that was to follow. Fortunately, Doctor Jackal saw it all and relayed it to me in detail on our drive back to Dublin. From his position on the cliff he was watching the dinghy as it was rowing back towards the submarine, suddenly it bucked as if it had been hit from below. The German sailors seemed unperturbed and continue to row. They seem far more concerned when it happens a second time. And when the third time they are hit and a large hole appears in the side of their boat they start to panic wildly.

Doctor Jackal pans his binoculars around to see what is happening on the submarine and it appears that they are preparing to lower a diver into the water on a rope to check out the damage that has been caused by the unexplained explosion. Henry remarked that it looked like they were going fishing with the German sailor, little did he know how accurate he was. Meanwhile, Madeline had slid from the shadow of the conning tower along to one of the open hatch ways on the deck of the submarine, probably the one they had launched the dinghy from, and was in the process of placing the second of our explosive devices.

Henry watches as the divers goes into the water, seconds later the sound of a blood curdling scream can be heard around the bay. The German sailors on deck pull the diver back out and it is obvious to Doctor Jackal that the man is missing most of his right leg below the thigh. Something gave him a nasty bite. At that moment there is a second powerful explosion on the submarine to the fore of the conning tower. When the searchlights from the conning tower are turned on the area it is obvious that the hatch has been very badly buckled and will not be able to close.

Back at the inn I release the car’s handbrake and roll it downhill as far as possible before starting it up and drive back towards the cove. I park up two thirds of a mile away, which is the closest that I can get on the road, and jog back to Doctor Jackal. By the time that I arrive both Madeline and Sven are back also. Sven transforms once more into seagull form and heads for the lifeboat station to telephone in the coordinates of the German submarine and request orders for the extraction of our prisoners. While he is doing that the rest of us carry the targets back to the car and stuff them into the boot.

By oh one hundred hours we are waiting by the car ready to move. Sven returns and says that our orders are;

Extract to a secure location and make contact again in twenty four hours time.

Doctor Jackal drives and mentally plots the quietest route back to Dublin avoiding major towns. At oh three thirty hours we pull the car into a secluded barn for Doctor Jackal to check our prisoner’s vital signs and resedate them. We agree to rest up here until dawn before moving on once more, I agree to take the first watch during which I probe Falltur once more with my senses. I discover that not only can he broadcast radio waves but that he can also hear radio waves too. I ‘borrow’ both of those abilities and then wake Sven to take his watch.

I am woken up by Madeline just before oh seven thirty who tells me that we have to move as there is movement in the farm just up the road from our hiding place. As Doctor Jackal is pulling us out onto the road he suddenly remembers that our contact in Ireland, Rowan Sexton, had given us his number in case we needed him. We stop on the outskirts of Dublin for breakfast and Doctor Jackal telephones the number from a local inn.

Can I speak to Sexton please?

Speaking!

May the road rise up to meet you!

May the wind be always at your back! What do you need?

Immediate accommodation for a party of six!

Where are you?

Outskirts of Dublin.

Sexton gives Henry an address in the northern suburbs of Dublin, about an hours drive away. We head off once more and once we are a couple of miles away we find a quiet spot and park up. Sven transforms in a raven and gives the location a fly past to make sure that we are not walking into a trap. When he returns he says that everything looks quiet. We slowly drive towards the address, with all four of us visible and with three of us with our hands firmly on our guns.

Henry pulls into a cul-de-sac and heads towards the end house which is the address that we have been given. The house has a garage and the garage door is open, Henry reverses the car into the garage. As he does so, Sexton sticks his head out of the internal door and smiles his broadest, most charming Irish grin. He closes the garage door and then gives me a massive hug. I like him!