MI6s Enhanced Team are investigating the connection between the German facility hidden beneath Kohnstein and the mysterious chemical that gave them their abilities. Having searched the facility the team are now planning their exit. 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.

Kohnstein Facility, Niedersachswerfen, Germany, October 1942

Little did the staff of the Kohnstein facility realise that tucked away in a guardpost out of sight, inside the collapsed tunnel of Mittelwerk IV, a discussion was taking place that would have a significant outcome on the future of the site. I don’t mind admitting that I was dead against the course of action that we eventually ended up taking, but in the end it was three against one and so I agreed. And afterwards, I was pleased that I did.

Madeline was the first to lay out her thinking. She was firmly of the opinion that we needed to destroy the munitions testing laboratory housed in Mittelwerk I and II. I initially put this down to her desire to kill as many Germans as possible, but in the end I believe that I was wrong. I countered with the fact that it was more important that we get out quietly with the gathered information but knew that I was backing a looser when Doctor Jackal joined the fray. He pointed out that there was a very good chance that the test rockets might very well be able to reach British shores and that a lot of civilians could die, Madeline nodded and there was a steely glint in her eye. Sven, it seems, just wanted to drive the fuel truck into something and blow it up. He really did just want to sow chaos and destruction, and I was not wrong about that.

Doctor Jackal suggested that as the fuel production facility was just beyond the blast doors that adjoined Mittelwerk III, it would be sensible to place explosives there for the greatest effect. Still hoping to convince my colleagues that we should get out quietly, I asked how many personnel were likely to be in the facility at any one time. Doctor Jackal, who had watched them come and go at shift change, said that he thought that there were approximately fifty. But, he pointed out, the majority of them were scientists and there was only a handful of guards.

And so by twenty two hundred hours I admitted defeat and we began to plan in earnest. Madeline pointed out that the we were less likely to get spotted if we infiltrated Mittelwerk II during their shift change at midnight and so we agreed that all of our timings would be based from that moment. Sven headed out on the wing to make sure that there had been no changes since his reconnoitre the previous night, when he returned he was able to confirm that as well as the two main aerial clusters on the airfields control tower there was also a smaller cluster of aerials situated on the roof of the command centre.

While Sven was out scouting Doctor Jackal and I packed up all of our kit ready to move, and Madeline checked out how long it would take to run from the Mittelwerk II blast doors to the entrance to the Mittelwerk IV tunnel. With all of the information gathered we regroup in our hidden guard post for the final time, we synchronize our watches and agree where we will place the explosives. We decide on three explosive packets to take out all of the aerials, two more placed on the airfields main fuel depot, and the rest to be used in the Mittelwerk II fuel production facility.

If there had been anyone watching the tunnel entrance of Mittelwerk IV at twenty three zero five hours, and if they had been a particularly sharp eyed individual, they may have spotted two shadows separate from the dark tunnel entrance and slide anticlockwise halfway between the perimeter fence and the roadway eventually crossing the road to the airfields main gate and cutting back in towards the command building. That hypothetical sharp eyed individual may also have spotted two figures move from within the dark tunnel entrance and hunker down amid the rubble to watch the airfield. But there was no sharp eyed individual, and so the actions of MI6s Enhanced Team went unnoticed.

With Madeline taking point, we slide through the shadows to the side of the command building, we then slide up the wall to the roof where I transform out of shadowform and place the first of our explosive packets against the base of the aerial cluster. I check my watch, it is now twenty three sixteen hours and so I set the timer for fifty minutes and the transform back into a shadow. We quickly move to the roof of the airfields control tower, fortunately that time of night it was very quiet and those on watch were heading towards the end of their shift and so were not very observant. On the roof Madeline and I take an aerial cluster each and place the explosives, setting the timers for forty four minutes. Using the darkness in the centre of the airfield as cover we next circle around towards the airfields main fuel depot where again we place two explosive packets. This time the timers are set for thirty two minutes.

Madeline and I rejoin Doctor Jackal and Sven in the entrance to Mittelwerk IV at twenty three forty five hours, and the clock is ticking. We continue to watch the airfield for a few minutes hoping that our activities have not been spotted, when no alarm is raised Madeline and I head back into the facility to place our final explosive packets. We slide through the blast doors into Mittelwerk II at twenty three fifty eight hours and discover the fuel production facility empty, Madeline was correct about the shift change. We quickly place an explosive packet each and set the timers for six minutes, there is not enough time to set the third packet as we hear the sound of approaching footsteps and so we leave silently through the blast doors and run for the entrance to Mittelwerk IV.

Leaving Sven at the entrance to the tunnel I grab Doctor Jackal and start guiding him across the centre of the airfield. Madeline covers us in her artificial darkness, but it does not affect me as I have ‘borrowed’ her ability to see in it, and so we are able to move at speed with little risk of being seen. We are four hundred yards from the mouth of the tunnel when the clock ticks over to five minutes past midnight. The stillness of the night is shattered by an explosion large enough to shake the ground beneath our feet. Seconds later we feel the force of a secondary explosion under Kohnstein. The three of us continue to move swiftly towards the transport planes parked on the runway apron.

We have made it another hundred yards when a ripple of explosions light up the buildings at the edge of the airfield. The last of the three explosions is followed by yet another earth shaking boom as the main fuel depot succumbs to the flames. Seconds later the airfield bursts into life as alarms sound and chaos ensues, Sven takes this as his cue and flaps into the night sky. A raven lands in the darkness near to the secondary fuel depot outside the entrance to Mittelwerk I, slowly transforms into a German officer, and walks through the door of the fuel depots office.

The German trooper sat in the office turns to face the door when he hears someone enter, seeing that it is an officer he hurriedly stands and salutes. His eyes widen when he notices that the officer seems to be pointing a silenced pistol at him. Sven pulls the trigger three times and downs the German Private, he then holsters his gun and heads outside to the fuel truck. Sven, now looking like the dead German Private inside the fuel depot’s office, tapes one of his grenades to the fuel trucks pumping mechanism but leaves the pin in. He then climbs onboard and starts to slowly drive it around the perimeter road towards the bases main buildings.

Doctor Jackal, Madeline and I arrive at the runway’s apron where the Heinkel and Junkers are parked. Despite the fact that we had agreed to take the Junkers on the spur of the moment I point Doctor Jackal and Madeline towards the Heinkel, later I will be pleased with that split second decision. As Madeline assists Doctor Jackal board the Heinkel I take the last of our explosive packets and place it on the Junkers undercarriage, setting the timer for ten minutes. I then follow the others into the Heinkel and begin the preflight checks.

On the other side of the airfield Sven parks the fuel truck outside of the main buildings, he climbs out and casually walks around to the side of the truck and opens up the valves. Fuel starts to pour out of the truck and across the road. In the chaos that engulfs the base his actions almost go unseen, but a German Unterfeldwebel tries to stop him. Sven quick draws his silenced pistol and shoots him at very close range. The German soldier drops to the floor clutching his stomach, but the altercation goes completely unseen. Sven reaches over and pulls the pin out of the grenade and then walks quickly in between the buildings.

With my preflight checks completed I fire up the engines of the Heinkel He 111, it roars into life and I start to taxi my way out to the Ed age of the runway. I plan to use the shortest of the runways which will mean a very steep climb to clear Kohnstein, but it is the quickest exit. Doctor Jackal sits down just behind me in the navigators seat and starts to plot out the bearings for our escape route. Madeline positions herself at the open rear door of the fuselage, unslinging her machine gun and taking aim at the ground crew gathered around the fighter aircraft. She spots that they all appear to be working on a single plane and so she focuses on them.

The night is lit up was more as the grenade on the fuel truck detonates and a heartbeat later the fuel truck itself explodes. In the darkness between the buildings Sven transforms once again into the guise of one of the airfields civilian workers and rushes around as if in a panic, but every time that he passes a large group of airfield personnel he drops a grenade amongst them and rushes away, leaving a ripple of small explosions and screams in his wake. Eventually, having run out of grenades, Sven slowly walks out into the darkness of the middle of the airfield. He is thirty yards away from the buildings when he hears a shout in German from behind him;

You there! HALT!

Sven stops dead where he is and slowly turns around. He finds himself looking at a German Leutnant stood twenty yards away. The officer shouts;

Where do you think that you are going? Get back here!

Sven shrugs and reaches for his pistol. But as he is drawing it, it snags on his holster and he drops it onto the floor. The Leutnant draws his sidearm and points it at Sven. Sven places his hands on his head. The German officer slowly circles around behind Sven, keeping his gun firmly trained, and asks;

Who are you?

Sven replies;

Igor Swartz!

The officer is now stood behind Sven, about five yards back, Sven decides that it is time to get away and so he transforms into a leopard. This catches the German Leutnant by surprise and he freezes for a moment, that is all Sven needs. The leopard turns and leaps at the officer, but the officer manages to snap out of his stupor and fires his gun straight at the leopards chest. Sven is enormously relieved when the bullet bounces off of his enhanced uniform. The leopard lands on the Germans chest and tears out his throat. It then runs off into the dark, but Sven can’t shake the feeling that he is sure that he was seen transforming.

I taxi the Heinkel onto the end of the runway and begin my final checks, there has been no sign of Sven but as I look up I spot a leopard sprinting along the runway towards us. That can only be be Sven. I shout back to Madeline so that she is not caught unawares and wait. As soon as Sven is aboard I push the throttle levers fully open and we begin to gain speed along the runway. As soon as we are moving Madeline opens up with a burst of machine gun fire at the ground crew working around one of the Messerschmitts, but it is a very difficult shot and her bullets go wide.

As we approach the end of the runway I pull back of the stick and we rise easily into the air and over Kohnstein. Doctor Jackal gives me a bearing and I steadily climb into the sky following his directions. It has only been a matter of fifteen minutes since the first explosion and we are on our way home. Madeline slips into the co-pilot's seat next to me and fixes the disabled radio. She then heads back into the fuselage and finds three parachutes, as well as having a quick look out of the dorsal observation window. When she does she spots what can only be another plane in pursuit.

We are twenty minutes out of the Kohnstein airfield when Madeline spots our pursuer, by which time I have come to realise that the Heinkel is of a higher specification then we first realised. And so I push the engines as hard as possible and we begin to pull away from the plane that is chasing us. Within ten minutes it is nothing but a spec, and five minutes later it cannot been seen. Ten minutes after our pursuer has disappeared Doctor Jackal passes me a course change and so I steer us towards the new bearing which will see us travelling northwest over the Netherlands.

Thirty minutes later Doctor Jackal passes me our final course correction and we head out over the North Sea and back to England. Soon after we have taken our final bearing Madeline establishes radio contact and relays our passphrase, a couple of minutes later and we are advised to follow a specific course towards an airstrip and that we will be escorted in. Twenty minutes after this we see a pair of Hurricanes drop into escort position behind us and we are given clear passage to the airfield.

I land safely and we are met at the runway apron by a Lieutenant Barry who leads us towards the officers mess. He informs us that he has been made aware that our superior officer is on route to meet us and that we are to make ourselves comfortable until he arrives. He is very professional and does not ask any questions as to why two men and two ladies have landed a German aeroplane on his airfield. An hour later Captain Ledman enters the mess hall, he looks us over and seeing no injuries he just asks a simple one word question;

Successful?

We say yes and he nods. He informs us that we will be given a full debrief later but for now Doctor Jackal, Madeline and myself are to return to Hanslope Park in the truck but that Sven is to accompany Captain Ledman to London on a matter of urgency. We ask why and are told that it is a request from the Norwegian embassy.

Eventually the rest of us discovered what happened in London when Sven returned and made a request, but the subject of that request is for later. Sven travelled to London and stayed the evening in a military compound. The following day his number one dress uniform was delivered to him and once he was dressed he travelled with Captain Ledman and Major Hoffman to the Norwegian embassy. When they arrive they are shown into a room and are greeted by Major General Stewart Menzies, the three men then accompany Sven into an adjoining room which is occupied by three one of which is wearing a Norwegian military uniform.

The three men are introduced as Major Linge; Oscar Torp, Norwegian Minister of Defence; and Johan Nygaardsvold, Norwegian Prime Minister. The seven men pass small pleasantries over drinks and then Oscar Torp makes a formal request for assistance in recovering the Regalia of Norway. He goes on to explain that in their escape from Norway the crown jewels were hidden in a secure location, unfortunately the Germans have been searching for them and they are now closing in on their location. Torp says that it is very important that a Norwegian national is involved in recovering them, and preferably a member of the Norwegian military.

Sven says that it would be his honour, and so Johan Nygaardsvold nods and leaves the room and Major Hoffman turns to Sven and decommissions him from the British Army. Next Major Linge officially enlists Sven into the Norwegian army and immediately promotes him. Kaptein Hyse proudly salutes.