Hiding in an empty lifeboat station on the outskirts of Narvik, MI6s team of enhanced individuals are awaiting the time that they need to head out for their rendezvous with HMS Active’s landing craft. 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.

I shall never forget late October 1942, that was when our small team of enhanced individuals suffered a blow that it might never recover from. That was when one of our number decided to leave.

Narvik, Norway, October 1942

Hidden in the lifeboat station on the outskirts of German occupied Narvik Sven, who never likes to stay trapped indoors for very long, asks me to prepare him an explosive charge with a twenty second fuse. Once I have put it together he heads up to the roof and transforms into a sea eagle and leaps up into the night sky with the charge gripped in his claw. While he is out scouting, and Henry is on the roof keeping watch, Madeline and I take pictures of each other draped in the Norwegian regalia.  When the pictures resurfaced in the early sixties it caused an international incident.

Once we have finished with our photo shoot Madeline and I try and listen in on the German radio signals. Madeline decodes the German’s radio logs and manages to tune into the local military channel based out of the Narvik headquarters, we pick up nothing but standard military communications. Madeline then tunes the radio into the naval channel that the German patrol boat was using, she instantly picks up radio chatter between two German patrol boats working in tandem on a search pattern. We initially believe that they must be out looking for us but as we listen it becomes clear that they are searching for a missing German patrol boat. Which can only be the launch that we encountered and sunk on our way to the island. Finally we hear that they have found no sign of the missing boat and that they are heading back to base.

Up on the roof of the lifeboat station, Doctor Jackal spots two German patrol exiting the Beisfjorden and turning in the direction of Narvik. They are moving slowly and using their searchlights to scan the shoreline, as they pass by the lifeboat station the second boat’s searchlight plays across the dinghy tied up at the lifeboat stations dock. Inside the lifeboat station Madeline and I hear on the radio the second patrol boat radio the first that they have spotted a dinghy and are checking it out. The first boat asks if they require assistance and the say;

It’s probably nothing. We’ll see you back at base. Put the coffee on!

As the German patrol boat turns towards the lifeboat station dock, Doctor Jackal hunches down on the roof out of sight while Madeline and I slide under the locked doors and onto the underside of the dock. The patrol boat coasts up to the dock and one of the Kriegsmarines jumps onto the dock and ties the launch up, as he is doing this Madeline and I slide onto the hull of the patrol boat and slip around to the rear of the boat and wait to see what the Germans do.

Four of the German troops disembark from the patrol boat and move towards the dinghy, one of the troops hands his rifle to another trooper and climbs down the ladder into the dinghy and starts to search it. Moments later he holds up Sven’s rifle and hands it up to his Unterfeldwebel, the officer looks it over appreciatively;

An American M1 Garand, nice rifle. Well maintained. Looks like a hunter. You two, search the lifeboat station.

The Unterfeldwebel climbs back onboard the patrol boat and heads back into the cabin where he places Sven’s rifle in the corner and picks up the radio mic and calls in what they have found and informs their base that they will be towing in the dinghy.

Two of the German troops check out the lifeboat station and find all of the doors locked and so return back to the patrol boat. The Unterfeldwebel orders his men to tie the dingy up to the back of the patrol boat, that was enough for Madeline and I to react. I start to slide up onto the prow of the boat closing in on the German soldier manning the machine gun and Madeline slips up onto the top of the patrol boats cabin. The machine gunner is watching what is happening on the dock and so doesn’t notice me transform from my shadowy self into a knife wielding Mimi Dubois, I sneak up behind him and plunge my knife into his vitals. The two Kriegsmarines in the patrol boats cabin did spot me, but before they could react utter darkness drops on them. In the pitch black of her own making Madeline drops from the ceiling of the cabin and stabs one of the Kriegsmarines in the neck, he drops to the floor.

Madeline spins on the spot and stabs the other Kriegsmarine in the back and he also drops. I stab the machine gunner once again to make sure that he is out of the fight and look up to see what is happening on the dock. I don’t like what I see. The German soldier manning the search light is heading towards the prow of the patrol boat, the troops on the dock are looking back at the patrol boat and one of them locks eyes with me.

Suddenly, a small bird strikes the German soldier heading towards the prow of the boat. Despite the birds small size the soldier is knocked clean off of his feet, and appears to be bleeding from a very large gash in his neck. The soldiers on the dock raise their rifles to their shoulders and take aim. The small bird circles around. I drop to my belly on the prow of the patrol boat and transform into a shadow once more. The Unterfeldwebel steps onto the back of the patrol boat while the other two troops on the dock move along the dock towards the prow of the boat and then one of them climbs onboard.

The Unterfeldwebel moves carefully towards the prone body of the German soldier and checks him, he then shouts out;

He’s bleeding but still alive!

At that moment Sven completes his second attack run striking the Unterfeldwebel in the back of the head, the German drops like a sack of potatoes and the small bird lands on the back of his neck and tears out his jugular. The trooper on the prow of the boat shouts;

Something killed the Unterfeldwebel!

At that moment a small bird soars away from the deck of the patrol boat and the trooper on the dock swings his rifle around and takes a shot. He misses. With the crack of the rifle shot still ringing we all move again. I solidify behind the trooper on the deck of the patrol boat and stab him in the back. A heartbeat later utter darkness covers me as Madeline makes sure that I don’t get shot in the back. The German trooper that I stabbed staggers down the stairs of the boat in the darkness, feeling his way along like a blind man, but he doesn’t detect the bodies at the base of the stairs and trips over them landing flat on his face.

I step out of the darkness and finish off the German trooper laying on his face, but his colleague on the dock takes aim at me. Another blob of darkness falls onto the German soldier, and I once again drop to my belly, the German pulls the trigger shooting blind and the bullet hits the patrol boat where I was standing a heartbeat beforehand. Madeline leaps off of the patrol boat and lands behind the trooper, she swings her blade once again, and once again it ends up in a German trooper hitting the floor.

The final German soldier, stood in the dinghy with his rifle leaning against the dock post out of reach, peaks over the edge of the dock to see what is happening. He doesn’t get the chance to take in the scene in front of him as Sven completes his third attack run.

We quickly throw all of the German bodies into the water and start to load all of our kit into the patrol boat, I check the naval radio frequency and detect no sign of any emergency being sounded. Doctor Jackal stomps down from the lifeboat station and onto the dock with a look of fury on his face;

I demand that you let me tend to their medical needs!

I reply that I checked them and that they were all dead.

I insist that you allow me to save at least one!

Madeline then insists that they were all already dead.

Allow me to save one and I will tolerate your killing!

I have never seen Doctor Jackal so furious, and I am concerned that we might get a visit from Mr Hades, so I point out that we need to evacuate quickly and start up the patrol boats engine. We shove off and move quickly out towards the open sea. After five minutes the radio crackles to life and a progress update is requested. Sven picks up the mic and mimics the Unterfeldwebel’s voice;

We have found a hunter and are checking further.

A nervous couple of seconds pass before we hear;

Received and understood!

On Doctor Jackal’s advice we head for the narrows where HMS Active’s landing craft will have to pass so that we can intercept them. Just over an hour later we are met on the deck of HMS Active by Lieutenant Commander Tompkinson, he shows us to the officers mess where we are provided with food and drink. Sven requests access to the ships radio and is shown there, he contacts the Norwegian forces and signals Operation Sea Eagle is a success!

As we approach Scapa Flow we spot a Norwegian launch moving to intercept us. Stood on deck is Major Linge, and even at this distance it is obvious that he is very excited. They come alongside and the Norwegian Crown Jewels are transferred across. Major Linge meets us on the deck of HMS Active and thanks us for our efforts, he then looks directly at Sven;

Kaptain Hyse, will you complete your mission and escort the Regalia to the Norwegian Embassy?

Sven salutes, grabs his bag, and without a look back boards the Norwegian launch.

Hanslope Park, Buckinghamshire, England, October 1942

We had been met by Captain Ledman and returned to Hanslope Park, there was lots of congratulations but the atmosphere around the team remained subdued. A day and a half after we had returned to Hut 17B Sven arrives at Hanslope Park. With the team reunited we are taken in for a mission debrief by Captain Ledman and Major Hoffman. As always we let Doctor Jackal take the lead and fill in details as and when required, I provide as much detail as possible about the enemy enhanced and am questioned intently by Hoffman on the details of their powers that I had managed to gather.

Matters then turn towards the next mission, the infiltration of Wewelsburg Schloss. Captain Ledman goes through everything that they have been able to uncover so far, which is not a lot, and then Major Hoffman tells us that as he sees it there are four priorities to this mission;

Primarily we need to gain a full understanding of the chemical process that the Germans have perfected. We need to confirm the source of the cobalt 60? How the process of extraction and refinement occurs? And how the chemical is delivered to the subject?Secondly we need you to get information on what enhanced individuals the Germans have created? How many there are? And what are their powers?Priority number three is to obtain any further samples that you can. And finally, if possible, you need to slow or prevent any further use of this procedure by the Nazis.

Hoffman looks around at each of us in turn and asks if any of us have any questions? Doctor Jackal stands up and looks Hoffman directly in the eye and says;

I cannot continue to operate on further missions with these people! I cannot countenance the murder that is taking place!

With that, Doctor Jackal leaves the room. And the team.