“Open the luggage compartment, please.”
“There’s nothing in there but luggage,” the captain protested. “I put it in myself.”
“I’m sorry, Captain. My orders are clear. Every vehicle out of Paris is to be inspected.
Open it.”
Muttering under his breath, the driver opened his door and started to get out. Noelle’s
mind was racing furiously. She had to find a way to stop them, without arousing their
suspicions. The driver was out of the car. Time had run out. Noelle stole a quick look at
General Scheider’s face. His eyes were narrowed and his lips were tight with anger. She
turned to him and said guilelessly, “Shall we get out, Hans? Will they be searching us?”
She could feel his body tense with fury.
“Wait!” The General’s voice was like the crack of a whip. “Get back in the car,” he
ordered his driver. He turned to the lieutenant and his voice was filled with rage. “You tell
whoever gave you your orders that they do not apply to generals of the German Army. I
do not take orders from lieutenants. Get that roadblock out of my way.”
The hapless lieutenant stared at the General’s furious face, clicked his heels to
attention and said, “Yes, General Scheider.” He signaled the driver of the truck blocking
the road and the truck lumbered off to the side.
“Drive on,” General Scheider commanded.
And the car sped away into the night.
Slowly Noelle let her body relax into the seat, feeling the tension draining out of her.
The crisis was past. She wished that she knew whether Israel Katz was in the trunk of the
car. And if he was alive.
General Scheider turned to Noelle and she could feel the anger that was still seething
in him.
“I apologize,” he said, wearily. “This is a strange war. Sometimes it is necessary to
remind the Gestapo that wars are run by armies.”
Noelle smiled up at him and put her arm through his. “And armies are run by
generals.”
“Exactly,” he agreed. “Armies are run by generals. I am going to have to teach
Colonel Mueller a lesson.”
Ten minutes after General Scheider’s car had left the roadblock, a phone call came in
from Gestapo Headquarters, alerting them to be on the lookout for the car.
“It has already passed through,” the lieutenant reported, a feeling of foreboding
flooding through him. A moment later he was speaking with Colonel Mueller.
“How long ago?” the Gestapo officer asked softly.
“Ten minutes.”