Three days later Pascal was satisfied. If Malloy wanted to try to contact London he was ready to try. It was two hours before the next scheduled contact and Malloy worked out a short coded message with a request for a confirmation that it had been received.
Pascal had rigged up a simple wire antenna that went up to the attic and he sat looking at the set. He turned to Malloy.
“It’s a beautiful set. Super-het, two wave bands. Better than Parish’s radio. Much, much lighter. And a nice, easy Morse key.”
Malloy smiled at the enthusiasm and gave Pascal the paper with the five-letter groups of his coded message.
An hour later Pascal was frowning with concentration as he tapped out the message, then turned the switch to reception and adjusted the headphones as he waited. Fifteen minutes later Pascal was writing out the groups of letters on a sheet of paper.
Malloy decoded the message. It merely acknowledged reception and gave a frequency for emergency use that was monitoring all Resistance frequencies round-the-clock.
They were looking at a map of France and planning where to go when Pascal said, “Can I have a look at your papers?”
“Why?”
“I want to know if we’ll have any problems.”
Malloy walked over to his bed, lifted the mattress and took out a bundle of papers held together by a rubber band. He handed them to Pascal who looked through them carefully, one by one. When he’d finished he looked at Malloy.
“They’re very good. How did they get the medical certificate?”
“I’ve no idea.”
Pascal smiled. “They’re better than mine. Why did you choose that cover name?”
“I didn’t choose it. I think it was used because it suited the documentation. Why did you ask?”
Pascal smiled. “I had a girl-friend before the war in Paris—her name was Maurois. A nice name.”
“When can we start?”
“I want to make a deal with you first.”
“What kind of deal?”
“We’ll be going to a lot of cities and towns. I’ve got places in most of them that are safe. And people I know. I think I know my way around this country better than you do. Can I decide where we stay and that sort of thing?”
“I don’t see why not.”
“What about money? We’ll need plenty of money.”
“That’s OK. I’ve got access to money.”
“Let’s plan the visits tonight for the next two weeks and start off tomorrow morning. We can take the bus to Chartres and go straight to Paris.” He paused. “Have you had your papers checked at all since you’ve been here?”
“No. I’ve not been out.”
“Let me go over it with you so you’re not scared and you know how to behave.”
“Good idea.”
Two hours later he was glad to have Pascal with him. He knew all the questions that the police or the Germans would ask him. And the answers he should give.
They were checked by the police at Chartres Station and by a Gestapo officer when they got off the train in Paris and a second German as they left the station. They had separated and the German had gone over his papers slowly and carefully.
“Name?”
“Maurois. Guillaume.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll be here in Paris for two or three days.”
“What are you doing in Paris for three days?”
“To buy books.”
“What kind of books?”
“Law books. I’m interested in being a lawyer.”
The German seemed in no hurry to let him go. He looked at the papers again but then finally handed them back, nodded and moved away towards the ticket office.
Pascal was waiting for him outside the station as Malloy took a deep breath before putting the papers back in his jacket pocket.
“What happened?” Pascal asked, and he listened as Malloy told him. Pascal shook his head. “You got to stand up to the bastards. You were too polite and that makes them think you’re scared, so they want to find out why.” He shrugged. “You’ll learn. We’ve got to walk for about fifteen minutes.” He laughed. “We’ll be bedding down over a butcher’s slaughter house. My friend here will have found a few people to talk to you about SNCF.”
By the end of the week Malloy was pleased with what had been done. He had four vital contacts. The secretary of the scheduling director at the Gare du Nord, who had handed him copies of the German controller’s instructions to all senior railway officials. Plus a policy document outlining the priorities to be given to the movement of German freight and personnel. A signalman who operated the signals network for all main lines out of two Paris stations. A station clerk who could supply daily reports on the movement of food transporters. And finally a retired SNCF senior official who had been brought back by the Germans to act as adviser to the German High Command in Paris on the use of the national rail resources in both Occupied and Unoccupied France. He would also be able to supply permits for travel in restricted areas. He had given Malloy copies of the schedules for rail traffic servicing the German U-boat bases on the Biscay coast. Pascal obviously knew his way about Paris and Malloy realised that it would have taken him months to establish even one of the contacts he’d made. Malloy was impatient to get back to the village and suddenly Gallardon seemed like home.
Back at the village Malloy spent two days listing the contacts he had made giving them just code names. Then he made two long lists. One a list of the documents and information he had obtained, and the second a list of the kind of information that he could obtain from these sources. It took him another two days to encode his reports and then Pascal broke them down into four transmission schedules. Finally he asked for a Lysander flight to pick up the documents.
His report was acknowledged without comment and on the following transmission he was told to refer to Parish regarding the Lysander flight.
Parish told him that
