She didn’t have to go up to the second level and extract an envelope of microfilm smuggled out of Germany at unfathomable risk. What was it to her if Karl was arrested at the border? He had known the risks when he agreed to betray his government.
Evelyn’s lips tightened. He had known the risks, and known the stakes, and agreed to do it anyway. Because he believed that the information in that envelope was worth risking not only his life, but the lives of his family.
Bill had asked her to retrieve the package because he, also, felt that it was important. Important enough to send a young woman who had never done anything like this before to pick it up and bring it back.
After a long, indecisive moment, Evelyn laid the pencil down and closed the notebook. Karl had risked his life to get the information out of Germany, continuing even after knowing that the SS were following him. Who was she to balk at finishing it now?
Gathering up her handbag and the notebook, Evelyn rose and moved across the tiled floor to the card catalog.
As the woman dressed impeccably in a steel blue skirt and matching jacket crossed the reading area to the card catalog, Josephine Rousseau looked up from the book before her. She had a variety of texts spread out on the table around her, ensuring that she remained alone at her table. Her dark gray eyes watched as the woman moved across the tiled floor, her steps steady and light. A hat in a matching blue perched atop thick blonde curls and Josephine pursed her lips thoughtfully.
The woman was nothing like what she had been expecting. In fact, Josephine hadn’t been expecting a woman at all. When she received word that Rupert had had the temerity to allow his appendix to go bad, she assumed another man would be sent in his place. Instead, unless she was very much mistaken, Bill had sent a young and wealthy socialite in Rupert’s stead.
Lowering her eyes back to the text before her, Josephine’s lips tightened. This whole exchange had become far more complicated than it should have been. It was a simple enough process. Karl passed the package to the courier, the courier took it to Bill, and Karl returned to Munich. It had been done just so twice before. This time, however, the bloody Gestapo had come along.
Josephine glanced up as the woman reached the card catalog and began moving along the wall of wooden drawers, looking for a specific drawer. Karl had resorted to the backup plan, stashing the package and alerting her to the new arrangement. Under this scenario, if the courier was unable to retrieve the package, Josephine would do it and send it through the network to Bill. It meant it would take several days to reach him, and it increased the risk of the information being lost, but it was the only contingency should the courier fail.
The woman paused and opened a drawer, flipping quickly through the cards inside while Josephine studied her from under her lashes. Her clothes were from one of the more expensive fashion houses in Paris and her shoes alone cost more than most people made in a month. Yet the woman carried herself in a way that made Josephine watch her carefully. Instinctively, she knew that this woman wasn’t just another bored socialite looking for adventure. There was something about the way she held her shoulders and the tilt of her chin that made her think there was much more to this courier than she had first perceived. At least, she hoped there was; the Gestapo agent on the other side of the circulation area would have the woman for lunch if she was wrong.
Josephine closed the thick book in front of her and picked up her notebook as the woman closed the drawer and turned towards the wide staircase. Pushing her chair back, she got up and carried the notebook with her, following the woman to the stairs. She reached the bottom at the same time as the man in the black overcoat. The man never spared her a glance, his eyes intent on the slender figure disappearing up the stairs to the second level.
She paused, pretending to consult something in her notebook as he started up stairs. Then, after glancing swiftly around to make sure there wasn’t another with him, she followed the pair.
Evelyn reached the top of the stairs and glanced at the call numbers on the floor to ceiling bookshelf closest to her. Looking to her left, she noted the numbers on the next one before turning to her right. Her legs trembled as she quickly moved away from the stairs. The man in the black overcoat was following her and she only had a few precious seconds before he reached the top of the stairs. Without thinking, she ducked down an aisle of books, disappearing from view.
Taking a deep breath, she swiftly bent down and took off her shoes, holding them in one hand as she ran down the aisle, her stockinged feet making no sound on the tiled floor. Reaching the end of the aisle, she rounded the corner and found herself in a narrow passageway running along the outer wall. She darted down the walkway, heading towards the last stack on the right where Karl had placed the envelope. As she passed each aisle, she glanced down, looking for the man in the overcoat. Aside from a few startled patrons, she saw no one during her mad dash across the second floor of the library.
As
