Shadows of the World » Band of Brothers

17: A Second Light, A Second Darkness

"What can you know about a person? They shift in the light. You can't light up all sides at once. Add a second light and you get a second darkness." - Richard Siken, Portrait of Fryderyk in Shifting Light

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The small road tucked out of the way in a peaceful corner of Paris had fallen into silence. Juliette stared at the place where Claudette had once stood, eyes glazed over but otherwise stony faced. She had tried. That had to be enough.

Why was it never enough?

Martin's voice erupted out of the silence that had fallen, though it was only a pitched whisper, "What the fuck did you just do?"

She didn't even turn around, and continued to stare in the direction the French woman had just gone.

"She's walking into a trap, and she knows it."

"You told her?" Martin's voice was sharp in her ear, though it barely registered.

Juliette turned to him very suddenly. "Give me your gun."

"What?"

"Give me your gun," she said, louder. "I know where she's headed - there was a map in the intel that showed her mission route. If I'm quick I bet I can make it in time."

"What are you on about? -"

Juliette cut him off by taking his handgun instead, which thankfully already had its silencer attached - the sniper rifle would be too conspicuous to carry anyway. She shot him one last look before taking off in the direction Claudette had previously gone, running through the streets she knew would be empty and walking the ones she knew were more likely to be watched, all the while incredibly conscious of the gun in her bag.

If she got stopped, it was all over.

Juliette made it to where the map said Claudette was due to plant the bomb - a warehouse the Nazis had been using to make antiaircraft munitions - and crouched behind some stacked wooden crates in a corner. She pressed her back against the wall so that no one could ambush her in the process. She couldn't see Claudette but she could see an awful lot of men she knew were Nazis disguised as workers.

There was a few moments' pause before Claudette came into view, her arm looped through the elbow of a man in a suit who Juliette assumed was parading as the 'warehouse' owner. Juliette didn't know where the bomb was to be planted, or whether she had already planted it or not, and resolved to watch in silence as the French woman conversed with the man.

The conversation appeared to become interesting when Claudette turned her entire body to face the man, as if affronted. Juliette's attention was drawn away sharply at the feeling of a hand pressed against her mouth.

She turned wide eyes to the left to find Martin crouching next to her, a scowl set on his face, and she'd never been so relieved to be the brunt of one of Martin's icy glares. He took his hand away from her mouth and turned to watch Claudette interact with the man in the suit, so she did the same.

However, in the seconds that had passed since she'd last looked, multiple of the disguised workers had subtly begun to gather around the woman. Juliette looked at Martin in horror. A front row seat to the massacre was not what she had intended when she followed after the woman. Martin shook his head ever so slightly before turning back to watch again.

The man was speaking loudly enough for the entire room to hear, by now. But all of a sudden, his French turned to heavily accented English, presumably so the other Germans could also understand.

"Or would you perhaps prefer to go by 'Magpie', madame?"

Juliette's breath caught in her throat. That was Claudette's code name.