"I was quiet, but I was not blind." - Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
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Cries that the radio signal had gone down rang out simultaneously, a cacophony of panic echoing out into the silence of the early morning. Juliette hid her smile in the collar of her coat. Will had been successful, at least; with no radio signal, the Germans couldn't alert the Gestapo HQ of a lack of communication with the vehicle, which would buy them time in the long run.
Instead of seeing their lack of radio backup as cause for delay, the generalleutnant could be heard thundering out orders for the guards to hurry up with loading the prisoners into the truck, lest Paris find out that they would be coming to them late. Juliette heard him muttering bitterly to himself about how he would have enough of a headache coming as it is with what 'that fucking agent' was going to tell them, and almost laughed; getting on the nerves of Nazis was one of her very favourite pastimes.
Two guards led the three male spies out of the building, all of them now cuffed individually out of convenience, with two more guards trailing behind to ensure they couldn't be ambushed. They were shoved unceremoniously into the back of the truck, grunting when they hit the floor, but were quickly silenced by the guards. Tom followed behind them and waited beside Juliette for the others to emerge.
Two soldiers led the female spy out by her arms, and her mental anguish was evidently so intense that her body refused to function. Her feet were dragging behind her and her head was collapsed forwards. In that moment she reminded Jules very much of Claudette, moments before she had shot her, and she shuddered before glancing away.
It was the generalleutnant who emerged next, still grumbling when he sent a sour smile to Juliette before getting into the driver's seat, another guard climbing into the passenger side. Jules and Tom quickly bundled into the back of the truck before two soldiers followed them in and closed the doors behind them. Then they were headed for the checkpoint on the edge of Bordeaux.
Jules prayed that the others were in position and that they would notice it wasn't her who was driving soon enough to get the situation back under control. If they didn't, they were well and truly screwed; there was no way she could get to Paris still parading around as an undercover agent they had sent. She decided her and Tom would have to work something out when they got to the train station, though prayed that it wouldn't come to that.
One guard sat between her and the door, and another between Tom opposite her and the door beside him. As the truck slowed to a stop at the checkpoint out of Bordeaux, Jules and Tom shared a quick look. This moment was make or break. Were the others in position or weren't they? Had they realised what was awry soon enough or just a tad bit too late?
Chewing on her bottom lip, Juliette closed her eyes as she waited to find out. It was at that moment, however, that she heard Alex's voice. "Papiere, bitte."
The generalleutnant had obviously handed over his papers for there was a pause, before Alex asked him to step out of the truck.
"This is ridiculous! I am your superior!" the generalleutnant protested in fast German, but then Martin spoke up. Thank God for Martin, Jules thought, because other than 'papiere, bitte' Alex didn't speak a word of German.
"Get out of the truck, please, Generalleutnant. And your partner, too."
There came the sounds of both doors opening and then the distinctive sound of boots landing on the concrete, the generalleutnant grumbling out his complaints all the while. And then, the gasps for breath and small, shocked cries that were customary when you were stabbed.
Jules heard two bodies hit the floor and the sound of them being dragged into the checkpoint posts on either side of the road, where they lay alongside the real checkpoint attendants who had suffered much the same fate. She took advantage of the guard beside her turning to open the back door of the truck in his horror; after having expected a search at the building she hadn't been able to carry a weapon, and had to suffice with her hands around his throat.
Thomas had slit the throat of his guard and stabbed hers in the stomach once he was done. As the truck's front doors closed once more and they began to drive again, Jules pulled the knife out of the man's stomach and slit his throat with it as well. Tom and Jules pulled open the back doors to the truck simultaneously and pushed both of the guards out; this job would never have been secret anyway. The Gestapo would know what had happened when no prisoners arrived in Paris.
What they hadn't accounted for, however, was a truck full of soldiers to be following them, the faulty radio signal having made them suspicious. Just as they were pulling the back doors closed Jules caught sight of a truck much the same as the one they were currently in speeding around the corner, and slammed her door shut in case the guards in the front seats caught sight of her face. Tom did the same.
"We're being followed!" she called, hoping the sound would carry through the wall separating the back of the truck to the front. When they sped up she knew it had.
"Fuck," was all Thomas said, and she had to agree.
It was frustrating to be in the back, where there were no windows, and to have no idea what was going on outside. The truck all but swung around corners and sped through straight strips of road. Jules was certain the sound of the engine in the early hours of the morning would get them caught if the truck following them didn't.
A massive bang rang out. All of the spies in the back threw themselves forwards out of instinct, Jules landing underneath Tom.
All of a sudden they screeched to a halt and the back door closest to Tom slammed open. Before any of them could react Will climbed in.
"Fucking hell!" Thomas exclaimed as Will slammed the door shut behind him and they set off racing once more.
"I've never been so happy to see you!" Jules cried and flung her arms around him when he sat beside her.
Will smiled. "I'm glad you're happy. I just sacrificed our radio to pull that off."
"What do you mean?" Tom asked.
Will shrugged. "I saw the truck following you and fused my radio. Put it in the road as soon as you'd passed. They couldn't avoid it. It was a bomb as soon as they drove over it."
"Legend," Jules declared, leaning into him for a moment to express her fondness as she smiled.
He let out a breathy laugh. "I do what I can."
"How are you lot doing?" Tom asked the four spies they had come to rescue. Each of the men laughed lightly, much in a state of shock. The woman remained silent where she was curled in on herself, breathing heavily and still shaking somewhat.
Three variations of the word 'good' rang out and Tom, Jules, and Will shared a quick smile. But now what?
"Now what?" Jules asked.
Tom grimaced. "That's up to the bossman, I suppose. He's the one behind the wheel."
"We can't risk a safe house," Jules told Will when she saw his lack of understanding as to why they weren't following protocol. "They questioned her, but we don't know if she broke."
"She wouldn't -" the ginger man went to protest but Tom cut him off.
"You didn't see the state she was in at first. She's struggling now, but before..." he trailed off, not quite being able to find adequate words to articulate what he had seen. "We can't know for sure that she didn't talk, so we have to be careful about this."
"Do any of you happen to have a radio?" Will asked suddenly, and everyone in the back of the truck shot him a look of disbelief.
"Yes, the Germans decided to let us keep it, actually, as a memento for our days in the field," the ginger drawled.
Tom shot him a look. "Enough of the sarcasm, please. Okay? Lets not forget who's saving who here."
"We'll have to split up," announced the dark-haired, stern-looking man, who looked graver now even than he had when Jules had first encountered him. "If we get caught there's no use in two full teams being taken in."
"Getting caught is not an option," Juliette told him seriously. "For either of us. If you get caught again you have to use your cyanide. You know too much."
There seemed to be an unspoken understanding between all of them that she was speaking about the Allied invasion of France, though none of them verbally acknowledged it; such was the way of spies.
It was only then that Juliette remembered their handcuffs.
When they finally slowed to a stop, this one much smoother than the last, Jules used her fake glasses to pick the locks of the handcuffs on each of them in turn.
After they had all filed out of the truck, they each began wordlessly following Alexis. Even to strangers, it appeared, he exuded the sort of authority that made you want to follow him, as opposed to the kind that forced you to. They wove through streets in silence, the world beginning to wake up with the growing influence of sunlight. Eventually, they turned into a forest.
They walked and walked and walked until, all of a sudden, Alex stopped and turned back to them. He had seemingly come to the same conclusion as the other team's leader; they would have to split up. It was too risky to have that many spies altogether.
The team of four spies came to face the team of five, and they each offered small smiles.
"Thank you," the stern-looking man told them sincerely, looking to Juliette and Thomas in particular to express his gratitude, as he had interacted with them the most.
Juliette smiled back at him, and then shared it with the others, too. "Good luck," she bid them, and each of the four, even the broken woman, moved down the line of five to shake their hands.
Jules made sure to offer the woman her gentlest smile, placing a hand on her arm and giving her a nod before she moved on. Through her Juliette had indirectly gotten a taste of just what the Nazis were liable to do to the spies they captured, or at least the female ones. And though what she had seen hadn't even been the tip of the iceberg, it was enough to convince her that, should she ever get caught, she would use the cyanide. There was no longer any doubt in her mind.