Half Sick of Shadows » Band of Brothers [2]

25: Tiger, Tiger

"Tiger - tiger! Drop the bottle top! Drop it! We've had this date with each other from the beginning!" - Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

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Juliette was jittery with nerves by the time 0739 rolled around. Crouched a small ways away from the hotel with Tom, she watched the guards at the door anxiously. Timing was key; she needed to be able to go directly to the intelligence office and arrive there at exactly 0745, but estimating how long it might take to get there was difficult.

Martin and Will were both already in place, set up on either side of the building out of sight. Will had his radio, listening in on the Nazis' correspondence and ready to transmit back to HQ in case anything went wrong, and Martin had his sniper rifle aimed at the guards at the back of the building, just in case they tried to interfere.

From where they were watching the front of the building, Tom and Jules couldn't see either of them, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that were both there, ready and waiting to give her backup if she needed it.

Tom lifted a hand and rested it gently on Juliette's shoulder, trying to offer some reassurance.

"Fifteen minutes, Jules," he said, sending her a smile. "Fifteen minutes. That's all it is. And if there are guards on the door or you can't find the plans then just leave. Don't put yourself at risk."

Juliette nodded. Really, this was one of the lowest-stakes missions she'd had in a long time where going undercover was concerned. All she had to do was try, and if it didn't work out then she had been given express permission, by both Tom and the CO of the other team of spies, to leave empty handed. Still, she could feel nerves flitting about in her stomach; she never had been a massive fan of rifling through people's things. It always seemed too easy to get caught.

As soon as Tom's watch struck 0740 he patted her once on the back and sent her a nod. "You've got this, Jules," he said, wearing a reassuring smile. He really didn't have a shadow of a doubt that anything would go awry, which made her want to feel confident, too. "I'll be right behind you when you come out."

Jules nodded and gave Tom her most winning smile. "See you in a bit, then."

He grinned. "See you in a bit."

Jules had to take a detour to get down to the hotel in order to not blow Tom's cover, but she got through the guards relatively easily. However they had come about them, the spies in Eindhoven had managed to acquire perfectly forged identity papers, even accompanied by a picture of her on them. Jules surmised that they must have been sent to them by HQ. Either way, the papers were so convincing, and so was the maid's uniform, that she got through both sets of guards, both outside and inside the doors, very quickly.

When she came upon the intelligence office at exactly 0745 it was locked, as she had expected, but at least there were no guards. The spy in Eindhoven had been correct; they were focusing all of their attention on the security of the prisoners. She removed the lock-pick disguised as a pin from her hair and made quick work of picking the lock. When the door swung open the office was empty. Now she just had to find what she needed.

Juliette headed straight for the desk, figuring that since the prisoners were being transported today then a map of the building they were headed to as well as information on where said building was were likely to have been recently used. She had to pick the locks on each of the drawers, but the locks were so flimsy it didn't take long.

The drawer she needed was at the bottom on the right, the last drawer she checked. When she found what she was looking for she drew the sheets of paper out with a grin. She held them up to see them better under the light from the window, just to make sure that they were the right ones, and whispered out a small 'yes!' to herself when she found that they were.