Chapter Thirteen

HANNA

A few weeks later, Hanna sat behind the wheel of the ambulance, cursing Dieter for not showing up to work. No one seemed to know where he was, which was highly unusual as he'd never not shown up before, which meant that she was going to have to go out alone. She'd received a message days earlier about two children needing to be smuggled out of Berlin, and she'd been hiding their papers in her jacket ever since.

The bombings around the country had become more targeted, with factories often hit by the Allies, and the message had been clear: the next time a factory within two hours of Berlin was hit, they were to drive as close to the building as they could, and the children would be brought out for her to transport. It was a much longer drive than they were usually tasked with, which brought with it even more dangers, and it was one of the reasons she'd have preferred to have been doing it with Dieter rather than alone.

Hanna had been comfortable with the plan when it was mentioned to her, other than the fact the children were having to wait for potentially weeks to be rescued. But in the end it didn't take long for another factory to be hit – Magdeburg had been the target of so many of the Allies' air raids, after all. The problem now was that she would either have to drive the ambulance herself or risk someone realising what she was doing if another nurse or driver came with her, and it would be almost impossible to explain why she was driving so far to assist with the injured there. So she'd chosen not to tell anyone at the hospital that Dieter wasn't there, pretending he was waiting outside for her to join him, and she walked out with her nursing bag as she usually would.

She waited for a moment to check that no one else was coming out of the hospital, before starting the engine and manoeuvring her way out on to the street. She wasn't used to driving it, but one thing she did have was determination, and there was no way she was letting Dieter not turning up to work be the reason that two children missed their chance of escape.

An hour later, and clutching the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles had turned white, Hanna moved past the fire trucks and soldiers, and parked as close as she could to what was left of the factory. What had once been a building was now a smouldering pile of charred timber and ashes, reduced to rubble, but what disturbed her most were the bodies lined up on the ground. Given the number of them, she wondered if there had been any survivors at all.

‘Help!' someone yelled, carrying a child in their arms and running from the closest home to the factory. It had a hole through the side, as if it were a doll's house that had an opening to peep through.

Another person appeared, carrying another child, and Hanna quickly got out of the ambulance and opened the back up.

‘Bring them here!' she called.

It only took minutes for Hanna to play along and have the children put in the back, where she placed them on stretchers and covered them with blankets, smiling in the hope that she was able to reassure them they were safe.

But just as she was about to step out, a shadow fell across the back door and she saw that two SS men were standing there, watching her. The couple who'd brought the children out stood, looking at her, as if hoping she could make them go away. Hanna smiled, looking from one man to the other, refusing to cower. They didn't intimidate her in the way they did others, not when her father and many of his colleagues wore the same uniform.

‘The papers,' one of the men said. ‘For both children.'

‘I have them right here,' Hanna said, producing two sets of identification papers from inside her jacket. ‘I'd already asked to check them before I put them in the ambulance.'

She handed them over and stood as the two men looked over both sets of papers.

‘You are the parents?' the SS officer asked, turning to the couple. ‘We need to see your papers, too.'

‘I'm sorry, but one of the children appears to have a knock to the head, and the other child isn't breathing well. It's imperative that I get them to the hospital as quickly as possible,' said Hanna.

They both seemed to consider her as she held out her hand to retrieve the papers, tugging them free.

‘Since you're SS men, you'll both know my father, Oberst-Gruppenführer Karl Müller? He is the one who asked me to work as a nurse, specifically to ensure the medical care of children. They are our future, after all.'

That seemed to work immediately, and the papers were passed back to her without any fuss. She closed the back door of the ambulance and promised the parents that she'd ensure the pair received the very best of care, before settling herself behind the wheel again and driving away from the SS men who were still standing on the road.

It was the very first time she'd ever used her father's rank in that way, but it had worked, and she'd do it again if she had to. Now she just needed to get the children to the drop-off point and hope that her contact was waiting for her, because if they weren't, she had no idea what she'd do with the two frightened little children in her care.

Hanna jumped sideways when a man bumped into her as she walked back to her apartment after work, her mind still full of thoughts of the children she'd delivered earlier. She'd been so lost in her own thoughts that when the man fell into step beside her, she realised he wasn't a stranger at all. This man had bumped into her on purpose to get her attention.

‘Sorry, Fr?ulein,' he said.

‘Noah?' she whispered, recognising him when she glanced sideways. ‘You're lucky I didn't hit you with my bag!'

To anyone watching it would appear they didn't know one another, the way he fell back a few feet from her as they both continued to walk in the same direction. She hadn't seen him for months now, had wondered if he was even in Berlin any more, and now here he was in the flesh and clearly seeking her out.

Noah was a rare sight in the city – a young man as handsome as could be, with the type of features so loved by the Nazis – when most of the eligible young men were either away or parading around in uniform. But Noah walked with a limp, which had made him unsuitable for service. Sometimes she wondered if it was even real, because in every other respect he appeared fit and strong, but he had the papers to prove it and it had so far prevented him from being asked to report for duty. It certainly didn't detract from his magnetism though, in the same way she supposed that Joseph Goebbels could capture a crowd despite his deformed foot.

‘You're here because of today?' she asked, wondering how he knew what she'd done. Had something happened to the children?

‘You breached protocol today, Hanna, going alone and driving the ambulance, but I have to say that I admire your dedication to the cause,' he said. ‘But no more transfers until you're told otherwise. It's becoming too dangerous for us to operate near Berlin. There are snitches everywhere, so we need to wait until we know who they are.'

She swallowed. What would happen then to the children who were still waiting for them to help? The families who'd heard the whispers about the network that could help them, the paperwork that was already being falsified for them? Germany had largely already been purged of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and anyone else the Nazi Party had decided to take offence to, but there were still pockets of families and children hidden in attics and basements all over the country.

‘A family was found last night in the city,' he said. ‘Someone knew they were being hidden, someone reported it, which confirmed that we have a traitor in our midst. Or perhaps traitors.'

Hanna shivered, clenching her fists. ‘They were taken? Last night?'

‘My guess is that they're already on their way to Auschwitz, along with the family that was hiding them in their basement.' He was silent for a moment, and she knew he was about to tell her something she didn't want to hear, because his face softened in a way she'd never seen before. ‘The family was that of your ambulance driver, Dieter. I'm sorry to inform you that's why he didn't come to work today, why you were forced to work alone.'

‘Dieter was taken?' She gasped. ‘And his parents, too?' Her heart was heavy as she imagined the terror of what they'd been through, where he might be now. He'd been as determined as her to help, but the difference between them was that he'd still been holding out hope, however small it might be, that his wife would survive the camps, that they could be reunited if the war ever ended.

He'd never confided in her that they were hiding anyone.

‘Does that mean that I'm in danger? That my family is in danger, too?' She dug her nails into her fisted palm, turning her attention to what his being taken into custody might mean for her. ‘Does it mean that our entire network could collapse?'

‘We're all in danger, Hanna, we always have been. But if someone has turned on us, someone close to what we're doing? They'll begin to pick us off, one by one.' He gave her a sharp stare when he finally came to walk beside her. ‘Or they could come for us all in the night and take us all out at once.'

Hanna focused on her breathing, trying to calm her racing heart. ‘What do you need me to do? How can I help you?' She wanted to ask if there was anything she could do to help Dieter, but she knew that wasn't a question worth asking. Once someone was in one of the camps, there was nothing anyone could do.

‘You can introduce me to your sister,' Noah said, as they passed the door to her apartment block and kept walking, not wanting anyone who might be watching them to see where she lived. ‘I know your father recruited her, and I need her to do something for me. We have to move our timeline up, in case we need to move faster to avoid being caught.'

Hanna tucked her chin down into her scarf and drew her coat tighter around her body. ‘No,' she said. ‘My sister can't be any help to you. Let me do it. Whatever you need, I can do it for you.'

‘Unless you have access to the personal papers of Joseph Goebbels, you can't help me with this.'

‘That would be a death sentence for her and you know it. They would figure out it was her immediately if she relayed personal information!' She glared at him. ‘I won't allow it. You need to find another way.'

‘If you don't arrange the meeting, then I'll find someone else to introduce us.' He paused, his gaze steely as he stared at her. ‘It's up to you. But I will find a way to meet your sister, whether you help me or not.'

Hanna watched him and knew that he wasn't calling her bluff. Noah was notorious for his ruthlessness, for using whoever he had to in order to get what he wanted. If he wanted to contact Ava, she had little doubt that he'd find a way, just like she knew that whatever he was planning wouldn't be abandoned, no matter the risk.

‘Fine. Meet us at the Café Kranzler tomorrow, at midday,' she finally said, choosing a coffee house they could easily walk to, just as he was turning to walk away. ‘I'll make sure she's there.'

Noah nodded, smiling as he met her gaze again. ‘Sit at the table beside me, and don't greet me. We will talk and drink coffee without looking at one another, so no one thinks we're there to meet.'

She nodded. ‘I understand, we'll be discreet. But Noah, you do know who her fiancé is, don't you? That he's back in Berlin? You know how dangerous it is for her to be part of this? What he'd do to you if he thought you'd involved her?' Hanna stared hard at him. ‘Even being seen with you when she's engaged to a man like Heinrich could be a death sentence, for you as much as her.'

‘I already know everything there is to know about your sister, Hanna. And don't forget, we are all playing a cat-and-mouse game here, it's dangerous for all of us. But if this works? Then it might be over, once and for all, and perhaps we can go back to the lives we had before.' He gave her an intense kind of look that scared her, before speaking again. ‘Hanna, is your father unwell?'

She swallowed, doing her best to keep her face impassive. ‘Why would you ask such a thing?'

‘I've heard rumours, that's all.'

She dug her nails into her palms again, forcing a smile. ‘My father is fine, but thank you for your concern.'

With that, Noah turned on his heel and walked away, and Hanna watched him go, finally letting go of the breath she'd been holding. How could anyone possibly know about her father? Unless she hadn't acted quickly enough at the dinner party, and one of the guests had noticed. She prayed that Ava hadn't been foolish enough to tell Heinrich, but then chastised herself for thinking such a thing. Ava knew who Heinrich was now, and there was no way she would do anything to jeopardise their father.

Hanna walked briskly back to the apartment, fretting as much about Ava as their father, for she knew how easy it would be for Ava to be drawn into Noah's web, only to be discarded when she was no longer of use, or to end up dead because something went wrong.

Noah had orchestrated the transport of Jewish children out of Berlin since the night of broken glass, and he'd come to her soon after her husband and son were killed, as if sensing that she was the perfect candidate to assist the cause, crossing paths with her regularly until one day he'd finally asked her outright. He'd recruited her by playing on her conscience, by knowing precisely how to manipulate her, and she'd been a willing participant, especially when he'd confessed to her that his family had been executed by the SS for housing his Jewish girlfriend and her family. But since then, he'd moved on to bigger things, being bolder in what they were doing to try to disrupt the Führer, which told her just how dangerous it was to be associated with him.

She only hoped that whatever he wanted with her sister wasn't part of that bigger plan, because then she'd never forgive herself for being the one to introduce them, for not being more forthright in protecting her. Losing her husband and son had broken her in a way that she doubted she could ever heal from, but losing her sister as well? Hanna shuddered as she walked briskly all the way around the block until she was outside her apartment again. Losing Ava was not something she could survive, which meant that she had only one option available to her.

Hanna was going to have to tell their father about Noah coming to her, and let him decide how to deal with the situation. Noah would be furious with her, but Ava was her sister and she had a duty to protect her, no matter what. If her father thought it was worth the risk, then so be it, but this wasn't something she was prepared to accept without consulting him first.