Chapter 38

38

Over the summer, Jana's main contact was Nela. Egon had retreated to the hills outside Prague where he was rounding up and training new members of the resistance. Nela would give Jana details of the pick-up and drop-off points. At first, Nela remained curt and unsmiling, but as Jana continued to turn up for each assignment, a restrained camaraderie developed between them.

Jana's new role gave her a sense of purpose once more and helped offset the drudgery of producing those dreadful Jack boots for the enemy. And without Andrej in her life, her missions helped to give her a different focus, during the daytime at least. At night, he still dominated her dreams and she refused to believe Nela's view that he was dead.

Jana's long hours at the shoe factory meant her assignments were scheduled for either early mornings or evenings. On a hot, August morning, Jana strode towards the market in Wenceslas square. Each week, there were fewer stall holders – they had nothing to sell – but still the citizens turned out with their ration cards in the vain hope of finding a scrap of food to feed their families. Mostly people liked to meet up and talk.

Jana carried a nondescript, brown, nylon shopping bag stuffed with newspapers, which she would exchange for a similar bag stuffed with radio parts. Her left wrist was bandaged: a signal she was the courier. Leaning against the base of the Wenceslas statue was a petite woman holding a yellow notebook in one hand and a brown nylon bag in the other. Jana sidled up to her and they both placed their bags on the ground. Ignoring each other, they surveyed the square and watched the passersby. After a few moments, Jana checked her watch and as if realising she was late, snatched up the petite woman's bag and headed off across the square. Feeling the weight of the radio parts made her heart race.

She passed a violinist playing under a lantern, his case open on the ground before him. Two policemen appeared through the crowd, marching in her direction, the older, heavier one staring straight at her. Uneasiness rippled in her stomach; a feeling of déjà vu overcoming her. The same violinist under the same lantern, and the same spot where Lenka was arrested was where Jana stood now; two policemen about to stop and search her. It was kismet that she too would be captured doing exactly what Lenka had been doing in the same place. Inevitable really.

Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead as she halted and waited for the moment, her hand that held the shopping bag trembling. The police were in front of her now, both giving her strange looks. She would go quietly, not make a scene. Perhaps she would end up in Terezin with Lenka; that was if the Gestapo didn't get her first. Didn't do what they did?—

‘Are you all right, Miss?'

The older, heavier policeman was talking to her, frowning. ‘You're looking very pale. '

‘Just feeling a bit faint,' Jana murmured.

‘It's the damn heat. Going to be another scorcher today. Take a drink from the fountain and get yourself in the shade.'

‘Yes, thank you, I'll do that.'

He nodded and the two policemen walked on.

Jana pulled herself together and took her delivery to the Masna coffee shop where she handed it over the owner behind the counter, relief flooding through her at the successful completion of her task.