The Iron Storm by CW Browning (classic literature books TXT) 📕

to get irritable. There was only so long he could stand in this alley, watching the very uninspiring facade of the double-agent’s house, after all. He scowled. It was all the fault of the incompetent idiot in Antwerp who had allowed the courier to get away with the package in the first place. If not for him, Hans wouldn’t be here now. He would be in Berlin, presenting his superiors with the stolen plans for the Stuttgart plants.

The couple stopped under the street lamp in front of Asp’s house and Hans stilled, raising his eyebrows. Then the woman partially turned and looked up at the man, a smile on her face. The light from above fell across her face and Hans straightened again with a soft gasp, shock rolling through him. He stared at the pale hair and large eyes that he knew were the color of bright cornflowers, his fists clenching at his sides.

It was her! It was Rätsel, or Jian as she was called now. It was the woman from the café in Strasbourg all those months ago! The English spy who had been leading him around in circles for months was smiling brightly up at a clearly nervous young man directly across the street from him. Staring at her face, Hans was stunned. She was so close!

He had lost her in Strasbourg, and then one of his agents had lost her again in Oslo. After that failure, the task of hunting her down was taken away from the SD and handed over to the Abwehr. By that time, her value had been recognized by men much higher himself. A beautiful young woman who spoke German perfectly and worked for the British government? She was a threat that couldn’t be ignored, especially after she assaulted an SS man in an alley in Stockholm, leaving him unconscious. After moving the responsibility over to the Abwehr for her apprehension, Eisenjager had been put on her trail in Norway last month. Hans’ lips twisted sardonically. For all his arrogance, even the famed assassin had failed, and Jian had once again slipped through all of their grasps.

And now, unexpectedly, here she was.

He watched as the two turned and started down the path that ran between Asp’s house and the one next door. They were almost to the side door when the realization of what this all meant hit Hans with such force that he sucked in his breath, his skin flushing and then growing cold. The courier wasn’t a courier at all, but the English spy Jian! He hadn’t been chasing a mere courier from Brussels, he’d been chasing the very woman he’d been looking for since a summer afternoon in Strasbourg before the war began!

He couldn’t believe his good fortune! Not only would he get back the stolen plans that Berlin was so desperate to keep out of British hands, but he would also be the one to bring back Jian, the elusive British agent who was becoming bothersome in her tendency of showing up where they least expected her. Operation Nightshade would be a success, and his place in the senior command would be assured.

Unless Eisenjager had also recognized her.

Hans cursed and pressed his lips together. Somewhere nearby, the assassin was also watching, waiting for his Belgian target to show up. If he had recognized Jian just now as Hans had, he would be just as determined to claim her. His was an open contract, Hans knew. He had failed in Norway, but he would continue hunting her until he found and killed her. Hans clenched his fists again unconsciously. He couldn’t let that happen.

Jian was all his.

Eisenjager lifted his head from where it was laying back against the headrest and watched the couple that paused under the lamp outside Asp’s house. They weren’t the first pedestrians who had walked down the road in the past four hours, but they were the first who stopped outside the house. After a moment, they turned and walked down the path between the two houses and disappeared from view. He knew there was a side door. Voss had mentioned it earlier. They could be going to the side door, or they could simply be cutting between the houses to get to the street behind. There was no way for him to see from his position down the street. He would have to wait and see if the light went out in the front window. That was the only thing that concerned him. It would tell him that at least one of his targets was there.

He wondered if it was Jens who had just walked down the path. If it was, who was the woman? Given how the rest of this mission had gone, it didn’t seem likely that he would have the absolute good fortune of having both targets together. That was far too easy, and nothing had been easy up until this point.

She was probably a girlfriend, fleeing with him from Brussels, he decided dispassionately, watching the front window down the street. Whoever she was, she was of no interest to him aside from the obstacle she presented to getting to Jens. He hadn’t expected his target to have a companion, but that wasn’t very much of a problem, after all. Even the most devoted couples didn’t stay together twenty-four hours of the day. He would simply wait for a few of those moments when Jens was alone.

It was a few minutes later when a shadow appeared behind the lamp in the window. The light went out and the curtains were pulled closed behind the lamp, blocking the view inside the house. Eisenjager sat forward and started the engine, shifting into gear. He would move up so that he was closer to the house now. When Jens left the house, he would get out and follow them on foot. Voss could continue to wait for the courier.

He pulled the car over across the road from Asp’s house, stopping just past