Half Sick of Shadows » Band of Brothers [2]

11: No Talent for Certainty

"I have no talent for certainty." - Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

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Juliette, Thomas, and Martin waited patiently from where they were gathered around Will, watching as he wrote out the morse code transmitted to him. Even though it was all written in a mixture of shorthand and code, it was a few minutes of tense, concentrated silence.

As soon as he had finished, Will handed the slip of paper he'd been writing on to Tom. Juliette watched him closely to gauge his reaction to their new set of orders.

When Thomas looked up, he shrugged. "Blowing up train tracks," he said simply. Everyone's shoulders seemed to fall simultaneously. That was easy enough.

"Where abouts?" Jules inquired.

"The paratroopers are being sent to take the town of Carentan, and there's a train line just west of there. We'll blow up the tracks a couple of miles down so that the Germans don't stage a counteroffensive."

"What about radio signals?" Will asked, but Tom shook his head.

"The yanks'll need signal, too, to keep in contact with intelligence. All we have to do is blow the tracks."

"Did they give a time?"

"1530."

"We'd best be off then," said Martin after glancing down at his watch.

Thomas pulled out a map of Normandy and laid it out on the table for them all to see. He traced a route with his finger from where they currently were to where the train tracks were. After making sure everyone understood where they were going, he nodded and straightened up.

"Right, let's go then. We're burning daylight waiting around here."

Jules nodded and stepped forwards as though to follow him out of the door. Suddenly, however, he shook his head. "Jules, lose the Boche uniform. You won't need it."

She sighed out her relief and stripped off the belt and jacket immediately, muttering a 'thank God' to herself. After she was free of the German uniform she tucked it behind the sofa she'd spent the night on, but she kept the field cap in her pocket as a sort of souvenir. She had become rather fond of it, morbid as that was.

The four of them trekked through the makeshift camp relatively uninterrupted - the Americans were all being hustled together to be informed of what they were to be doing next. They walked through fields for what seemed like hours - and, really, probably was - stopping every now and then to check the compass against the map considering there was little in the way of distinctive landmarks. When, eventually, they came upon the tracks, they were five minutes early.

Juliette and Martin stood guard, guns aimed and ready as they scoured the surrounding areas for enemy activity. Out here, they were completely out in the open, and even crouching in the long grass there would be little to do if a company of Germans stumbled upon them. She supposed that was why they had been given a specific time.

The train tracks were set on top of a hill, the incline steepening the further along you walked until the tracks continued over nothing but their metal support structure, the ground giving way to a large drop and a body of water below. Thomas and William were set to detonate the bomb, and Juliette went up and over just before them to stand sentry on the other side of the hill.

"1530," she heard Martin call out roughly five minutes later. She heard rather than saw Tom and Will climb their way up onto the tracks and talk quietly between themselves as they set to work setting up the explosive.