Previously: Mercenary Leon meets MI6 spies David, the Prince of Wales, and socialite Wallis Spencer. David abdicates the throne to marry Wallis. He becomes Bahamas governor. Leon dies and his son Sidney turns mercenary. David hires him as his valet. Mission gives them details of their next mission.
By late August 1944, MI6 had worked out all the details for this singularly peculiar mission for David and Wallis to recover highly sensitive documents from the Meisdorf castle in the Harz Mountains. Captain David Silverberg led an exploratory team of American soldiers in the section of Germany along the Austrian border. Local residents told him German soldiers had forced them to unload many boxes at the castle. This information convinced U.S. and British intelligence these were the German official papers they looking for. The Allies planned a full-scale attack on the castle by late summer.
The Windsors packed for a holiday along the eastern seaboard in August. They would visit Jessie and Jimmy Donohue in Palm Beach, and another wealthy friend in Newport, Rhodes Island before Wallis would fake an appendicitis attack and be rushed to Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. Along the way, Gerry Greene told them, doubles would trade places with them, leaving the Windsors to be secreted into Germany.
As David and Wallis left the Governor’s Palace, Sidney approached them.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you?” he asked.
“You’re so sweet,” Wallis replied, “but no one can protect us from Jessie and Jimmy.”
“You need the time off.” David patted him on the back. “Spend some time at your place in Eleuthera.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.” He bowed.
David sensed his valet was not pleased, but dismissed the thought as soon as it crossed his mind. He had other matters to consider, not the least were the Donohues. They always put on a spectacular confectionary circus served with lots of champagne which grated on his nerves. Overriding all his concerns was the mission into Germany. Five years had passed since they had used their spying skills and he worried they would not be up to the task.
A British military plane flew low toward Meisdorf as the last beams of sunlight disappeared, the MI6 commander explained to them that a reconnaissance plane had surveyed the area earlier and found one flat stretch about a mile away from the castle that was suitable for dropping them off. They also found a spot next to the castle where they could land and load the boxes of documents. He assured them they would have plenty of help loading them.
The plane landed; the Windsors jumped out proceeded on foot to the castle. They wore their black clothing and were armed with revolvers with silencers, plenty of ammunition and two flashlights. Walking along the tree line by the road, David noticed Wallis was unusually quiet.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
Wallis shrugged. “A bit nostalgic. This may be the last time I ever get to kill someone.”
David wanted to laugh, but knew he mustn’t break the silence of the night. Soon the silence was broken anyway by an approaching military truck coming from the direction of the castle.
Just as the truck was even with them, David and Wallis opened fire on the tires and the radiator. The tires exploded and vapor escaped the front of the truck, which caused it to overturn in the ditch. David rushed around to the driver’s side to find the soldier dead. Wallis ran to the opposite side where the guard’s upper body dangled out the window.
She placed her revolver next to his head. “How many soldiers are stationed at the castle?” she asked in broken German.
“Huh?” the woozy soldier mumbled.
“Tell me how many soldiers are guarding the secret files,” she repeated.
His eyes were glazed. “Nein.”
“If you don’t tell I’ll put a bullet in your head.” She spoke with a guttural hiss.
He spoke in German and held up both hands and spread out all ten fingers. “Zehn.”
“Zehn?” Wallis repeated.
“Ja.” He held up ten fingers again.
“I lied.” Wallis placed the barrel next to his temple and pulled the trigger.
“Hey!” David called out. “Come over here! I’ve found something!”
Wallis ran to the back of the truck.
“Turn on your torch!” he said.
She pulled out her flashlight and clicked it on. From its light and from David’s torch she could see papers strewn across the ditch.
“I think they’ve started moving the documents.” David said. “We’ve got to hurry!”
She picked up the paper closest to her and read it. “You’re right.” Wallis handed him the letter. It was from Ribbentrop to a confidante.
“I think I love the duchess. I refuse to believe she would not hesitate to be a double agent. Our time together was exhilarating. I’ll never forget when she stuck her hat pin—“.
David stopped reading and tore it to shreds. “We don’t have time to go through all of this and what’s at the castle.” He turned off his flashlight and bent over and hurriedly gathered the documents. “Put them back in the truck and light the truck on fire.”
They worked in a fury and had the truck ablaze in about half an hour. David and Wallis tromped toward the castle.
“I’m definitely too old for this crap,” Wallis gasped.
“Stop griping and walk,” he ordered.
Soon the shadows of the castle appeared around a bend of the road. They approached the gate in stealth.
“The German said there were ten soldiers guarding the files,” Wallis whispered.
The truck guard must have been in a hurry because he left the gate unlocked. The Windsors slipped in and noticed a light in a nearby office. They peeked in the window and saw a guard with his head on the desk asleep. Wallis cracked the door open and shot him.
“One down and nine to go,” she muttered.
Further down the open courtyard they saw off to the side a decrepit donkey cart speckled with straw. David pointed to it. “Remember the cart. We might need it later.”
They came to a large door leading to the main hall. Inside they saw another light in a room and went to it. Wallis had her revolver raised ready to shoot, but David put his hand on the barrel when he saw it was an old man in civilian clothes. He asked him in perfect German who he was.
The old man’s eyes widened in fear. Wallis raised her revolver again.
David smiled and advised him in German to answer quickly because the woman next to him liked to shoot people.
“Please don’t shoot,” the man gasped. “Please don’t shoot.”
“Good,” Wallis said. “He speaks English. So where are the soldiers?”
His hand shaking, he pointed to the staircase in the hall. “They’re all asleep. In big room upstairs. Except for soldier in guardhouse—“
“Oh, I’ve already killed him.”
“Don’t kill me. I’m what you would call a librarian—I take care of all the documents. I’m not a Nazi. Believe me.”
“Oh, shut up,” Wallis snapped.
“Stay in this office and you’ll be safe,” David said.
“Ja, I mean yes, yes.”
“Where are the documents?” David asked.
“In the basement,” the man whispered.
Wallis pointed her revolver at him again. “Remember, don’t leave this office.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
They padded their way up the steps, cracked the first door and found the room empty. The next door was a double so David thought this must be the barracks. He held up his revolver and whispered, “Load up. We’ve got to act fast.”
Wallis nodded and reloaded.
Without a sound, they crept through the door to see two rows of cots going down the walls. The men were in their woolens, and most of them were snoring. David pointed to Wallis to take the left side. One would have five and the other four. Each shot one soldier and waited to see if the others awoke to the muffled sound of the silencer. The Germans continued to snore. From there the Windsors didn’t pause as they put bullets through the soldiers’ heads. Each time blood sprayed out of the other side of the heads. The snoring stopped and in the sudden cold silence, the last man on Wallis’s side twisted in his cot, sat up and saw his dead comrades. David could tell by the way he moved about he still was half asleep. The soldier jumped up, turned and was face-to-face with Wallis. She shot him between the eyes.
The Windsors turned and left the room, trotted down the stairs and opened the basement door where they were surprised by the number of filing cabinets, row after row of them.
“I wasn’t expecting this many,” David said. He looked at Wallis. “What time is it?”
“Two a.m.”
“That gives us until dawn.” He flashed his light around the dark room and found the light switch. “I see empty boxes in the corners. Put the files in there. Only put in as many as you think you can easily carry up the stairs and outside to the donkey cart.”
Both of them opened file drawers efficiently and looked at document titles. If they didn’t see their names they moved on without bothering to close the drawers. David found reports on their visit to Berlin, in details he thought impossible to be observed. He removed them and tossed the papers into a box.
“Oh my God, here’s an entire drawer about me and the choo choo room,” Wallis exclaimed. “That crazy little man really was besotted with me. Well, we have to take that one.”
They had to stop to catch their breath as they filled the boxes and took them outside to the cart. Wallis made a few more observations about those that mentioned her but for the most part she was silent in her work.
In the back of his mind, David worried that whoever was awaiting the arrival of the truckload they blew up might come looking to see why it hadn’t arrived. If they got to the castle before sunrise, he and Wallis would be trapped.
Fewer files were found in cabinets in the back of the room so they knew their mission was almost complete. When they filled their last boxes they went upstairs. Wallis stopped to stick her head in the old man’s office.
“Remember, when the American troops arrive, keep saying, “Please don’t shoot me. Please don’t shoot me.”
“Ja. Please don’t shoot me. Please don’t shoot me.”
“And don’t tell them about us or else I’ll make a special trip back just to kill you,” she said.
“You not here. Ja. You not here.”
When they left the castle, the sun peeked over the mountain ridge. Soon they heard the motor of the military plane. When it landed, MI6 agents jumped out. With efficiency and speed they ran into the castle, pulled the cart out to the plane and loaded all the boxes. They helped David and Wallis in the plane and situated the boxes so they could sit down.
David sat and closed his eyes. Every muscle in his body ached. He was getting old.
“All I ask is that you get me to a four-star hotel as soon as you can,” Wallis said with a yawn. And book me a room with the biggest, most comfy bed they have. And a martini. Make that two. Oh hell, get me a bottle of gin and don’t wake me up for twenty-four hours.”