But no one came for her. On the fourth day Dmitry managed to get word to her. “Mikhail died under interrogation last night. His heart gave out.”
“He didn’t tell them a thing.” Anna didn’t know whether to grieve or feel relief. The man who had helped her for a year and a half had died horribly.
But he had died like a professional, taking the network with him. He had saved her with his life. Kranz kept working, but now when he looked at Anna, his expression had changed.
It was no longer suspicion. It was frustration. He knew he had lost an important lead and could not figure out where. Meanwhile, headquarters still needed information on the offensive.
A week after Mikhail’s death, Dmitry made a decision. Kranz would eventually find another courier, then find Anna, and that would be the end of it. The only reliable way to save her from torture and death was to get her out.
The next morning he officially summoned her to his office on the pretext of translating documents. When she entered, he locked the door and turned to her.
“I’ve made a decision,” he said. “Tonight you’re going back across the lines.” Anna shook her head at once.
“I can’t. I don’t have a courier anymore. I don’t have a route.” He said, “You will.”
She looked at him doubtfully. “How?” He explained the plan quickly.
He had his own separate network, completely independent of hers. Through those contacts he could reach their command directly. He would request her extraction that very day.
“It can be done. We’ve done it before.” Anna asked, “What about you?” He looked away.
“I stay.” The words hit her like a blow. “No,” she said. “If we go, we go together.”
He shook his head. “My position is too valuable.”
“An enemy general working for our side is a strategic asset. Headquarters will never pull me out while I can still operate.” Anna grabbed his sleeve. “Then I stay too.”
He looked at her with something like pity. “You don’t understand how close this is,” he said quietly.
“Kranz is already near your trail. Give him another week, maybe two, and he’ll have proof. And when he does, he won’t just arrest you.”
“He’ll torture you. And eventually you’ll talk, because under enough pain everyone talks. Then I die, my network dies, and so do the soldiers we might still save.”
Anna fell silent. As an intelligence officer, she understood the logic. Cold, brutal, undeniable. But her heart would not accept it.
“Will I ever see you again?” she asked. He did not answer.
He simply pulled her into his arms and held her the way people hold each other before a final parting. They stood there for several minutes, neither willing to let go.
Then he drew back, took her face in his hands, and looked at her steadily. “Remember me alive,” he said. His voice shook. “Just remember me alive.”
The extraction plan was simple and dangerous. Dmitry officially arranged Anna’s arrest as an unreliable translator suspected of contact with partisans. The paperwork was genuine, complete with signatures and seals…
