Brad knew he should obey orders and destroy the letter from his mother to which the whole family, including his new stepfather, had contributed news. Rationing had begun. Meeker, Colorado, was virtually devoid of all its young men because of the draft, and the lumber company was short of manpower. The new house was under construction, Beata and Margie were taking tap-dancing lessons, and Bobby had an afternoon job as a stock boy at Shreve’s grocery store. They were all praying for Brad’s safety wherever he was, and they loved him very much.

Bobby had included his own note, which was especially touching and probably had been inserted unread by his mother. Brad could hear the boy’s voice striving to be manly: “I’ve listed here the order of importance of those items I think you should know. Your mom and sister are fine. That’s number 1. Number 2 is that Jared is an okay guy, too. You can tell he loves your mom like my dad loved my mom. I remember that part from the old days. Number 3, he treats Margie and me as good as Beata which is saying a lot. You don’t have to worry about that. I think that is about all. I miss you. It is empty here without you.”

Brad had read the letter over and over, milking each line for every detail to make sure he had missed nothing. Apparently all was well in his family’s household back in Meeker, Colorado. But while he’d almost committed the letter to heart, he couldn’t bear to set fire to it, and there were no secure hiding places in his apartment. Finally he settled on simply tucking it into a book in plain sight, the best hiding place when nothing else was available. By now the general would have had his apartment searched as a matter of course, and no one else had reason to.

*  *  *

The day after Hans’s revelations, the book was one of the first places the general looked after Brad left for work. He could not read the concealed letter, but he recognized its language as English. He now had evidence that his young friend was an American spy.

*  *  *

“It would seem, Herr Bauer,” Jules Garnier said to Chris, “that you are now the new sports director of the Academy. I received my orders this morning.”

Chris stared at the man in surprise. “How did that happen? I’m the most junior instructor here!”