Alistair glanced up from his doodling at his boss, who was sitting back from the table cross-kneed, glass in hand. The colonel’s casual attitude irritated him. “Maybe I’m having doubts about risking five young lives on missions that may be pigs in a poke. They’re not professionals, Bill. They’ve had no military experience. They’re just kids off the street with more savvy and guts than most who have been given a crash course in espionage.”

“All missions are pigs in a poke,” Bill Donovan reminded him. “We never know what value will come from them, but we have no choice but to send agents in. What is your worry about this group? You’ve placed your kids in the most secure situations possible while being in perfect spots to feed us great intel. I think you’ve put together a brilliant package, Alistair. If your boys and girls land safely in the pickup zone and do not stray beyond their assignments, they should be in no overt danger.”

Alistair shook his head. There was no safe ground in Nazi-occupied France. “You’ve just hit on the source of my worry, Colonel,” he said. “The team may stray beyond the safety of their assignments.”

Colonel Donovan noticed that his deputy had dropped even more weight during the intense two-month indoctrination of his five-member team. Alistair’s sallow skin indicated he’d been living on a diet of caffeine and nicotine. The bowl of Virginia peanuts on the table, Alistair’s passion, had remained untouched. “What gives you reason to think so?” Donovan asked.

“Because each of them has their own agenda for wanting to get into France, motives beyond a desire to serve their country, and that’s what could get them killed—or worse—unless they’re fortunate enough to be executed first.”

“But those motives are why you recruited them.”

“And they are what may come back to bite them and us on the butt.”

“The team has been fully apprised of the danger?” the OSS director asked. “Including what they’ll be in for if they get caught?”

“Every aspect of it. They’ll be issued the L pill, of course, just in case.”

Bill Donovan squinted at him. “What else is going on with you besides concern over your charges roving outside their boundaries, Alistair?”

Irritated, Alistair downed half his second glass of club soda. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he said, “All right, if you want me to say it, I will. I don’t want to lose these kids. I want them to come home and have a crack at a long life.”

“In other words, this time you don’t want to be responsible for sending another team of young people to an early and possibly painful death. This is not about them. It’s about you.”