Sibbie thought this over. Their radio transmitter was hidden in the store shed behind the shop. Every night at seven p.m. they went there, as instructed. They took with them the component needed to activate the transmitter, then waited for thirty minutes. If nothing came through, they disabled the radio, and that was that. Surely any instructions would come via that medium? This thought made up Sibbie’s mind as to the action they should take. ‘I think we’ll have to radio HQ. Our orders were to inform them as soon as we can, if an emergency arises. I think this comes under the heading of an emergency. If that message is fake, then it means that Uncle Arnie – and our code – is compromised, and so are we.’

‘But how?’

‘The Maquis may have been infiltrated. We have no way of knowing.’

Fear showed in Marjie’s eyes. And it matched Sibbie’s fear. Thoughts of their instructions, if caught, came to her; although would they have to take the cyanide pill? They knew nothing and had been involved in nothing, so no matter how much they were tortured, they couldn’t give away any information. But then she realized just how much they did know. They knew about the Maquis, and who the coordinator of the Resistance groups was. They knew Paulo, the leader of the Laurens de Hérault section, and that Jacques, Madame Bachelet’s son, was a member of the Maquis; and, of course, they knew much about the workings of the espionage system. Information that would be catastrophic in the wrong hands, especially the radio codes used over the air. Her heart dropped.

She’d been shocked when, on their last briefing, the final item given to them was a pill that they were to keep on them at all times. ‘If you are caught, you are to put this into your mouth and bite down on it. You will be dead within seconds. It is to protect you from torture, and especially the possibility of you giving information that would jeopardize our operations and compromise our agents in the field. Your captors will use vile methods to extract information from you, on the promise that you will go free if you give in; but you won’t go free. As soon as they get the information they want, they will shoot you.’

Sibbie’s blood had run cold. For the first time, the realization of what she had let herself in for truly hit her. But then the knowledge had come to her that she was ready to carry it all through. If she had been given this stark reality at the beginning of her training, she doubted she could have gone on. But as she had stood there and accepted the pill, and felt her first reaction of terror fading, she’d known that she had the courage to go forward.