I crossed the bridge into Dębniki and started in the direction of the café. Then I hesitated. Just a short while earlier it had been closed. But it was morning now and I prayed that Krys, or at least Kara, would be there. Mercifully, the café door was unlocked. There was no one inside and so I walked swiftly down the steps into the piwnica. I found Krys behind the bar, studying a map of some sort that he had laid out across the floor.

“Ella.” Seeing me, he stood. He did not smile. His face was haggard, eyes sunken and ringed with worry, as if he had not slept at all. “You can’t be here.” His voice was terse and I wondered if he was angry with me for quarreling about the munitions the previous evening.

But I could tell from his grim expression that his worries went much deeper than our disagreement. “What is it?” I asked. “Did something happen to Sadie?”

“She’s fine.” He paused. “Only the munitions...someone took them.”

Dread filled my stomach like a rock. “Who?”

“We don’t know. The police, we think, or maybe a German patrol.”

“They went into the sewer?” He nodded. I was aghast. The very worst thing, which Krys had sworn was not possible, had happened. “Do they know about Sadie and the others?”

“I don’t think so.” He hesitated for a beat. “I don’t know.”

Alarm flooded my brain. I wanted to shout at Krys that I knew he never should have hidden the munitions in the sewer, that I had told him so. I imagined how terrified Sadie must have been to discover that someone had been there. But none of that mattered anymore.

“We’re going after the munitions and whoever took them,” Krys said. “There’s a team searching for them and I’m going to join them now. But in any event, we’re going to have to move Sadie and the others right away.”

“It’s probably for the best anyway,” I said.

Now it was his turn to look puzzled. “Why? What do you mean?”

“Ana Lucia, she found Sadie’s necklace that I was hiding for her.” Krys’ eyes darkened as he processed the implications of what I was telling him. I waited for him to berate me for doing something as foolish as hiding Jewish valuables, but he did not. “She put two and two together and figured out that I’ve been helping Jews. She doesn’t know about the sewer yet, at least I don’t think so. But she threw me out of the house.”

Anger clouded his face, followed quickly by resignation. “I’m sorry. I know how upset you must be. But honestly, that part is for the best. When the Allies finally do liberate the city, you don’t want to be anywhere near a collaborator like her.”

He was right, of course. “But it’s only a matter of time before she tells the Germans what I’ve done.” I waited for him to disagree.

He did not. “We’ll find you a place to go, get you out of the city,” he replied instead. I watched his eyes dart about as he formulated a plan. “Your brother is in Paris, isn’t he? You can go to him.”