Free Behind Enemy Lines by Jennifer A. Nielsen Page B

really a homeless man who’d died a few months ago from eating rat poison. He may not have given his life for his country, but he had given his death. For that, he deserved to be honored.
    A couple of times during the funeral, she saw the top of Clauss’s crisp blond hair poking into people’s whispered conversations as if eavesdropping for anything suspicious. Perhaps he was hoping Martin’s briefcase might somehow fall from the sky and land in his lap. But it wasn’t until the guests left that he found her, sitting on a bench near the cemetery. Just to have him beside her felt like a cold wind had blown in. But she kept her calm.
    “I heard a rumor that Major Martin drowned at sea,” he said. “Probably after his plane crashed.”
    “That’s what the doctor decided.”
    “Why didn’t any other bodies wash up on shore? Where’s the plane wreckage?”
    Don’t appear too obvious,
Sera reminded herself. If she was supposed to be on Germany’s side, then she should be hopeful, but not yet convinced.
    “That’s a good point,” she said. “You should probably wait another week or two and see if anything else washes up.”
    “Stupid girl!” Clauss crossed his legs and turned away from her. “If Martin was carrying information, we can’t wait two weeks to get it.”
    Sera tried to hide her smile. That’s what she’d hoped he’d think. Who was stupid now?
    “Martin had papers with him, correct? In a briefcase?”
    Sera nodded. She wanted to tell him the entire fake plan, to convince him right then that Martin was real, that Britain was invading Greece and not Sicily, and that he should tell Hitler just to surrender now. But the truth was that she hadn’t seen anything written on the papers. Right now, it was more important to make Clauss trust
her
. And to get that trust, she had to tell him the truth.
    “He had papers,” she said. “But I couldn’t see what they said. There were envelopes inside the briefcase, too, and they were sealed.” Then, just in case it helped, she added, “The British officer in the room didn’t seem very happy that Spain has them.”
    Clauss smiled. “That’s because many officials in Spain quietly support Germany in this war. But they can’t just hand the papers over to us. Our work must be . . . subtler.” He stood and withdrew from his pocket a single coin. “That’s for your trouble.”
    “Only one?” Sera said. “This won’t buy anything.”
    “Then find me more information,” Clauss said.
    Sera nodded and he left. Only then did her heart begin to beat normally again. Had she done enough? Would the papers really make their way into German hands without any further effort on her part?
    She was so lost in thought that she didn’t realize the doctor was approaching her until he sat on the bench where Clauss had just been. “Sera, why were you speaking with that man?” he asked.
    “Clauss?” Sera tried to keep her cool, but her heart rate was already back up again. “He was curious about Major Martin. He wanted to know what happened to the briefcase. I . . .” She decided to go for it. “I told him I was curious about that, too. Do you know what the man who took it will do with it?”
    The doctor scowled. “He will keep it under lock and key until he’s ordered to take it to his superiors in Madrid. It’s none of my business, and if you’re smart, you’ll leave it alone, too.”
    “But —”
    The doctor grabbed her shoulders and nearly shook her. “Right now, Martin’s papers are at the center of a world war. If you meddle, you will get in the way of some very dangerous people.” He released her and then pulled some money from his pocket, which he shoved into her hands. “Clauss isn’t fooling anyone. He’s almost certainly spying for Berlin. If you need money, it isn’t worth making a devil’s bargain with him. Take this instead. Use it to leave town, return to your family while you can. The Nazi spies will know you saw those papers. I