Chapter 27 Chapter Twenty Six

Dieter sat on the Chetron dejectedly, and returned to Saint-Cecile Castle with the detection team.He went to the radio listening room in the bulletproof basement, and there was Willie Webb, looking annoyed.Dieter thought, the only consolation of this defeat tonight is that Weber has no chance of winning where Dieter made a mistake, so he can't gloat over his misfortune.But Dieter had to endure all kinds of victorious and invincible clamors from Weber, just to catch the "helicopter" and put him in the torture chamber. "Do you have a message from him?" Dieter asked.Weber handed him a carbon copy of the typewritten message and said: "It has been sent to the cryptanalyst in Berlin."

Dieter looked at a string of meaningless strings. "They can't break that code. He's using a one-time pad." He folded the paper and put it in his pocket. "Then what do you want it for?" Weber said. "I have a carbon copy of his codebook," Dieter said.It was only a small victory, but it made him feel better. Webb swallowed and said, "This message may tell us where he is." "Yes. He's due for an answer at eleven o'clock in the evening." He glanced at his watch.It was a few minutes before eleven o'clock. "We recorded it and I decoded it together."

Webb left.Dieter waited in this windowless room.At exactly eleven o'clock, the receiver tuned to the "helicopter" frequency began to emit beeps of varying lengths.A telegraph operator wrote letters, and the magnetic wire recorder spun.When the beeping stopped, the operator pulled over a typewriter, typed what he had written in his notepad, and finally gave Dieter a carbon copy. Two pieces of information could be everything, or nothing.Dieter thought so, and sat behind the wheel of his car.In the bright moonlight, he followed the winding road through vineyards to Reims, stopping at the Rue du Bois.It was really good weather for the Allied attack.

In Miss Remus' house, Stephanie was waiting for him in the kitchen.He put the two encrypted messages on the table and produced the copy that Stephanie had copied from the codebook and the silk handkerchief.He rubbed his eyes, and began to decode the first message sent by the "helicopter", and wrote the translation on the pad that Miss Remas used to write down the shopping list. Stephanie made a pot of coffee.She stood behind him for a moment, asked a few questions, and then picked up the second message and deciphered it herself. The message Dieter declassified briefly described the events at the church, referring to Dieter as Charenton, who was recruited by Miss Remus because she was concerned about the safety of the joint.It also said that "Monet" (Michel) had taken the unconventional step of calling the "middle class" to ascertain that Charenton was trustworthy, and that he was satisfied.

The cables listed the code names of members of the Bollinger resistance who survived Sunday's fighting.There are only four people in total. That's useful, but doesn't tell him where to find the spies. He drank a cup of coffee and waited for Stephanie to finish deciphering.Finally, she handed the piece of paper full of gorgeous calligraphy to his hand. He read the telegram and could hardly believe how lucky he was.The telegram reads: "My God," he whispered. "Stone Field" was a code name, but Dieter knew what it meant because Gaston had told him that during the first interrogation.That was the landing site on the pastures outside the village of Chatterler, a small village five miles from Reims.Dieter now knows exactly where The Helicopter and Michel will be tomorrow night, and he wants to catch them.

He could also grab six more Allied agents and have them land straight into his palms. One of them was "The Leopard" - Flick Clarette, the woman who knew the most about the French Resistance.Under his torture, she will give him the information he needs to break the backbone of the resistance organization and prevent them from providing support to the Allied offensive in time. "Christ Almighty," Dieter said, "what a breakthrough."