The War and After by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Author:Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: writers, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, fantasy, short stories, world war two, collection, paris, historical fantasy, fairie, kristine kathryn rusch, wmg publishing, novelists, faerie justice
Publisher: WMG Publishing

***

Yet by the end of the interview, he wondered. He still had that odd sense that she was lying to him. After she left, he sent for LeRoi.

“Do you have any papers for her?” Cooper asked. “Some kind of file?”

“I have her work records. Hours, pay records, that sort of thing.” LeRoi sat in the chair the women had sat in. He looked smaller than they had, and older, as if the war had diminished him.

“What about a resume? Some kind of application? Any personal history?”

LeRoi smiled. The smile was slow and knowing. “You are interested in her.”

Cooper was, much as he didn’t want to be. He took non-fraternization rules seriously. Or he had, until he saw her.

“For our project, yes. But she’s not being forthcoming. I need to know how many languages she speaks, how old she really is, and where she comes from.”

“I do not have such papers,” LeRoi said. “I have not found a language she cannot speak. I send for her if someone is having trouble, and within a moment, she can resolve the problem. She is truly gifted.”

“That’s what she said.” Cooper tapped his pen on the page. “If you don’t have any background on her, how did you come to hire her?”

“I had a sign, asking for multilingual employees. She came in and dazzled me.”

“By talking in half a dozen languages,” Cooper said dryly.

“I could not find one she did not know. I even sent for one of our older employees. He had been a missionary in China and spoke some of that language.”

The Chinese spoke many languages, but Cooper did not correct LeRoi.

“She was able to answer him. Then they had a discussion, until his Chinese wore out, not hers. I hired her on the spot.”

Interesting. Cooper kept tapping his pen. He was so used to the Navy. All the regulations and approvals had become part of his life. And he was becoming more and more paranoid. He wanted everyone checked out. After being in Germany for two months, he found himself believing that everyone could be a spy. Even though the German government—Hitler’s government—was gone, there were the Russians. Even though they were allies, he hated them, every one he’d met, with a passion that surprised him.

“What do you know about her then?” Cooper asked. “The personal things.”

LeRoi smiled that odd smile again. “She lives near the Sorbonne. She lives alone, so far as I can tell, and never speaks of family. Nor do young men come for her, and she does not participate in those discussions about husbands lost at the front. For all her languages, she says little to the other women here. She keeps to herself.”

“What happened to her family?” Cooper asked.

LeRoi shrugged. “What has happened to most, I suppose. Even for France, it has been a difficult few years.”

Cooper didn’t reply to that. Paris stood. The French countryside was lovely. Families escaped or they survived under the Vichy regime. A few got caught resisting. Some became sport for the Nazis.

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