When the World Went Silent: A completely heartbreaking and utterly gripping World War Two page-turner by Ellie Midwood

Author:Ellie Midwood [Midwood, Ellie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2024-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-THREE

In her wildest dreams, Mina couldn’t imagine herself heading home to Linz and not just by herself, but with Siggy by her side, and yet here they are, rocking gently on a train gliding languidly south, their legs touching at every curve of the railroad. He came through, Hauptmann Taube, if not with one promise, then with the other.

“You were right,” he said in place of a greeting as soon as he stepped through her door, snow-dusted and smelling sharply of pine and frost. “They don’t give a toss about possible ramifications. My superiors told me to mind my own business and leave the science to the scientists. And the scientists—I’m talking Dr. Diebner here, of course—laughed me out of their office altogether. Said radium poisoning is a fairy tale some American girls invented during the Great War to conceal their whoring ways and syphilis, and that Madame Curie died of regular cancer and that radiation had nothing to do with it whatsoever. At any rate,” he proceeded, digging in the inner pocket of his military overcoat, “here’s your official permit for a two-week leave, signed and stamped. And here’s your train ticket for Linz. Merry Christmas.”

The look he gave Mina as he handed her the paper was one full of sorrow and infinite regret. Her fate was out of his hands now. The brightest minds belonged to the state. This last favor she’d asked from him was all he could do for her.

That, and Siggy waiting for her on the platform with a coy grin and a makeshift bouquet of pine—several fluffy, evergreen branches tied together with a red satin ribbon—with a pinecone at its heart.

It lies on Mina’s lap now, heady and unexpectedly soft as she puts her fingers through its needles, stroking it like a cat and almost expecting it to purr in response.

“How did he know?” she asks no one in particular, but Siggy understands her at once.

“He works for the Abwehr. It’s their business to know everything.”

“But the fact that we were friends? That you were coming to visit me?”

“They brought us from the same town, from the same university, from the same faculty even. It would be strange if we didn’t know each other.”

“But here, in Berlin?”

From Siggy, an unconcerned shrug. “Either an informant living on your floor and reporting all comings and goings or one of their own Abwehr people following you around, recording what you’ve been up to.”

Neither is a comforting thought and even the glittering, pristine snowy expanse outside their train car’s window doesn’t quell Mina’s worry.

“Do you really think they follow me?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. You scientists are an infamously unreliable lot. You worship numbers instead of gods and politicians, and therefore, it’s notoriously difficult to control you. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s your boss who called their attention to you.”

Mina freezes momentarily. “Dr. Heisenberg?”

Siggy makes a face. “No, the other one, the one in whose side you put a major thorn when you pulled that trick at the conference.

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