Jinnie’s Story – Book Three, Chapter Eleven

When it came time to leave for Heathrow Jinnie said Goodbye to Larry and told him that she would be back in a few days and that he would be OK as Paolo and Penny would look after him. Larry was sure they would feed and water him, stroke him and talk to him but they weren’t Jinnie, he had a special bond with Jinnie and missed her when she went away. He always worried that one day she wouldn’t come back from one of that nice Nigel’s missions. Jinnie double-locked the front door as Paolo had gone to work and Penny was at university and climbed into the car glancing at the front room window. Of course Larry was watching her and she felt a little pang of guilt seeing him in “his” spot.

As she drove to Heathrow she went over her preparations in her head. She had been down to Portsmouth the previous day and had been fully kitted out in German clothing and accessories by the ever-present two Wrens. She had already got her cover documents, passport and air tickets to Stockholm and the clothing was added to those in her hold-all. She wondered what the police would make of her bag if she was stopped and searched. Then she remembered that was highly unlikely as her car was flagged on the police computer as SIS.

A few days ago she had spoken with Dirk as he had was going to be a link in the chain of communication between her and the Polish Resistance. Dirk was only too happy to be involved, he missed his undercover days and although he enjoyed being a recruiter for SIS he missed being in the action but knew his left leg would never allow him to work in the field again. He had taken the time to say how pleased he was with Penny’s progress and he felt that she was going to speak German like a native. As yet he had not finally decided if she should be taught to speak with a similar accent to her sister but it would make sense if the SIS ever wanted them to work together. Jinnie knew her sister’s German language skills were coming on leaps and bounds as she was now able to join her and Paolo in conversations only occasionally having to ask about words and phrases.

Penny parked in the long term car park for her terminal, locked the car and set the special alarm that ‘C’ had insisted was fitted to her little Mini. All senior operatives cars were being fitted with a device that continually scanned its magnetic field and gave a warning on the screen of her mobile phone if the car was interfered with in any way while she was away from it. If the car was bugged, had a tracker or a bomb stuck on it she would get a warning and had a number to call for technical assistance.

Jinnie checked in at the BA desk using a passport issued in the name of Susan Ann Milgate but carrying her own photo. The girl on the desk gave her passport photo a quick look and checked it matched her and ran it through the scanner. As it had been issued by the passport office in Belfast Jinnie had no worries about it being flagged. Check-in was over quickly and Jinnie had a window seat in Business Class and plenty of time to get a coffee before boarding. Susan Milgate worked for a paper merchant and was on her way to visit a paper mill about the prospect of a large order for a new product. She was to be met by a paper mill limo at airport.

Jinnie settled back in her seat and ate a standard airline lunch of chicken breast, roast potatoes, broccoli and carrots washed down with a little bottle of English wine. She reflected that since ‘freedom’ the airline food hadn’t improved but the substitution of cheap French wine with a decently English wine had improved that greatly. And the coffee was definitely loads better than the weak German muck they used to serve. Jinnie dozed a little and was awakened by the “ping” that accompanied the seat belts sign coming on a few moments before the remarkably gay steward announced that they would shortly be landing at Stockholm and the captain had illuminated the seat belt sign. Ten minutes later they were on the ground and Jinnie was heading through passport control where her passport got a quick glance, didn’t ring any bells when it went through the scanner and she was wished a good stay by the Swedish official. She grabbed her hold-all at the carousel and walked straight through the green channel without being challenged.

Emerging into the arrivals concourse she quickly spotted the uniformed driver holding up a board with “Mrs Milgate” printed on it. She approached him and he took her bag and headed for the executive area of the adjacent multi-storey car park where a Mercedes limousine was waiting. As they pulled out of the car park the driver asked Jinnie if she had spotted the Abwehr agents in the arrivals hall. Jinnie said she thought it was probably the couple sat drinking coffee in the cafe who looked extremely fed up. The driver confirmed she was right and he didn’t think they suspected them. They were used to him, he was there picking up genuine customers two or three times a week and having had him followed a few times in the past they seemed to have given up on him.

The Mercedes disappeared into the underground car park of the paper mill company in the Stockholm central business district. A lift took Jinnie up to the seventh floor meeting room where she was officially having a meeting with the CEO. He shook Jinnie’s hand and offered her a coffee before getting down to business. He knew the meeting was a sham and a small trial order had already been negotiated and secretly signed by the genuine Sue Milgate so they just chatted for a while mainly about the only thing they found they had in common, football. As soon as it looked reasonable the CEO called for the limo to take Jinnie to her hotel.

Jinnie checked in and was shown to her room. Officially she was staying for a few days combining work with a few days holiday. A few minutes after closing the room door there was a tap on the door and Jinnie answered it to a man and a girl who looked somewhat like her. She was her height and build with her long blonde hair and blue eyes. They immediately got down to work. Jinnie disappeared into the bathroom and changed into her German clothing, while the look alike dressed in clothes identical to Jinnie’s business attire. When Jinnie came out of the bathroom the new Sue Milgate was on the phone to the hotel restaurant reserving a table for dinner and establishing the cover story.

The man drove Jinnie to Nynashnm, the port for Stockholm, along Riksvag 73. She was booked on the overnight ferry to Gdańsk in her new persona of Inga Meyer. Inga was a native of Munich who was employed by Bosch in their Stockholm offices, or so her perfectly forged papers said. If asked, Inga was popping over to the Third Reich for the weekend to do a bit of shopping as “everything in Sweden was so expensive”. Jinnie slipped into the crowd of people getting off the train from Stockholm and getting to the security check showed her passport and ID Card. They passed the electronic scan and she was waved on to the next check which was her ticket and cabin booking which she again sailed through. Before she was able to heave a sigh of relief she was over the gangplank/bridge from the terminal and onto the ship and being guided to her cabin. The steward guiding her spoke heavily accented German and suggested that if she intended dining on board that evening she should make a booking immediately as the “good” restaurant filled up quickly. Jinnie took the hint and booked as soon as she was on her own.

The meal was quite good, not exactly fine dining, but a mixture of German, Swedish and Polish dishes suitable for the service. But the bunk was comfortable, the sea was calm and Jinnie slept well. Breakfast was only a quick self-service buffet before the ferry docked in Gdańsk but it was perfectly edible and anyway Jinnie was not hugely hungry having had a big meal the night before. She left her cabin as the ship docked and headed for the disembarkation lounge. As one of the cabin class passengers, she was one of the first to be allowed off.

Jinnie came out of the terminal building and immediately spotted Jan waving at her. He took her hold-all and slung it onto the back seat of his hire car and headed off from the terminal towards his parent’s home. As Jan drove, Jinnie watched the road signs and thought thank God the Germans insisted on dual language road signs in each occupied territory or I would have no idea where we are heading.

Simone and Juliette were waiting at Jan’s parents and Jinnie was greeted like the old friend that she was. She had already told Jan she was Inga and she quickly explained the same to Simone. It was a little more difficult with Jan’s parents as she had been Elise Fontaine from Paris when they had met at Simone and Jan’s engagement party in Nice. So she was Elise for a few minutes chatting in French before heading for a hotel. Jan’s parents were delighted to babysit Juliette, they didn’t see their granddaughter very often and it was a treat for them to spend time with her.

Following checking in at the hotel Jinnie told Simone and Jan that she needed to do a bit of shopping for her cover story to hold if searched on the way back. So while Jan watched TV in Jinnie’s hotel room Simone and Jinnie headed off in the couple’s hire car for an enjoyable girlie afternoon buying clothes, underwear, make up, shoes, a handbag and another hold-all. Jinnie explained that anything she purchased would be perfect for any future missions into the Third Reich and the best bit was that it was all being purchased with SIS funds!

In the last of the department stores, Jinnie became aware that they were being followed around the store, at a discreet distance, by a girl of about her age. Picking up a navy blue skirt she hated, she told Simone she wanted to try it on. Simone turned up her nose, but still followed her to the changing rooms. Once inside Jinnie asked Simone if she had spotted the girl in the green floral dress and white jacket who had followed them around the store. Simone hadn’t, but supposed she could be a store detective. Jinnie said she had dismissed that as she had watched her pay for several items. Jinnie’s guess was Gestapo, but a clumsy newish recruit and wished she was armed. Simone dived into her bag and pulled out a small automatic pistol.

Jinnie recognised the gun as a Colt Mustang XSP, not a gun she would have chosen as the .38 didn’t have the stopping power of her favourite Glock. But with much of it being made from composite it had less chance of triggering a random metal detector that some Third Reich shops and public buildings had started to install to try to prevent terrorist attacks. Jinnie pocketed the gun and hatched a plan with Simone.

Leaving the store they strolled down the road and did a bit of window shopping at several clothing shops. Having established they were still being followed Jinnie just disappeared, using several of the tricks she had learnt during her basic SIS training. Simone moved on to the next shop and stood looking in the window as if waiting for Jinnie. Simone used the shop window as a mirror. Green dress was a couple of shops back and Simone watched the reflection as Jinnie appeared behind her, spoke to her and they headed in the direction of Simone’s hire car.

Green dress and Jinnie got in the rear seats while Simone drove them to a secluded spot on the outskirts of the city. Green dress was only to happy to talk to them in accented German. No she was not Gestapo, Abwehr, or any other intelligence or police service. She was a geologist who worked for Brabag, the German synthetic fuel company that turned all types of coal from all over the Third Reich’s occupied territories into fuel oil to supplement the natural fuel from the Caucuses. She told them she was Polish and her name was Renata Maier and she had got her degree at Adolf Hitler University in Berlin. She had immediately recognised the two girls when she saw them in the store having seen them around AHU together and had even seen Jinnie shoot as her boyfriend was a reserve for the shooting team. He had initially been upset to lose his possible place to a girl but when they had seen her shoot he had changed his mind. But when the war had broken out and Jinnie had not returned from England he had been happy because he had got her place.

Renata continued saying when she heard about the British “War of Liberation” she decided that was what she wanted for Poland, but she had no way of contacting the Resistance, German or Polish. She still had that urge and when she had seen the English and French girl in a Polish department store. She had realised something was happening as they should not be together in Gdansk and had decided to follow them. Jinnie was inclined to believe her, her paperwork supported her and to have invented such an easily checkable cover story was not the way the German secret services worked. Renata happily accompanied them to their hotel where Jan could question Renata in Polish and get his resistance friends to check her out.

Jinnie was hoping that Renata was genuine, she was beginning to formulate an idea of using her knowledge of Brabag plants to handicap German forces in any future actions. Before they set out for their evening meeting with Jan’s resistance colleagues the word came that her story checked out, her parents lived where she said and they had several pictures of her at various ages dotted around the house. The records at AHU checked out and the employment record agreed with the story. Jan thought she was a natural Polish speaker and her knowledge of AHU was too intimate to have been learnt as a cover story, she knew people, bars, restaurants and lecturers. He thought she was genuine.

Jinnie’s meeting with the Polish Resistance went well. They were only too happy to deal with her directly, they felt the SIS’s Liaison Group were too regimented and slow. They supplied armaments and explosives but were reluctant to agree plans for their use. The Resistance was anxious to get on and resist and direct contact with someone who had the ear of the British PM could only be a good thing. Contact methods were agreed. They would use the SAS, who they trusted, to contact Jinnie while still talking to the Liaison Group as if nothing had happened. Jinnie introduced Renata to them and explained she wanted them to run her on her behalf. Although she was officially based in Brabag’s office in Munich she travelled to their plants all over the occupied territories. She regularly visited a new plant under construction in Gdansk and took the opportunity to visit her parents. She had a boyfriend in Munich, another Pole and she believed he thought like her, but the decision was taken to keep her new allegiance secret from him until the German Resistance had investigated and cleared him.

Jinnie travelled back to Sweden delighted with her trip. She had got the contact with the Resistance she set out to obtain. She had met with her friends Simone and Jan and their delightful little girl. She had obtained current Third Reich produced clothing and cosmetics. But perhaps best of all she had recruited an agent who held a senior post in a Nazi company and was in a position to potentially help the resistance in several of the occupied territories cripple oil supplies. A good weekend’s work.

In Chapter 12- Penny follows her sister.
 

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