Out of Time

Clara slowly worked the knobs of the radio she had out. She knew the procedure to use it in the field. Nevertheless, testing out the capabilities of the equipment was critical. She started from the low range and listened to see if anything was on that frequency. As she suspected, there was not. She tuned the radio to a frequency she knew would have some traffic. She smiled as the device gave her the clicking of Morse code. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted someone. Well, that was all the practice she was getting for now. She switched off the set and packed it into the backpack for the upcoming mission.

“Everything to your liking?” A male voice echoed.

“As far as I can test it, Major. We’ll see if it holds up in the field. I thought Atkins would be here.” She replied.

“That your prerogative. Atkins has another assignment to handle. The boys are all set. Hope to hear your report tomorrow.” He gestured, “I walk you towards the plane.”

Nodding, she hoisted the bag onto her shoulder and walked to the plane. The bomber they headed towards had crew finishing the walkabout of the aircraft. She spotted her companion for the trip out. There was the handsome American Sullivan, the French Jacque, and the quiet Donavan. That, of course, was only their code name for the trip out. She had the code name Irene for the jaunt out.

The Major stopped and held out his hand. “Good luck.”

She acknowledged his remark while shaking his hand then she turned to the plane.

The men were waiting to climb in the bomber. As she walked over to the men, Sullivan spotted her and grinned.

“Hey, Irene. That’s the bigwig, hu? Got all the figures in order?” A certain amount of smugness entered his voice.

“As best as I can ascertain. Why are you grinning?” Clara did not like the intonation he spoke with.

“It's nothing. I snag a little something from you.” He held up an item she recognized as her diary.

“You, ass. How did you get that?” Unsuccessfully swiping at the book.

“Easy enough. I sweet-talked the girl you left this here book with. You really need better friends.” He chuckled as he held the book just above the reach of her 5’5” with arms outstretched would reach.

“You have a nerve. Bringing that here jeopardizes my mission. What if that falls into the wrong hands? I left it with her for a reason.”

“Don’t worry so much. I got a little lighter with me. I burn it if anyone gets too close to my tail.”

“You better.” She huffed, seeing there was no reason to waste more energy trying to retrieve the diary back.

“Besides, I doubt it would be helpful. You have it all in French, German, and English. And maybe in code, I see for several sections gibberish.”

“It is to delay nosey parkers like you. It would not stop a determined investigator.”

The aircrew gestured that they should all get in now. Stopping the conversion, Sullivan got into the plane, and the other two quickly followed. Sighing at this man, she climbs up into the plane.

It would be a while before they fly over the drop zone. That being the case, Clara decided it would be a good time to read. She searched her pack for the paper novel she had put there earlier. Instead of pulling out her copy of Evil Under the Sun, she pulled a slim pamphlet. She read the title, H.H. Geschäftsordnung.

She shot Sullivan a dirty look. It would be like him to stick this into her bag. She sighed. He was due wringing out once they were on the ground. Well, she might as well see what joke of a book he made to annoy her with. It might be good. Equally, it could be terrible. Knowing Sullivan, he would keep her book till after the drop. Damn him. She bent over the book and started reading by the dim glow of emergency lighting.

Several minutes later, she sighed as the crew told them that they were good to jump. She stuffed the book back into her bag. If Sullivan thought any of that garbage was good, she had a fist she wanted to introduce.

Fortunately for Sullivan, Clara was positioned the furthest away from him. When the doors opened, they jumped. They had practiced the timings so that all of them would leave the plane and reach the ground at roughly the same time.

Clara suddenly felt a shiver go up her spine just as she jumped. She was only a minute out of the plane when something strange happened. As her parachute deployed, what looked like fog or clouds engulfed her. The swirling water vapor nullified any chance of her seeing where her comrades had gotten to. This cloud had an oily feel to it. As she felt that she was leaving the cloud, a blinding light hit her eyes, and she could not see.

The other three landed on the ground. Donavan had something wrong with his ankle as he was holding it. Sullivan turned to ask Clara her medical opinion. He did not see her anywhere nearby. Sullivan quickly scanned the sky to see if she was coming down soon. He also did not see her there. Did she get lost somehow? Did she drift in a separate direction? She would meet them at the rendezvous point if something like that happened. As he and Jacque lifted Donavan and headed to the rendezvous point, he wondered where she had gone. He would be doing that for the rest of his days.

“Please, turn your attention toward the sky as our newest contestant comes in.” Justine crowed.

The camera points upwards. A parachute is seen slowly coming into focus. Hanging off the chute is a woman. She is steering the parachute as best she can. As the camera tracks her, she avoids hitting the stage lights and lands on stage.

Walnut curly hair fizzed around as the woman cautiously looked around. Her bright jade eyes look at the strangeness of her situation.

‘What the hell happened? Where am I? It was close to midnight, so why was it so bright out?’ she thought, tossing off the parachute and assuming a fighting stance in case anyone rushed her. It would be difficult to explain that she was not a spy if she had landed in a German encampment. Somehow, she doubted that she was anywhere near Vichy France. The building she could see was very English as far as she could see.

Besides, the people she saw were not Germans at all. She only saw one male and an older gentleman at that. He was not in any feldbluse. Instead, he was in a relatively clean grey press suit. The others were all females. The one next to the gentleman wore a red dinner gown. The other three dressed in clothing styles and colors she had not seen. One was even in a uniform that she did not recognize. Her clothes consist of brown pants and a white shirt. She felt underdressed for whatever party she crashed into.

If she had to guess nationality, it would be that the man was English or something like that. There were three Chinese/Japanese folks and a Soviet. Russian maybe?

She sensed movement behind her and whirled around to see a butler of some Asian descent approach her. She ready herself for a fight. The butler ignored her and went to pick up the discarded parachute. Gathering the chute and bag, he neatly stored all of them in a large container. He proceeded to wheel it off the stage.

She relaxed a little before a voice startled her. She whirled around to see the Asian lady pointing at her.

Justine clapped her hand and exclaimed, “That was an excellent landing, my dear. Now, normally, I would ask contestants to introduce themselves. But I understand that this is a situation you don’t understand. Thus you are very likely to say nothing at all. So let me introduce this contestant.”

She got up from the sofa and walked up the stage to Clara. Clara tensed at the woman getting close. Her gut was telling her not to mess with this lady at all. Justine stopped a good five feet away from Clara.

Justine turning towards Thomas, announced, “This is Clara Poulin. She is twenty-five. Now she does not know the good Doc here. He does know a lot about her. For …”

She was interrupted by Thomas standing up and shouting, “What the hell are you doing? Think of the ramification of your actions! This …”

Justine shot Thomas a look that stopped his argument from proceeding.

“Now, Doc, if you let me finish. Miss Poulin’s absence would not affect anything, as I would have said if you allowed me to finish. We have taken her right before, well, you know the details, Doc. If you want to, you can tell her what you know. But for now, sit.” She said coldly.

Thomas hesitated for a moment, then sat down.

Regaining her composure, Justine brightly said, “Pardon the interruption. We were talking about our contestant. For our viewers, we have had a peak at dear Clara has just dropped in from one exciting time into another one. Now that's a spicy number. More spicy is the rest of the show.”

Justine moved towards the sofa and stood behind Thomas.

Her hands lightly gripped his shoulders, and she beamed, “We are heading to a sponsor read now. But when we are back, we have an old friend of the Doc here. It’s all adding up, coming up soon.”