“I think that anything would be welcome,” Langford said. He stared out over the grey sea towards France. “At the moment, if the Russians land, we will lose. If that happens, you will be unable to repair the situation without hideous losses.”
Hazel hadn’t known what would happen to her in the days since she had found the police station and betrayed the two Russians. She had been interrogated repeatedly by policemen and people in plain suits she guessed were from MI5, digging out every last fact about the Russians that she knew. Her information, she had been told, had been very detailed and very useful, but the Russians had been careful to lay false trails. The attempt to trace their allies, assuming that they had allies, had failed; Hazel had been warned that it would be a long time before she could go home. The Russians might want revenge for the betrayal.
Instead, she had spent several days being moved south, into England. The people escorting her hadn’t explained why she was being driven along deserted motorways, taking their time as they drove down towards the south; she had merely had to remain with them until they reached Dover, where she had been booked into a B&B and left there. No one knew that she was there; she hadn’t been allowed to talk to her father and the telephone system was still out of commission. Dover had been under a curfew; the police and armed soldiers were patrolling the streets, preventing anyone from being out at night. It had seemed like a strange place to hide; Hazel might have been only a civilian, but she was certain that Dover was the closest place in England to Russian-occupied France.
“It’s a surprise,” her escort had said, and refused to say anything else about the reason for coming. Hazel had reluctantly accepted it, but the B&B was boring; the owner was one of the owners who insisted on treating each and every guest like a potential thief. She had been reluctant to loan Hazel a DVD player, she had been reluctant to loan her books, or even make-up and other womanly supplies; it was no surprise that there was no visitor’s book. If she had been visiting of her own free will, she would have left the day afterwards; the woman had been very resentful of Hazel’s escort, who had insisted that the woman provide lunch and dinner as well as breakfast.
A car drew up outside; Hazel wondered if it was her escort, coming back to take her somewhere else. Moments later, she heard angry chatter downstairs; the woman had to be angry at whatever was happening, but she didn’t seem to have any choice in the matter. Someone came up the stairs, walking very lightly, and then there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Hazel shouted. Her mouth fell open. “Stuart!”
He stood there, tired, dressed in muddy clothes and with three weeks of stubble on his face, but it was him. Hazel was across the room, flinging her arms around him, before she even realised who it was; his body felt wonderful in her arms. There was a rightness to it that made her melt, even before his lips met hers in a long lingering kiss. Messy as he was, it was no trouble at all undressing him and pulling him into the bed the grumpy woman had prepared for her; it had been too long since she had felt him inside her. He felt wonderful.
The morning afterwards, they had a long shower together, made love again, and then lay together in bed. “So, what happened to you?” Robinson asked, his voice carefully nonchalant. “I only heard a few rumours…”
“I’m pregnant,” Hazel squealed, remembering. She was gushing and couldn’t help herself. “Oh Stuart, it must have been that last night…”
He looked oddly mixed between joy and worry. “It may not be a good world to have a child,” he said, and told her everything. The deployment, the surprise attack, the long retreat through Europe… and finally the trip on the commandeered liner from Ostend to Dover. “I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
“Me either,” Hazel said, and told him everything about the Russians. She left out a handful of details he didn’t need to know, but she told him proudly how she’d broken the pipe and used it to escape, revealing the existence of the Russians to the police. “Then they brought me here…”
“It must have been a reward for you,” Robinson said finally, shaking his head. His face had become deathly pale. “I thought you were safe…”
“I thought you were safe,” Hazel said, and started to cry. They fell into each other’s arms again. “I was thinking of you all the time, thinking that you would be safe and…”
Robinson just held her and said nothing.
“So,” Hazel said finally, “how long do we have?”
“I was told two days,” Robinson said. He shook his head grimly. “I may be in some trouble; I left a valuable pair of vehicles back with the Germans and some people want me and Ben in serious hot water for it. Under the circumstances, I should be fine, but…”
He grinned. “I think that after that I’ll be assigned to the defence force here,” he said. “I think that you’re going to get your cute ass back to Edinburgh or somewhere after the end of my leave.”
Hazel stood up. She enjoyed the way his eyes followed her breasts; it gave her a sense of power. “I am not going to leave you again,” she said, firmly. Was that a tear she saw in his eyes? “I will find somewhere nearby and stay near you…”
“Hazel, it’s not safe,” Robinson said, and pulled her close. “Please…”
For a few moments, everything was all right with the world.
Interlude Four: The End of Europe
The defeat of the French near Nancy spelled the end of Europe.
In the Mediterranean, Russian submarines received coded transmissions and went into action. Hidden under the waves, the Russian submarines wiped out the ships that Algeria had used to transport their soldiers to France, both the remains of their professional army and holy warriors fired with faith. Tens of thousands died, unaware of their ally’s treachery; the Algerian conquest of France faltered and died. The French had been fighting back with increasing desperation and savagery, their professional training making up some of the difference in numbers; now, the French finally had a chance to cut off and destroy the remaining Algerian forces.
Malta had fallen in the first hours of the war; Algerian forces had invaded Corsica and Sardinia, but rapidly discovered that the natives had their own reputation for bloody-mindedness. The Algerians, cut off from their supply line, held on grimly; the resistance moment bided its time and prepared the final blows. Sicily, invaded by a mixture of Algerian and Libyan forces, became a bloody battleground as the Italians fought back desperately, or tried to escape to the mainland. Italy itself was no longer safe; the chaotic war was shattering the very fabric of Italian society. The Pope’s call for peace was swept aside as Italy descended into ethnic conflict; in many places, priests even called for a crusade against the Islamic forces. When Russian units walked through the Czech Republic and Austria and entered Italy, they were almost welcomed as saviours.
The Russian enclaves in Norway were rapidly expanded, even as Sweden and Finland agreed to enter the new Russian Federation on very favourable terms. The Russian President had a sneaking respect for the Finns; they would be permitted considerable autonomy provided they remained out of trouble. The Swedes, less well regarded, were forced to enter on Russian terms. The Norwegians had had two weeks to get organised, but open resistance was futile; the remains of the Norwegian Army and thousands of civilian volunteers melted into the mountains and prepared themselves for an underground war.
For France, the Russians had a different fate in store. Paris fell, three weeks after the war began; the Russians walked into the city after the provisional government tried to escape to the south, to the other war zone. As cities were surrounded and forced to surrender, insurgent leaders came out, expecting to be greeted as allies. They were surprised when specially trained and prepared FSB units snatched them, cuffed them, and in many cases rewarded them with a bullet to the back of the head. Other insurgencies and isolated French units struggled to hold out; the Russians secured the locations they needed and surrounded hotspots of resistance. They could be handled later.