Today's Reading
Back at the Brighton Residence Hotel, she raced upstairs to her studio and jammed a chair against the door. Collapsing on the bed, she kicked off her penny loafers. Inside the MacInnes novel was a similar cutout—containing a miniature Minox. A spy camera, carrying who knew what secrets. She placed it under her pillow, then flopped back, remembering her girlhood heroine, Nancy Drew. Overcome, she giggled&pretty soon she was shaking with laughter. Hugging herself to keep silent.
A matter of national security. Of all the plays she'd written, parts she'd enacted—this one took the cake. By the time her giddiness faded, she was drained but utterly exhilarated. Stars shot through the blackness behind her eyelids. Julia had never felt like this before and couldn't wait to tell her boss.
Her actions might end up in Donovan's morning briefing for the president.
Now she'd never sleep.
CHAPTER TWO
"You what?"
General William Donovan rarely raised his voice, and as he did now, Julia flinched, feeling the force of his anger. Jaw tight, he regarded the tiny Minox camera on his desk. Lined up between them were his telephones, including his direct line to the president—and the red one, which she'd had the temerity to answer last night.
"I had to, sir. The lives of thousands of Danish Jews were at stake."
He tapped the red handset. "You are not authorized to answer that phone."
Julia steadied herself, digging her fingernails into her palms. "I'm sorry. We'd just received the Swiss cable—about a Nazi Final Solution to the Jewish problem! I was putting it on your desk when the phone rang. I was pretty emotional and guess I had a feeling it was important."
"You guess?" he demanded in a withering tone. "In this business, feelings and emotions can be dangerous. Guesses can cost lives."
Julia cast her gaze to the floor, wanting to sink through it. "Of course, you're right. I overstepped. But&" She needed to make him understand. "O'Connell said I had to pass operational funds to his contact at Union Station—before midnight. That it was actionable intel. You were at the Dietrich bond rally, not expected till later. There was no one else."
"The man is reliable," Donovan conceded; then his look hardened again. "But you didn't know that! So don't try to justify yourself."
This could be it: the consequences she'd feared. Would he demote her back to the clerical pool? Or fire her? The end of everything she valued. Barely breathing, Julia waited to hear her fate.
He frowned at the world globe on his desk. "We suspect a leak somewhere between Stockholm and here, so I had O'Connell report directly to me. The German cable traffic is too critical to mess with."
Her heart raced. "I knew I was taking a risk. But—"
He directed his focus back at her. "Reckless behavior, McWilliams." Under a thatch of silver hair, his bright-blue eyes were dark and weary. Bill Donovan had little time for sleep, communicating with every time zone from HQ—or hopping around the globe on a Pan Am Clipper seaplane, overseeing operations.
He'd always seemed invincible, but Julia now glimpsed the man beneath the myth, human after all. While hating to cause him additional grief, she had to persist. Her actions had been necessary. "In exchange, the Swedes would pass us a valuable thank-you." She glanced at the Minox.
He pushed it toward her with the curt order, "Get this into processing."
"Yes, sir." She closed her fingers around the little device.
As they shared a sharp glance, she watched his weathered face. But all those lives, aren't they worth fighting for "You've often said you'd prefer a young lieutenant with the guts to disobey an order to a hidebound old colonel."
"But you're not a young lieutenant," he shot back. "And despite your high-security clearance, it's not high enough to answer that telephone."
Julia felt diminished, utterly hollowed. Then she planted her feet. "Sir. Working here is the greatest privilege in my life. Your leadership has inspired me, your life. " Hearing her voice rise, she tried to force it back down. "In the last war, you refused a French Croix de Guerre until your Jewish comrade was equally honored. I want to stand against injustice, too. O'Connell's mission seemed a just one." She pushed on before it was too late. "It was also in our interest."
This excerpt is from the paperback edition.
Monday we begin the book Running Out of Air by Lilli Suttonby.
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