Connie Willis - All Clear

Ernest nodded. “Where’s this supposed to be?”

“Brixton,” he said. “It’s actually a street in Walworth, but I was able to crop out the village hall. The bomb fell at”—he consulted his list—“4:05 A.M. on the eleventh.”

“4:05? That won’t work. The dentist wouldn’t be open at that hour, not even for an emergency root canal.”

“Oh, right,” Chasuble said, taking the picture back. “I’ll see what else I’ve got.” But he still didn’t leave.

“Cess was here earlier looking for you. He said it was urgent,” Ernest said, and Chasuble finally departed so he could get back to his typing. He’d had more and more difficulty finding time to write his messages since D-Day. Now that Moncrieff and Gwendolyn were in France, Cess had no one else to pester and was always coming in to sit on the edge of his desk. And when he wasn’t there, Chasuble was, talking about Daphne the barmaid and reading over his shoulder. Which meant he had to snatch odd moments in which to compose his messages.

And the disinformation articles he was writing now gave him fewer opportunities to work in Polly’s and Eileen’s names and information since the locations had to be the false ones they’d agreed on, and since Chasuble and Cess frequently ended up delivering the stories to the papers. But he did the best he could, writing an assortment of announcements, letters to the editor, and human-interest pieces, and sticking them in with the captioned V-1 and V-2 photographs whenever he was the delivery boy.

“Christmas is still two months off,” he typed, “but two Nottingham girls are already hard at work on a festive project: sending a bit of Advent cheer in the form of homemade crackers to our brave lads in uniform. Misses Mary O’Reilly and Eileen Sebastian of Cardle Hill are making the—”

“I couldn’t find Cess,” Chasuble said, coming back in.

“Try the mess,” Ernest suggested.

But it was too late. “There you are, Chasuble,” Cess said, appearing in the doorway. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Remember how Daphne told you she wouldn’t go out with you?”

“I’ve been trying to forget it,” Chasuble said glumly.

“Well, you needn’t. I’ve got good news. I’m taking her to a harvest fête in Goddards Green this afternoon. Wait!” he said, backing away from Chasuble’s raised fists and putting his hands up to protect himself. “Hold on till you’ve heard the whole thing.”

“Go ahead,” Chasuble said grimly. “How exactly is this good news?”

“Because she’s bringing her friend Jean with her, and I told her I’d bring along a friend for her. Wait!” He circled around behind the desk.

Ernest draped a concealing arm over the paper in the typewriter.

“Don’t you see?” Cess said. “While you’re impressing Daphne with your prowess at the coconut shy, I lure Jean off to the tea tent, and by the time you find us, I’ll have worked my fatal charm on Jean, you’ll have worked your fatal charm on Daphne, and we swap. We’re leaving at ten.” He started out the door.

“Wait,” Chasuble said. “Isn’t it a bit late in the year for a harvest fête? And why is it on a Wednesday?”

“The fête had to be delayed when a V-2 hit the Women’s Institute,” Cess said. He started out again and then leaned back in. “Oh, I nearly forgot,” he said to Chasuble. “Lady Bracknell wants to see you.”

“What about? You don’t think he’s found out about the Austin, do you?”

“I do hope not,” Cess said. “You’re no use to me dead.” And the two of them finally departed.

“I do hope not,” Cess said. “You’re no use to me dead.” And the two of them finally departed.

And hopefully whatever it was Lady Bracknell wanted, it would take at least half an hour, Cess would be curious enough to listen at the door the entire time, and he’d have time to finish his article. “The Christmas crackers are made of pasteboard tubes and wrapping paper donated by Townsend Brothers Department Store and contain tissue-paper crowns. As for the traditional pop of a cracker, Miss O’Reilly, known to her friends as Polly, said, ‘No, our soldiers have had enough “bangs” for the year and should like peace and quiet for the holidays.’ ”

Not that they’d get it. Christmas week was the Battle of the Bulge. Another event I’ll never be able to observe, he thought, remembering the attack on Pearl Harbor, which he’d spent decoding intercepts. And during the Battle of the Bulge, I’ll be typing articles about Christmas on the home front and sending V-1s and V-2s down on innocent people’s heads.

“The Christmas crackers will also contain a sweet,” he typed, “and a handwritten motto, such as ‘A stitch in time saves nine,’ and ‘Seek and you shall find.’ ”

Chasuble stomped in. “Well, that’s that,” he said disgustedly.

Cess leaned in the door. “What happened?”

Damn it, Ernest thought, stopping typing. At this rate, Christmas would be over before he finished the story.

“The boiler at St. Anselm’s in Cricklewood blew up,” Chasuble said angrily.

“Cricklewood?” Ernest said, frowning. “I thought you were taking the girls to Goddards Green.”

“Not now. I’m not taking them anywhere. It seems the bell tower is still standing.”

“What?”

“It’s Norman. And famous. Bracknell wants photographs, captions, and accompanying stories delivered to all the London papers for the evening-edition deadline.”

Oh, now he understood. The damage from the boiler explosion looked like that from a V-2 attack, and the famous Norman tower would have been in travel guides, which would make the identification of the church by the German Abwehr not only possible but likely. And it was northwest of London, where they were trying to convince the Germans their V-1s and V-2s were landing.

“It’s not fair,” Chasuble said dejectedly. “I’ll never get another chance at Daphne.”

“You’re quite right,” Cess said. “You go to Goddards Green with the girls, and I’ll go to Cricklewood.”

“No, I will,” Ernest said. And deliver my pieces to the village weeklies on the way back.

“You will?”

“Yes. But before you go, get me the time of the V-2 we’re going to say this is. And I’ll need directions to St. Anselm’s. Oh, and ring up the Herald and tell them not to print anything about St. Anselm’s till we say so.”

“I will,” Chasuble said, and rushed out.

“Thanks, old man,” Cess said. “I’m in your debt.”

“Get me directions to St. Anselm’s, and we’ll consider it even,” he said.

Cess nodded and left. Ernest only had a few minutes. “Quartermaster Colin T. Worth will see that the crackers reach their destination,” he typed, “and several hundred lucky soldiers will have a happy Christmas, thanks to two resourceful girls ‘doing their bit,’ just as the Prime Minister has asked all of us to do.”

He rolled the sheet out, retrieved the funeral notice, stuck both of them inside his jacket, then sat back down at the desk, fed in a blank sheet and three carbons, and typed in caps, “GERMAN TERROR ROCKET DESTROYS HISTORIC CHURCH.”

“It fell in Bloomsbury, last Wednesday,” Chasuble said, coming in. He’d changed into a jacket and tie. “At 7:20 P.M.”

Wednesday evening. Perfect. Wednesday was choir-practice night. “Any casualties?”

“Yes, four. All fatalities, but there was a second V-1 in the same area at 10:56, so that’s not a problem.”

Except to the four people who died, Ernest thought. And the people who’ll be killed in Dulwich or Bethnal Green when the Germans alter their trajectories because of this photograph.

Cess came in. “Here are the directions to St. Anselm’s.” He handed Ernest a hand-drawn map.