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    Sabotage
    Sabotage
    Sabotage
    Ebook90 pages1 hour

    Sabotage

    By Christiane France

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    About this ebook

    When the dark clouds of war began to roll across Europe in 1939, Pamela Bradley-Browning expected to be conscripted into the British army. Instead, thanks to her wealthy father and his connections, and what he believed to be Pamela’s total inability to do anything except file her nails and party ’til dawn, she’s given safe but essential war work as an assistant intelligence analyst at MI5. That is until a flurry of sabotage activity and a shortage of agents has Pamela posing as a member of the Women’s Land Army with instructions to root out the bad guys.

    Although determined to show her father she’s not the brainless idiot he thinks, Pamela makes the mistake of falling in love with Corporal Bruno Sabatini, one of the Italian prisoners of war working on the same farm. She knows fraternizing with the enemy is a crime. But she’s not too worried until she discovers Bruno’s father owns an arms factory in Italy, appears to be pro-German, and Bruno is MI5’s number one suspect as the saboteur. If Bruno is found guilty, she can add conspiring with the enemy to the charges against her.

    While the Italian pow’s are the enemy and the obvious suspects, Pamela knows a saboteur needs motive as well as means, and she doesn’t believe the pow’s have either. It’s someone else, but who? Desperate to clear the name of the man she loves before the police decide to wring a confession out of him, she doesn’t know where to start looking--until the farmer’s wife, Maggie, decides to help, and Pamela learns about certain pre-war friendships and dangerous secrets that were successfully used as blackmail in the past.

    Although this is something that happened five years ago and the blackmailer is now dead, Pamela has a feeling the potential for blackmail still exists. In fact, there’s an excellent chance someone else has discovered the secret and is using the knowledge for his or her own ends. To solve the mystery and save Bruno from false arrest, she’s in a race  against time to find the latest pieces of the puzzle and unmask the real villain.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChristiane France
    Release dateAug 10, 2017
    ISBN9781386241515
    Sabotage

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      Book preview

      Sabotage - Christiane France

      Prologue

      His muscles tensed and everything within him wound tight like a spring. He held his breath...waiting for the supreme moment, the one special moment he’d been anticipating all day.

      The spring wound even tighter.

      And then his lover’s clever tricks made what he’d hoped for happen. Except it was so much more than he’d imagined. An all-encompassing feeling that rushed through his body with the force of a tidal wave.

      The years spent waiting for his lover to return, with nothing but memories to sustain him, had been both long and difficult. And it had been much too long since he’d experienced anything quite this wonderful.

      He sighed and trembled with a combination of satisfaction and sheer delight, but then the door flew open, and a silky voice observed, How nice! How wonderfully fucking British of you, darlings. There’s work to be done. But do you care, you disgusting, unconscionable bastards? No! Here you are, the pair of you, bonking yourselves into kingdom come, and leaving me to pick up the slack. Again.

      They remained locked in the intimate embrace, but when neither man replied, the voice continued in the same arrogant tone, Since both of you seem quite incapable of getting it through your thick heads, perhaps I should remind you that what you’re doing is illegal. Homosexuality is a criminal offense in Britain—an offense that carries a stiff prison term for anyone foolish enough to get caught. So, I suggest you start being a little more careful and lock the door in future because it just so happens I need the assistance of both of you on another job. If I didn’t need you, then I’d...

      The speaker smiled, a humorless, cat’s-got-the-cream kind of smile. Just be grateful that I do. It’s the same kind of thing you did for me before, so our friend here has all the necessary expertise. Make as big a success of this assignment as you did the last time, and I promise, your secret will continue to remain a secret. At least for now.

      And if we’re not successful? he asked.

      Ah, but you will be successful, my darling. You know what will happen if you’re not.

      The man sighed, this time in disgust rather than pleasure, wanting to reach for something to cover himself, but knowing this would be taken as a sign of weakness he could ill afford to show. He needed to put a stop to the blackmail. He needed to make a stand. But... He sighed again. What choice did he have but to submit to her demands? So, give us whatever it is we need. Where and when does it have to be done?

      The speaker shrugged. Sometime tonight. I not sure exactly when, but I’ll talk to you again later, as soon as I have all the details. In the meantime, if you feel an attack of nerves or cold feet coming on, I suggest you give serious thought to what will happen after the pair of you are convicted and sentenced to umpteen years in prison—long years that you’ll spend bending over, holding on for dear life to your skinny ankles while some big, brawny specimen has his wicked way with you. Those places are full of sex-hungry men who’ll fight for the privilege of sharing a pair of experienced shirt-lifters like you. You’ll be lucky if you get as much as a single minute of peace.

      After a brief hesitation, the hateful voice continued, Of course, that’s assuming you don’t get caught for conspiring with the enemy. I believe the punishment for that is death. The judge will sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you’re dead. Just imagine it, my darlings. As the rope tightens around your neck, your eyes will bulge out of their sockets, your tongues will protrude from your mouths, and you’ll agree to anything if you can take just one more delicious breath.

      The speaker hesitated and smiled. I wonder. If I ask nicely, do you think they’ll let me watch?

      *          *          *

      Satisfied things would again proceed according to plan, the speaker left the house by the back door for a pre-arranged meeting in the woods.

      As expected, the person she’d expected was already there, sitting on a tree stump, smoking his pipe.

      How did it go? the smoker inquired.

      They’ll do it. They have no choice. All I need now is for you to give me the approximate time that goods train is supposed to reach the Halt.

      The smoker tapped his pipe against the tree stump to get rid of the dead ash. And, of course, the little surprise package they’ll need to make sure the train doesn’t reach its destination. He stood up, put the pipe in his jacket pocket and checked his watch. Meet me back here in two hours, and I’ll have everything they’ll need to do the job.

      CHAPTER 1

      God, Bruno. No wonder I love you so much. You’re absolutely bloody marvelous, Pamela Bradley-Browning shrieked as Corporal Bruno Sabatini gave her what she’d spent most of the afternoon thinking about and hoping for.

      Sssh. I love you, too, my precious. But we really must be careful and keep the noise down, Bruno said in his upper class British accent that matched Pamela’s to perfection.

      It was an accent Pamela knew he’d acquired before the war, first by attending a British prep school and, later, one of Britain’s famous public boys’ schools.

      If one of those Home Guard chaps catch us up here in the hayloft, there’s no doubt but what the fool will shoot first and ask questions later. Don’t forget, bella, I am a prisoner of war.

      My prisoner, Pamela purred as Bruno’s mouth moved down her neck to rest against her breast, and she began stroking him back into action. As she already knew from past experience, reviving his ardor would just take a few minutes, five at the very most.

      The best thing about you English girls is that you adore this, Bruno said, with a chuckle, as Pamela continued coaxing him back into operational mode. Not like the girls at home who want a promise of marriage before they’ll even let you kiss them, then run home screaming to their mamas the instant you even try to put your arm around them.

      You seem to know an awful lot about English girls.

      I met one or two while I was at school here.

      Pamela gave an amused chuckle. I think you mean one or two dozen, right?

      Bruno abandoned her breast in favor of giving her a hurt look. "You make me sound like a selfish, bed-hopping cad. I assure you I’m nothing like that. Yes, I’ve known one or two English girls. But none of them were anything like you, bella. I

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