Cold Lonely Courage (Madeleine toche Series Book 2) by Soren Petrek

about it.”
    “I used to think about the consequences of what I was going to do and did it anyway. I’ve killed civilians, including women and children when they got in the way,” Hartmann said, concentration on the table. “I blew up an apartment building once. It was full of Nazi brass. There were children playing out front. I leveled it. I’m not confessing, I’m just telling you that you will be confronted with those situations and you’ll have to decide what to do.”
    “Bombs fall on children every day. If I have to bomb, I will, but I’d rather kill my targets directly,” Madeleine said. “And I’m not anyone’s judge, certainly not yours.”
    Hartmann nodded. “We’ll sleep outside again tonight. The group of recruits upstairs will be trying to find us.”
    “What do we do if they succeed?” Madeleine said.
    “Do what you did the time you couldn’t shake the tail in London: fight them off,” Hartmann said.
    “I didn’t make any friends that day,” Madeleine smiled.
    “They underestimated you. Besides, if a recruit can’t take a hit, they’ll be useless in unarmed combat.”
    “How long will my training continue?”
    “You’ll know when you’re ready, not me,” Hartmann said.
    “How will I know?”
    “Figure it out. Now, concentrate on the guns. I’m going for coffee.”
    Throughout the winter, Hartmann drove Madeleine relentlessly. Much of it was repetition and they began to act as one. Madeleine sparred with the men who were training the other recruits in unarmed combat, until they began to refuse, lacking Madeleine’s speed and unpredictability.
    With spring, Madeleine and Hartmann returned to London. They began a game of cat and mouse. Each day, she was given a head start and Hartmann followed her, hoping that she’d eventually lose him.
    A few weeks later, Madeleine was walking through Trafalgar Square with the usual instruction to identify and drop Hartmann’s tail. As Madeleine turned a corner, she spotted him. I see you, she thought as she picked up her pace, looking around for a way off of the street, excited that he’d made a mistake. She ducked into a women’s clothing shop, moving towards the back where the toilets were located. She locked herself in a stall and pulled a wig and heavy glasses out of her coat pocket, putting them on. She moved back out, tucked into a group of shoppers leaving the store. She saw Hartmann across the street, watching the front. She used the other women as a blind, moving further away, keeping him in sight. Hartmann’s attention was distracted as he crossed the street, dodging traffic. He lost me, she thought, dropping out of the group down an alley. A man carrying a bucket of kitchen scraps stepped out of a door, heading over to a dust bin to dump it. Madeleine stepped into the restaurant through the open door, making her way to the front. She sat down at a table so that she could see the street. Hartmann walked past the window without looking in. Madeleine waited several seconds and then walked to the front door. Stepping out, she saw Hartmann’s back half a block in front of her. She moved onto the sidewalk and followed him to a small block of flats some distance from the SOE Baker Street offices. Dusk was falling and Madeleine saw a light go on in a small second floor window just before the blackout curtains were closed. Here’s my chance, she thought as she waited in an alley.
    The sun went down and the shadows of late afternoon became the darkness of night. Madeleine pulled off her street clothes, revealing dark trousers and a black knit top. She pulled her hair back, tying it so as not to obstruct her vision. She waited until the street was completely dark and she was sure Hartmann was in for the night. She checked the road and crossed over. Not pausing when she was in open view, Madeleine made her way around the side of the house and stopped near a black iron pipe dropping down from the roof. She grabbed it and in a matter of