Hitler's Secret by William Osborne Read Free Book Online

heart jumped and then relief flooded over him. Leni. He twisted around in his harness to look down. There she was, standing below him, craning her neck up to see him in the gloom.
    “Leni, thank God, you heard me!”
    “Half of Bavaria probably heard you, Otto. Are you stuck?”
    “No, no … I’m just enjoying the view.” He grinned. He was so pleased to see her alive.
    “What do you want me to do?” she asked, shaking her head at his silly remark.
    Otto glanced down at her. “Give me a hand?”
    Leni nodded and sized up the tree. She tucked her skirt into the waistband, then spat on her hands, rubbed them together, and grabbed hold of the lowest branch. Slowly she made her way up the side of the tree and edged out along the branch above him. He could see the training at Wanborough Manor had made the most of her natural agility. She took hold of the twisted parachute lines above her head, pulled on them, and built up a pendulum-like swing until Otto was able to grab hold of the branch she was sitting on, and wrap his arms and legs around it.
    “Now cut the lines,” he said, desperately hanging on.
    Leni pulled out a short double-edged knife from a sheathstrapped to her thigh. She started to saw away at the lines. Otto watched her working, concentrating on the job, her legs clamped around the branch.
    “Are you all right?” she said, severing the first of the nylon cords.
    “I’m fine,” he lied, though he was dripping with sweat and his skin was on fire.
    At last Leni had cut all the lines. She resheathed her knife, planted her hands on the branch, and deftly swung her legs around like a gymnast on the uneven bars.
    Otto couldn’t hold on any longer. His hands slipped from the branch and then he was falling through the thick foliage. He landed on the soft mossy ground and lay there groaning.
    “Don’t move!” Leni whispered from the tree. “I’m coming.”
    Otto smiled weakly. “Hey, it’s all right. I just decided to take the quickest way down.”
    Ten minutes later, after Otto had changed into his Hitler-Jugend uniform, and they’d buried his harness and flying suit as best they could, they reached the edge of the woods.
    “Follow me!” said Leni, running forward from the tree line towards a farm track.
    “Wait!” hissed Otto, grabbing her arm and pulling her down. “You need to be more careful.”
    He took a pair of binoculars out of his pack and scanned the area around them. In the dawn light he could see they had landed in rolling agricultural countryside: meadows and fieldsof grain, surrounded by thickly wooded hills. About a mile away he could make out a village.
    “There’s no one around, Otto,” Leni said quietly. “It’s not even five o’clock.”
    Otto ignored her and swept the area a second time before he stowed the binoculars. “Okay,” he said, “where do you think we are?”
    “Bavaria?” she said.
    Otto laughed before he could stop himself. Then he found a map in his top pocket and pored over it. It was made of silk and beautifully detailed. But it wasn’t much help in such poor light and with no landmarks to speak of. They’d have to take the farm track, and look out for features on the way.
    Leni unwrapped a chocolate bar. “You want some?” she said, handing him a square.
    He popped it in his mouth. It was the first thing he’d eaten in six hours and it tasted delicious. Too delicious, in fact. He glanced at the wrapper. Hershey’s.
    “Are you insane?” He turned on Leni. “You brought American chocolate with you? How are you going to explain that if someone stops us, searches us?”
    Leni blushed. “It was just this bar, all right!” She pulled the wrapper off and screwed it up into a little ball. Then she threw it into the woods. “Satisfied?” she said.
    “Let’s hope no one finds it,” Otto said grudgingly. He fished out his pocket compass and waited for the needle to settle.
    “I think we should go east,” he said.
    “Fine,” she said, clearly