He closed his eyes and pictured the striated grooves in the stone there. That was exactly what the old trapper’s journals had described. And nearby, he’d find a darker copper.
His chest seized. Copper ...
Just like ... he struggled to pull up images from the feast. He’d been so focused on watching Brielle talking and laughingat the feast, the torchlight glinting off the copper in the walls and sparkling in her eyes.
He squeezed his eyes tighter, trying to home in on that wall in his mind’s eye. Numerous stripes of various hues, but copper had definitely been among them. The flickering glow of the torch might have distorted the color, though.
A weight pressed hard on his chest. Had he really found it? He couldn’t have, not here in the heart of their mountain where all their homes were built.
He dragged in a breath. Just because the rock showed splashes of copper in the light of a torch didn’t mean it was pitchblende. He wouldn’t know for sure until he chipped out a piece and tested it.
He fought to keep his breathing even, no matter how fast his heart raced. If he found pitchblende here, that meant it probably would also be in the other mountains around the area. He could still move forward with his mission.
He’d have to tell Brielle he found the mineral here, but he would assure her he planned to keep seeking it in other places. He couldn’t lie to her, nor could he keep the truth hidden any longer. Not if he wanted a life with her. A marriage couldn’t be built on lies or secrets, not the kind of love he wanted with her.
His thoughts shifted from what he would tell Brielle to imagining how he might get access to this wall to determine for sure if it was pitchblende. She might willingly give him access if he told her right away, but he hated to give weight to her fears in case he was mistaken about the mineral. And maybe when he revealed his mission, she wouldn’t believe his words of love. Maybe she would think it was all a ruse to get her to set him free.
His heart squeezed at the thought. Would she doubt him, despite the connection they shared? She would have every reason to distrust him.
He’d do better to find out for sure if what he saw was pitchblende. Even if it risked the growing trust she’d placed in him, it would be easier to sneak out under her relaxed guard.
He had to accomplish this last mission. With the war raging in the east, killing more lives daily, not a minute more could be wasted.
20
Evan forced his breathing to stay steady as he strained to hear every sound that drifted from Philip’s sleeping form. Several hours must have passed since midnight. The man should be in his deepest sleep.
The entire village should be asleep after the feast, probably even whichever young woman currently had the task of keeping the fire burning in their solarium. He wasn’t sure exactly where that garden was located, but Brielle had pointed toward the far side of the courtyard, so he was fairly sure he wouldn’t be in danger of running into the keeper of the fire.
With every part of his body strung as tight as a fiddle, he pulled himself up to sitting. No change in Philip’s gentle snores, so he pushed to his hands and feet, then straightened.
He eyed the dark outline of his packs. He kept a knife hidden in the lining of the larger case. Should he pull it out, along with a bit of leather to buffer the sound of his blade on stone, or take the entire satchel? The latter would probably make less noise. And that way, he’d have everything he needed to quickly hack enough pitchblende.
If the job went well, he would take enough for the scientiststo not only test the stone but make a single explosion to ensure their plan would work. The army would still have to send hordes of men up to get enough pitchblende to destroy the British troops and end the war for good, but all he’d been tasked with gathering was enough to verify that the plan would work and that an explosion that large was possible.
He used all his stealth training to creep to his packs and lift the larger one to his shoulder without letting the contents inside jingle, then made his way to the door.
He’d studied the bar on the door for a solid hour to determine the best way to lift it without making a clink. Now, he tipped the pin at an angle and eased both the inside and outside bars up. As soon as the door gave, he grabbed the bars and pulled the door just enough to slip through. He had to take the same care to lower the metal, but everything went as he’d planned. Philip’s soft snores still drifted from inside the room.
Thank you, Lord, he thought, though the cloud of guilt that hovered around him seemed to stop the prayer from ascending to God’s ear. Why did this deception feel so wrong? He was accomplishing the mission his commanders had assigned him. The mission he’d sworn on a Bible to uphold. Surely God wanted him to do everything he could to fulfill his promise.
Yet he was breaking the trust Brielle had begun to show in him.
He moved down the corridor without making more sound than an occasional rustle of his clothing.
Brielle was the one he most worried about hearing him. She seemed to have the senses of a cat. But unless she could sense his presence without actually hearing or seeing him, she shouldn’t know he was out here.
But then, when she was in the same room as him, he always knew exactly where she was without seeing or hearing her. As though his body tracked her without his mind telling it to. If she could do the same, he was in trouble.
He finally reached the door to the giant room where they’d held the feast. He’d tried to spot signs of pitchblende in the hallway, but the darkness made variations in the stone impossible to see.
The community room would be easier to take samples from anyway. The urge to open the door and slip inside tugged him, but he forced himself to work with the same level of care he’d used on his cell door. Thankfully, this one only had a single bar on the outside. He laid the bar soundlessly on the floor and eased open one of the double doors.
Inside, all was dark. He felt along the wall until he reached the first torch. Better to light this one and move it with him than chance stumbling and making a noise loud enough to draw someone.
He found the Lucifer match in his pack and lit the torch. Light blazed through the room, and he took the first full breath he’d risked since rising from his pallet.
Gathering his pack and the torch, he aimed straight for the place where he’d seen the orange coloring in the stone. Before he started cutting, he needed to check all the walls and see how much was visible on the surface.
