Snippet from The Norwegian Assassin (unedited)

The first draft of The Norwegian Assassin is done! It’s been a monster project at 111,297 words but I finished the manuscript before the 1 November deadline I had agreed with my editor. 👊😁

Here’s an unedited snippet…enjoy.

Chapter 30 The Flight

Telemark, Norway, November 1942

In the same order they’d entered through the hole in the glass, they exited the building and ran as never before in their lives, away from the expected blast. One second to grab and adjust their packs and - after Claus had also joined them - four tiny black figures climbed the steep mountain, under cover of night and pine trees.

With hindsight Ether didn’t know what came first, the sky-high fireball, or the blast of the explosion. Both threw her against the snowy ground, as she grabbed a branch of the nearby tree not to slide down again. Her ears rung, her eyes were blinded, parts of cement and bricks landing on her. Sirens went off, dogs started barking, men shouting gruff German commands.

“Hallelujah!” Anton remarked, his voice low, “come on, faster now. The hounds are after us.”

Esther didn’t look back on the havoc of destruction they’d created in the valley. She only wanted to go up, up, up, to the top of the ridge, slip into her skis and flee to Sweden. If anything screamed capital punishment, this was it.

As soon as Esther felt her skis under her, all fatigue, fear and fetters were gone. She felt no remorse, none at all, for the Nazi lives that must surely also been lost in the blast. Just the hope that Vemork Heavy Water Plant would never be operational again; the development of a German atomic bomb no longer the Allied nightmare. 

The team shook hands when they reached the top, frozen gloves clamping each other in a last farewell.

“Be well and rely on your maps.” Anton said.  

“See you in Oslo, Jeger*,” Claus added.

“You’re my partner-in-crime,” Arne smiled.

“Thank you, guys! You’ve been the best of friends. Good luck and stay safe.”

“We’ll meet at Tore’s!”

It were Anton’s last words.

But they all knew the hazardous trip that lay ahead of each of them. The Germans’ deadly hunt had only just begun.

  

*Esther’s code name is Jeger, which means Huntress in Norwegian

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