Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II (Operation Kinderspion)

by Adam Gidwitz

“Max.” Uncle Ewen had turned to face him in the back of the Humber. “Yes, Lieutenant Commander?” “There’s one more thing I need to tell you before I let you go.” Max swallowed and waited. Uncle Ewen said, “You’ll be making your way back to your apartment building in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, as we discussed.” Max nodded. “And you’re certain you know how to get there?” “I lived there for eleven years. I know how to get there,” Max assured Ewen for the fifth time that day. “Right. Well, when you arrive, you’ll want to ring the fourth bell.” “Of course,” lied Max. The fourth bell was Pastor Andreas Maas’s apartment. Max would be living with the pastor, pretending to be his nephew from the countryside, and taking on the name Max Maas. That way he could pretend to be a Lutheran Christian—not a Jew. But his parents lived right below Pastor Andreas, and secretly Max was planning to spend as much time with them as possible. Every night, of course. And even during the daytime, when he could get away with it. And he would not be ringing the pastor’s bell first. He had already imagined the whole thing. Ringing his parents’ bell in the dead of night. Them being terrified that it was the Gestapo. They would look out the window, and Max would step back into the street and wave—and they wouldn’t be able to believe it. They would rush downstairs, and open the door, and he would leap into their arms. His mother’s first, certainly, and then his father would wrap them both in an ...