Code Name Hélène

by Ariel Lawhon

This is how people are brainwashed, I think. This is how they follow a monster.

I am a devoted fan of the male species. They are brave, brilliant, offer endless entertainment, are good for moving heavy objects, and make the act of procreation a great deal more enjoyable. I’d hate to see a world in which they did not exist. But sometimes they can be spectacular idiots.

it’s not my skill as a wordsmith that makes me an excellent journalist, it’s my curiosity.

The identification cards will allow their owners to travel freely under assumed French names from Cannes to Marseille to Toulouse, where they will be collected by Antoine’s friend—a woman he calls Françoise, though I suspect that is not her real name—who will escort them to Perpignan and, finally, across the Pyrenees Mountains to whatever freedom they can find.