Eric Walters - The Camp X Series

PUFFIN CANADA

CAMP X

Eric Walters is an elementary school teacher who began writing as a way to encourage his students to become more enthusiastic about their own creative writing. He is the author of a number of acclaimed and bestselling novels for children, including Stand Your Ground, which was a regional winner of the Silver Birch Award, STARS, Trapped in Ice, which was shortlisted for the Ruth Schwartz Award and the Silver Birch Award, The Hydrofoil Mystery and Royal Ransom. Eric Walters lives in Mississauga, Ontario, with his wife and their three children.

Also by Eric Walters from Penguin Canada and Puffin Canada

The Bully Boys
The Hydrofoil Mystery
Trapped In Ice
Royal Ransom

Other books by Eric Walters

Tiger Town
Ricky
Road Trip

Northern Exposures
Long Shot
Tiger in Trouble

Hoop Crazy
Rebound
Full Court Press

Caged Eagles

The Money Pit Mystery
Three-on-Three

Visions
Tiger by the Tail
War of the Eagles

Stranded
Diamonds in the Rough
STARS

Stand Your Ground

PUFFIN CANADA

Published by the Penguin Group

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Canada M4V 3B2

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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in Viking by Penguin Books Canada Limited, 2002

Published in Puffin Canada by Penguin Books, a division of Pearson Canada, 2003

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Copyright Eric Walters, 2002

All rights reserved.

Publishers note:This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Manufactured in Canada.

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Walters, Eric, 1957

Camp X / Eric Walters.

ISBN 0-14-131328-5

1. Great Britain. Special Operations Executive. Special Training School 103 (Whitby, Ont.) Fiction. 2. World War, 19391945Secret serviceGreat BritainFiction. 3. World War, 19391945Secret serviceCanadaFiction. 4. World War, 19391945Military intelligenceCanadaFiction. I. Title.

PS8595.A598C36 2003 C813'. 6 C2002-904472-3

PZ7

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Visit Penguin Books website at www.penguin.ca

This book is dedicated to the memory of SirWilliam Stephenson
and the men and women who served and trained at Camp X.
These very ordinary people came together to do something
extremely extraordinarythey helped to save the world.

A TWIG SNAPPED UNDER my feet and I froze at the sound. How far had the noise travelled? Had I been heard? My heart raced and I held my breath, listening, listening. There was nothing but the sound of crickets softly chirping in the twilight.

Slowly I turned my head, scanning the surroundings, looking, trying to spot any movement in the trees and bushes on all sides. Nothing. There was nothing. Or at least nothing that I could see.

I pulled my weapon in closer to my chest, almost as if it were some sort of shield or screen that could protect me from unseen eyes or weaponseyes that I knew were out there, looking for me, the same way I was looking for them.

Slowly I started moving again, trying to stay in the shadows cast by the setting sun. Another twenty minutes and it would be down and Id be safe, or at least safer, from prying eyes. Of course, not being seen meant that I couldnt see either. Places where I could hide were also places where my enemy could stand undetected until I walked right up and they could aim weapons at me andI stopped dead in my tracks.

Just off to the side I heard a noise. Or thought I heard a noise. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just my imagination, or even a rabbit or athe noise came again. This time it was louder and clearer. It was the sound of feet moving over gravel. I knew there was a path just a couple of dozen yards off to that sideId crossed over it and then deliberately travelled parallel to it through the cover of the forest. Whoever it was, he was coming down the path.

I bent over so I couldnt be seen above the bushes. I started to angle toward the path, slowly and deliberately, hardly lifting my feet, keeping under cover and in the shadows. He was still comingI could hear himbut he didnt know I was there. Just up ahead I could see a gap in the trees a place where Id be able to see the path, and anybody coming down it. Softly I dropped to my knees behind a fallen tree. I pulled up my rifle and set it down on the trunk of the log, using it to steady my shaking hands. Here Id wait for him to cross into my sights, and then

Silently I took a deep breath in through my mouth, holding it in my lungs for a few seconds before exhaling through my nose. I had to control my breath, my heart and my shaking hands. I might only have one chance, and if I failed to kill him, then his gun would be trained on me. It was me or him. Me or him. A shiver went through my entire body.

I turned my head ever so slightly, listening for the sound of his footsteps. Why couldnt I hear anything? Had he stopped or turned around? Even worse, had he turned off the path? Had he heard me moving through the trees the way Id heard him? And if he had, was he at this very moment coming up behind me and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end as I slowly moved my head to look behind me. Nothing. At least nothing that I could see.

I was overcome by a rush of fear. I had to get out of there retreat farther into the trees take cover in the darkness where I couldnt be found. I started to rise to my feet whenthere it was againthe sound of feet against gravel. He was still coming.

I lowered myself back down until I was completely hidden by the fallen tree. The rifle rested against the trunk and I pressed my face against it, one eye closed, the other sighting down the barrel of my weapon. It was only going to be a matter of seconds before he walked right past this spot and there he was! A Nazi, my sworn enemy. A small smile crept onto my face. In a split second thered be one fewer Nazi in the world to battle the forces of freedom.

He was moving down the path slowly. I could tell by the way he was walking that he was trying to muffle the sound of his footfalls. He held his weapon out before him, looking first left and then right, scanning the forest. He was looking for me. Little did he know just how soon he was going to find me, and that he was going to pay for that privilege with his life.

He came forward, closer and closer, still partially hidden by the trees. I had to wait until he came completely into the opening, where there was no place for him to hide. In the dim light I couldnt see his face. Maybe that was better. I didnt want to be haunted by the eyes of another dead man. He crept forward another few feet before hed be square in my sights wait wait wait I squeezed the trigger and