1944: Normandy, World War II

I didn’t see Sigma again for two years after our mission in Congo together, the OSS moved the legend onto bigger things, black ops things, and I still needed to prove I wasn’t a rookie anymore if I wanted to play with the big boys.

I took on infiltration missions when they were offered to me, since they were Sigma’s speciality, I figured it was a good place to start. Black Kraken, my cadet instructor, took a shine to me. He probably noticed that I was determined and took me seriously too because I had gone out in the field and come back without a scratch.

With Kraken’s constant training and support, he took my combat skills to the next level. And I learnt everything to prepare myself for my next mission.

During the war against Nazi Germany I supported my fellow soldiers, learnt how to handle a wider arsenal of weapons, and endure interrogations in case the occasion raised for it.

And my German impression got way better.

The Nazi soldiers were in deep shit when they realised they were losing the war front. By this time the Soviets were seriously involved, Red Army power and all that good propaganda. Good thing for me is that it made my job easier under all the stress. I was under cover as a reporter when I was first deployed, and part time photographer when I was feeling adventurous.

I did all this whilst organising raids on Nazi’s when they weren’t looking. Don't get me wrong, I never managed to pull a night of long knives when I planned out a raid, but I did start to grow a pretty decent reputation for myself ... so decent that the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) called me in to aid them in the Normandy front lines. And gee wiz, that was when I got a real taste for battle.

The Nazis were calling me Seelenschlucker, which was German for soul snatcher, and I have to admit it the pet name was growing on me. Seelenschlucker was the closet I came to earning a codename for myself, and it was one I could hardly pronounce.

During one night in March, in the camp the 44th Division set up. I had officially formed a unit of my own, it was called the SAR 44th. Three men and a woman I grew close to decided we'd all go marching out with each other, since our skills all complimented each other. And to be honest, I'd lay my life down of any one of them if I had to.

We barely got to celebrate our official formation, after the general gave us the thumbs up a spy, which I presumed was German, wished to meet with the Seelenschlucker herself. They planned we meet at an abandoned warehouse not all that far from where we were stationed. And if that wasn't suspicious already, the spy also knew of my OSS ties.

Not even my unit knew I was an OSS operative.

The reason why I decided to meet the spy was because they claimed to have information I couldn’t miss out on, about the German camp locations in Normandy. I figured I had nothing to lose if I went, except my life.

I grabbed two men from my unit to cover me, my skilled sniper, Abel Beaumont, and strategy specialist, Royce Bixby. And of course my machine gun, strapped to my back on show for any challengers.

Maria Sail and Yakov Vasiliev stayed behind, I figured they needed the rest.

When we arrived, I ordered Abel to cover my six o’clock from a high vantage point of the area, and Royce to hide somewhere in case I got into trouble. The spy and I agreed to meet at 9PM at the chosen facility. It was nothing but a rubble of grey bricks, probably knocked down by the shelling that hit us a few days back.

I could still smell the gunpowder when I walked into the place. Most of Normandy was starting to look like this, dismal and grey like the weather tonight.

The door literally fell apart as I closed it behind me, it was flustering hearing the drop echo throughout the area. I swore I could hear Royce bark out a laugh before holding it in from his position. I scowled, hoping he’d see my annoyance to remind him of the importance of professionalism. Like that mattered out here.

It wasn’t long till the spy revealed himself.

And boy, did he like to make an entrance.

He scrapped a round through my shoulder, and I screamed like hell but that didn’t stop me from dashing for cover. I barely registered the shot heading towards me, too wrapped at the suddenness of the spy jumping out of his hidey-hole beheld a lone pillar.

Royce started shooting from his vantage point but missed every shot. The spy was good, he cartwheeled across the perimeter, hiding behind a solid wall on the far right corner. He certainly picked the right side to stand on, all I had was a sorry excuse for a wall, crumbling as I breathed hard behind it.

But that got me thinking, there were two things wrong about this the start of this meeting that made my light bulb spark to like. The spy already had a clear shot of my head the moment I walked in, I knew this because I had my guard down when I entered the place.

If his aim was to really take me down, he could have done it in a heart beat. So why didn't he take the shot?

The second thing was that no spy was dumb enough to try and assassinate me like this out in the open. He had no clear escape route, and if he even managed to take me down Able would hunt his ass with his state of the art sniper rifle.

This was definitely some kind of game; my instincts were telling me so.

Was this a test?

I signalled to Royce, waving two fingers his way, telling him to stand down for now. He gestured back from a tree he was hidden behind, further away from the ramshackle facility. I hoped Abel caught on to my signal too, I wanted to face this strange spy myself.

It was obvious to me now that this was a showdown to settle something unspoken between me and this spy. And the only way to find out what was to face him.