The elder Nordstrum’s hands balled into fists and he gazed with simmering anger at the policeman. Yes, he was a weakened man these days, but still capable of lunging across this desk, putting his hands around the man’s skinny neck, and doing what the whole town would regard as a blessing. “Herr Lund…” He paused on the policeman’s family name. “Your father was the tax collector in Vigne for many years, I believe?”
“I am honored that you remember him. Sadly, he died three years ago.”
“From drink, the world knows. Or greed. His reputation, if I may say, was ‘two coins for the town, one for the pocket,’ if you know what I mean. Not only a drunk and a wife beater, but a gambler, and with other people’s money. I used to see him holding his cards and sweating like a fish in the Oar and Bow. Was that the man, Herr Lund…?”
“Captain Lund,” the policeman said, his jaw tightening and his smile disappearing. “A rank you ought to pay a bit more heed of.”
“Captain Lund…,” the elder Nordstrum said as if with a vile taste on his tongue. “Even as such, it would seem when it came to character he had far more than he passed on to you. For even a thief like your father would never have traded in his country for some well-pressed uniform and phony ribbons on his chest. So I must ask you again, under what law do you restrain me here? I have committed no crime. I ask you to either show me that I have, or let me go.”
“You are not restrained, old man. Pick up your filthy mule outside and go. But just know, I need no law to do what I said regarding your daughter. I am the law here now. So do your family a favor and give heed to what I said.…” He stood up, and with a wave, indicated his patience had ended.
The old man got to his feet as well and tugged at his pants. “I’m just an old mechanic, Captain Lund, turned farmer. Not trained when it comes to expressing myself. So I hope the right words come, to convey what is in my heart. That thugs like you will never, not for a single day, be thought of as the new Norway. The true Norway will lie buried a thousand years before the people turn to cowards and traitors like yourself. And if my daughter or her children are harmed, one day, whether I’m around to drop the noose or not, you will surely be hanged for it. That is, if that ghost of a son of mine doesn’t come back and do the job himself. So take me away, put a bullet in me, if you must. Like so many others. But no … I suspect if what you say is true about Kurt, I’m far too valuable to you alive. But for now, I’m just a man who has lived too long and seen too much of this new Norway.”
“Shoot you…?” The Hirden laughed. “Where did you ever get such a notion? Not a chance. But you are right,” he fixed on him, “I’m going to enjoy having you around. I want you to be the one to confirm it when I bring his body and throw it like a dead fish on your doorstep. Now back to your fields, old man. You’ve wasted too much of my time. Sergeant, escort this old farmer back to his mule.”
31
It took a few days to nourish the Grouse team back to full strength, with the provisions the Gunnerside team had brought from England and a reindeer they managed to kill on their way back to the cabin.
They spent the time sharing how each team had remained alive during the storm, and then going over the best route for them to make their way across the vidda to the target. Claus Helberg knew of an abandoned hut just a few kilometers from the edge of the plateau above Vemork that would suit their purposes.
By latest accounts, there appeared to be around fifteen Germans in the guard hut at any time of night, plus two more on the suspension bridge spanning the gorge. Another patrolled the giant penstocks that supplied the Norsk Hydro plant’s massive turbines their water for power. The guards worked two-hour shifts and changed like clockwork due to the extreme cold.
Additionally, there was also the possibility two more guards might be on rounds at any time inside the factory. As well as a Norwegian watchman or two stationed inside the electrolysis room itself, who might have to be subdued. It was clear that if they had to engage the main detachment stationed in the hut or on the bridge, the alarm would quickly bring reinforcements from Rjukan or Mosvatn, only a few kilometers away, where hundreds of troops were stationed. Then even if they did manage to take out the targets in the plant’s basement, it would basically be a suicide mission. There would be no way back.
So secrecy, not a direct assault over the bridge, was deemed to be the best plan. But that meant taking on the most challenging terrain in all of Norway to best approach the target.
The cliffs above, which rose to three thousand feet, were considered far too steep to rappel down at night, even for experienced climbers. The area around the giant conduits, which brought in the water from rivers, lakes, and mountain streams on the vidda to run the giant turbines, had been heavily mined.
On the other side of the river, the slope was more forgiving, but it also came with the risk of crossing the river at night with searchlights fanning the valley, and then making their way back up the rocky heights at the rear of the plant, a difficult climb in daytime not to mention in darkness with heavy packs of explosives on their backs and weapons strapped on. If they made it up there, Claus Helberg said, the railway tracks leading to the plant had not been mined, but getting to them would be no easy feat. The plant’s defenders, however, did not think it possible any threat could come from that direction. The Germans considered the only real threat to storming the facility was from a direct assault over the suspension bridge that led to the front.
Once on top of the ledge, the saboteurs could break into the plant by one of the three ways Tronstad had mapped out in England: It was possible the steel side door would be left open, since guards routinely patrolled inside. If it wasn’t, there was the side door around the north side of the building on the first floor, but who knew what was inside? Lastly there was the narrow valve duct Jomar Brun told them about that led from the outside literally to the basement where the heavy water stocks were located, an access even many who worked in the plant didn’t know of. However, as Tronstad had explained, this entry could only accommodate one person at a time, crawling on hands and knees, and once inside, any second they delayed setting the charges could be critical.
“If everything is locked, and the valve duct unavailable, we blow the basement door,” Ronneberg declared. “That will, of course, alert the Nazis.” He looked at Poulsson, Gutterson, and Kjelstrup. “Covering team, you will have to take care of them then.”