The Lost Girls of Paris: A Novel

It has been five days since Eleanor saw Julian on the roof of SOE headquarters and raised her concerns to the Director. They have not received any messages from Marie since then. Suddenly, headquarters receives a radio transmission from a male agent in southern France; the message claims to be from an agent who was captured weeks ago. They determine that someone has control of his radio. Due to the interconnectedness of their communications, one compromised agent in the system could put Marie and the other agents in the Vesper network at risk. Eleanor rushes to the radio room and asks the operator to reach out to Marie. Someone responds, but Eleanor cannot tell if it is Marie, so she breaks protocol, using an agent’s real name, and asks, “Have you seen Arlene O’Toole?” (229). (This is a test; Arlene dropped out of training in Scotland and never deployed to the field.) The response states, “Have seen Arlene. All is well” (229). Eleanor now has proof that Marie’s wireless signal has been compromised. Eleanor realizes that someone other than Marie might have received the message about Julian’s arrival. In fact, someone claiming to be Marie had requested a change in the location for Julian’s drop-off point.

Marie has been hiding in the basement of the Paris brothel for five days. She knows that the bombs successfully detonated and destroyed the bridge. Lisette, the owner of the brothel, agrees to make discreet inquiries about Julian but learns nothing. On the fifth day of her stay, Marie overhears police in the brothel bar, asking if anyone has seen her. They are using her real name. Marie decides to leave, worried that the brothel employees are taking too much of a risk in hiding her. She plans to go back to her apartment to destroy her radio.

Marie notices a few worrying details as she approaches her apartment; the landlord’s shutters are closed, the back door is ajar, and there is a muddy boot print on the back stoop. Marie knows not to linger but decides to try the radio one last time. There’s no answer, and two policemen come to her door. They arrest her and take her radio too.

Grace and Mark leave the hotel bar after Grace meets with Annie Rider. Mark is doubtful that there was any conspiracy or betrayal against the female SOE agents, but Grace isn’t so sure. She wants to know why the women died, and Mark suspects that her longing for an explanation is related to her grief for her husband. Back at Mark’s house, he admits that he is developing feelings for her. Grace admits that her family doesn’t know she is living in New York; they think she is still staying with a friend in the Hamptons.

Lying awake in bed, Grace realizes that only a highly ranked person could have betrayed the SOE agents. Grace begins to suspect that Eleanor might have been the traitor. Overwhelmed by the thought, she rushes to Mark’s bedroom and accepts his invitation to sleep in his room. Later, after Mark is asleep, Grace feels guilty and doubtful about being there with him. She gets up and flips through the file folder from the Pentagon. Grace discovers a transmission signed “SD,” short for Sicherheitsdienst, the German intelligence agency. It thanks the receiver for their collaboration and for the weapons. Attached to the transmission is a memo on Eleanor’s letterhead. The memo indicates that even though the security checks were missing from the SD transmission, communications should continue. The memo is dated May 1944. Grace leaves without waking Mark.

After Marie’s arrest, the officers drive her to a house in Paris. The attic is empty but smells as if other people have recently been imprisoned there. Marie overhears the sound of an Englishman being interrogated but cannot make out the words. She is terrified by the reality of her situation. Later, a German officer escorts her downstairs; a badly beaten Julian is tied to a chair in the center of the room. The officer leaves them alone for a few minutes. Marie embraces him and tells him that the bridge explosion was successful. Julian explains that the Germans were waiting for him when he returned to France. He asks why Marie and Will changed the landing site, and Marie claims that they received the order from London. They realize that the Germans have been impersonating an agent on the radio. Julian tells Marie that Eleanor suspected as much and had asked him to warn Marie.

Two Germans enter the room. One introduces himself as Kriegler and shows her a small radio, ordering her to add the missing security checks to messages to make them seem authentic. When she refuses, he hits her. Realizing that physical abuse won’t convince her, Kriegler threatens to shoot Julian unless she complies. Wanting to protect Julian, Marie agrees. She encodes the message that Kriegler gives her and adds her first security check, the bluff.

The response from London says, “True check missing.” This is not a message that a trained operator should ever have sent, because it reveals Marie’s ruse and negates the purpose of the bluff security check. Kriegler threatens Julian again. Marie adds her true check to the message, but Kriegler shoots Julian anyway. Julian and Marie declare their love for each other as he dies. After he is dead, Marie lunges at Kriegler and scratches his face, protesting that they are prisoners of war. He laughs at her, saying, “Where you are going, you don’t even exist” (263).