The Woman with the Blue Star, Pam Jenoff [highly recommended books txt] 📗

him, I had spent most of my time in the barren room on the top floor above the café. I had wanted to try to see Sadie, or at least walk the streets of Kraków one more time before I left the city forever. But I didn’t dare do anything that might risk my being seen by Ana Lucia or her associates or otherwise risk our plan.

As I hid in the shadows of the alleyway now, my heart pounded with a mix of nervousness and anticipation. Any moment, I expected Krys to appear, his strong silhouette against the moonlit sky. We would have to go into the sewer to find Sadie, which I dreaded, and rescuing her and the others would be difficult and dangerous. But once we had gotten them to safety, Krys and I could leave and start our life together.

Only he never came.

Time passed slowly as I waited for him to appear. Once I thought I saw a shadow at the entrance to the alleyway. But it was just a passing car. The clock above the church chimed half past midnight and then one—and still Krys did not arrive. I tried not to panic, to think of all of the reasons he might have been delayed. Perhaps his errand to find the munitions took longer than expected, or he was forced to find a different way to the grate to avoid the Germans, as I often had been.

As more time passed, though, my excuses became harder to accept. When the clock chimed two, I knew that something was wrong. I could not simply stand here and wait any longer. But I could not go into the sewer and rescue Sadie without Krys; I did not know his escape plan. I had to find him.

As I started from the alley, I tried not to panic, to imagine a not-terrible explanation why he had not come. He had been so certain about meeting me to help Sadie, and about our leaving together. Something had happened, something awful, I was sure of it. I had to find out.

I hurried toward Barska Street. The café was shuttered at the late hour, so I made my way around the back of the building to the piwnica, where Kara stood behind the bar, serving beer to a few lingering patrons. When she saw me, her expression turned guarded. I could tell from her hollow expression that something awful had happened.

“What is it?” I demanded. “What happened to Krys?” I was too loud, not discreet enough. But in my panic, I did not care.

Kara pulled me behind the bar and into the storeroom where she had hidden Sadie the day I’d gone to the hospital looking for Sadie’s mother. “Krys has been arrested.”

Arrested. The word reverberated around my brain like a bouncing ball. “But how?”

“He and two of our other men went on a reconnaissance mission to try to recover the munitions. They discovered the munitions had been taken by a local street thief who had happened upon them while searching for metal scraps. He was planning to sell them to the Germans. They tried to intercept him before he could hand the munitions over, but it turned out to be a trap. The wretch had been paid to lure Krys and the other men to the Germans. One of the men managed to escape, but Krys and the second man were arrested.”

“We have to help him,” I said, my voice rising with urgency.

“There’s nothing to be done.”

“Surely if you tell one of your contacts with the Home Army, they will try to do something to rescue the men.”

She shook her head. “They can’t risk it, not now. And we’ve been given orders not to attempt anything that would compromise operations. The men who were captured would not want us to save them at the expense of the larger mission. They are good men and they won’t break and tell what they know. We just have to pray for them.”

I tried to process what Kara was telling me: no one was going to help Krys. For all he had given, he would be abandoned to certain death. I had to do something.

“I’m going after him,” I said, starting from the piwnica. I had no idea how I would get to Krys, but I had to try.

“Stop!” Kara grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me back toward her. “You behave like an impulsive child and it is going to get you killed. There’s no coming back from where Krys went, do you understand?” I did not answer, unwilling to acknowledge the truth in what she said.

“But I can’t just leave him,” I protested. “I can’t lose him, not now, when we finally found each other again.”

Krys was lost to me forever. My heart screamed. “If you go after him and get yourself arrested, then everything he did, all of his pain and suffering will have been for nothing. Make it count for something. Go save your friend and yourself, just as you were meant to do.”

My thoughts turned to Sadie. Krys would never disclose her location to the Germans. But the thief who had stolen the munitions had surely told the Germans where he had found them. It was only a matter of time before the Germans searched the sewers to see what—or who—else might be there.

“Kara, please...” I hardly dared ask. “Krys had a plan to get Sadie and her friends out of the city.”

Kara didn’t answer, but I could tell in her eyes that she knew where he’d meant to take them. “Why should I help you?” she asked bitterly. “Krys and the others are gone.” I saw then that her eyes were rimmed with red, and there were stains on her cheeks where tears had fallen. “It’s over, Ella. None of it matters anymore.”

“Of course it does. There’s still the fight in Warsaw. Krys and I were going to join it as soon as we got Sadie out. That matters, and