Code Name Verity: Part 1: Ormaie 22.XI.43 JB-S Summary & Analysis

ATA “S” Chits (Secret). At first, not much changed for Maddie. Six weeks after her meeting with the intelligence officer, she started getting assignments twice per week. The only way these runs differed was that the passengers weren’t pilots. Otherwise, the work was boring and normal—until one September night when Maddie was called out of bed. She flew a Puss Moth south to the Special Operations airfield and waited while the ground crew helped a passenger in. The flight was silent and unremarkable, but when Maddie landed and shut the plane down, the passenger leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek—it was Queenie. Queenie said she was on her first assignment, and Maddie would take her home later. Then, she disappeared.

Maddie took a nap in the Cottage, but she woke up when the loud Lysanders returned from France with American airmen, French ministers, champagne, and bottles of Chanel No. 5. Maddie only found out about the perfume the next morning, during the champagne “Welcome-to-Freedom” breakfast. The narrator remarks that it’s funny: England at this time was nothing but bombs, blackouts, and rules. But it was free, unlike France, where nobody could trust their neighbors.

Now, the narrator has to talk about herself before Ormaie. She wants to write about flying in the moonlight instead. Last night, she dreamed she was flying with Maddie by the light of a green moon. These days, the narrator is writing all the time and wishing the Gestapo would give up on the French girl, who’s never going to speak.

Earlier this morning, the narrator writes, she was pushed into her little chamber. Engel was at the table, numbering recipe cards, and the narrator scared her by addressing her in an authoritative German voice. Engel smacked the narrator for that. It was hilarious, but it really only seems to have spurred Engel and Thibaut to flirt. Also, the narrator knows something is going on, because the Gestapo are being unusually relentless with their other prisoners. Maybe von Linden’s boss, SS-Sturmbannführer Ferber, might be visiting soon. The narrator is struggling to think; she’s faint and hungry. To try to organize her thoughts, the narrator draws a table listing the flights she took with Maddie.

RAF Special Duties, Operational Cross-Country. Back in the narrator’s story, it was April, and Maddie and the narrator headed to the secret airfield that the Moon Squadron used to fly to France. Jamie was stationed there, and he and the pilots invited Maddie to supper (meanwhile, Queenie’s admirers whisked her away). On this night, two Lysanders were flying to France together, and a new squadron member, Michael, was going to follow them part of the way—this was his first training flight to France. He was nervous, but Maddie unsympathetically told him he’d had all the training and it would be easy. Jamie suggested that Michael take Maddie along. After some arguing among the pilots and agents, they agreed that she could go. 

Maddie was thrilled. From the back of Michael’s Lysander, she got to enjoy the view. Still, over the Channel, she reminded Michael that he wasn’t supposed to follow the other two planes all the way—he was supposed to turn south. He thanked her and called her “mate,” which made Maddie feel like she belonged. France was just as blacked out as England, but it was so lovely that it made Maddie cry.

Suddenly, Maddie gasped: ahead was a rectangle of light. Michael circled, and they realized the place was probably a prison camp. He offered Maddie the map to make sure they were in the right place, and they were. As they turned back for England, Michael said that Jamie was picking up some Parisian agents that night. Then, he said he was glad Maddie came—the prison camp was disturbing. When they landed, the squadron leader laughed at Michael when Michael said the prison camp frightened him. Michael went to bed whistling “The Last Time I Saw Paris.”

Debriefing. Maddie crawled into bed around 4 a.m. and lit a candle for Queenie, who wasn’t in yet. Maddie was still awake when Queenie came in an hour and a half later and flipped on the light. Queenie looked different: her hair was slicked back into an unflattering bun, and she wore harsh, unflattering makeup. Then, ignoring Maddie, Queenie took off her blouse—and her arm, neck, and shoulders were covered in purple bruises. Someone had tried to choke her. Moving carefully, Queenie put on her pajamas and then wrenched hairpins out of her hair and scrubbed off her lipstick.

Finally noticing Maddie, Queenie said the bruises didn’t hurt; tonight was hard work. Maddie shared that she went to France and then said that when Queenie walked in, she looked like a German spy. Finally, Maddie asked what kind of translating Queenie did. Queenie said she didn’t translate—she was an interrogator. At this, the narrator addresses von Linden. She notes that they both do the same work and are both good at it. On the job, the narrator goes by Eva Seiler. Her first assignment resulted in the narrator catching a double agent. It was easy; she threw herself on him when he arrived on the transport flight.

On the night she wound up with the bruises, though, the man she was interrogating didn’t believe her. The unbound man gripped Queenie’s head and instructed her to call for help. There were, of course, people watching, but they saw that Queenie was in control and let her win the battle on her own. She did eventually win, and her “nerves of steel” landed her where she is now. Her colleagues didn’t notice that she made the mistake of forgetting to change her hair and makeup when she changed back into her WAAF uniform.

Maddie invited Queenie to climb into bed with her and wrapped her arms around her friend. Queenie whispered that unlike Maddie’s job, her job wasn’t blameless. Queenie sobbed, and eventually, Maddie fell asleep holding her.

Now, the narrator is copying down “Auld Lang Syne.” She’s exhausted since she’s been writing all night, and von Linden is still torturing the French girl. She likes writing about Maddie, but she’s too tired to keep going. The “bastard” watching her touches his cigarette to her neck every time she stretches. So, since he can’t read English, she’s just covering the page in Robert Burns lines. But this makes her think of “those pictures”—and of Maddie.