Fleeing the SD: The Brisling Code

A Thursday teaser from the latest historical fiction novel

By J.L. Oakley

As the inspector at the table motioned him forward, Haugland mentally counted down from five to zero to calm himself. He gave his papers consisting of his identity card, gresen pass, and work permit to the man.

“Are you on holiday?” the inspector asked.

Haugland wasn’t surprised that he was Norwegian, but the gray-haired man’s gruff voice did not match the look in his eyes. The inspector turned Haugland’s papers over to read, but Haugland felt it was an act. He’s afraid.

“Nei,”Haugland kept his shoulders and jaw relaxed as he waited for the SD soldiers to finish rifling through his rucksack, his papers to be returned. When they did and he was waved through, he felt a great sense of relief only to have it dashed when a lone uniformed Gestapo agent waved him over.

Behind Haugland, four Wehrmacht soldiers with their girlfriends came up and passed the table laughing and chatting. The women held onto their companions’ arms as they leaned into the wind that was picking up. It was cold enough to snow, but it would most likely rain.

“Show me your papers,” the Gestapo officer said to Haugland in perfect Norwegian. He frowned as the group passed.

Haugland complied, taking his time to study the man. He was a tall man and athletic. Dark blonde hair cut short around his ears, hazel eyes. He looked German but had the accent of someone from Drammen.

“Why are you here?” the man asked.

“For work.” Who was this man? Was this Becker, the SD officer N in London warned him about?

“All right. You may go.”

“Takk.” Haugland pulled his bike away from the table and walked it away. He paused to shift his rucksack on his shoulders and looked up to the end of the quay. He just had to make it to the street and up into the little park behind the white stone Nykirken church tantalizing him with refuge. There Tommy and Stig waited.

“Hello again, my friend.” The German soldier named Horst Werner said as he came up to him. His friends joined them.

Great. What a time to be signaled out as a German-loving Norwegian. It certainly piqued the interest of the Gestapo agent. Of course, again Haugland couldn’t ignore them. He had to stop and speak to them. He invited them to walk with him.

At the top of quay, a small black pickup truck with a wood-burning furnace on its back entered from the main street and made its way down toward the ferry, passing Haugland and the soldiers. Haugland continued walking until he felt the hair rise on his neck as someone shouted in German, “Halt!”

Cautiously, Haugland looked back. He watched in horror as a man and woman ran from the check point line to the truck and piled into the back. The truck took off, its tires squealing as it charged toward the entrance to the main street. “Down!” Haugland said in German, pushing Werner away. He stumbled and fell to the ground beside Werner. He landed hard on his shoulder, but out of range of the firepower that flowered out above them.

The Brisling Code

An experienced intelligence agent at 22, Tore Haugland faces certain danger when he accepts an assignment in occupied Norway knowing that his predecessor was killed by the Gestapo only a week before. The dying agent left a mysterious message in his interruption code that London calls the “Brisling Code.”

London wants Haugland to find out what it means as well as to gather information on the expansion of the U-boat base in Bergen. Haugland is sent to work at a drafting office in a shipyard. His mission is jeopardized when a ruthless SS officer, Hans Becker, with his own secrets, is alerted to his presence by a traitor at the Verks. Becker will do anything to find him.

If Haugland can’t discover the meaning of the Brisling Code in time, it could cost him his life and expose the members of the local resistance he works with. If he does, it could hurt the people he has grown to care about. But what if the message was written down wrong?

J.L. Oakley

Janet Oakley writes award-winning historical fiction that spans the mid-19th century to WW II. Her characters come from all walks of life, but all stand up for something in their own time and place.

Her books have been recognized with a 2013 Bellingham Mayor’s Arts Award, the 2013 Chanticleer Grand Prize, the 2014 First Place Chaucer Award, 2015 WILLA Silver Award and the 2016 Goethe Grand Prise.

When not writing, Janet demonstrates 19th century folkways, including churning some pretty mean butter.

She has loved history since she was a girl, sharing her mother’s love for swashbuckling novels and the stories her grandmother told of settling the West in the 1870s.

In addition to historical fiction, J.L. has also written four mystery novellas set in the Hawaiian Islands.

Her most recent historical novel, Mist-chi-mas: A Novel Of Captivity, launched in September 2017. It is set in 1860 on San Juan Island in Pacific NW during a time with the British Royal Marines and US Army jointly occupied the island—peacefully.

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And follow her on Twitter @JlOakley.