fiHAPTEFI<br >ONE<br >THE YOUNG WOMAN hitched her skirt to her thighs， revealing<br >slender legs encased in lisle stockings.<br > "I do apologize they re not silk，" she told the man in the shiny<br >black waistcoat. "So terrifically hard to find silk these days， isn t<br >it?" She lifted her skirt a fraction higher， and as the man gaped she<br >brought the heavy iron piping down hard on his skull.<br > He fell to his knees and made a funny wheeze.<br > It was rather exciting. She hadn t been in London during the<br >Blitz， but oh how she d envied them the drama. The whine and<br >clump of the incendiaries and ack-ack shells， the streams of trac-<br >ers and the barrage balloons bumbling overhead. Now the Luft-<br >waffe was raiding more heavily again， and she felt a glow of<br >pleasure at being part of the grand sweep of things--a glitzy<br >Berlin cabaret， with brilliant spotlights sweeping the darkened<br >stage， but better for the real tears and blood and love.<br >