On the Edge of the Sword

ON THE EDGE OF THE SWORD Based on a true story by Christine Skarbek, Rick Clinite and Dominik W. Rettinger By dent of her charm and ability to mesmerize and amaze nearly every person she meets, Polish Countess KRYSTYNA SKARBEK has a knack for savvy intelligence and courage, making her an excellent agent. It’s a week after D-Day, 1944 – KRYSTYNA sits in parachute gear on a night flight as she’s about to be parachuted into Vichy France. She’s concentrating on things past and present. In a flashback, she relives her interrogation before a British military panel in Cairo. It will determine whether she was a double agent when she made her courier runs between Warsaw and Budapest in 1940. She had also brought from occupied Poland microfilm incontrovertibly proving the impending German attack on the Soviet Union. Her lover, ANDREW KOWERSKI, a Polish officer has escaped from Budapest with her, and is about to rejoin the Polish army in Libya. Because KRYSTYNA fears the worst and she will be executed as a spy for the Germans, she gives him her family heirloom ring, the Habdank. One of her interrogators is the captivating Lt. ALAN FIELDING who will end up training her in Algiers. Finally exonerated of the accusations, KRYSTYNA is parachuted onto the Alpine plateau, into the newborn free Vercors Republic. She has waited three long years to again join the fight against the Nazis. Upon hooking up with the Maquis, she finds – of all people – ALAN imbedded with her unit. KRYSTYNA impresses both General HUET, commander of the Vercors Maquis, and her immediate boss, ROGER, a British SOE agent, with her cool verve. Yet, HUET won’t heed her message from HQ that the Maquis should dissolve their new republic and only continue their partisan activities. Saying the French have waited long enough, he won’t even listen to ROGER’s argument that the Allies can’t afford to siphon off any of their heavier weapons and ammo because of the Normandy operations. As ALAN shows KRYSTYNA around the area, it becomes apparent theirs was not merely a platonic relationship in Africa. They immediately renew their passionate romance. They both know their love is limited to the duration of the war, since ALAN has a wife and a daughter in England, and he had promised to return to them. All of this becomes moot because, shortly after KRYSTYNA’s arrival, a German Wehrmacht division attacks the Maquisards on the Vercors heights and on the plateau. The French are untrained for the most part and ill-equipped for combat. Unbeknownst to them all, a traitor named RÉNÉ is in their midst. During the battle in Vassieux, KRYSTYNA is called upon to shoot a German soldier, but finds she cannot. When ALAN questions her motivation to fight, she comes to the realization the driving force in her life is her need to dance on the edge of the sword. She relives her own life-long struggles with her Jewish mother in flashback. She sees her for the last time on one of her Budapest-to-Warsaw trips, and feels guilty because she was unable to rescue her, and her mother ended up dying in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Vercors Republic is defeated and the Germans exact their revenge. The Gestapo’s hunt for the rest of the Maquis starts. Meanwhile, the Maquis receives word the Allies need them to attack a fortress in the mountain pass between France and Italy called the Col de Larche. The citadel is manned by Polish Silesian conscripts. Knowing the decimated French can’t possibly muster an assault, KRYSTYNA accepts the challenge and goes alone to get the Silesian conscripts to turn against their German commanders and take over the fortress. During that action, she’s nearly shot by a German officer. Liberating the Col de Larche allows the Allies free entry via the Maritime Alps into southern France, thus saving tens of thousands of American and British soldiers’ lives. Meanwhile, ROGER discovers who the traitor is (the Frenchman, RÉNÉ) and takes ALAN and another fellow undercover British officer to capture him. But, before they’re able to do so, the Gestapo arrests them. KRYSTYNA decides to rescue the British agents, at all costs. She takes it upon herself to strike a deal with ROGER’s jailers, a French police officer SCHENCK and a Belgian Gestapo officer named WAEM. By exposing herself in such a fashion, she risks her own immediate arrest and execution – as always, she is dancing on the edge of the sword. The other thing she bargains for with SCHENCK and WAEM is for them to turn the traitor, RÉNÉ, over to her comrades. The Maquisards and Allies arrange a drop of two million francs as ransom for the British officers. Suspecting a double-cross, KRYSTYNA orders the Maquisards to lay a trap. Just as they are about to make the exchange and set the three prisoners free, Gestapo agents descend on them. A shoot-out ensues. The Gestapo agents, the traitor RÉNÉ and SCHENCK are killed. KRYSTYNA, ALAN, the two other British officers and their comrades-in-arms survive. KRYSTYNA and ALAN spend one last night together, acknowledging it is a cheerless farewell. The next morning, ALAN is shot dead in a skirmish. Weeks later, KRYSTYNA returns to London where she’s informed ALAN had left her a magnificent piece of property in his will. True to her inner voice of living on the edge, KRYSTYNA signs the building over to ALAN’s widow and daughter. Awarded the George Medal by KING GEORGE VI shortly after the war, KRYSTYNA is surrounded by the British and French agents whose lives she saved. The great love of her life, ANDREW, returns her family signet ring, the Habdank, to her. Born out of her Polish and Jewish heritage, KRYSTYNA’s desire to get back into the fight against the Nazis took nearly three years to realize. But, in the end, she discovered she could not kill. Rather – and much more significantly – she was able to save thousands of lives, through sheer determination and quiet resolve. This was a more laudable accomplishment and her lasting legacy. Contact me: cskarbek@gmail.com if you would like to request a read.