Doctor Who_ Just War - Lance Parkin [24]
The armoured car shielded her from the main group of Nazis; she just needed to reach some better cover. She had killed Gerhard. She pounded towards the dry stone wall marking the edge of the field. Behind her there were cries for a doctor.
It was too late, though. She concentrated on what was ahead.
Benny threw herself over the dry stone wall, grazing her legs and crashing to the tarmac road on the other side.
Ignoring the pain, she forced herself up, and hobbled back behind a patch of vegetation, sliding herself down into a muddy ditch. She peered out from her hiding place through the short branches. She was shaking. Benny wanted to cough, or to scream, but couldn’t do either of those things.
The main group of Nazis had been a full twenty seconds behind her, and hadn’t seen her. As she had hoped, only a handful of troops came over the stile, thirty yards away. The others had to stay back to guard that thing on the beach.
Whatever it was down there, these leaderless troops knew that it was even more important to guard it than to capture the murderer of a German soldier. Those few that had followed hadn’t seen her, and couldn’t work out where she had gone. They broadcast their ignorance in loud shouts in German, instinctively assuming that she wouldn’t speak their language. Three minutes later and they had pulled back to the field.
Benny hauled herself upright, and allowed herself to cough.
She’d bought herself some time: there had been a radio in the armoured car, and that had almost certainly been the group’s only link with any reinforcements or search parties.
She couldn’t take that for granted, though, and it wouldn’t be long before a runner was sent. Her little diversion had made a great deal of noise, and so it was entirely possible that every German patrol on the island had already been drawn this way. There seemed little chance of doubling back and meeting up with the Doctor here; she’d have to head back to the boardinghouse.
She remembered the shot she had heard. A single shot.
Someone must have come across him. She wasn’t worried, because the Doctor was quite capable of looking after himself. Had the Doctor had time to find out what he needed to know, though? There was no way of telling, and she certainly wasn’t in any fit state to go down there and help him. She’d done all she could. She flexed her muscles, tried to figure out how badly hurt she was. Nothing broken, but virtually everything cut and bruised. Mud caked her dress, her legs and half her face. She was colder than she had realized, her feet already numb, her legs in the first stages of cramp. She stamped her feet, trying to improve her circulation. Her hands were still shaking. She wasn’t badly hurt, but she was far too distinctive. She would be picked up by any German patrol she came across. Even at a brisk pace, it would take her three-quarters of an hour to get back to the boardinghouse, but she really couldn’t think of anywhere else to go, and she couldn’t wait here. She set off, circling back while also giving the cove and surroundings a wide berth.
Had they invented the helicopter by now? Benny tried to remember as she fled across country. A century from now the jet helicopter would be the principal form of transport, and she had seen for herself that they were certainly around in the 1960s and ‘70s, but she couldn’t remember seeing or hearing any on this visit. The Germans hardly needed them: when the alarm was raised, they would bring in tracker dogs, foot patrols, roadblocks. Guernsey was so small that search parties could be set up in no time at all. Benny decided that, on balance, it might well be better to stick to the roads: there would be no risk of getting lost, and she wouldn’t leave a trail of footprints. Thanks to the restrictions imposed by rationing, only the Germans could run motor vehicles now, so if she heard the noise of an engine, it would have to be them. There were plenty of hedges and ditches to hide in. If she was careful, she ought