• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

'What was your aircraft?'

'P47 Thunderbolt, sir. I made it down in one piece in a clearing in the forest, then struck out for the main road. It's a pretty fluid situation in this area, General. There are plenty of our people around. It's just a question of knowing where.'

'And you say you were picked up by an SS unit?'

'That's right, sir. Mostly Finns, but there was a German officer in charge. A man called Ritter.'

'And they've been holding you all day?'

'That's right, sir, at an inn called the Golden Eagle in Arlberg.' There was a slight pause. He gazed around him wildly. 'Say, what goes on here? What do you people think I am -a kraut or something?'

'Well, I'll tell you, Captain,' Finebaum put in. 'Because it's really funny you should say that. When we were in the Ardennes in forty-four - and it was snowing then too, I might add - there was guys popping up all over the place, just like you, GI uniform - everything. Saying they'd lost their units, asking the way to Malmedy. Stuff like that. An interesting thing. They was all krautheads.'

'Any chance of you shutting this man up?' Canning inquired coldly.

Howard said, 'Button it, Finebaum.'

Canning said to Jackson, 'We're in a hell of a position in here, Bannerman. We can't afford to take anything on trust, you understand?'

'He says he's met Dr Gaillard, sir,' Howard put in.

Claire said excitedly, 'You've seen Paul?'

'Sure I've seen him.'

'How is he?'

'He's looking after a sick kid down there at the inn. Son of the landlord, a guy named Meyer.'

'And the SS have him?' Canning asked.

'Oh, yes. Major Ritter, the officer in command, lets him see to the kid regularly, but they had us locked up together for quite a while. Meyer brought our food and Gaillard saw him quite a lot each time he went to see to the kid. He's in a pretty bad way.'

'All right, how did you escape?'

'Well, it was mostly Meyer who made that possible. He overheard Ritter and some guy called Strasser - a civilian he has with him -discussing their plans for an attack just before dawn. They're going to put some guys across the moat with explosives to blow down your drawbridge. When Gaillard heard that, he told me I'd have to get away somehow and come and warn you people.'

'Which you seem to have managed without too much trouble,' Birr said.

'That was Meyer again. He tipped me off he'd leave the back door near the kitchen unlocked. I asked to go to the lavatory, gave the Finn who was escorting me a shove at the right moment, got the door open and ran like hell.'

There was a long and heavy silence now in which everyone seemed to be looking at him. Jackson said, 'General, I'm Captain Harry Bannerman of the United States Army Air Corps and when that drawbridge of yours is blown to hell and gone just before dawn tomorrow, you'll know I was telling the truth. Just now, I'd settle for a cup of coffee, dry clothes and somewhere to lay my head.'

Canning smiled suddenly and held out his hand. 'I'll tell you something, son. All of a sudden I've decided to believe you.' He turned to Hesser. 'Can you find him some dry clothes?'

'Certainly,' Hesser said. 'If the Herr Captain doesn't mind German uniform. This way, if you please.'

Jackson started to follow him, paused and turned. 'Heh, there's just one thing, General. Something kind of funny. It doesn't mean a damn thing to me. Maybe it does to you.'

'What's that?' Canning asked him.

'This guy Strasser - the civilian I told you about?'

'Well?'

'It's just that he seems to swing a lot of weight. I mean a couple of times there he acted as if he was in charge and I heard Ritter call him Reichsleiter. That ring any bells with you?'

Hesser turned pale. 'Bormann?' he whispered.

'That's it,' Canning said excitedly. 'I knew I'd seen that ugly face somewhere before. Martin Bormann, Secretary to Hitler himself. I saw him just once on the stand at the Berlin Olympic Games in thirty-six.' He turned on Hesser. 'You didn't recognize him?'

'I've never