The Valhalla Exchange - Jack Higgins [84]
Ritter turned to Hoffer. 'We're leaving now, Erich.'
Hoffer went out. Strasser said, 'What do you intend?'
'I'm attacking at seven o'clock. Full assault. We'll use Panzerfausts to blow the drawbridge chains. It might work, but I can't guarantee it. I'm leaving Sergeant-Major Gestrin and four men to look after things here.'
Hoffer returned and handed him his parka and field cap. Strasser said, 'Let me get my coat. I'll come with you.'
'No!' Ritter said flatly. 'I command and I say you stay here.'
As he buttoned his parka, Strasser said, 'As you so obviously feel as you do, why are you doing this?'
'Most of my friends are dead now,' Ritter told him. 'Why should I get away with it?' and he walked out.
Arnie was sleeping peacefully and the only evidence of the ordeal he had passed through were the dark smudges like purple bruising under each eye. Gaillard placed a hand on the boy's forehead. It was quite cool and the pulse was normal for the first time in twenty-four hours.
He lit a cigarette, went to the window and opened it. It was quite dark except for light spilling out from the kitchen window across the courtyard below. It was snowing and he breathed deeply of the cold bracing air.
There was a knock at the door and Meyer entered with coffee on a tray. The Finnish guard stayed outside. Gaillard could see him sitting on a chair on the other side of the corridor, smoking a cigarette.
'How is he, Herr Doktor?' Meyer asked as he poured coffee.
'Temperature down, pulse normal, fever gone and sleeping peacefully as you can see.' Gaillard drank some of the coffee gratefully. 'And now I must check on Madame de Beauville.'
Meyer said softly, 'They mount a general assault on Schloss Arlberg at seven.'
Gaillard said, 'Are you certain?'
'I overheard Major Ritter and Herr Strasser discussing it in the bar a short time ago. Major Ritter has already left for the castle.'
'And Strasser?'
'There was trouble between them, Strasser wanted to go, but Ritter wouldn't have it. He stays here with five Finns to guard him.'
Gaillard turned and leaned on the window sill, considerably agitated. 'If a general assault is mounted up there they won't stand a chance. We must do something.'
'What can we do, Herr Doktor? It's a hopeless situation.'
'Not if someone could get out with news of what's happening here.' There was a new hope on Gaillard's face. 'There must be many Allied units in the vicinity of Arlberg now. You could go, Johann.' He reached out a hand and gripped Meyer's coat. 'You could slip away.'
'I am sorry, Herr Doktor, I owe you a great deal - possibly even my son's life - but if I go, it would be like leaving the boy to take his chances.' Meyer shook his head. 'In any case, it would be impossible to steal the field car with those Finns out in front, and how far could anyone hope to get on foot?'
'You're right, of course.' Gaillard turned back to the window dejectedly and saw something in the courtyard below that filled him with a sudden fierce hope. A set of skis propped against the wall beside the kitchen window.
He controlled himself with considerable difficulty. 'Pour me another coffee before that sentry decides you've been here long enough, and listen. The skis down there - they are yours?'
'Yes, Herr Doktor.'
'You are right, my friend, you do owe me something and now is your chance to repay. You will take those skis, an anorak, mittens and boots and leave them in the wood store at the top of the yard. That is all I ask. Getting out of here is my problem.'
Meyer still hesitated. 'I'm not sure, Herr Doktor. If they ever found out...'
'Not for me or my friends, Johann,' Gaillard said. 'For Arnie. You owe him that much, I think.'
The Finn moved into the room, said something in his own language, and gestured to Meyer, motioning him outside. Meyer picked up the