Adolf surveyed the ground in front of him. Ilsa was nowhere in sight. Just as the ripping cloth sound heralded a new artillery barrage, Adolf saw Ilsa leap into the next crater. Again the earth heaved. Adolf spat out the dust and dirt that he had swallowed. Another pause in the barrage. Adolf jumped up and covered half the distance to the woods.
“Ilsa, hurry!” Adolf turned around as he jumped down into the crater. Only then did he realize that some of the artillery fire had been smoke, not high explosive rounds. In horror, Adolf watched as Ilsa jumped into a crater and submachine gun fire started up again, this time much closer. Adolf fired blindly into the smoke, but he couldn’t see any targets, and he was too far away to aim if he could see something.
Ilsa fired into the smoke, then turned to jump into the next crater when a hand grenade went off and knocked her down. Shapes emerged from the smoke – old men and a couple of boys. Adolf opened fire, but didn’t hit anything or anyone. The ground around Adolf exploded with the impact of bullets, forcing him to fall backwards into the next crater.
When Adolf looked up again, he could see two men dragging an unconscious Ilsa back towards the smoke.
“No!” yelled Adolf, as he jumped up to defend Ilsa. The men in front of Adolf all jumped back into the smoke. For a moment, Adolf thought that he had managed to scare them off. Then he stepped forward, and heard the distinctive sound of incoming artillery. Adolf jumped back down into the bottom of the crater. Again the world heaved around him as shell after shell rained down. Each concussion filling Adolf with dread. Realizing that he had emptied his magazine, Adolf patted himself down, hoping to find another one. Instead, he felt the container that the toxin was being carried in.
Adolf knew what his options were: get the toxin back to Finland, or try to rescue Ilsa.
He looked around frantically for someone else to deliver the sample. Just once, he prayed, let me be a husband rather than a rebel leader.
There was no one in sight but the enemy, and precious few seconds to reach the woods.
“Goodbye, Ilsa,” Adolf whispered as he clutched the toxin and turned resolutely toward Finland, and the people whose lives depended on him.
Shortly after dawn, Adolf was reunited with Brun, badly injured, but determined to go on, Rika, slightly injured, and Thoresten, untouched, but dangerously close to nervous collapse. Everyone else was dead or captured.
Adolf’s initial attempt to hand over the virus and run off after Ilsa was prevented by all three. Without Gregor, Adolf guessed he had a shot at overpowering his friends and running off anyway, but he knew that Ilsa was probably out of the country by now.
His only hope of finding her lay in the intelligence now being gathered back—like everything else, it seemed—in Finland.
So onward to Finland he traveled.
CHAPTER 28
Adolf remembered little of the days that followed. Rika and Thoresten guided his steps, forced him to lie down at night—although they couldn’t make him sleep—and kept him under close watch. Other than that, they could do little and they both knew it.
“They were married?” Brun asked.
“Yes,” said Thoresten. “But please don’t use the past tense just yet.”
“Sorry,” said the scientist. “It’s just that in my cell, we don’t let couples go on missions together.”
Thoresten backed down. “Ours, too—usually. But Adolf and Ilsa aren’t your average couple.”
“So I noticed.”
“I hope someday he can see just how much he accomplished.” Rika glanced toward Adolf, who walked a few steps behind.
“Accomplished?” Adolf echoed. “And please don’t talk about me like I’m not here. I’m depressed, not deaf. And I didn’t accomplish a damn thing in Russia, except for getting this toxin, which could very well be a false alarm.” His expression told them that it better not be a false alarm, considering the cost.
“You got the surviving delegates to start thinking about grabbing the broadcast network, and a code that will get everyone to rise up at once. More importantly, you got them thinking about what kind of government they wanted after we won. Using Judaism as the basis for a constitution was pure gold, Adolf.”
“So what? No one listened.”
“No, but they heard.”
Adolf wasn’t sure he knew what the difference was. He wasn’t sure he cared. All he could care about now was the fact that he had abandoned Ilsa to the enemy so he could return to Finland with the toxin. And if this heroic gesture somehow turned into a bad joke, he was going to…
What? What could he really do? Kill someone? Sure, but who? Himself was the most obvious target. But that wouldn’t do anyone any good, and would be an insult to all the people—both living and dead—who’d believed in Adolf and the message he carried. Ilsa, most of all.
He just wished he knew which group she was in right now.
They slipped back into Party controlled territory with relative ease, albeit a lot of anxiety, just north of the bomb crater that had once been Leningrad. South along the coast, they waited to board one of the few ships still available to common people. Adolf would have preferred a secret crossing in a smuggler’s boat. Despite their impeccably forged documents, he was always nervous facing officials. He became more nervous when he saw how agitated the soldiers at the harbor were.
Fortunately, they were passed without comment, and after the usual nerve wracking wait, they sailed on the good ship Von Hindenburg. Adolf noticed fewer soldiers than usual on the transport, and took it as a good sign.
“Let’s all try to get some sleep, Rika suggested, leading them below decks to the scanty accommodations, consisting of a flat wooden surface covered with snoring bodies.
“Ah, yes,” said Thoresten. “The lovely smells of proletariat travel. Machine oil, fish and unwashed bodies.”
“You should talk,” said Rika.
Adolf left them to their banter and went back to the deck. There, the fresh sea air and the rocking of the ship calmed him more than sleep would have done.
They reached Finnish waters later that day. Suddenly, Adolf was seized by a vision of bloated bodies, their faces twisted in agony. There were thousands of them. The stench of rotting meat invaded his nostrils. Then it was gone. Adolf sagged against the ship’s rail, gagging. Anyone who saw him passed it off as a late bout of sea sickness, and left him alone.
What’s happening to me? Adolf wondered. If this keeps up, I’ll be just like Alina. For the first time, he felt genuine empathy for the girl, and began to regret not following Ilsa’s wishes and returning to her base in Poland for her.
But that would have taken too long. All Adolf wanted to do now was get the toxin to the Finnish base, learn all he could from Eikki on Ilsa’s possible whereabouts, and go after her.
Alina could take care of herself.
When the others joined Adolf on the deck, he said nothing of his vision. They docked in Helsinki a short time later. This time, they were overwhelmed by a military presence. It was hours before they could disembark, and only then to the sound of frightening words from a jackbooted soldier: “A state of martial law now exists.”
“How does a military dictatorship declare martial law?” whispered Thoresten. “Isn’t that kind of redundant?”
Rumors flew, but no official explanation was given. Only the usual double talk of danger from crazed dissidents and the Führer’s great concern for the welfare of his people. Cooperation would be greatly appreciated, they were told.
It took them days to reach base, by which time they had heard so many rumors, Thoresten joked that they’d never believe the truth when they finally heard it.
Yet when they reached the hidden base, all was as they had left it. Only the strangely subdued excitement emanating from the people in the cave was different.
“What’s happened?” Adolf shouted as they joined the group that surrounded Eikki and his radio.
Seppi looked up from a pile of messages, a strange glow in his cr
aggy, careworn face. “The greatest single blow ever struck against the Reich, that’s what’s happened! Someone got inside the three largest meat packing plants in Germany, and poisoned the pork. No other meat was touched. But over half that pork was destined for military bases.”
“It is believed,” Eikki said, slowly removing his headphones, “that twenty five percent of the active duty infantry is dead or dying. The civilian death toll is estimated in the tens of thousands.”
CHAPTER 29
Adolf watched the activity around him as if across a great void.
“We’ve all been waiting for a sign,” said Luisa. “A signal for all to rise up and bring down the Reich. Do you think this is it?”
“It’s too soon,” said Thoresten, pacing nervously. “At the conference we never finalized any plans—“
“The Führer’s left his summer palace because of the poisonings,” said Rika. “So that blows Marla’s plan. No pun intended.”
“That’s assuming her new buddies care about little details like who they actually kill,” said Thoresten.
“That’s also assuming they get the thing fixed and loaded at all.”
“If only we could have agreed on a date and signal for the general uprising!” wailed Thoresten.
“This is so frustrating!” said Rika. “It’s like dancing on the edge of a sword! We don’t know which way to jump, but we have to jump some way--and soon.”
“Multiply that by a hundred million people, and you’ve got the state of the world today,” said Eikki. “Most of the groups are afraid to move, but dozens of hotheads have already gone out and done something stupid. Most of them will be dead soon. Or worse.”
“Anyone who could pull off something like this would surely have a plan for the rest of us,” said Luisa. “I’m sure we’ll be hearing from Ilsa soon.”
“We don’t know she did it!” Adolf turned on Luisa with such ferocity she ran away from him. Everyone was staring, but for once, Adolf didn’t care. “Thousands of rebels heard her advocating a kosher diet! Any lunatic could have—“
“You act like it’s something to be ashamed of, Adolf,” said Eikki. “Whoever did this is a hero. Ilsa’s your wife. Aren’t you hoping she’s the one?”
Rika quickly stepped forward to explain to everyone about Ilsa’s capture; about the toxin and all the other recent news. Adolf curtly ordered one of the children to lead Brun to the scientists with the toxin that he himself had carried all the way from Russia. He found he wasn’t interested in talking with the scientists, or watching them analyze the sample. He didn’t even care now what the results were.
Adolf turned his back on all of them. He fled the cavern and into the tunnels. As he left he heard Eikki reporting, “Latest tally puts the death toll at two hundred thousand. Almost ninety percent of them, German.”
“That’s wonderful!” someone said.
“Now if she could just get the rest of them.”
Adolf kept moving, the voices ringing in his head. Ilsa is German, he wanted to say. I am German. Millions of people too young to know what’s happening are German. Lots of dead people whose opinions were never asked were German!
But nobody wanted to hear that. And probably wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Fresh cool air blew in his face, ruffling the straggly new beard that was coming in and tousling his blond hair. Adolf stood in the rocky dell that hid the opening to the base, and offered refuge to a man who wanted to think.
He climbed one of the rocky outcroppings and gazed at the Finnish landscape. Gray fog shrouded the nearest mountains, matching Adolf’s mood. Far below, a slash of green told of a fertile valley. Adolf stood, gazing into the cold mist, feeling again the sense of mystery; of the unknown waiting to be made known. Like the Judenmuseum.
Two hundred thousand dead. And more to join them soon, if he was any judge of how mass murder went in the Reich. And if he understood nothing else, Adolf understood that.
There would be those whose superior Aryan constitution would keep them alive and in agony for a few more days. Then they would add their numbers to Eikki’s’ tally. There would be those who might be saved, but lacked the Medical Priority Points to receive adequate care in the current state of crisis. There would be those who would have to die for this unspeakable crime—whether or not they had anything to do with it. And, if this brilliant poisoner had concocted something new; something the doctors had never seen, there would be yet one more group of deaths: those used in the experiments to learn more about this poison and find an antidote.
Oh, yes. There was much cause for rejoicing today.
And Adolf wished he could stay there, among the dead of his vision, rather than follow his thoughts to the next obvious subject.
Was this Ilsa’s work? Was she even alive? Something in his gut told him she was. And it would be easy enough to tell himself that Ilsa had been with him the whole time for the past four months, and therefore couldn’t have been responsible for this latest sabotage.
Except for those few days before they left for Russia. Those secret “things” she had to do, that she never told Adolf about. Could poisoning a few pork processing plants been on her list?
She had, after all, brought up the idea back in Poland, while they lay together in bed.
“Adolf?”
He jumped, and then settled down as Rika came into view. “I’m sorry about what they were saying back there. About how great it was that most of the dead are German.”
“Not your fault.”
“They didn’t mean it—“
“Yes they did.”
“What I mean is, no one here forgets that you’re German. And so are plenty of other people in this movement.”
Adolf shrugged. “Hate begets hate. I can’t blame them for being human.”
“Then what are you?” asked Rika.
“Come again?” He had a headache, and wished Rika would just leave him alone.
“What are you that you never give in to hate, even while you forgive it in others? What are you that you can grieve for the dead, yet sympathize with the killers? How do you keep on preaching and teaching, day after day, and never want to strangle us when we still don’t get it?”
“Who says I never want to strangle you?”
“But you never do it. And now you’re worried that the woman you love has—on a rather large scale.”
“I’d rather not discuss that right now.” At least, not with Rika. Adolf wished Karl was here; he was the only other person here who’d known Ilsa in the old days. But Karl had taken off with a couple of equally unreliable young men while Adolf was gone.
“I’m sorry,” said Rika. “It’s just I…you should know…we need you Adolf. Not just the revolution. The whole damned world! And if we manage to defeat the Reich, then we’ll need you even more. But we need the person who poisoned that pork too! Without…that person, there won’t be a new government. And without you, whatever new government we get will turn out just as bad as the old one.”
Adolf thought about that, just as the fog around them began to lift, showing that light still lived, even when it couldn’t be seen.
“Rabbi Adolf!” The shout seemed far away. Then they heard the voice again, and a little girl came running up.
“Mina, what is it?” asked Rika, collecting the shaking bundle of rags into her arms.
“Rabbi, you have to come! Karl came back, but without my brother or Jules. He said he had a message for you. Seppi told me to find you, but…”
“But what, liebling?” said Adolf.
“But when I left, Seppi was crying.”
“Stay here, Rika,” said Adolf. “Keep Mina with you, and don’t move until I come for you. If I don’t come by nightfall, find a place to hide, then…just go. Whatever you do, don’t go back into the cave.” Rika only nodded, bleak acceptance in her face.
Then for a moment, Adolf just stood there. He desperately wished he was wearing a coat, just so he could take it off and give it to Rik
a. Trying to leave something of yourself behind, or just being chivalrous to the end? an annoying inner voice mocked.
He went back to the main cavern, feeling strangely calm.
Karl was there. He wore a new jacket and gloves, but at least they weren’t military issue. If Adolf saw him in a uniform, he knew he would most likely grab a gun from someone and shoot Karl before he had a chance to speak.
“Adolf? I…I wish they’d grabbed someone else, but I’m sorry. I have a message for you.” Karl held a worn leather briefcase in his gloved hands. Adolf looked into his eyes, expecting smugness; perhaps a gleam of triumph. To his surprise, the self-absorbed arrogance he’d seen there just a few months ago was gone. Karl seemed uncertain, even afraid.
Adolf nodded. “Of course. But first things first.” He punched Karl in the jaw, aiming for the same place Karl had once hit Adolf.
He took Karl completely off guard, sending him sprawling across the floor. To Adolf’s chagrin, it didn’t make him feel any better. In fact, about the only thing he felt was the pain in his knuckles.
“Adolf, please!” Karl was on his feet in an instant, arms up to ward off further blows. When Adolf made no move towards him, Karl lowered his hands and rubbed his jaw. “Look, I know what you’re thinking, but I didn’t sell you out! Jules thought it would be a good time to ‘forage’ supplies, what with all the chaos. Jacco and I thought we could drum up some business—“
“What kind of ‘business’?”
“My second line of work; the one between government lackey and rebel soldier. Forgery. I thought, with things so crazy, and official attention elsewhere, there might be a market for official looking documents.
“Okay it was stupid! We should have stayed here! We all got picked up. I got I.D.’d.”
From the Ashes Page 27
