«Shoot to kill!» Louki laughed dryly. «Unnecessary advice, Major, when the dark one is with us. He never shoots any other way.»
«Right, away you go. Damned sorry you've got yourselves mixed up in all this — but now that you are, a thousand thanks for all you've done. See you at halfpast six.»
«Half-past six,» Louki echoed. «The olive grove on the bank of the stream, south of the village. We will be waiting there.»
Two minutes later they were lost to sight and sound and all was still inside the cave again, except for the faint crackling of the embers of the dying fire. Brown had moved out on guard, and Stevens had already fallen into a restless, pain-filled sleep. Miller bent over him for a moment or two, then moved softly across the cave to Mallory. His right hand held a crumpled heap of blood-stained bandages. He held them out towards Mallory.
«Take a sniff at that, boss,» he asked quietly. «Easy does it.»
Mallory bent forward, drew away sharply, his nose wrinkled in immediate disgust.
«Good lord, Dusty! That's vile!» He paused, paused in sure, sick certainty. He knew the answer before he spoke. «What on earth is it?»
«Gangrene.» Miller sat down heavily by his side, threw the bandages into the fire. All at once he sounded tired, defeated. «Gas gangrene. Spreadin' like a forest fire — and he would have died anyway. I'm just wastin' my time.»
CHAPTER 10
Tuesday Night
04:00--06:00
The Germans took them just after four o'clock in the morning, while they were still asleep. Bone-tired and deep-drugged with this sleep as they were, they had no chance, not the slightest hope of offering any resistance. The conception, timing and execution of the coup were immaculate. Surprise was complete.
Andrea was the first awake. Some alien whisper of sound had reached deep down to that part of him that never slept, and he twisted round and elbowed himself off the ground with the same noiseless speed as his hand reached out for his ready-cocked and loaded Mauser. But the white beam of the powerful torch lancing through the blackness of the cave bad blinded him, frozen his stretching hand even before the clipped bite of command from the man who held the torch.
«Still! All of you!» Faultless English, with barely a trace of accent, and the voice glacial in its menace. «You move, and you die!» Another torch switched on, a third, and the cave was flooded with light. Wide awake, now, and motionless, Mallory squinted painfully into the dazzling beams: in the back-wash of reflected light, he could just discern the vague, formless shapes crouched in the mouth of the cave, bent over the dulled barrels of automatic rifles.
«Hands clasped above the heads and backs to the wall!» A certainty, an assured competence in the voice that made for instant obedience. «Take a good look at them, Sergeant.» Almost conversational now, the tone, but neither torch nor gun barrel had wavered a fraction. «No shadow of expression in their faces, not even a flicker of the eyes. Dangerous men, Sergeant. The English choose their killers well»
Mallory felt the grey bitterness of defeat wash through him in an almost tangible wave, he could taste the sourness of it in the back of his mouth. For a brief, heart-sickening second he allowed himself to think of what must now inevitably happen and as soon as the thought had come he thrust it savagely away. Everything, every action, every thought, every breath must be on the present. Hope was gone, but not irrecoverably gone: not so long as Andrea lived. He wondered if Casey Brown had seen or heard them coming, and what had happened to him: he made to ask, checked himself just in time. Maybe he was still at large.
«How did you manage to find us?» Mallory asked quietly.
«Only fools burn juniper wood,» the officer said contemptuously. «We have been on Kostos all day and most of the night. A dead man could have smelt it.»
«On Kostos?» Miner shook his head. «How could--?»
«Enough!» The officer turned to someone behind him. «Tear down that screen,» he ordered in German, «and keep us covered on either side.» He looked back into the cave, gestured almost imperceptibly with his torch. «All right, you three. Outside — and you had better be careful. Please believe me that my men are praying for an excuse to shoot you down, you murdering swine!» The venomous hatred in his voice carried utter conviction.
Slowly, hands still clasped above their heads, the three men stumbled to their feet. Mallory had taken only one step when the whip-lash of the German's voice brought him up short.
«Stop!» He stabbed the beam of his torch down at the unconscious Stevens, gestured abruptly at Andrea. «One side, you! Who is this?»
«You need not fear from him,» Mallory said quietly. «He is one of us but he is terribly injured. He is dying.»
«We will see,» the officer said tightly. «Move to the back of the cave!» He waited until the three men had stepped over Stevens, changed his automatic rifle for a pistol, dropped to his knees and advanced slowly, torch in one hand, gun in the other, well below the line of fire of the two soldiers who advanced unbidden at his heels. There was an inevitability, a cold professionalism about it all that made Mallory's heart sink.
Abruptly the officer reached out his gun-hand, tore the covers off the boy. A shuddering tremor shook the whole body, his head rolied from side to side as he moaned in unconscious agony. The officer bent quickly over him, the hard, clean lines of the face, the fair hair beneath the hood high-lit in the beam of his own torch. A quick look at Stevens's pain-twisted, emaciated features, a glance at the shattered leg, a brief, distasteful wrinkling of the nose as he caught the foul stench of the gangrene, and he had hunched back on his heels, gently replacing the covers over the sick boy.
«You speak the truth,» he said softly. «We are not barbarians. I have no quarrel with a dying man. Leave him there.» He rose to his feet, walked slowly backwards. «The rest of you outside.»
The snow had stopped altogether, Mallory saw, and stars were beginning to twinkle in the clearing sky. The wind, too, had fallen away and was perceptibly warmer. Most of the snow would be gone by midday, Mallory guessed.
Carelessly, incuriously, he looked around him. There was no sign of Casey Brown. Inevitably Mallory's hopes began to rise. Petty Officer Brown's recommendation for this operation had come from the very top. Two rows of ribbons to which he was entitled but never wore bespoke his gallantry, he had a formidable reputation as a guerrilla fighter — and he had had an automatic rifle in his hand. If he were somewhere out there… . Almost as 'if he had divined his hopes, the German smashed them at a word.
«You wonder where your sentry is, perhaps?» he asked mockingly. «Never fear, Englishman, he is not far from here, asleep at his post. Very sound asleep, I'm afraid.»
«You've killed him?» Mallory's hands clenched until his palms ached.
The other shrugged his shoulder in vast indifference.
«I really couldn't say. It was all too easy. One of my men lay in the gully and moaned. A masterly performance — really pitiable — he almost had me convinced. Like a fool your man came to investigate. I had another man waiting above, the barrel of his rifle in his hand. A very effective club, I assure you… .»
Slowly Mallory unclenched his fists and stared bleakly down the gully. Of course Casey would fall for that, he was bound to after what had happened earlier in the night. He wasn't going to make a fool of himself again, cry «wolf» twice in succession: inevitably, he had gone to check first. Suddenly the thought occurred to Mallory that maybe Casey Brown had heard something earlier on, but the thought vanished as soon as it had come. Panayis did not look like the man to make a mistake: and Andrea never made a mistake; Mallory turned back to the officer again.
«Well, where do we go from here?»
«Margaritha, and very shortly. But one thing first.» The German, his own height to an inch, stood squarely in front of him, levelled revolver at waist height, switched-off torch dangling loosely from his right hand. «Just a little thing, Englishman. Where are the explosives?» He almost spat the words out.
/> «Explosives?» Mallory furrowed his brow in perplexity. «What explosives?» be asked blankly, then staggered and fell to the ground as the heavy torch swept round in a vicious half-circle, caught him flush on the side of the face. Dizzily he shook his head and climbed slowly to his feet again.
«The explosives.» The torch was balanced in the hand again, the voice silky and gentle. «I asked you where they were.»
«I don't know what you are talking about.» Mallory spat out a broken tooth, wiped some blood off his smashed lips. «Is this the way the Germans treat their prisoners?» he asked contemptuously.
«Shut up!»
Again the torch lashed out. Mallory was waiting for it, rode the blow as best he could: even so the torch caught him heavily high up on the cheekbone, just below the temple, stunning him with its jarring impact. Seconds passed, then he pushed himself slowly off the snow, the whole side of his face afire with agony, his vision blurred and unfocused.
«We fight a clean war!» The officer was breathing heavily, in barely controlled fury. «We fight by the Geneva Conventions. But these are for soldiers, not for murdering spies—»
«We are no spies!» Mallory interrupted. He felt as if his head was coming apart.
«Then where are your uniforms?» the officer demanded. «Spies, I say — murdering spies who stab in the back and cut men's throats!» The voice was trembling with anger. Mallory was at a loss — nothing spurious about this indignation.
«Cut men's throats?» He shook his head in bewilderment. «What the heli are you talking about?»
«My own batman. A harmless messenger, a boy only — and he wasn't even armed. We found him only an hour ago. Ach, I waste my time!» He broke off as he turned to watch two men coming up the gully. Mallory stood motionless for a moment, cursing the ifi luck that had led the dead man across the path of Panayis — it could have been no one else — then turned to see what had caught the officer's attention. He focused his aching eyes with difficulty, looked at the bent figure struggling up the slope, urged on by the ungentle prodding of a bayoneted rifle. Mallory let go a long, silent breath of relief. The left side of Brown's face was caked with blood from a gash above the temple, but he was otherwise unharmed.
«Right! Sit down in the snow, all of you!» He gestured to several of his men. «Bind their hands!»
«You are going to shoot us now, perhaps?» Mallory asked quietly. It was suddenly, desperately urgent that he should know: there was nothing they could do but die, but at least they could die on their feet, fighting; but if they weren't to die just yet, almost any later opportunity for resistance would be less suicidal than this.
«Not yet, unfortunately. My section commander in Margaritha, Hauptmann Skoda, wishes to see you first — maybe it would be better for you if I did shoot you now. Then the Herr Kommandant in Navarone — Officer Commanding of the whole island.» The German smiled thinly. «But only a postponement, Englishman. You will be kicking your heels, before the sun sets. We have a short way with spies in Navarone.»
«But, sir! Captain!» Hands raised in appeal, Andrea took a step forward, brought up short as two rifle muzzles ground into his chest.
«Not Captain — Lieutenant,» the officer corrected him. «Oberleutnant Turzig, at your service. What is it you want, fat one?» he asked contemptuously.
«Spies! You said spies! I am no spy!» The words rushed and tumbled over one another, as if he could not get them out fast enough. «Before God, I am no spy! I am not one of them.» The eyes were wide and staring, the mouth working soundlessly between the gasped-out sentences. «I am only a Greek, a poor Greek. They forced me to come along as an interpreter. I swear it, Lieutenant Turzig, I swear it!»
«You yellow bastard!» Miller ground out viciously, then grunted in agony as a rifie butt drove into the small of his back, just above the kidney. He stumbled, fell forward on his hands and knees, realised even as he fell that Andrea was only playing a part, that Mallory had only to speak half a dozen words in Greek to expose Andrea's lie. Miller twisted on his side in the snow, shook his fist weakly and hoped that the contorted pain on his face might be mistaken for fury. «You two-faced, double-crossing dago! You gawddamned swine, I'll get you …» There was a hollow, sickening thud and Miller collapsed in the snow: the heavy ski-boot had caught him just behind the ear.
Mallory said nothing. He did not even glance at Miller. Fists balled helplessly at his sides and mouth compressed, he glared steadily at Andrea through narrowed slits of eyes. He knew the lieutenant was watching him, felt he must back Andrea up all the way. What Andrea intended he could not even begin to guess — but he would back him to the end of the world.
«So!» Turzig murmured thoughtfully. «Thieves fall out, eh?» Mallory thought he detected the faintest overtones of doubt, of hesitancy, in his voice. But the lieutenant was taking no chances. «No matter, fat one. You have cast your lot with these assassins. What is it the English say? 'You have made your bed, you must lie on it.'» He looked at Andrea's vast bulk dispassionately. «We may need to strengthen a special gallows for you.»
«No, no, no!» Andrea's voice rose sharply, fearfully, on the last word. «It is true what I tell you! I am not one of them, Lieutenant Turzig, before God I am not one of them!» He swung his hands in distress, his great moon-face contorted in anguish. «Why must I die for no fault of my own? I didn't want to come. I am no fighting man, Lieutenant Turzig!»
«I can see that,» Turzig said dryly. «A monstrous deal of skin to cover a quivering jelly-bag your size-- and every inch of it precious to you.» He looked at Mallory, and at Miller, still lying face down in the snow. «I cannot congratulate your friends on their choice of companion.»
«I can tell you everything, Lieutenant, I can tell you everything!» Andrea pressed forward excitedly, eager to consolidate his advantage, to reinforce the beginnings of doubt. «I am no friend of the Allies — I will prove it to you — and then perhaps—»
«You damned Judas!» Mallory made to fling himself forward, but two burly soldiers caught him and pointed his arms from behind. He struggled briefly, then relaxed, looked balefully at Andrea. «If you dare to open your mouth, I promise you you'll never live to—»
«Be quiet!» Turzig's voice was very cold. «I have had enough of recriminations, of cheap melodrama. Another word and you join your friend in the snow there.» He looked at him a moment in silence, then swung back to Andrea. «I promise nothing. I will hear what you have to say.» He made no attempt to disguise the repugnance in his voice.
«You must judge for yourself.» A nice mixture of relief, earnestness and the dawn of hope, of returning confidence. Andrea paused a minute and gestured dramatically at Mallory, Miller and Brown. «These are no ordinary soldiers — they are Jellicoe's men, of the Special Boat Service!»
«Tell me something I couldn't have guessed myself,» Turzig growled. «The English Earl has been a thorn in our flesh these many months past. If that is all you have to tell me, fat one—»
«Wait!» Andrea held up his hand. «They are stili no ordinary men but a specially picked force — an assault unit, they call themselves — flown last Sunday night from Alexandria to Casteirosso. They left that same night from Castelrosso in a motor-boat.»
«A torpedo boat,» Turzig nodded. «So much we know already. Go on.»
«You know already! But how--?»
«Never mind how. Hurry up!»
«Of course, Lieutenant, of course.» Not a twitch in his face betrayed Andrea's relief. This had been the only dangerous point in his story. Nicolai, of course, had warned the Germans, but never thought it worth while mentioning the presence of a giant Greek in the party. No reason, of course, why he should have selected him for special mention — but if he had done so, it would have been the end.
«The torpedo boat landed them somewhere in the islands, north of Rhodes. I do not know where. There they stole a caique, sailed it up through Turkish waters, met a big German patrol boat — and sunk it.» Andrea paused for effect. «I was less than hai
l a mile away at the time in my fishing boat.»
Turzig leaned forward. «How did they manage to sink so big a boat?» Strangely, he didn't doubt that it had been sunk.
«They pretended to be harmless fishermen like myself. I had just been stopped, investigated and cleared,» Andrea said virtuously. «Anyway, your patrol boat came alongside this old caique. Close alongside. Suddenly there were guns firing on both sides, two boxes went flying through the air — into the engine-room of your boat, I think. Pouf!» Andrea threw up his hands draniatically. «That was the end of that!»
«We wondered.. .» Turzig said softly. «Well, go on.»
«You wondered what, Lieutenant?» Turzig's eyes narrowed and Andrea hurried on.
«Their interpreter had been killed in the fight. They tricked me into speaking English — I spent many years in Cyprus — kidnapped me, let my sons sail the boat—»
«Why should they want an interpreter?» Turzig demanded suspiciously. «There are many British officers who speak Greek.»
«I am coming to that,» Andrea said impatiently. «How in God's name do you expect me to finish my story if you keep interrupting all the time? Where was I? ah, yes. They forced me to come along, and their engine broke down. I don't know what happened — I was kept below. I think we were in a creek somewhere, repairing the engine, and then there was a wild bout of drinking — you will not believe this, Lieutenant Turzig, that men on so desperate a mission should get drunk-- and then we sailed again.»
«On the contrary, I do believe you.» Turzig was nodding his head slowly, as if in secret understanding. «I believe you indeed.»
«You do?» Andrea contrived to look disappointed. «Well, we ran into a fearful storm, wrecked the boat on the south cliff of this island and climbed—»
The guns of Navaronne Page 18
