‘Eleni, we have been lucky so far. It would be foolish to push it any further. Besides, there will be reprisals for what we have done here this morning.’
‘Maybe, but like you said, we cannot let the Nazis steal our heritage.’
‘No. But at what price? I will not risk the lives of all these men, and you, to save the contents of that tomb. We may have to leave some of the crates to the enemy when we blow the cliff.’
‘Then we should let the rocks bury them.’
‘Even at the risk of destroying what is inside?’ He looked up towards the cave, hoping that his men had placed the crates as far to the back of the tomb as possible where they would be best protected from the explosion.
‘Sooner that than let the Nazis get their filthy claws on them,’ Eleni responded.
Andreas considered this for a moment and conceded. ‘Yes . . .’
Once again he looked up to the crest of the hill opposite, where he had ordered Petros to send one of his men to keep watch for the approach of the enemy. There was no sign of the alarm being raised. From his position the lookout would be able to give them a good fifteen minutes’ warning of the enemy’s approach along the track from the village. After that they would be able to delay the Germans for at least another ten minutes. Plenty of time to set the charges, destroy the cliff and make good their escape.
Christos approached through the trees, smiling as usual. ‘My men are bringing the last of the crates. And we’ve buried our dead. Somewhere the Germans won’t find them.’
‘Good work.’
Christos scratched his unshaven jaw. ‘It seems a pity to make such a fine discovery only to have to lose it all again.’
‘Only for the present. Once Greece is free again, then our own archaeologists will re-open the tomb.’
‘All the same . . .’
‘The kapetan has made his decision,’ Eleni intervened abruptly.
Christos glanced at her, then back to Andreas, but the latter stared back resolutely and, with a shrug, Christos relented and changed the subject. ‘What about the trucks?’
‘The trucks?’
‘There’s no sense in leaving them for the enemy. I’ll have my men strip them of anything we can use and then burn them.’
‘Yes, do that. Then take your band and go and support Petros.’
The other man made a face. ‘Only if he doesn’t think he’s in charge. Those communist dogs think they run everything.’
‘Not here they don’t.’ Andreas smiled. ‘If he tries it on, tell him I put you in command. That’ll annoy him.’
‘Assuredly!’ Christos laughed and slapped Andreas on the shoulder. ‘I’ll bid you farewell then. Until the next time we fight the Germans.’
‘Until then.’
Christos bowed politely to Eleni and then turned to wait as his men lowered the last crate and then he led them back through the trees towards the trucks. When he had passed out of sight Eleni puffed her cheeks.
‘I don’t like Petros. He wants to replace you as the chief of the island’s kapetans.’
‘I know. He’s resented me from the first. But he knows that I have the loyalty of the other kapetans and there’s nothing he can do while that’s the case.’
She nodded and was briefly silent before she spoke again. ‘What was that remark about the communists running everything?’
‘Mostly rumours, I think. The last message from Cairo asked if we were having any trouble with the communist bands. I assume they’ve heard something from the resistance on the mainland.’
‘Should we be worried about Petros?’
Andreas leaned forward and kissed her. ‘I think he is more worried about us, Eleni.’
She closed her eyes and returned his kiss before she pulled away with a serious expression. ‘I hope you are right.’
He laughed and turned to watch as his men heaved the last crate into position at the foot of the cliff. The men had just worked the previous crate into the cave and placed it at the back with the others. There was a short delay and then Yannis appeared and threw down the two ropes for the final lift. The men worked quickly to tie the crate securely. The explosives had already been taken from the supply the Germans had brought with them to the site and had been set at the mouth of the cave and in some fissures in the surrounding cliff face. The wires led back down the narrow path for a safe distance where they had yet to be connected to the detonator. It would only take a moment to prepare and once the explosions were set off, the cave would be buried under thousands of tons of rock. The Germans would be denied the chance to steal the treasure and Andreas and his band would return to their hideout.
The faint sound of a motor carried to his ears. Some of the men heard it too and paused in their work to listen. Eleni stirred beside him.
‘I thought Christos was supposed to destroy the trucks, not make off in them.’
‘That’s not Christos.’ Andreas unslung his sub-machine gun. ‘Too far away . . .’
The sound swelled and then there was a burst from a heavy machine gun, then a second joined in. Andreas broke into a dead run through the trees, Eleni close behind him. The rest of the men snatched up their weapons and followed. Those still in the cave swung themselves on to the ropes and hurriedly worked their way down the cliff as the firing intensified. By the time Andreas had reached the treeline the first of the trucks had burst into flames. There were bodies on the ground beside the vehicles – Christos’s men, Andreas realised. The others were running for the cover of the nearest rocks. Then he caught sight of movement on the track at the entrance to the valley and saw the flashes of fire from the turret of an armoured car, and another close behind it. The windscreen on the second truck shattered and two more andartes were struck down before the survivors reached the shelter of the rocks.
‘Why weren’t we warned?’ Eleni asked, crouching down. ‘Where’s Petros?’
Andreas looked up at the hill and saw no sign of the lookout. Then he realised that there had been no firing from the direction of the track leading down to the village and a cold fury seethed through his veins.
‘That bastard, Petros.’
Eleni turned sharply to face him. ‘Betrayed us? Petros?’
‘Of course.’ Andreas smiled grimly. ‘This is his chance to get rid of me.’
The armoured cars continued down the track towards the burning truck, now wreathed in wild orange and red flames, with black smoke billowing up into the sky. They continued to spray the rocks where Christos and his men sheltered as they came on. Behind them soldiers fanned out on either side and advanced on the dig site. Even now Andreas could see that they were trapped against the cliff with almost no hope of escape. Eleni grasped the hopelessness of the situation at the same time and she spat a curse at Petros and the Germans and raised her rifle and fired towards the line of advancing mountain troops. The other andartes joined in and the Germans took cover and began to fire back. Leaves and fragments of branches leaped into the air above as German bullets tore into the treeline. Andreas and his band took shelter as best they could, pressing themselves into the ground and taking aim on the Germans who dashed forward under covering fire. He saw Yannis firing at the nearest armoured car, the bullets ricocheting off the metal harmlessly.
‘Don’t waste your ammo!’ Andreas shouted at him. ‘Only shoot at what you can kill!’
Yannis nodded and shifted his aim and squinted through the sights of his rifle.
The armoured cars closed on the rocks where Christos and the last of his men still held out and sprayed the area with bursts of machine-gun fire to keep their heads down while the mountain troops closed in. As soon as they were within range, Andreas saw them lob grenades through the air. An instant later there was a flash and burst of smoke amid the rocks. Then several more, and then the machine-gun fire ceased as the first Germans crept closer. Two more shots sounded and then it was over.
‘It’s just us now,’ said Eleni. She turned and looked at Andreas searchingly. ‘Wh
at will you do when they come for us?’
‘There will be no surrender,’ he replied firmly.
‘Good . . . And the cave?’
‘I’ll take care of that. If anything happens to me, then you see to it.’
She nodded, reached out her hand and took his. ‘My heart is yours . . . It always has been.’
Then she snatched her hand back and crawled a short distance off and made ready to fire. Andreas had no time to react or respond as the ground a short distance in front of him erupted in spouts of earth and stone. The armoured cars rumbled on past the trucks and began to pour fire into the treeline. Risking a quick glimpse, Andreas saw two more were making their way down the track. Meanwhile the mountain troops were advancing in short rushes. With a bitter smile Andreas accepted the irony that he and his men were now on the receiving end of the tactics they had used at dawn to seize the dig site. The sound of firing came from each side as the andartes tried to hold their line but they were wholly outgunned and outnumbered and knew that all that remained was to take as many of their enemy with them as possible as they fell.
Close by Eleni was firing and working the bolt of her rifle steadily, surprised at how calm she felt. Always she had imagined that she would be afraid of death, afraid of the pain of a mortal wound. But now, there was just an icy stillness in her heart as she took aim and fired until each clip ran out and needed to be replaced. She had found a natural dip in the ground beside a small rock that afforded her good cover. Thirty paces away she saw a soldier rise up and beckon to his comrades to follow him. She swung the barrel of the rifle, aimed and shot him in the chest.
Then, as she adjusted the focus of her eyes, she saw a small staff car following the rearmost armoured vehicle which swung off the track and juddered across the ground to take up a flank position on the others. The driver of the car halted at an angle, well over a hundred metres from the trees. Two officers rose and stood in the rear of the vehicle to watch the attack. Though they were too far away to recognise, Eleni prayed that one of them might be the man responsible for her parents’ deaths. Drawing a deep breath she took aim, steadied her body and braced the butt tightly into her shoulder. Lining up the rear and foresights she let the focus of her right eye shift to the most exposed officer, then breathed out slowly. The battle raged around her, but she was detached from it as her lungs emptied and she squeezed the trigger.
The rifle lurched behind the faint puff of cordite and she saw the officer go down. At once the driver and the remaining officer dropped out of sight.
‘For my mother!’ she cried out exultantly. ‘For my father!’
She worked the bolt and looked for a new target as bullets stitched into the ground close by and she heard a pained grunt. Glancing aside she saw one of the andartes clutching his shoulder where a bullet had torn through his flesh. He gasped and then another bullet smashed through his eye and burst out of the back of his head and his body slumped lifelessly.
‘Fall back!’ Andreas shouted. ‘To the cliff. Go!’
He rose on to one knee and fired a burst ahead and then one more to each side, then ran to Eleni and hauled her to her feet. ‘You too!’
Before she could protest he dragged her away from the treeline into the shade of the thicker undergrowth and then they fled, heads down as bullets zipped overhead crashing through the trees. Andreas dropped back a little and tried to place his body between Eleni and the German fire. The two dodged round a tree and then he saw the cliff face a short distance away. The Germans would not be able to get their armoured cars through the trees and would now have to send their men in to finish the job. It would not change the outcome, Andreas knew, but it would give the andartes a chance to inflict a few more casualties before they were wiped out. There were a few outcrops in the cliff that would afford them a little cover for their last stand.
‘Over there!’ He pointed to where there was an open strip of ground close to the bottom of the path leading up to the cave. He swerved towards it and then heard Eleni stumble behind him. Cursing, he scrabbled to a stop and turned. Eleni lay on the ground a few paces back, face down. She had dropped her rifle a short distance away. The impact had driven the breath from her lungs and she gasped as she tried to push herself up. Andreas ran back to her and threw his spare hand around her thin body to help raise her up. She cried out in pain and when he removed his hand he saw the glistening red stain across his skin.
‘Eleni . . . You’re hit.’
Her head rolled to the side and she looked up at him, dark eyes staring intently. ‘I’m sorry.’
He laid her down again and pulled the dark cloth of her shirt up and sucked in his breath as he saw the dark hole in her side and the blood pulsing from the wound.
‘Oh God, Eleni. No.’ Snatching at his neck cloth he wiped the blood away and and pressed it to the wound. Then he took her hand and clasped it over the cloth as he spoke. ‘You must hold this in place. Tightly. Understand?’
She nodded, her brow creasing in pain now that the initial shock of the wound was passing. ‘I’m sorry . . . So sorry.’
‘Later.’ Andreas picked his Marlin up and slung it, then bent down and picked her up in his arms.
‘Leave me,’ Eleni gasped. ‘Leave me. Save yourself, my love.’
Andreas shook his head and started towards the open ground. About him he could hear the sounds of men rushing through the trees, the shouts of the enemy as they closed in, and he felt a building rage of hopelessness burn in his throat as stumbled forward, heart torn by the desire to do the only thing that mattered to him now, to try and save her.
Someone blundered through the undergrowth close by and he dropped to one knee, supporting Eleni as he grasped the Marlin in one hand and raised the muzzle towards the sound, ready to open fire.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Yannis burst out between the gorse bushes, face and hands scratched, and juddered to a halt as he saw the raised sub-machine gun. Andreas puffed out a breath and laughed nervously. Yannis stared wildly at him and grinned briefly before his attention turned to Eleni.
‘Oh no . . .’
‘Give me a hand here,’ Andreas ordered and the older man hurried over and helped his leader as they took one of her arms each so that they might still have a free hand for their weapons.
‘I saw two of the lads go down on the way through the trees,’ Yannis panted. ‘Don’t know who is left.’
They kept close to the foot of the cliff as they made for the end of the path, constantly casting glances towards the shadows under the trees to their left. When they reached the loose boulders by the cut-back bushes they lowered Eleni, who was moaning through gritted teeth. Hurriedly removing her sheepskin jacket, Andreas pulled up her shirt to see that the bullet had passed clean through.
‘I have to stop the bleeding.’ He looked up at Yannis but did not have to explain his request.
‘You take her my kapetan. I’ll hold them off. Get her up to the cave. It’s the only chance you’ve got, kapetan.’
They both knew that it would only be a temporary reprieve. Once in the cave he and Eleni would be trapped. Andreas nodded a brief farewell and then picked her up and put her over his right shoulder. Eleni cried out in agony and writhed.
‘Don’t, Eleni! For the love of Holy God . . .’ Andreas growled as he trod the narrow path as swiftly as he could, clutching the guide rope in his spare hand. If the Germans emerged from the trees now they would see the two of them at once and shoot them down. There was nothing he could do except trust to Yannis to keep them back long enough for him to make the climb. The sound of firing from the trees had stopped and the voices of the enemy were drawing closer as they edged cautiously towards the cliff. There were still several metres to go to the mouth of the cave when he heard a shout and glanced down to see a soldier raising his rifle. Before he could fire, there was a shot and the man stumbled back wounded. Another German appeared and quickly fired. Andreas felt the bullet strike his thigh like a hammer blow but he man
aged to keep upright and ground his teeth as he stumbled on.
‘German bastards!’ he heard Yannis shout. ‘Over here!’
There was a sharp exchange of fire, but one German still had the presence of mind to shoot at the figures on the cliff and Andreas was struck again, this time in the side, and he threw his head back and cried out, then hurled himself forward into the cave. Eleni fell to the ground beside him. The second wound felt like a burning rod had been thrust through his stomach and he gasped for breath as he fought the pain. His mind was still clear enough to grab Eleni and draw her further inside the cave before he gently laid her on her back and struggled to control his own pain.
‘Eleni . . . this is going to hurt,’ he said to her as he ripped strips from her shirt and hesitated before he plugged them into the wounds to try and stem the flow. He ripped the rest of the shirt into strips leaving only her stained chemise and tied them round her to act as a dressing. Then he shuffled back against the side of one of the crates and looked to his own injuries. His leg was bleeding badly. He took off his belt and fastened it as tightly as he could over the hole torn by the bullet. He knew his stomach wound was serious before he even looked at it and the pain was as intense as any he had ever felt. His breathing became shallow as he tried to control the burning spasms that came each time he moved.
Then he saw the detonator and the wires leading to the charges in the cave, as well as those trailing outside to the charges set in the cliff. There was one last thing he could do in defiance of the enemy, and one final hope for survival. But only for Eleni. Gritting his teeth, Andreas picked up the detonator and hurriedly began to attach the ends of the wires to the terminals. Outside he heard Yannis shout one last time and then there was a final burst of automatic fire and the shooting stopped and the valley fell quiet again.
The driver looked up from the rear of the car and shook his head gently. Beneath him, Steiner moaned feebly as his eyes rolled up in his head. The breast of his tunic was stained with blood, seeping out around the fingers of the driver as he tried to apply pressure to the wound.
Hearts of Stone Page 40
