Page 133
In brief the rule is: Take what you want, leave the civilians alone. Unless there is the slightest resistance, in which case: shoot the Hitler-loving bastards.
But lately the villages and towns the Americans reach have been looted by retreating Wehrmacht and especially SS. They pass a civilian, face black with blood, hanging from a lamppost. A sign around his neck says Verräter. Traitor. It is not Rio’s first lynched German: the pathological murderers of the Sicherheitsdienst and the Gestapo, both now in flight toward the Alps, are punishing Germans for any sign of disloyalty, even as they flee in hopes of saving their own lives.
A second civilian lies swinging gently against the second story of a four-story building. The placement of the rope indicates that she was pushed out of an upper-story window and had her neck snapped before her feet could reach the ground. She has no sign.
“Geer, hold up!” Rio calls out and trots ahead to join him. “Where the hell is the burgomaster?”
A burgomaster is a mayor, and the usual routine had been for a nervous, fidgety old man with a sash of office or some such thing to come forward behind a white flag to greet the occupiers.
Geer nods. “Yeah. Quiet. Not the good kind of quiet.”
Rio nods at the town hall, a rococo structure of white plaster and green-painted cornices. “There. The church. And . . .” She looks around.
“That hotel over there,” Geer says. “Anyway, that’s where I’d put snipers. We can call up a tank and blow the shit out of ’em, see who comes running out.”
Rio sighs. “Captain was very clear: minimal necessary damage. I’ll get Mangan’s squad to check the church, and Big Pete can do the town hall. You check out the hotel.”
“Yep. Stafford! Castain! Beebee! See if you can get around the back of the hotel.”
The three set off at a loping run, down a back alley they hope will get them there.
Geer exhales. “For what it’s worth,” the newly minted sergeant says, “the army can take its stripes and stick ’em where the sun don’t—”
Bam!
A single, small explosion.
“Cover!” Rio yells, and everyone finds a doorway, a shattered storefront, or a tight alleyway to hide in. The new kids cower nervously behind cover. The veterans light cigarettes or take the opportunity for a pee.
“Come on, Geer,” Rio says. The two of them check their weapons automatically and by mutual consent take the street just to the right of the one Jack and Jenou had taken. They run crouching, boots on cobbles, breathing hard.
Crack!
A single rifle shot and the wall next to Geer emits a puff of dust where the bullet whizzed by.
“See him?”
“No,” Rio admits. “But we’ll have defilade if we go through this house.” She kicks the wooden door, which is sturdy and locked. “Open or you get a grenade!”
Maybe the occupants speak English, or maybe they merely understood the tone, but the door opens and Rio and Geer burst through.
“Raus! Everybody raus!” Rio finds the back wall of the house and guesses it shares a wall with the house behind. She fires a quick warning burst into the wall, enough hopefully to convince any civilians on the other side to run. They blow the wall with a rifle grenade and push through a dust cloud and debris into a bedroom.
Rio eases the window shade up, unhinges and pushes out the shutter. The view opens onto a street, and, to the right, a widening space, not quite a square, but a wedge of space between two streets.
And lying in the street, faceup, is Jack Stafford.
“Jack!” Rio cries.
“No!” Jack yells. “Stay back!”
He is on his back, clutching his stomach. The side of his uniform is red.
Rio bolts for the door, but Geer tackles her and swings her back out of sight.
“What the fug are you doing, Richlin? You know he’s bait!”
But Rio is not rational, not even thinking, just feeling her heart tearing in two. She struggles but Geer is stronger, and he keeps his arms wrapped around her. She reaches her koummya and draws it, the blade suddenly at Geer’s throat.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133 (Reading here)
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145