Mac Wingate 8, page 18
Wingate saw the first guard’s weapon catch the Beard across his torso with its whirring bullets. The big man grunted in shock and pain as Serge came screaming out of the forest, his knife held high.
The Communist leaped right after the fallen Germans and right into the wave the cart threw up when hitting the lake. Wingate saw the hysterical partisan grab the soldiers one at a time and plunge in his blade again and again, laughing.
“They can’t kill me!” he cried across the waves. “They can’t kill me!”
“Get hold of yourself, for God’s sake,” Wingate snapped, afraid the noise would bring more guards. “See if the Beard is all right and then cover me. Get to the dam and kill the guard there.” Serge stopped his hacking and looked up at Wingate, blinking uncomprehendingly. “Move!” Wingate ordered. “Kill the dam guards or more innocents will die.”
That got the crazed man going. As Wingate started rowing furiously, he saw Serge lift the Beard’s head and then drop it again. The neck was loose and the head thudded back on the ground. The big bearded freedom fighter was dead.
Wingate put the murder out of his mind. He concentrated all his attention and energy on rowing the boat as quietly as he could toward the power plant dam. The closer he got, the harder he stroked, knowing he might have to kill the patrolling guard himself. Shooting over a high explosive on a floating boat would not be easy, but it might be necessary.
When the dam came into sight over Wingate’s shoulder, he turned around, essentially rowing backward, but needing the dam and its possible dangers in front of him at all times. Just as the guard on top took shape—staring out over the water directly at the boat—he fell over. A second after the man dropped, Mac heard the chatter of a machine gun.
Serge walked slowly into view from the side. Upon seeing him, Wingate turned around and rowed for all he was worth.
The bullets started slapping the water around the boat before he was fifty feet away from his objective. He glanced over his shoulder to see Serge on his stomach, firing off to the right. As he looked, he heard the FTP leader shouting.
“The gunfire back there brought more guards,” he called. “I will hold them off. Hurry!”
Wingate needed no more encouragement. He rowed until his arms were about to fall off. He rowed until he felt the flat front of the boat smack against the wall of the dam. He dropped the oars immediately and leaped up. The dam wall upon which Serge was lying was only seven feet above him. He heard the excess water roaring down the other side from the sluices at either end.
The current would keep the boat flat up against the dam, while the shaped charges were right on the other side of the cask bottom. The theory behind the shaped charge was that the explosives would concentrate upon themselves and then project forward in a powerful stream. They would explode inward inside the cask, and then straight out through the bottom, the boat front, and the dam.
The boat would have to be punctured, so it would sink below the waterline. Then Wingate would detonate the bag charges by pulling the ring pin out of the potato masher with the wire he had tied to it—the end of which was now wrapped around his hand.
The angle of the boat under the dam’s lip made it impossible for the Nazi attackers to hit him. “All right, Serge,” he shouted up. “I’m all set. Get going!”
The FTP leader didn’t move. He remained on his stomach, picking off the approaching guards as they came.
“I said get the hell out of here!” Wingate screamed. “The whole dam is going to blow!”
“You need someone to cover you,” Serge said back, his voice pained, but clear. “They might kill you as you escape.”
“I’ve got the Sten,” Wingate seethed. “Don’t worry about me. Once this is over, I’m gone. But France needs you.”
“No,” Serge said with conviction, still firing. “I’ve done enough.” Without pausing, Serge then turned his gun to the side and blew a hole in the floor of Wingate’s dinghy. The bullets went right between Mac’s legs and the water bubbled up between his feet.
The American jumped for the dam wall, the wire growing taut between his hand and the sack. As he jumped, he suddenly saw Serge filling his vision. The Communist grabbed the American and pulled him up to a standing position on the dam itself. He was standing between Mac and the guards, his back to their guns. Then his body jerked. A bullet had hit him square in the back. Wingate could practically feel it go in, tearing up Serge’s insides. The partisan closed his eyes and lowered his head, but he remained upright between Wingate and the Germans. Slowly his head rose. Wingate could see that the fighter was smiling.
“Don’t worry,” Serge said in a hoarse whisper, shaking his head. “They can’t kill me.”
Then he hit Wingate in the chest with all his might.
Mac felt himself falling backward over the other side of the dam. Distantly, he felt the tug of the wire springing tight and then the quick release of the pin from the potato masher. Then the roaring water at the base of the dam engulfed him. He remembered thinking that the dinghy didn’t have to be very deep—just enough to make a hole in the wall that the water would enlarge until the dam broke.
Afterward, all he concentrated on was not drowning as the rushing liquid swept him away. Ten seconds later he heard the blast. Wingate had made his own little volcano in Clermont-Ferrand. A volcano which blew out nitrocellulose lava. Ten seconds after that he was unconscious.
Epilogue
Two female faces were waiting for him this time. He was astonished enough that he was alive, so the sight of Laura Ameau and Marie didn’t faze him. Once the Knife and the Gimp had returned from the artillery gun, Laura explained, they sped toward the dam, arriving just as Serge knocked him off. They were able to stay far enough to the side to race the water in the truck. They counted themselves lucky that they found him before the enemy did.
Mac counted himself lucky as well. He was so pleased that he was alive that he didn’t mind missing the rest of the fireworks. In addition to the water eradicating the power plant generator, the Gimp, the Knife and the guide had successfully infiltrated the gun site and unloaded the sabotaged shells. Once the dam had exploded, the gun commander had ordered the hills be bombarded in retaliation. The Germans were so upset that they were willing to make the Clermont-Ferrand hills an example of their wrath.
Only they loaded the shells from which Wingate had removed half the bag charges, and naturally the missiles fell short. Real short. Like right in front of the German guns and into their troop camp. All they succeeded in doing was killing some of their own men. Wingate laughed when he heard that.
He rested and relaxed for a few more days while the underground readied his departure. Laura got the identity cards, the draft cards, the labor cards and the seven different types of ration cards from friendly mayors, some jewelers she knew—where cards were always shown, allowing the freedom fighters to counterfeit them—and some hotel managers, where the same rule applied.
The members of the Vichy National Statistical Service supplied them with false identities. The Post, Telegraph, and Telephone Ministry delivered the false papers. Together with Marie and the guide—who had proved his loyalty to the resistance and therefore had to flee to avoid execution—Wingate started the trip out of France.
Needless to say, they made it. But Wingate never did find out who had dug up his parachutes.
About the Author
Bryan Swift was a composite of Arthur Wise, Richard Meyers and Will C. Knott, who between them penned the entire series, which itself was created by Ejan Productions.
The series comprises:
Mission Code: Symbol (1981–Arthur Wise)
Mission Code: King’s Pawn (1981–Will C. Knott)
Mission Code: Minotaur (1981–Will C. Knott)
Mission Code: Granite Island (1981–Ric Meyers)
Mission Code: Springboard (1981–Will C. Knott)
Mission Code: Snow Queen (1982–Richard Meyers)
Mission Code: Acropolis (1982–Arthur Wise)
Mission Code: Volcano (1982–Richard Meyers)
Mission Code: Track and Destroy (1982–Will C. Knott)
Mission Code: Survival (1982–Richard Meyers)
Mission Code: Scorpion (1982–Richard Meyers)
Arthur Wise (1923-1983) was a UK drama consultant and author, most of whose works were thrillers; he also wrote as by John McArthur.
Richard Meyers (born 1953) is an American author, ghostwriter, screenwriter, consultant, actor, editor, and teacher, who may be best known for his contributions to the martial arts film industry (Rim Films having called him “one of the men most responsible for the acceptance of Asian action movies and stars in America”).
Will C. (Cecil) Knott (1927-2008) He was best known as a Western writer and contributed to three long-running series – Longarm, the Trailsman, and Slocum – as well as working on other series and writing stand-alone traditional Western novels under his own name. He also wrote several mystery novels, some house-name men’s adventure yarns, and a number of mystery and sports books for the young adult market.
The Mac Wingate Series by Bryan Swift
Mission Code: Symbol
Mission Code: King’s Pawn
Mission Code: Minotaur
Mission Code: Granite Island
Mission Code: Springboard
Mission Code: Snow Queen
Mission Code: Acropolis
Mission Code: Volcano
… and more to come!
Bryan Swift, Mac Wingate 8
