Angel Rising, page 27
part #6 of Anna Fehrbach Series
‘Well, ma’am, we only have an hour’s capacity in these lungs, and like I said, there’s one hell of a lot down there.’
She couldn’t believe her ears. To have come so close . . .
‘You mean you can’t get the rest up?’ Joe asked.
‘Oh, that’s not a problem, Mr Andrews. Now we know where they are and in maybe nine feet of water, we’ll free dive.’
Anna felt close to tears.
The two men worked with relentless efficiency, and the pile of ingots on the bank slowly grew. They paused every half-hour for a breather, and then resumed. Clive came back every so often to see how they were getting on, reporting always that it was as quiet as a mouse out there.
By midnight there were two hundred and fifty ingots, neatly piled on the bank. ‘I reckon we’re getting on top of it,’ Riddick said, sitting beside them and breathing deeply.
‘But there’s still some more down there?’ Joe was anxious.
‘A hell of a lot more, Mr Andrews. But less than there is up here.’
‘You are two of my favourite people,’ Anna said. ‘From now on.’
He grinned at her. ‘I thought we were before.’
The minutes and then the hours ticked by, and still the pile grew. Joe checked his watch. ‘One thirty. Maynard should be on his way.’
‘I hope he’s not,’ Anna said. ‘Or he’ll be too early. Once he gets out of the city, it’s only a ten-minute drive.’
But he was now becoming agitated, looked at his watch every few minutes. ‘Two o’clock,’ he announced. ‘He should be here. And we have three hundred and eighty bars. We’d better pack it in and get ready to move.’
‘He’s not here yet,’ Anna said. ‘And there are still twenty bars down here.’
He considered this, waited for Harris next to surface. ‘Any left?’ he asked, as he took the ingot.
‘A few.’
‘Well, then . . .’
‘Another fifteen minutes will do it.’
He submerged again, and Joe added the ingot to the pile and then stamped up and down, taking each bar as it was handed up.
‘Relax,’ Anna said, doing the same. ‘Only ten to go.’
‘He should be here by now.’
‘And here he is.’ The sound of an engine drifted through the night.
‘Thank God for that. Leave the rest,’ he told Riddick. ‘We have enough.’
‘I beg your pardon,’ Anna said. ‘Just—’
There was a shout, and then a shot, followed by a fusillade of tommy gun fire.
‘Jesus Christ!’ Joe cried, and dropped to the ground.
Riddick followed his example, and Harris, just emerging, threw his ingot ashore and joined them. Anna had realized immediately that the shots had not been aimed at them, in which case . . . ‘Clive!’ she shouted.
‘Get down!’ he replied, and a moment later crashed through the bushes to join them. ‘A bloody truckload of Reds. I thought it was Maynard, and signalled it to stop.’
‘Shit!’ Joe said. ‘How the hell—’
‘Questions later,’ Anna recommended. ‘Is everyone armed?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Harris and Riddick answered together.
‘Countess!’ a voice called in German. ‘You are surrounded. If you and your people come out with your hands in the air you will not be harmed.’
‘How these people do like to talk,’ Anna remarked.
‘What’s he saying, ma’am? Riddick asked.
‘He wants us to surrender. You don’t want to do that, do you?’
‘Not unless I have to, ma’am.’
‘Anna,’ Joe said. ‘If we are surrounded . . .’
‘Joe, as you once told me, we’re living in the real world now. If we surrender, we’re dead. So we may as well see how many of us can come out of this alive. You’re sure there is only one truck, Clive?’
‘As far as I saw, or heard.’
‘Then we’re talking about maybe twenty-five men.’
‘Twenty-five,’ Joe muttered.
‘Five each. That shouldn’t be a problem. There’s just one thing. As it seems that Maynard isn’t going to deliver, we need that truck, intact and working, to get the gold out of here.’
‘Jesus Christ!’ Joe said. ‘You’re not still thinking of getting away?’
‘Give me another reason for being here. But listen. We’re going to need at least an hour to load it, so there cannot be any survivors. You with me?’ She looked around their faces, just visible in the gloom.
‘We’re with you, ma’am,’ Riddick and Harris answered together.
‘Of course,’ Clive said.
‘Joe?’
He sighed. ‘You call it.’
‘Right. Now—’
‘Countess!’ the voice called. ‘You have one minute to come out, or we will burn the entire copse.’
‘I guess that means they have a flame thrower or two,’ Anna said. ‘So, follow me. I would say they’re pretty spread out. On your bellies, and when you have to shoot, make sure the target stays dead.’
She wriggled forward on her stomach, using her knees and elbows so that she could hold the tommy gun in both hands in front of her, remembering that crawl along the embankment in Brazil. More mud. But at least her hair was tucked up under her steel helmet.
She reached the edge of the bushes and saw the truck, and four men, who were standing in the glare of the headlamps, tommy guns levelled at the copse. When will they ever learn? she wondered. Then she heard the roar of the flame-throwers, further to her left; she could smell the scorching foliage and turning her head saw the trees and bushes glowing, but not really catching fire; they were still too wet from the rain. ‘Careful now,’ the voiced shouted. ‘They will make a break for it.’
‘Nobody shoot,’ Anna said: the men could not be hit by tommy gun fire without endangering the truck. She laid her gun on the ground and drew her Luger. Holding it in both hands, she levelled and fired. Before the first man hit the ground the second was dead. The other two loosed off their guns, but they had no target, and a moment later they were also both dead.
‘Holy Jesus Christ!’ Harris commented.
‘Wow!’ Riddick said.
Neither Joe nor Clive spoke; they had known what was coming. She led them out of the bushes.
‘They’re coming out by the truck!’ someone shouted.
‘Joe, you’re OC truck,’ Anna said. ‘Drive it through those bushes and park next to the bullion.’
‘The copse is on fire,’ he objected.
‘No, it’s not. It’s too wet to burn.’ And in fact the flames were already sizzling out. ‘Go!’ She gathered up the scattered tommy guns dropped by the dead Russians and passed them around, so that each man had two weapons. ‘Now we have enough firepower to take on an army. Just remember chaps, we need all these people.’
Their expressions indicated that they understood. Joe engaged gear and drove the truck into the bushes. Anna realized that the other Russians had not heard the sound of her Luger above their flame-throwers, but now they heard the sound of the truck engine. Three of them came running back along the road, and were met by a hail of fire. There were shouts from further away. ‘Into the copse,’ Anna commanded. ‘Harris and Riddick, give us your weapons and get to the truck. Load those ingots. We’ll cover you.’
They obeyed, so that now she and Clive had four tommy guns each. ‘Take cover,’ she said.
The knelt together in the first of the trees ‘Shoulder to shoulder,’ Clive said. ‘What a way to go.’
‘We’re not going anywhere,’ she said, ‘Until that gold is loaded. Listen! We don’t have to worry about running out. When they move towards us, just blanket them and keep firing, using gun after gun.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
She squeezed his hand, and peered into the darkness. The Russians had gathered in a group by the dead bodies, chattering at each other as they tried to work out what had happened. In the gloom it was impossible to see exactly how many there were, but she estimated about twelve. That meant there were perhaps another nine knocking about somewhere, but this lot had to be dealt with first.
She watched two of them move towards the copse. After a moment the others followed. ‘Flat,’ she told Clive, and lay beside him. As she had anticipated from men who were already nervous, they opened fire, but with nothing to aim at and no knowledge of the whereabouts of their enemies, the only damage they did was to the trees.
The firing stopped, and a voice said, ‘That will keep their heads down. Reload, then we go in. You three to the left, you three to the right. The rest follow me.’
They heard the clicking of the drums being replaced. ‘Before they separate,’ Anna said, ‘Now!’
She rose to her knees and opened fire, Clive joining her. She emptied the entire drum of her first gun, dropped it, picked up the next, and continued firing without a break. The dark figures in front of her fell about, screaming and shouting; a couple tried to run and were brought down by the seeking bullets.
‘Hold it,’ Anna said. There was no one standing in front of them, although there were several still writhing on the ground, groaning and moaning. She stood up, and there was a burst of firing from behind her, and a cry of pain. ‘Shit! You finish those off,’ she told Clive.
He swallowed, but went forward. Anna picked up two of the unused tommy guns and pushed her way back through the bushes to the truck, listened to a voice calling out in German. ‘Surrender or die.’
Cautiously she advanced, making as little noise as possible, saw a man standing with his hands up, and another, obviously Joe, climbing down from the truck, also with his hands up. Facing them were six men, all armed with tommy guns. ‘There were five of you,’ the man said. ‘Where are the other two?’
Anna’s brain raced. If he knew there were five of them, then they had been tracked since entering the Russian sector, and if they had been tracked since entering Erfurt, then he would know there had been six originally, which meant that he now knew that Maynard would not be coming back. Poor Maynard. And equally, if he was now confronting three of them, but she could see only two standing, another one was down. Shit, she thought. Shit, shit, shit!
‘I do not know where the others are,’ Joe was saying. ‘I think perhaps they have been hit.’
‘Then find the bodies,’ the commander said, reverting to Russian, and thus obviously addressing his own people. ‘It is the countess we want.’
Anna saw four of them move into the bushes. That left two in front of her.
‘All of this gold,’ the commander said, again speaking German. ‘You must be very pleased. The rest is still down there, eh?’
‘That’s all there is,’ Joe said.
‘Do not lie to me, Comrade. There is much more than this. But we will find it, now we know where to look.’
‘He isn’t lying, Comrade,’ Anna said, and opened fire.
Both men went down, ‘Get their weapons,’ Anna snapped. ‘There are the other four.’
They had heard the shots, and were coming back through the bushes, making a good deal of noise. Anna dropped to her knees behind the truck and opened fire, spraying the area with bullets, but now there was an additional burst from behind them, and screams of pain. Clive! she thought.
He stood above her. ‘You all right.’
She got up. ‘One of your people is down.’
It was Riddick. ‘Stone dead, Mr Bartley,’ Harris said.
‘Damn.’
‘Do you realize,’ Joe said. ‘That between you, you have just killed twenty men?’
‘More like twenty-two, I think,’ Anna said.
He wiped his brow, ‘So what happens now?’
‘We load the rest of this stuff and then get the hell out of here.’
‘Just like that? After this racket? The whole goddamned country is going to be up in arms by now, looking for us.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Anna said. ‘There’s a lot going on here that we don’t know about, yet. But we can guess. Look at these uniforms. They’re all MGB men. Not a single regular amongst them. That means it was an undercover operation. In their own territory? That has to mean whoever instituted this action has his own agenda. And that means the military in Eisenach have been told to keep away. They may take a different attitude when these bodies are found tomorrow, but by then we have to be back on your side of the border.’
‘And how are you proposing to do that?’
‘Why Joe, exactly how we said we would, across the bridge in a truck with Red Army markings. That’s what Captain Roberts is expecting.’
‘But without Maynard.’
She sighed. ‘I’m afraid not.’
‘And Riddick?’ Clive asked.
‘We can do nothing for him,’ Anna said. ‘And we have no time to lose. Say a prayer, if you like, and then let’s get this stuff loaded.’
*
‘There is a telephone call for you, Comrade Litovsky,’ said the anxious clerk in the Russian Embassy in Geneva. ‘Moscow.’ He lowered his voice to an awed whisper. ‘Comrade Beria, personally.’
‘Is this line scrambled?’
‘Of course, sir.’
Litovsky took the phone. ‘Good afternoon, Comrade Commissar.’
‘Tell me what is happening.’
‘Well, sir, at the moment I am waiting to hear from Colonel Malinov. He should have apprehended the countess and her group by now. We know they left Geneva three days ago. But he was under orders, as you wished, not to interfere with them even after they crossed the border, until they had started to recover the gold, and thus indicated its exact location. Depending on how far they had to go, it may have taken them a day or two.’
‘Why were you not with Malinov?’ Beria’s voice was deceptively calm.
‘Well, sir, I thought it best that I should remain here, as a back-up, just in case she slipped through Malinov’s fingers and returned here with the bullion. Given her reputation, I had to allow for that possibility.’
‘I see. Well, I sincerely hope you are right, because you are not going to be hearing from Malinov.’
‘Sir?’
‘His body, and that of his entire squad, was this morning found in a small wood only a few miles from Eisenach.’
Litovsky’s stomach seemed to fill with lead. ‘But . . . but . . . that is impossible. He had twenty-one men with him.’
‘That appears to be correct. There was another body on the site, but he appears to have been one of the countess’s people. And a man was killed in Eisenach, apparently by MGB people, the night before last, while trying to steal a truck. He may have been connected with the countess. You knew nothing of this?’
‘I . . . well . . . well, at least we know that she is in Germany. I will—’
‘She is not in Germany. Yesterday morning there was a border incident, in which a Red Army truck was driven across a bridge from Erfurt into Hessen, refusing to stop when challenged. Our people opened fire, but were unable to stop it, and some fire was returned from the American side. The incident is being investigated, and we are making the strongest possible protest. But the whole affair is just too much of a coincidence for it not to have been the countess. Thus we must face the fact that despite your best efforts and all the information at your disposal, she has entered our territory, collected what she wanted, and once again escaped, leaving another twenty-two of our people dead.’
‘Sir—’
‘The Premier has not yet seen this news, Litovsky, but when he does I do not feel that he is going to be very happy about it. I do not know if you ever pray, and who you pray to, but I strongly suggest that you do so now, and hope that the countess does indeed return to Geneva, and that you manage to correct the situation. I look forward to hearing from you.’
*
‘How do you feel?’ Clive asked.
‘Better than I did,’ Anna said. ‘A few dozen more aches and pains.’
‘You mean you slept?’ Joe asked.
The three of them sat together in the cab of the truck as they drove south. The markings had been altered to US, and the bullion was entirely concealed beneath piles of sacking.
‘Like a log for twelve hours. Didn’t you?’
‘Not really. I kept thinking of how many lives this little caper has cost.’
He was driving. Anna squeezed his arm. ‘I’m sorry about Maynard, believe me. And Riddick, Clive. I feel like absolute shit about that. Listen, I’ll double their shares, and it’ll go to their next of kin.’
‘And Harris?’
‘His too.’
‘He sure must trust you,’ Joe remarked. ‘Taking off like that.’
‘I never let down anyone who is on my side,’ Anna pointed out. ‘Although I’m sorry he left without even saying goodbye.’
‘His leave was up,’ Clive explained. ‘And you were sleeping like a baby, so I told him not to disturb you.’
‘I hadn’t realized he was on so short a leash.’
‘Talking about not letting people down,’ Joe said. ‘You have your share, but you haven’t delivered the goods yet.’
‘This job isn’t finished yet.’
‘And you think I might still do a nasty on you? I hope you haven’t forgotten that you’re still working for us.’
‘I haven’t forgotten that, Joe, but as I said, there’s still work to be done. Such as finding out who betrayed us to the Russians.’
‘Eh?’
‘You don’t suppose that MGB unit just happened on us by chance? And took a wild guess at what we were doing?’
‘Shit! I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘I have,’ Clive said. ‘It has to be Laurent.’
‘You mean the guy who’s going to handle the money for us? That doesn’t make sense. Wasn’t he picking up a hundred grand for the deal?’
‘Yes,’ Anna said quietly. ‘Maybe some things are more important than money.’
‘Son of a gun. What are we going to do? Why are we heading for Switzerland, if there’s no point?’
‘We are getting out of Germany, Joe.’
‘But we were in the US Sector.’
‘Don’t you think this whole business is going to cause a certain diplomatic stir? So your people, on your say-so, helped us get into Erfurt and back out again, by stopping the Reds chasing us across that bridge. While they’re trying to sort that out, somebody is going to come across those twenty-odd dead bodies and put two and two together.’
She couldn’t believe her ears. To have come so close . . .
‘You mean you can’t get the rest up?’ Joe asked.
‘Oh, that’s not a problem, Mr Andrews. Now we know where they are and in maybe nine feet of water, we’ll free dive.’
Anna felt close to tears.
The two men worked with relentless efficiency, and the pile of ingots on the bank slowly grew. They paused every half-hour for a breather, and then resumed. Clive came back every so often to see how they were getting on, reporting always that it was as quiet as a mouse out there.
By midnight there were two hundred and fifty ingots, neatly piled on the bank. ‘I reckon we’re getting on top of it,’ Riddick said, sitting beside them and breathing deeply.
‘But there’s still some more down there?’ Joe was anxious.
‘A hell of a lot more, Mr Andrews. But less than there is up here.’
‘You are two of my favourite people,’ Anna said. ‘From now on.’
He grinned at her. ‘I thought we were before.’
The minutes and then the hours ticked by, and still the pile grew. Joe checked his watch. ‘One thirty. Maynard should be on his way.’
‘I hope he’s not,’ Anna said. ‘Or he’ll be too early. Once he gets out of the city, it’s only a ten-minute drive.’
But he was now becoming agitated, looked at his watch every few minutes. ‘Two o’clock,’ he announced. ‘He should be here. And we have three hundred and eighty bars. We’d better pack it in and get ready to move.’
‘He’s not here yet,’ Anna said. ‘And there are still twenty bars down here.’
He considered this, waited for Harris next to surface. ‘Any left?’ he asked, as he took the ingot.
‘A few.’
‘Well, then . . .’
‘Another fifteen minutes will do it.’
He submerged again, and Joe added the ingot to the pile and then stamped up and down, taking each bar as it was handed up.
‘Relax,’ Anna said, doing the same. ‘Only ten to go.’
‘He should be here by now.’
‘And here he is.’ The sound of an engine drifted through the night.
‘Thank God for that. Leave the rest,’ he told Riddick. ‘We have enough.’
‘I beg your pardon,’ Anna said. ‘Just—’
There was a shout, and then a shot, followed by a fusillade of tommy gun fire.
‘Jesus Christ!’ Joe cried, and dropped to the ground.
Riddick followed his example, and Harris, just emerging, threw his ingot ashore and joined them. Anna had realized immediately that the shots had not been aimed at them, in which case . . . ‘Clive!’ she shouted.
‘Get down!’ he replied, and a moment later crashed through the bushes to join them. ‘A bloody truckload of Reds. I thought it was Maynard, and signalled it to stop.’
‘Shit!’ Joe said. ‘How the hell—’
‘Questions later,’ Anna recommended. ‘Is everyone armed?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Harris and Riddick answered together.
‘Countess!’ a voice called in German. ‘You are surrounded. If you and your people come out with your hands in the air you will not be harmed.’
‘How these people do like to talk,’ Anna remarked.
‘What’s he saying, ma’am? Riddick asked.
‘He wants us to surrender. You don’t want to do that, do you?’
‘Not unless I have to, ma’am.’
‘Anna,’ Joe said. ‘If we are surrounded . . .’
‘Joe, as you once told me, we’re living in the real world now. If we surrender, we’re dead. So we may as well see how many of us can come out of this alive. You’re sure there is only one truck, Clive?’
‘As far as I saw, or heard.’
‘Then we’re talking about maybe twenty-five men.’
‘Twenty-five,’ Joe muttered.
‘Five each. That shouldn’t be a problem. There’s just one thing. As it seems that Maynard isn’t going to deliver, we need that truck, intact and working, to get the gold out of here.’
‘Jesus Christ!’ Joe said. ‘You’re not still thinking of getting away?’
‘Give me another reason for being here. But listen. We’re going to need at least an hour to load it, so there cannot be any survivors. You with me?’ She looked around their faces, just visible in the gloom.
‘We’re with you, ma’am,’ Riddick and Harris answered together.
‘Of course,’ Clive said.
‘Joe?’
He sighed. ‘You call it.’
‘Right. Now—’
‘Countess!’ the voice called. ‘You have one minute to come out, or we will burn the entire copse.’
‘I guess that means they have a flame thrower or two,’ Anna said. ‘So, follow me. I would say they’re pretty spread out. On your bellies, and when you have to shoot, make sure the target stays dead.’
She wriggled forward on her stomach, using her knees and elbows so that she could hold the tommy gun in both hands in front of her, remembering that crawl along the embankment in Brazil. More mud. But at least her hair was tucked up under her steel helmet.
She reached the edge of the bushes and saw the truck, and four men, who were standing in the glare of the headlamps, tommy guns levelled at the copse. When will they ever learn? she wondered. Then she heard the roar of the flame-throwers, further to her left; she could smell the scorching foliage and turning her head saw the trees and bushes glowing, but not really catching fire; they were still too wet from the rain. ‘Careful now,’ the voiced shouted. ‘They will make a break for it.’
‘Nobody shoot,’ Anna said: the men could not be hit by tommy gun fire without endangering the truck. She laid her gun on the ground and drew her Luger. Holding it in both hands, she levelled and fired. Before the first man hit the ground the second was dead. The other two loosed off their guns, but they had no target, and a moment later they were also both dead.
‘Holy Jesus Christ!’ Harris commented.
‘Wow!’ Riddick said.
Neither Joe nor Clive spoke; they had known what was coming. She led them out of the bushes.
‘They’re coming out by the truck!’ someone shouted.
‘Joe, you’re OC truck,’ Anna said. ‘Drive it through those bushes and park next to the bullion.’
‘The copse is on fire,’ he objected.
‘No, it’s not. It’s too wet to burn.’ And in fact the flames were already sizzling out. ‘Go!’ She gathered up the scattered tommy guns dropped by the dead Russians and passed them around, so that each man had two weapons. ‘Now we have enough firepower to take on an army. Just remember chaps, we need all these people.’
Their expressions indicated that they understood. Joe engaged gear and drove the truck into the bushes. Anna realized that the other Russians had not heard the sound of her Luger above their flame-throwers, but now they heard the sound of the truck engine. Three of them came running back along the road, and were met by a hail of fire. There were shouts from further away. ‘Into the copse,’ Anna commanded. ‘Harris and Riddick, give us your weapons and get to the truck. Load those ingots. We’ll cover you.’
They obeyed, so that now she and Clive had four tommy guns each. ‘Take cover,’ she said.
The knelt together in the first of the trees ‘Shoulder to shoulder,’ Clive said. ‘What a way to go.’
‘We’re not going anywhere,’ she said, ‘Until that gold is loaded. Listen! We don’t have to worry about running out. When they move towards us, just blanket them and keep firing, using gun after gun.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
She squeezed his hand, and peered into the darkness. The Russians had gathered in a group by the dead bodies, chattering at each other as they tried to work out what had happened. In the gloom it was impossible to see exactly how many there were, but she estimated about twelve. That meant there were perhaps another nine knocking about somewhere, but this lot had to be dealt with first.
She watched two of them move towards the copse. After a moment the others followed. ‘Flat,’ she told Clive, and lay beside him. As she had anticipated from men who were already nervous, they opened fire, but with nothing to aim at and no knowledge of the whereabouts of their enemies, the only damage they did was to the trees.
The firing stopped, and a voice said, ‘That will keep their heads down. Reload, then we go in. You three to the left, you three to the right. The rest follow me.’
They heard the clicking of the drums being replaced. ‘Before they separate,’ Anna said, ‘Now!’
She rose to her knees and opened fire, Clive joining her. She emptied the entire drum of her first gun, dropped it, picked up the next, and continued firing without a break. The dark figures in front of her fell about, screaming and shouting; a couple tried to run and were brought down by the seeking bullets.
‘Hold it,’ Anna said. There was no one standing in front of them, although there were several still writhing on the ground, groaning and moaning. She stood up, and there was a burst of firing from behind her, and a cry of pain. ‘Shit! You finish those off,’ she told Clive.
He swallowed, but went forward. Anna picked up two of the unused tommy guns and pushed her way back through the bushes to the truck, listened to a voice calling out in German. ‘Surrender or die.’
Cautiously she advanced, making as little noise as possible, saw a man standing with his hands up, and another, obviously Joe, climbing down from the truck, also with his hands up. Facing them were six men, all armed with tommy guns. ‘There were five of you,’ the man said. ‘Where are the other two?’
Anna’s brain raced. If he knew there were five of them, then they had been tracked since entering the Russian sector, and if they had been tracked since entering Erfurt, then he would know there had been six originally, which meant that he now knew that Maynard would not be coming back. Poor Maynard. And equally, if he was now confronting three of them, but she could see only two standing, another one was down. Shit, she thought. Shit, shit, shit!
‘I do not know where the others are,’ Joe was saying. ‘I think perhaps they have been hit.’
‘Then find the bodies,’ the commander said, reverting to Russian, and thus obviously addressing his own people. ‘It is the countess we want.’
Anna saw four of them move into the bushes. That left two in front of her.
‘All of this gold,’ the commander said, again speaking German. ‘You must be very pleased. The rest is still down there, eh?’
‘That’s all there is,’ Joe said.
‘Do not lie to me, Comrade. There is much more than this. But we will find it, now we know where to look.’
‘He isn’t lying, Comrade,’ Anna said, and opened fire.
Both men went down, ‘Get their weapons,’ Anna snapped. ‘There are the other four.’
They had heard the shots, and were coming back through the bushes, making a good deal of noise. Anna dropped to her knees behind the truck and opened fire, spraying the area with bullets, but now there was an additional burst from behind them, and screams of pain. Clive! she thought.
He stood above her. ‘You all right.’
She got up. ‘One of your people is down.’
It was Riddick. ‘Stone dead, Mr Bartley,’ Harris said.
‘Damn.’
‘Do you realize,’ Joe said. ‘That between you, you have just killed twenty men?’
‘More like twenty-two, I think,’ Anna said.
He wiped his brow, ‘So what happens now?’
‘We load the rest of this stuff and then get the hell out of here.’
‘Just like that? After this racket? The whole goddamned country is going to be up in arms by now, looking for us.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Anna said. ‘There’s a lot going on here that we don’t know about, yet. But we can guess. Look at these uniforms. They’re all MGB men. Not a single regular amongst them. That means it was an undercover operation. In their own territory? That has to mean whoever instituted this action has his own agenda. And that means the military in Eisenach have been told to keep away. They may take a different attitude when these bodies are found tomorrow, but by then we have to be back on your side of the border.’
‘And how are you proposing to do that?’
‘Why Joe, exactly how we said we would, across the bridge in a truck with Red Army markings. That’s what Captain Roberts is expecting.’
‘But without Maynard.’
She sighed. ‘I’m afraid not.’
‘And Riddick?’ Clive asked.
‘We can do nothing for him,’ Anna said. ‘And we have no time to lose. Say a prayer, if you like, and then let’s get this stuff loaded.’
*
‘There is a telephone call for you, Comrade Litovsky,’ said the anxious clerk in the Russian Embassy in Geneva. ‘Moscow.’ He lowered his voice to an awed whisper. ‘Comrade Beria, personally.’
‘Is this line scrambled?’
‘Of course, sir.’
Litovsky took the phone. ‘Good afternoon, Comrade Commissar.’
‘Tell me what is happening.’
‘Well, sir, at the moment I am waiting to hear from Colonel Malinov. He should have apprehended the countess and her group by now. We know they left Geneva three days ago. But he was under orders, as you wished, not to interfere with them even after they crossed the border, until they had started to recover the gold, and thus indicated its exact location. Depending on how far they had to go, it may have taken them a day or two.’
‘Why were you not with Malinov?’ Beria’s voice was deceptively calm.
‘Well, sir, I thought it best that I should remain here, as a back-up, just in case she slipped through Malinov’s fingers and returned here with the bullion. Given her reputation, I had to allow for that possibility.’
‘I see. Well, I sincerely hope you are right, because you are not going to be hearing from Malinov.’
‘Sir?’
‘His body, and that of his entire squad, was this morning found in a small wood only a few miles from Eisenach.’
Litovsky’s stomach seemed to fill with lead. ‘But . . . but . . . that is impossible. He had twenty-one men with him.’
‘That appears to be correct. There was another body on the site, but he appears to have been one of the countess’s people. And a man was killed in Eisenach, apparently by MGB people, the night before last, while trying to steal a truck. He may have been connected with the countess. You knew nothing of this?’
‘I . . . well . . . well, at least we know that she is in Germany. I will—’
‘She is not in Germany. Yesterday morning there was a border incident, in which a Red Army truck was driven across a bridge from Erfurt into Hessen, refusing to stop when challenged. Our people opened fire, but were unable to stop it, and some fire was returned from the American side. The incident is being investigated, and we are making the strongest possible protest. But the whole affair is just too much of a coincidence for it not to have been the countess. Thus we must face the fact that despite your best efforts and all the information at your disposal, she has entered our territory, collected what she wanted, and once again escaped, leaving another twenty-two of our people dead.’
‘Sir—’
‘The Premier has not yet seen this news, Litovsky, but when he does I do not feel that he is going to be very happy about it. I do not know if you ever pray, and who you pray to, but I strongly suggest that you do so now, and hope that the countess does indeed return to Geneva, and that you manage to correct the situation. I look forward to hearing from you.’
*
‘How do you feel?’ Clive asked.
‘Better than I did,’ Anna said. ‘A few dozen more aches and pains.’
‘You mean you slept?’ Joe asked.
The three of them sat together in the cab of the truck as they drove south. The markings had been altered to US, and the bullion was entirely concealed beneath piles of sacking.
‘Like a log for twelve hours. Didn’t you?’
‘Not really. I kept thinking of how many lives this little caper has cost.’
He was driving. Anna squeezed his arm. ‘I’m sorry about Maynard, believe me. And Riddick, Clive. I feel like absolute shit about that. Listen, I’ll double their shares, and it’ll go to their next of kin.’
‘And Harris?’
‘His too.’
‘He sure must trust you,’ Joe remarked. ‘Taking off like that.’
‘I never let down anyone who is on my side,’ Anna pointed out. ‘Although I’m sorry he left without even saying goodbye.’
‘His leave was up,’ Clive explained. ‘And you were sleeping like a baby, so I told him not to disturb you.’
‘I hadn’t realized he was on so short a leash.’
‘Talking about not letting people down,’ Joe said. ‘You have your share, but you haven’t delivered the goods yet.’
‘This job isn’t finished yet.’
‘And you think I might still do a nasty on you? I hope you haven’t forgotten that you’re still working for us.’
‘I haven’t forgotten that, Joe, but as I said, there’s still work to be done. Such as finding out who betrayed us to the Russians.’
‘Eh?’
‘You don’t suppose that MGB unit just happened on us by chance? And took a wild guess at what we were doing?’
‘Shit! I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘I have,’ Clive said. ‘It has to be Laurent.’
‘You mean the guy who’s going to handle the money for us? That doesn’t make sense. Wasn’t he picking up a hundred grand for the deal?’
‘Yes,’ Anna said quietly. ‘Maybe some things are more important than money.’
‘Son of a gun. What are we going to do? Why are we heading for Switzerland, if there’s no point?’
‘We are getting out of Germany, Joe.’
‘But we were in the US Sector.’
‘Don’t you think this whole business is going to cause a certain diplomatic stir? So your people, on your say-so, helped us get into Erfurt and back out again, by stopping the Reds chasing us across that bridge. While they’re trying to sort that out, somebody is going to come across those twenty-odd dead bodies and put two and two together.’
