Authors: Alan Bricklin
"I guess being cooped up here all day is getting to me.
I'm just anxious to move on to the next phase."
"I understand that for a man like you inaction must be
very difficult," she said as she placed the groceries and her purse on the
kitchen table. "Soon we will be on our way." Her handbag had opened
and Larry caught a brief glimpse of a small revolver inside before Eva,
noticing what happened, snapped it shut. "But first, let me make dinner.
Once we leave tomorrow it may be several days before we can have a decent
meal."
The meal was eaten in relative silence, each lost in their
own thoughts and suspicions. Larry needed Eva to take him to the plutonium, and
she needed him as a conduit to get it to Templeton so it could be transferred
to the buyer and the deal consummated. She didn't know much about the
operational details once it was recovered, only that she had to assist him in
getting it out of the country, letting him take the lead in following whatever
exit route had been worked out. After dinner Eva left the plates and pans in
the sink. Regardless of how things played out, a return to this apartment was
not in the game plan for either of them.
Larry pushed his chair back, stood and stretched, rolling
his shoulders back several times and extending his arms out to the side, then
in front and finally over his head while arching his back. Eva disappeared into
the bedroom, emerging a minute later with a small pack Waldman had left for
her, and tossed it on the sofa. "This is the only baggage you'll take. You
can add some clothes and a few personal items." Larry smiled at the last;
other than a small pen knife, he had arrived with only the clothes on his back.
"We will start out early tomorrow. I'll wake you a half hour or so
before."
Larry grabbed a blanket and pillow that lay on a nearby
chair and placed them on the sofa, saying to Eva, "I'll get my stuff
together in the morning. I'm going to try to get some sleep now." He sat
on the edge of the couch and removed his shoes, then pulled off the sweater he
wore before laying down and wrapping the blanket around himself. She stood there
for a moment, looking on, then withdrew silently into the bedroom.
In the morning, when she emerged, Larry was sitting at the
kitchen table eating a piece of course bread topped with jam from an open tin
that stood nearby. A partially eaten sausage impaled on a fork lay on a plate
in front of him. "I hope you don't mind that I helped myself. There's
plenty of everything left for you."
"Thank you, and I certainly don't mind that you took
your own breakfast. No time for coffee, though. She picked up a piece of bread
and spooned some jam on it, eating it while she did a walkthrough of the
apartment, making sure, he supposed, that she had everything she needed. Maria
must know, he thought, that she will not come this way again. Returning to the
table, Eva sat and finished the remains of the bread in her hand, trying to
look pleasant. "Soon we will begin our journey and it will not be long
before we leave this dilapidated country. This will make you happy, won't it,
Lorenz?"
"Yes, it will," he answered, but with little cheer
in his voice, for even if they made it out of Germany safely, the future, at
least for him, was still bleak. Eva misinterpreted the emotion that she read in
his manner, ascribing it to doubt and mistrust, but for Larry that was minor,
something he expected in any mission because that was the nature of work behind
enemy lines. For him, it was the hoof beats he always heard. When he was intent
on the present, focused completely on the task at hand, they were silenced. But
when next he looked over his shoulder, the dark-robbed figure, face shrouded in
the peaked hood, relentlessly pursued him, the scythe of death at his side and
the destrier beneath him breathing smoke as his hoofs sounded ever closer. He
slapped his palms on the table in finality, abruptly stood and exclaimed,
"We have a mission, you and I, and the sooner it's completed, the
better." He strode to the sofa where he grabbed his pack and spread it
open with his hands. "I'm going to get my things together, then I'm
ready."
Precisely at 7:00 AM there was a knock, and without asking
who it was Eva threw open the door, saying as she turned the handle,
"Right on time, sergeant."
The same soldier who had helped her move in stood at
attention and gave a short respectful bow of the head. "Good morning,
Fraulein. Here are the necessary papers", handing her a small neat packet,
tied with a simple piece of string, "and the car is outside as you
requested. One of my men is waiting there with the keys. Shall I wait there for
you?"
"No, you can take my bag down. There's one duffel; it's
in the bedroom."
"Yes, Fraulein." He didn't look especially happy
about carrying dunnage, but blamed himself for not bringing one of the young
privates with him. However, a disciplined smile on his face, he retrieved the
bag and headed towards the stairs.
Eva turned back to Larry who answered her unasked question,
"I'm ready."
"Good. Let us go, then."
He slung his pack over one shoulder, and without looking
back he preceded Eva out the door while she locked the apartment behind her,
stepped past Larry and began the descent to the street. Following on her heels,
he exited the building into bright sunlight, the glare making him squint, but
the fresh air and light after two days of being cooped up inside lifted his spirits.
Eva took the keys from the soldier, who opened the door for her and then
politely closed it as she slid behind the wheel and turned the ignition.
"Lorenz, put your bag in the back and climb in. We must get started right
away." The sergeant approached the driver's side and began speaking to Eva
through the partly opened window, asking if there was anything more he could
do, although he really didn't give two shits about this arrogant beauty;
however, he was always concerned about maintaining the favor of his commander,
General Waldman. Eva looked up at him, not really caring about what he was
saying, and when she heard Larry slip in next to her and close the door, she
put the car in gear and sped away, leaving the soldier in mid sentence, mouth
open in silent anger.
The city was already alive with people rushing to work or
beginning the daily quest for sustenance and survival as social as well as
government institutions continued their downward spiral. But in spite of the
activity, the roads were clear, little gasoline being available for the general
public, and even in those few sections of Munich where traffic clogged the
streets, deference was given to the black Mercedes, for even though it bore no
markings anyone who saw it knew it carried some high ranking member of the Nazi
party or some very well connected citizen. Either was to be avoided.
In relatively short order they crossed through the city and
emerged on rural roads, not unlike those that had led Larry to Munich just two
days ago. Five kilometers outside of the city, Eva slowed, looking around for
something, a landmark, he supposed, and glanced sideways at her, trying not to
show his concern. She sped up again and turned briefly to Larry, commenting,
"Things have changed since I was last here."
He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes.
Maybe I'm
making too much of her not remembering where the entrance to the storage cellar
is. People do forget things. And with a war going on all around you it's got to
be stressful. Shit, you could forget your own name. Anyway, we're going to the
barn now so she must know where that is.
A right turn tilted his now relaxed body towards the
driver's side, closer to Eva, and he could smell her perfume, the fragrance
eliciting in his mind the picture of her standing naked in front of him, her
taut, sculpted body like the siren call of some enchantress who lured to their
death all who listened. He shook free from this image, forcing himself to think
of her as an unfortunate young woman whose parents had been murdered and who
was now the ward of a tired old soldier disillusioned with the nation that had
birthed him, and those who had usurped the minds of its inhabitants. Larry
forced himself to focus on the fast approaching critical point, a time and
place when options would be very constricted. The plutonium was in only one
place and he sensed that they were barely ahead of the inrushing tides of war
that could soon engulf them, making the retrieval hopeless. They made another
turn, this time to the left, and he opened his eyes as the car slowed and began
bumping along a dirt road.
"We are almost there. See, up ahead on the right, that
old barn. That was the place." She proceeded cautiously along the rutted
dirt road, the Mercedes rolling from side to side, and turned off on a short
side spur that led right up to the barn entrance. Veering off onto a grassy
area bordering the run down building, Eva cut the ignition, leaned back and
took a deep breath. She looked slowly around, pretending to be lost in a
reverie of earlier times, but actually looking to see if they had been
observed. Larry had already done his own surveillance and was satisfied that
they were alone. "Best for me not to spend time reminiscing. Let us get
this package that is so important and be on our way." Without waiting for
any reply or comment from Larry, she hopped out of the car and walked to the
large doors, both of which seemed to be canted at an angle. When they stood in
front of the barn doors it was apparent why they were askew. The wood that supported
the massive hinges was splintered and out of line, and when Eva tugged on one
of the doors it refused to budge, its bottom edge resting firmly on the ground.
"Probably rotten."
"Let's look for another entrance," Larry said and
began walking around to the side, to skirt the perimeter. He heard her grunt as
she tried one more time before catching up to him in his circumnavigation.
Actually he hadn't gone very far and was standing just around the corner of the
building looking at a debris field forming a circular berm in the meadow
adjacent to the barn. "That's a bomb crater over there, probably a five
hundred pounder by the size of the wall it kicked up. The concussion from that
could easily have knocked those doors off their hinges." They quickly finished
their inspection, and although they noticed a few areas where small areas of
the roof and upper walls had collapsed, there was nothing that could serve as
an alternate entrance. Back at the front again, Larry grabbed hold of the edge
of one of the doors, asked Eva to use the ringed pull, and together they
strained to wrest it free. It moved less than an inch, pushing a pile of dirt
in front of it. "Shit! This is never going to work." He stepped back
to take another look at the out-of-kilter doors, tapping his fist against his
mouth as he contemplated the situation, then turned to Eva and said,
"There ought to be a jack and some tools in the trunk of the car,
especially if it's a military loaner. Let's take a look and see what we have.
"Pay dirt!" Larry moved a few items around in the
capacious trunk, nodding his head as he did so and commenting, "Yep, this
should do it. Take the shovel, I'll grab the jack and the crowbar." They
deposited their booty on the ground and Larry returned to the car where he unfastened
the spare tire and rolled it over. "We ought to be able to jack up the
door so it clears the ground and then move it open in stages until the passage
way is big enough. The hardest part will be getting the jack under it in the
first place. I'll have to dig out the ground about five feet back from the
edge." He picked up the shovel and began digging. Fortunately the ground
was not very hard and he soon had a hole that he thought was deep enough, but
now he had to start tunneling under the door so he could slide the jack in
place. Because of the angle involved this was more difficult and he was
sweating heavily, pausing every once in a while to straighten and stretch his
back. Finally he lay the shovel down and placed the jack in the excavation where
it almost cleared the lower edge of the door. "Almost there; I just have
to deepen it a little and level off the bottom." Eva had been pacing back
and forth like a caged animal and she now paused, mumbled something, almost
certainly an expletive, he thought, then took up a position next to Larry.
With a device in place to provide lift, he laid the tire
alongside the door and tossed the crowbar next to it. "Maria, I'm going to
need your help. When the door is raised the tire has to be slid under to
support it and it needs to be done quickly since this will not be the most
stable contraption. The jack is levered and won't take all that much strength;
you should be able to do it. I can get it started for you but then you'll have
to take over so I can be ready to get the tire under as soon as there's
sufficient clearance. Can you handle that?"
"I will do what has to be done."
Larry inserted the handle in the jack and started pumping,
the first few strokes easy as the lifting plate rose to make contact with the door.
At this point there was an abrupt change and he had to exert significantly more
effort. He used a smooth motion, and although the old structure registered its
displeasure with assorted creaks and an occasional snapping sound that had him
worried, the door nevertheless slowly inched upward. When the edge of the door
was clear of the ground he stopped and hastily inspected the set up. He
considered continually placing chock blocks under the door each step of the way
as it was elevated but decided that would take too long and he was more worried
about the whole mess buckling, not to mention the fact that there was nothing
convenient to use as the supports. "Here, Maria, take over. Try not to
jerk the handle. I'll do what I can to stabilize the door until it's high
enough to get the tire under it."
Eva stepped up to the jack, bent over, and using both hands
began to work the pump with surprising strength. Larry placed the crowbar in
the small space between the doors and kept his shoulder against the outside,
ready to do what he could to keep the large portal from slipping off the jack.
As soon as there was clearance he yelled to Eva to stop then dropped to his
knees, inserted his hands under the tire and used his upper body to slide it
under the door. He pushed it far enough so the weight of the door would rest on
the metal core of the tire and not just on the rubber. Quickly standing he
returned to the jack and slowly lowered it until the bottom of the door rested
on the tire. When this was done he relaxed, letting some of the accumulated
tension dissipate, and took the time to pay Eva a compliment. "You did
great. You're a strong woman."