Pushing up his hat, he tugged at the collar of his uniform, proud of the pips there, disappointed by how constricted his throat always felt. Feeling the adrenaline pumping through him, his grip tightened on his trusty Luger. How much he loved that gun. A few months ago some pencil pusher had tried to insist that he swap it out for one of the new Walther things, but he wasn't having any of it. That weapon had saved his life on numerous occasions, taking many more in the process, and he wasn't giving it up for anything.
Gradually, they could feel the tunnel starting to slope upwards. Having travelled over three hundred yards, crouched down, they were now reaching the exit. A whispered voice greeted them, helping them out of their hidden burrow and into the secret enclave manned by a force of British soldiers. Pleasantries were exchanged briefly, before the small group settled down to observe the final part of the operation.
Bursting into the barn in one coordinated movement, as they had to various 'safe' houses so many times before, what awaited them this particular time was completely unexpected. The barn was empty... deserted!
'It's puzzling,' he thought. 'Has she captured or killed them all?' Both thoughts flicked through his very logical and very cruel mind. Not relaxed now, he was on edge, more so than he'd been for a long time. And quite rightly so.
As the very last Resistance members exited from the tunnel, he gave the command. All he could do now was watch and wait as his force of fifty men closed in on the barn in a concentric circle, their instructions to totally destroy every last inch of it.
Starting with a loud rap on the side of the barn, startling all those inside, instantly they all targeted their guns in that direction. Almost immediately there was another at the back of the barn this time, and then another. Quicker on the uptake than his men, but not by much, the Nazi captain lunged for the door, longing to escape what he knew was inevitable. But he didn't stand a chance. The barn was surrounded, and as the first of the grenades went off, the British commandos opened fire with everything they had. Along with the barn, the silence was shattered. Explosions littered the outside at first, and then much further in. And even with every single remnant seemingly on fire, or destroyed, still the men continued to hurl grenades into it, until every last one had been used.
In the distance hay fluttered in the air, black smoke swirled all around, accompanied by the fetid smell of death... and victory. Aware they had to move out, and quickly, with the barn obliterated and their prisoner secure, they'd completed their task. He only hoped the other operation, just west of here, running at exactly the same time, had been this successful. Now all he had to do was get his highly valued prisoner back to Britain.
'That in itself,' he thought, 'would be some achievement.'
17
Loss
Unable to catch her breath, it felt as though the whole world was closing in around her. Tears flowed like the steady stream of rain into a gutter after a violent storm.
Moments later it passed, replaced by the heart wrenching feeling of loss: loss of a friend, loss of a future only dreamed of. It wasn't the first panic attack she'd had and she doubted it would be the last, given how her life was going. No job currently... she could cope with that, for a while, at least. But that wasn't what plagued her, haunted her dreams, both waking and sleeping alike. They were all about HIM! She missed him so badly. He was all she could think of, and it hadn't helped when he turned up out of the blue. Perhaps she'd been more spiteful than she'd meant to be, but he'd been holding things back, by his own admission. What? She didn't know. That day that the clubhouse had been destroyed changed everything. In her head she'd been over it hundreds of times. There were so many anomalies. How did they both know the bomb was really a bomb? They'd only had her vague description as a reference. How did Tank break down the office door without a sound, and without disturbing the device? What did they do after she'd left? The official account stated that they'd tried to disarm the bomb and that they were heroes. But something else had gone on, of that she was sure. What? She didn't know, but was desperate to find out. With all the free time on her hands, she had nothing else to do but search the internet for anything relevant to what had happened. Clearly it was all tied in to the global disaster. Every time she watched the television or switched on the radio, all the coverage was of the massive devastation, the clean up and the lives of those affected. The scale of the destruction in every other place was huge... catastrophic in fact. Over and over again she wondered if that's what someone had intended to happen, here in Salisbridge, and if in fact Peter and Tank really were heroes and had found some way to limit the destruction of the blast. But how? Internet searches proving fruitless up until now, she poured herself a glass of water from the chilled, clear jug always kept in the fridge, opting against anything to eat, despite growling protests from her stomach. To her, eating had seemed so inconsequential since all this had happened. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she knew she HAD to eat. And sometimes she did. But it was just very little, and very infrequently. Slumping down on the sofa with her laptop open, Janice once again started her search for any clues that might explain exactly what had happened on that fateful day.
18
Pole Vaulting Dragons?
For days now, he'd been tormented by his dreams. Ever since he'd seen it, he could think about nothing else, despite everything going on. What to do next? That was the question. Days of pondering had led him here in the hope that someone could make some sort of sense of what he'd witnessed.
Pulling open the door, he slid inside. Tank was away coaching rugby somewhere, of that much he was sure, which was a good thing, as he wanted the old shopkeeper all to himself. A gut feeling told him that Gee Tee's lifetime of experience would be invaluable in this matter.
Walking around the first set of bookcases that led into the shop proper, Peter felt more than a little trepidation, as on more than one occasion he'd stumbled into something resembling an action scene from a movie. Instantly his mind darted back to the ice salamander that Flash had almost single-handedly dealt with, and to the occasion he'd turned up to find the king, Tank and Gee Tee all ready to fight, and of course to the infamous giant spider and lack of clothing incident. Sweat coursed down his sides at the very thought of the last one.
"Hello little one," whispered a soft, velvety smooth voice from off to one side, momentarily startling Peter.
Returning the old shopkeeper's smile, he just about managed a "Hi," in return.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but your friend has the afternoon off I'm afraid."
"I know," he responded, looking the old dragon right in the eye.
"Uhhh... I see. Well perhaps we should adjourn to the workshop for a chat and some hot charcoal. Would you like to do the honours?"
All the time smiling, he nodded, knowing where everything was in the small kitchen, and just how the master mantra maker liked his hot charcoal. As he approached the kitchen, Gee Tee's voice echoed across the shop.