Cullen was confused. “What the hell are they still doing hanging around. Didn’t anyone notice that the American army had arrived?”
Lena asked the refugee a few more questions. “He said that the manager is a fool. He felt that the Americans would be driven back so he made no effort to move the factory or the prisoners. Thus, they are still there, but not too much longer. The manager recently got orders to pack up and move. What could not be moved was to be destroyed.”
“And we all know what that means,” Cullen said bitterly.
“Yes, the prisoners are to be murdered,” said Lena and this time tears did run down her cheeks. “You have got to stop them.”
Shit, thought Tanner. They had to do something. “How many guards at the site?” he asked the man.
No more than six came the answer. And all of them were Volkssturm who were poorly trained and equipped. “We can handle that with a platoon,” said Tanner. “Cullen, why don’t you wake up Sergeant Hill and tell him we have a job for him.”
“I will go with you,” said Lena.
Tanner blinked in surprise. “Out of the question. Women do not go on combat missions.”
“Then it’s time to make an exception. I have to go with you or you’ll never find the place. This man’s instructions were vague. You need me to translate and guide you. Otherwise the prisoners might be dead before you stumble on it.”
They might already be dead, thought Tanner. But the girl was right. He hadn’t really noticed her in the few days she had been assigned to help with clerical duties. She was really intense and could be pretty if she could get some food in her and some meat on her bones. She was wearing old olive drab fatigues that someone had cut down to fit her smaller frame. Her shoes looked like old worn tennis shoes.
“We could be going into an ambush,” he said.
“I have other reasons for going with you and they are important and personal.”
“Should we explain this to the brass?” Cullen asked.
“Of course not,” said Tanner. “They’d just turn it down. Let’s just go and ask forgiveness later.”
* * *
It was late afternoon and shadows were getting long when they got to within a mile of the suspected prison site. It was off a dirt road and in a heavily forested area. Lena had been right. It might have taken them a week to find the place, and it was no wonder that the American army hadn’t discovered it.
Tanner and Lena were in the second jeep along with the Czech whose name was Vaclov. He was only forty years old but looked eighty. He said he’d been a watchmaker before the Nazis had imprisoned him and made him a slave laborer. His crime was being a communist. He had a wife and two children and hadn’t heard from them since being arrested. When he began talking about them, he started to cry. Lena tried to comfort him but wasn’t successful.
Sergeant Hill was in the first jeep. Behind them in a short column of trucks and jeeps was a full platoon of infantry. It should be more than enough to overwhelm a handful of Volkssturm. If their calculations were off and there were too many more Germans, they were screwed.
The closer they got to the factory site, the more agitated the former inmate became. Lena kept talking to him and calming him.
She tugged on Tanner’s arm. “He says it’s just over this hill.”
The column halted and all but a squad left behind to guard the vehicles began to move up the hill. “Now you can stay behind,” Tanner told Lena.
“No,” she said and continued on. Damn it, he thought.
From over the hill they could see the factory. It was really little more than a very large wooden barn. What gave it away was the barbed wire enclosing it and the guard towers and machine guns looking down and inwards. They were clearly intended to keep people in, rather than keeping intruders out. Tanner was puzzled. The towers were empty and the main gate looked like it was ajar. Jesus, he thought, had they gotten there too late?
A side door on the building opened and a couple of men came out. They looked up into the sky as if it was something unfamiliar. They were wearing prison garb and looked as bad as Vaclov. A few more followed and Tanner was surprised to see that a couple of them were carrying rifles.
“Miss Bobekova, Lena, any idea what has just happened?”
She started laughing and crying. “I think the inmates have taken over the prison.”
She called out to them in Czech and then in French. A prisoner responded in French. “He wants us to show ourselves.”
“Nuts,” said Tanner. “It could be an ambush.”
The former inmate, Vaclov, stood and walked slowly towards the compound. He kept his hands in the air while he yelled at them.
Once more, Lena interpreted. “He’s telling him who he is and that he’s with a bunch of Americans. They want to see an American to believe him.”
Tanner took a deep breath. “I think this is where I earn my pay.”
He slung his rifle over his shoulder and walked with Vaclov to the gate. He became aware that Lena was a few paces behind him. More inmates had emerged and they had no weapons. They looked at him in disbelief as if he were something from another planet. Vaclov was recognized and they peppered him with questions.
An older man came out. He was leaning on a cane and appeared to be their leader. “So, you do not speak Czech,” he said in German. “What the hell, who does in this bitch of a world?” he said sarcastically. He told his people to lay down their weapons, which they did. With that, several dozen American soldiers came out of hiding and took charge of the inmates who were now elated by their deliverance. They had begun hugging each other and sobbing. Surprised American soldiers were hugged and kissed as well. They asked so many questions in Czech that Lena was overwhelmed. Those who spoke French and German got quicker answers. To their astonishment, a couple of inmates spoke English.
Tanner saw Lena moving around and talking to the inmates.
“Where are the guards?” he asked.
The man on the cane laughed harshly. “In the back and in a ditch, which is more than they deserve. When they heard that Hitler was dead, they got drunk. They were very easy to confuse and overwhelm. And now they are all dead. And I don’t care if they were elderly Volkssturm. They were going to follow orders and butcher us as soon as they worked up the courage the liquor was giving them. I only regret that the piece of shit Nazi who ran this place managed to escape.”
Tanner didn’t care if the warden had escaped. He had a bunch of liberated prisoners to get back to the camp. Sergeant Hill was doing a superb job of getting people ready to go back to the base. Hill also reported that he’d been shown the guards’ bodies. They had been pounded and stomped to pulp. They would not take the time to bury them.
American soldiers and liberated slaves gathered about the vehicles. It would be crowded with all the inmates, but they’d manage. It had been a good day, Tanner thought. But where was Lena?
He found her sitting on a fallen tree. He wanted to tell her that she should be helping to get the inmates moving, but quickly changed his mind. She had her head in her hands and was sobbing bitterly. He sat down beside her. “Tell me,” he said gently.
“My father,” she said. “They came one night and took my father and it wasn’t the Nazis. They were Czechs who sympathized and collaborated with them. They never gave a reason why and I never heard from him again. I’ve always hoped he survived and was in a place like this where I could come and rescue him. When I heard there were Czechs here I just hoped and prayed, and it’s been a long time since I prayed. I always hoped but I’d forgotten how to pray.” Her body convulsed. “Damn the Nazis. Damn them.”