A short blond girl, chocolate-box pretty even under layers of dirt streaked by tears and with her long hair matted, stroked Burke’s arm as she waited, last to board. Over and over she quietly repeated, ‘Danke schon, danke schon.’ As he went to lift her she kissed him on the cheek, lightly and quickly, and then averted her eyes as for an instant they caught his.
‘Ah reckon I’ve seen near enough everything now,’ Ripper chortled. ‘Didn’t reckon I’d ever see a good old boy like you brought out in a blush.’ He just couldn’t resist the dig at their driver as he climbed back behind the wheel.
‘One more word out of you,’ – Burke crashed into first, then remembered his cargo and let the eight-wheeler crawl forward to mount the fallen timber slowly – ‘…just one more, and you’ll have a matching hole in the other leg.’
In a series of almost slow-motion lurches that brought stifled screams from their frightened passengers, the Scammel wallowed over the obstruction.
‘There’s no choice now.’ Hyde shoved their prisoner along the back seat until he was seated in the still-solidifying blood, prodding him with the barrel of his Browning. ‘We can’t go dragging those kids around the battlefield like this crud was prepared to do. We’ve got to get them back to the others. At least in the castle there’s food and water. Even if in the next few hours it could have a horde of Reds hammering on the door.’
‘How the hell are we supposed to do that?’ Burke was using every facet of his driving skills to keep up the best pace he could while not subjecting the girls to more danger and discomfort than he could help. ‘There’s supposed to be the granddaddy of all minefields right around the place.’
‘I don’t know.’ Hyde cocked the pistol and held it to the deserter’s head as the man tried to turn so as to bring his bound hands onto the door catch. ‘Please do. If the fall doesn’t kill you, I will.’
Moving from the door, the man changed his tactics. ‘You’ve got to do something about my face. I’m bleeding to death.’ His words came out distorted by the wound. With each word fresh blood welled from his split lips and dripped into his lap.
‘You concentrate on staying still and quiet.’ Hyde set the safety on the pistol and lowered it, but didn’t lower his guard. ‘And don’t worry about that little cut. Facial wounds are rarely fatal.’ His scar tissue crinkled in mockery of a smile. ‘I speak from experience.’
‘Shit.’ Ripper stared in disbelief. ‘It looks like they nuked the place.’
Through the trees they glimpsed the castle, or the stump of it that remained. Only where it joined the rock was there here and there a section of wall that was recognizable. Dust still hung thick in the air about it and huge slides of rubble had cut swaths through the trees on the lower slopes.
‘So come on, tell me.’ Burke braked to a stop just short of where a torrent of broken stone had obliterated the road. Piled to three times the height of the cab, from it poked jagged lances of roofing timber.
‘Come on, Sarge, I’m asking. How do we get back to the others through this lot?’
Andrea craned her neck to survey the cliff. ‘I think I may know a way.’
Only the great gateway remained recognizable. Every other section of wall was shattered, and topped with many meters of broken stone. Abandoning their transport on the road, Revell and Voke split their men into parties to clear a way back into the cellars, and to erect firing positions atop the mountain of rubble, and in those ground floor rooms that had survived being crushed.
The dust lay knee-deep and was being turned into an adhering slurry that soon coated them from head to foot, transforming them into grey spectres.
Revell led a group through the huge hall, now partially filled with rubble where its massive roof timbers had failed to withstand the vast weight of the collapse of the main tower.
They were lucky; the smaller rooms beyond had survived and the door to the cellar steps was clear. Voke caught up with them as Revell groped for the generator switch.
Flickering fitfully at first, the machinery made hard work of starting up in the dust-laden atmosphere. It hung so thick that it made pearly halos around the lights.
Voke held a cloth over his mouth and nose to filter the worst of the choking particles. ‘This is the only way that is clear. It would take much time and heavy lifting equipment to break through to the other entrances. The demolition charges may have been larger than was truly needed.’
‘I agree.’ Revell spat to clear his tongue of cloying grit, and failed. ‘It was definitely rather overdone.’
Together they toured the warren of cellars. There had been roof-falls in two of the smaller rooms, but most, and all those with the weapons and ammunition, had survived intact.
They found Sampson already at work in the improvised dispensary, checking supplies, laying out instruments and dressings on a cloth-covered stool beside a rough pine table.
‘All I need is a couple of well-starched nurses and I’m ready to start up my own practice.’ He opened a case of morphine ampoules. ‘Looks like I shan’t have to tie anybody down this time.’
‘Let us hope that none of this will be needed.’ Voke winced as a bone-saw was added to the other implements of the surgeon’s trade.
‘I get the impression he’ll be disappointed if they’re not.’ Revell continued the tour of inspection.
Several of the working parties were now removing stores to stock the positions topside. Frequently the officers had to flatten themselves against the cold damp walls as men staggered past loaded with cases of mortar bombs, grenades and rockets.
They had just passed a door decorated with an ornate lock when something made Revell pause and hold the lieutenant back.
‘What’s in there?’
Voke shrugged. ‘It is a room we did not need. I do not recall ever opening it.’
‘It’s open now.’ Looking again at the lock, Revell noticed that the escutcheon plate was scratched and dented. As he went to push it, from the other side he heard the musical trill of birdsong.
‘Don’t shout at me, Major.’ Dooley threw his arms wide, an unopened bottle in either hand, in a gesture of supplication. ‘I must be dead and this is heaven, and no one gets shouted at in heaven.’
The vault was as big as the largest they’d seen, but its contents were markedly different. Down the full length of both sides were tall wine racks. In the centre of the floor, standing over a drain grating was a small deal table and on it a row of glasses.
‘You’re not dead, but if you don’t pull your weight with the others you soon will be wishing you were.’ Revell turned to the lieutenant. ‘Are any of your men teetotal?’
For a moment Voke’s command of English let him down. ‘Do you mean abstainers? Oh yes, twenty at least.’
‘Well, put your best fire-^and-brimstone man on this door.’
‘Old William that is who you need. If you wish, he would enjoy smashing the bottles and letting all this… demon drink, run to that sump.’
‘No, Major. You can’t, you mustn’t.’ Dooley was panicking at the thought. ‘There’s thousands of bottles of wine here, and there’s champagne, cognac, sherry…’
‘Out!’
‘Then can I leave my birds here? If there’s going to be some mad prohibitionist freak on the door they should be safe enough. No one’s going to get past him.’
Above the ruins the pioneers were working hard and fast. Amid the jumble of stone they had already fashioned several interconnected strong points, improvising top cover for every pit and trench. In every position was emplaced a TOW anti-tank missile launcher or a clutch of Starstreak and Stinger antiaircraft launch tubes. In the small area of courtyard that remained clear had been set two mortars, and close by them an assortment of ready-use rounds, including smoke, high-explosive, illuminating and, in greatest numbers, Merlin top-attack armour -penetrating bombs.