‘Let me see.’ The secretary inspected the file with great interest and said, after he’d thought it over for a moment, ‘I’ll give you a pack.’
‘Deal. I’m lettin’ it go awful cheap, but then, I don’t need it myself. Haven’t got time for that sort of thing.’
Others who had ended up with items from the Lieutenant’s nail-care set offered to trade them with the secretary, but none of them got more than a few cigarettes out of him.
Hietanen had been appointed to oversee the punishment, and so was urging Rahikainen to get a move on. The others were already on their way and Rahikainen trailed after them, dragging his gun behind him and chattering away contentedly, ‘I bet our gentleman neighbor wouldn’t have guessed how valuable his gadgets would be in the hands of the right fellow! Everything I touch turns to gold. That must be some kind of gift from on high. How else would you explain… But all righty, here we go, gotta go stand with the guns over our shoulders, even if we’re the ones who risked our necks gettin’ grub for the group.’
Hietanen led them a little way from the camp, as they weren’t exactly planning to carry out the orders to a T. The guilty trio shuffled themselves into a line.
‘But you’re the one who oughtta stand in the middle, since you’re the squad leader and the biggest bandit,’ Määttä said to Lehto.
‘Looks just like Golgotha, the three of you standing there,’ Hietanen said as he sat down on a rock to smoke. ‘Just stand there a little while. We’re not gonna hang around here the full two hours. The peacock went to go check out the Lottas in the staff headquarters, I’m sure of that, and Koskela’ll head to bed soon.’
‘Okey-doke. But what kind of Jesus does our corporal here think he is, standing there in the middle? You’re the one who got us into this whole mess in the first place. Leading us poor, innocent soldiers astray from the path of military discipline.’
They stood at something vaguely resembling attention. They rested the butts of their rifles on their belts so they could keep them upright without having to carry their whole weight. Hietanen had some good tips to offer, for while he generally respected authority, he had lost his temper once as a new recruit, lashing out at some corporal who’d made the mistake of being too insolent with him and twisting the guy’s nose between his fingers so hard that the cartilage squeaked. The affair had resulted in some similar standing exercises for Hietanen.
The charade had been underway for about half an hour when they started to hear a low drone coming from the sky. The sound grew louder and pretty soon they could make out black spots getting bigger and bigger.
‘Bombers.’
‘Could they be ours?’
‘Coming from the east. Though we could have planes coming from that direction, too. Oh wait, hang on, guys… one, two, three, four… Holy bejesus. Eighteen… we haven’t got a fleet anywhere near that big. Wait, more… nine fighter planes covering their tail…’
The drone grew louder. The engines sounded like organs plodding out a monotonous beat: voo voo voo voo.
‘It’s the enemy… the anti-aircraft guns are firing.’
They began to hear the light clatter of the anti-aircraft guns somewhere further off, but the red streaks of light from the shots fell far behind the enemy planes.
‘Headed this way.’
Shouts came from the camp. ‘Danger overhead! Take cover!’
Koskela emerged from the tent, looked at the approaching planes and shouted to Hietanen, ‘Stop with the guys’ punishment and get under cover!’
‘Get in the woods, guys!’ Hietanen said to the others, but Lehto stood right where he was and said fiercely, ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m standing out my sentence.’
Hietanen grinned, thinking the comment was a joke, but then he realized Lehto was not joking.
‘Don’t you go nutty on us now!’ Rahikainen exclaimed, looking uneasily at the approaching planes.
Lehto cracked a cruel smile. Without so much as a glance at the planes, he said with pointed detachment, ‘Anybody who is scared is free to go. I’m not leaving.’
‘Well, I guess I can stay here too,’ Määttä said, putting Rahikainen in a tight spot. He was not exactly the stuff heroes are made of, and he certainly was not one to behave irrationally, and yet, blinking anxiously at the planes all the while, he said, ‘Well, all righty, let ’em blast us up into the tree branches, then. I’m not gonna be the one to say no.’
‘Don’t you all go batty now! What’s the point of this?’ Hietanen glanced back and forth between the approaching menace and the standing men.
‘Ask the peacock,’ Lehto said. ‘Wasn’t my idea.’
‘I guess you think I’m such an idiot I can’t see what you’re angling at. You wanna tell everybody the guard ran scared, but you stayed… Well, if you’re not leaving, I’m not leaving. Let ’em send down bombs and old biddies on bobsleighs… but look! I can see the shells dropping! Jesus Christ, that’ll put a stop to the creekside laundry!’
The powerful roar of tens of engines set the air vibrating. The planes flashed in the evening sunlight as bombs dropped distinctly beneath them. Out in front of them, shells were already exploding. Smoke rose and columns of earth spewed up over the tree tops.
‘Those ones are for us! There they go.’
The fleet was upon them. The last, six-plane formation was not yet overhead, but they knew that the bombs it had dropped would hit the ground the same moment the planes themselves flew over. A piercing whistle cut through the air.
‘Stay where you are… Do not move!’ Lehto yelled. His face had gone entirely white, but his expression remained stiff and resolute. As the bombs’ whistle grew louder, Rahikainen ducked his head in between his shoulders and said, ‘And now… we die.’
When the first explosions went off behind the road, Rahikainen huddled down in a squat. The others remained standing, however. Then came a series of powerful thumps whose air pressure nearly leveled them. The closest bomb was still a safe distance away, however – over between the tents, one of which collapsed into a heap. Rahikainen was face-flat on the ground when it exploded, but he scrambled quickly to his feet so the others wouldn’t notice that he had succumbed in the heat of the moment. Their faces were pale and taut, but as soon as they realized that the last bomb had exploded, and that they were still standing there – intact – smiles stretched wide across their lips. This would be news.
But their smiles fell. The fighter planes started sowing lead over the field the bombs had plowed open, and a garbled wailing was coming from somewhere near the tents. ‘Somebody, help me! What’s happened to me? Oh, ahh… oh Jesus, help me… So this is how it ends… help me… what’s wrong with me?’
The wailing was drowned out by the sputtering and screeching of engines. Lehto’s face grew taut as he said to the others, ‘Through to the end, boys… through to the end… we’re staying here…’
Actually, they weren’t in any great danger, as the fighter planes had targeted the edge of the main road, which was a little way off.
‘Somebody’s hit, guys! We’d better go and help,’ Hietanen said, but Lehto refused.
‘Well, I’m going, damn it!’ Hietanen said and darted off toward the tents at a crouch. Rahikainen and Määttä started to follow, but Lehto cut in prohibitively, ‘There’s no reason to go! Let’s see it through. Hietanen can manage whatever needs to be done on his own. And there goes Koskela, too, and the medics are coming down the road.’
The others decided to stay, as the last fighter plane had already vanished and there were already several men running toward the tents.
‘Who is it?’ Rahikainen wondered. ‘Sounded like Salonen… No, hell no. You!’ He turned to Lehto. ‘You’re the one who got me into this mess… and it’s not going to happen again.’