Chapter 9

Gerry snapped awake; the ties on the flap of his small heavy-duty tent were being roughly pulled apart. He wasn't fully conscious as his hand plunged into his overcoat pocket and he felt the coldness of the pistol in his hand. He had slept in his clothes, as did all the others that were in the camp.

"Gerry help me quickly," Alex said softly.

He pulled the remaining tie undone and she slid inside.

"What's wrong?"

"Someone is wandering around the camp," Alex said.

"Who?"

"I don't know, he came out of the large tent where Manfred is sleeping with the others and he's creeping around looking for something."

"You're sure it's not someone going on guard duty," Gerry asked.

"No they changed over thirty minutes ago, I heard them."

"Let's go and see who it is. Are you armed," Gerry asked.

"Pistol."

"Let's go."

They crawled out of the tent and then crouched down their eyes straining to see in the darkness. They heard a thump and a small groan.

"Over near Chris's tent."

Stealthily, they moved closer to Chris's tent and stopped when a match flared inside his tent. They were ten metres from the tent when Alex collided with the body on the ground.

"It's Chris he's unconscious," Alex whispered feeling his throat for a pulse.

Gerry moved stealthily closer to Alex, "I'll keep watch here, go and get Manfred."

As Alex moved away swiftly in the direction of Manfred's tent, another match flared and Gerry strained hard to recognise the silhouette on the tent wall but the match burned out and he heard the man inside the tent swearing.

He knew then that it was Rudy.

A minute later Manfred settled in alongside Gerry, "Who is it?"

"I heard him swear and it sounded like Rudy."

The flap on Chris's tent came open and Rudy emerged his arms full of equipment. Manfred stood erect.

"Put the equipment on the ground, you traitorous bastard," Manfred yelled.

Rudy, his pistol obscured by the equipment that he was carrying pulled the trigger in a frightened reflex.

Gerry acted quickly but not wanting to kill he shot Rudy in the left leg, the impact of the bullet driving Rudy backwards, he fell heavily, the equipment flying from his arms.

Manfred was quickly on Rudy his boot holding his right wrist on the ground while he bent and snatched the pistol from his hand.

Alarmed from the sound of the gunshot, men swarmed from the tents going to their rehearsed emergency positions. The men ready for instant action, their rifles and pistols pointing. The lookouts at the perimeter, closing slowly back to the center of the camp.

"Get someone to look after Chris and get me some rope to tie this bastard up," Manfred yelled.

Two men tied Rudy up and others retrieved the electron tubes, the Morse key and other spare parts that were scattered around him. When Rudy was securely trussed up Manfred knelt by Chris who was starting to regain consciousness.

"Help me get him into the tent and on his bed," Manfred said.

When Manfred lit the lantern he could see that Chris was almost fully conscious.

"Chris, how are you feeling?"

"I've got a sore head and I'm dizzy that's how I feel. Who hit me?"

"Rudy Schmidt, one of Johan's men. He was in here trying to sabotage the equipment."

"Get the lookouts back to the perimeter, I don't want us overrun if he alerted anyone to our location."

Manfred left and organised the guards, when he returned Chris was agitated, unsettled.

"Manfred I want you to delay your run to Meersburg, our security has been breached and you could be in danger. I'm going to move camp, this location isn't safe anymore."

"How can I help," Manfred asked.

"My men can have us ready to move in an hour, you could take some small things with you in your car. We're only going 10 kilometres."

Chris was on his feet organising the move; his head hurt and the dizziness forced him to sit down until it passed. But finally they were ready to move in the darkness before dawn.

Manfred went looking for Johan and found him sitting with his hands propping his head up.

"Don't be too upset you can't know who will turn on you like Rudy just did," Manfred said.

"You know Manfred, things are a little clearer now. I can see how the Gestapo knew so much about me thanks to Rudy. I'm sure that he made things worse."

"We're going to stay at the new camp for another day or two, we'll have two men concealed here. They'll report back to us if anyone comes nosing around and this will tell us if he was able to transmit your location to others. We're not going to use our transmitter for two days to ensure that we don't give our new location away," Manfred said reassuring Johan.

"I understand and I have a lot to thank you for Manfred."

"You'll be riding with Alex to the new camp, it isn't far away."

Chris tapped Manfred on the shoulder.

"I'll ride with you Manfred and give you directions. When we have the camp up again you can give me a hand while we loosen the tongue of that bastard."

"Have you seen Gerry," Manfred asked.

"Yes he's standing over Rudy, pistol at the ready and I think Alex was with him. You had better tell him to relax he's probably on fire after the shooting," Chris said.

"Yes he'll probably have the jitters for a few days, it's all part of his development but he's a quick learner and the right man to support me."

When Manfred found Gerry standing over Rudy he asked him for the pistol.

"Why, I'm not about to shoot anybody else."

"I know that. I want to put it back in the car."

Manfred put his arm around Gerry's shoulder and steered him away from Alex and Rudy.

"I just wanted to thank you for your quick thinking, you probably saved me from being shot."

"I did what I had to do. That's all. I knew in a flash that I didn't want to kill him because he was worth more alive. It surprised me that I thought about that in the split second before I fired at him."

"You did well my friend," Manfred squeezed his shoulders.

It was as much as he would say but for Gerry it was a compliment that he knew Manfred did not give freely.

"Let's have a look at Rudy, I don't want him dying before we get some information out of him."

Manfred took his knife and kneeling he worked it through Rudy's trouser leg and split it up to his groin. There was a copious amount of blood but he ignored it and twisting Rudy's leg he determined that the femur was intact but the blood loss meant that an artery had been ruptured. When Manfred was finished with his examination two of Chris's men rolled him onto a makeshift stretcher, Rudy moaned loudly and yelled abuse at them. They picked him up and set off for the perimeter of the camp.

"Let's find Chris, he's riding with us to show us the way."

The new camp was erected and perimeter guards were in place when Chris called Manfred.

"I want to question Rudy, I want you with me. I've got a man guarding him well away from the camp. I don't think that you should bring Gerry with you because it could get a little ugly."

"I think that you should proceed slowly, he's lost a lot of blood, he's in shock and it wouldn't take much to kill him. He may not know it but he's going to die anyway. We just don't have the skills to keep him alive."

"I'll be careful but he's going to talk."

Men in the camp knew what Chris and Manfred would be doing and a sombre calm settled over them.

Gerry sat on a fallen tree and stared at the ground, he thought that the horrors of life in the concentration camp were behind him but now he was reliving the bombing of Rotterdam, the burnt bodies, the beatings and the diseased dead bodies in the concentration camp. The images were back in the front of his mind, he tried to push them away by thinking of his time with Lien but he found it hard to recall her face or the sound of her voice. He leaned on his elbow and put his hand across his forehead and shielding his eyes from the others sitting nearby, he cried silently.

Alex made a move towards him but Johan grabbed her arm and held her back.

"He needs to be alone," he said softly.

Gerry heard a scream from far away in the forest and he looked up and saw Alex coming to sit with him.

Alex put her arm across his shoulders, Richard had told her about his life before he had rescued him but she couldn't think of any words to console him.

Manfred and Chris returned and Chris directed two of his men to go and bury Rudy then he went directly to his tent to repair his communications equipment.

Manfred sat at the far end of the log and waved Alex to join him.

"Let him be Alex. He's strong; he'll be okay," Manfred whispered.

Alex went to where four men were cutting bread and took bread, cheese and sausage. When she returned Gerry had left.

Gerry walked through the forest, he frightened one of the guards when he stumbled on a tree root and found himself looking at the barrel of a rifle.

"Having a hard time Gerry," he asked.

"No I'll be all right. I just need to straighten myself out."

He stayed with the guard into the afternoon talking infrequently with him until finally he stood up, "I guess I had better get back to the others."

He walked back into the camp, his morbid thoughts fading, he felt more in control of his emotions; he sat on the log and ate the food that Alex had kept for him.

When he had finished eating he sat next to Alex.

"You have your own pistol Alex."

"Yes, Richard gave it to me and asked me to carry it at all times telling me that if my life was threatened I was to shoot to kill. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet until last night and I was glad that you acted so quickly. I've never shot anyone and... anyway let's drop it, it's something that I think about constantly."

When Manfred walked past, Alex departed to assist with the food preparation, and Gerry asked, "Did you find what you wanted from Rudy?"

"No, I think that finally he knew he was going to die. We couldn't get him to talk. The thing that puzzles me is how he hid the pistol that he fired at me."

"It would have been easy back at the house. You know, I don't think that he had a chance to use the transmitter though."

"We'll see. You might be right."

"I think that he was trying to disable the transmitter. He may have planned to sabotage us further along in our journey."

"I had the same thoughts and that worries me even more."

"I can't understand why he was so stupid. He attacked Chris and he must have realised that this would draw attention and put everybody on guard," Gerry said.

"That's true but it wouldn't draw attention to him. Would it?"

"Another thing that I don't understand is that he knew that we were not yet certain of our final plans to cross the border. So how could he plan anything to upset Johan's escape?"

"Keep thinking Gerry because I'm having the same thoughts. I've also thought that he may not have been working on his own, there may be another bad apple in the barrel. One thing is certain I will not be telling any of Johan's men what we are doing from now on. I'll keep Johan informed but I'll tell him what we are thinking and swear him to secrecy. If there is someone else in the camp that was working with Rudy we need to be more careful about our own safety. Let's find Alex and see what she thinks."

They found Alex with three men who were preparing food for the evening meal. She passed a bowl of plain cold food to Gerry and Manfred and carrying a bowl for herself; they walked away and found a place for them to sit alone.

"Gerry and I have been discussing a few ideas, one of them is, what if Rudy wasn't acting alone? This may mean that there is another man in Johan's party and if this is so then his presence represents great danger to us and Johan."

"I understand but what should we do," Alex asked.

"I'm going to ask Chris for a tent large enough to house us together and then I'm going to get Johan to call his men together and tell them what we suspect; and then I'm going to have a close inspection of each man and his belongings."

"What? Warn the other man, if he exists, that we are on to him? Doesn't make sense to me," Alex said.

"Look at it this way. This will make the rest of Johan's men more alert to any hostile or suspicious activities within their ranks. I won't tell them what to look for I'll just leave it for them to figure it out," Manfred said.

"I think that we should discuss this with Johan," Manfred said, "would you go and get him Gerry."

When Gerry went looking for Johan, Alex said, "Gerry's resilient isn't he. No one could tell that he shot a man today. He must be a hard person inside yet I know just how gentle he can be."

"From personal experience Alex?"

"Yes from personal experience!"

Alex looked away trying to hide her flushed face but Manfred just smiled knowing that some day she might be his mother-in-law and it wouldn't be smart to embarrass her too much.

When Johan joined them Manfred outlined his thoughts.

"Nothing surprises me any more, I'll cooperate with you, I think it's a good idea," Johan said.

Chris had only one-man tents and Johan's remaining men were housed in these and the large tent was given to Manfred for his use and to house Johan, Alex and Gerry.

The following two days of inactivity had a negative impact on the morale of the camp, tempers were short, the boredom foreign to Chris's men of action and danger.

Toward the end of the second day Chris sent two of his men to collect the men he had left behind, "I want to know if any visitors have dropped by," he said smiling as the two men departed.

When they returned Chris wasn't surprised that they had nothing to report.

In the night hours he started transmissions to his contacts. Manfred asked him to send a short message to Anna advising her that all were safe. He knew that she would be overjoyed to receive the message.

Manfred sitting in his tent, the lantern light shielded, "Johan, tomorrow we will be leaving for Meersburg, Gerry will come with us. I don't want you to tell the men where you're going. Pieter and Ludovic will remain here. I want to see you safely in Kruezlingen and then I will return here. You should remain in Kruezlingen until all your men join you."

"How long will it take to move all of my men," Johan asked.

"Alex will take three men the following day and hand them over to our people in Meersburg. The following day I will take the remaining men and Gerry will remain here."

"So three days and we'll be on our way to Zurich."

"I think so. Tomorrow I want to leave early about seven," Manfred said.

Manfred left the tent and went to see Chris in his tent. He waited while Chris finished a transmission.

"I'm leaving early tomorrow, I have to detour to Reutlingen and see Ernst then after we cross the Danube we continue south to Meersburg, we don't enter the city but turn east. How far do we travel before we stop," Manfred asked.

"The scenery changes from open to heavily forested countryside. Just wait in your car..."

"I don't like that idea at all, it's too dangerous. How do I know if I have the right contact? Here's what I want. I want a secure place to stop and I want the name of the contact person."

"I don't have what you want. These arrangements have worked fine in the past and there's no reason to think otherwise now."

"You listen to me Chris, in the past you were not escorting someone as important as Johan. I'm not going to leave myself open to allow Richard Farber to kick my arse shut. Get in touch with Meersburg organise a secure place to stop and get me a contact name or I won't move Johan until you do."

"Manfred what's wrong with you? Someone pour vinegar up your arse."

"I'm getting jumpy, this whole operation is not going as well as it should and I'm certain that if you were in my place you'd feel the same way. I'm sorry if I'm over the top but that's how it is," Manfred said.

"Ok, I'll try and get what you want, give me an hour or so."

"Just remember Chris I want to leave at seven."

An hour later Manfred was summoned back to Chris's tent where he was given the information that he wanted.