Act of Malice by Ed Bowie

Author:Ed Bowie [Bowie, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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35

Geneviève opened her eyes. Everything around her was gloomy and hazy. A dark shape loomed off to her right. She blinked repeatedly as she struggled to focus on it.

‘Colonel Wolfe — is that you?’

‘Yes, it’s me,’ he said, wringing out a cloth and gently placing it on her forehead. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Alright … I think. What happened?’

‘The gendarmes had scattered nails in front of their barricade. They blew both our front tyres. We nearly ended up in the Seine…’

‘My God…!’ She sat up with a start, clutching the cloth to her forehead. ‘The rifles!’

‘All safely delivered, every gun, every last round of ammunition.’

‘That’s good… What about Lucien?’

‘No-one knows. He didn’t come over the barricade and the gendarmes who recovered the rifles said there was no-one left in the truck. I can only assume he went into the river.’

‘Oh, I hope he is alright…’

She screwed up her eyes and peered hard at him. ‘Your hands — they’re all bandaged. What happened to them?’

Guy shrugged, dismissively. ‘Just a few cuts. Nothing much.’

‘Where are my glasses?’ she said, looking around and feeling in her pockets. ‘I really can’t see anything.’

‘Lost, I’m afraid. Must have fallen off when we crashed. You didn’t have them when we got you over the barricade — and the truck caught fire after that, so…’

‘Never mind. I have a spare pair in my desk… Oh — damn!’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘We’re in the Préfecture — yes?’

‘That’s right. In the cells. They’re treating the wounded down here.’

‘And we’re still under siege?’

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘Then I will have to get used to being blind until we are liberated.’ She struggled to her feet. ‘Can we please go somewhere where it is light? Bad enough to be short-sighted — but to be short-sighted in the darkness is truly miserable…’

‘Here, take my arm.’ He led her out of the cell, through a maze of twisting passageways and up into the evening half-light of the central courtyard.

Outside, her feet crunched on broken glass. ‘What’s this?’ she asked, startled. ‘What’s happened?’

‘Ah, yes. Well, it seems while we were out the Germans brought up a couple of tanks and started firing on the building. One shot knocked the gate out — which they’re repairing right now. Anyway, the gendarmes started lobbing Frédéric’s bombs at them. One hit a tank and it went up like a torch, apparently. Outside everything’s just a mass of burned-out German vehicles.’

‘Oh, I wish I had my glasses — I’d like to see that,’ she said, defiantly.

‘Well you can.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Henri’s truce. It started at sunset and it seems to be holding. So, if you want we can toddle over to the college and pick up your glasses.’

She stared at him in amazement.

‘What — just like that?’

‘I suppose so. But I wouldn’t advise going out the front — I imagine Jerry would probably pick us up straight away. But if we take a more circumspect route…’

‘Yes…’ she said, thoughtfully. ‘I know it seems ridiculous — but if this truly is the Libération, I think I’d like to see it properly.

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