The Spy with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

Author:Katherine Locke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Published: 2018-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

SOMEWHERE ON THE BORDER OF FRANCE AND GERMANY

SEPTEMBER 28, 1943

WOLF

Fingers dug into my shoulder, and I woke with a grunt to feel a soft, small hand covering my mouth. My surroundings slid into focus, Lily’s face close to mine, her pupils wide, her breath quick. She slowly let go of my mouth and then held up two fingers, pointing toward the road.

They’d found us.

She pointed east, into the woods and toward the hills, and I nodded. In the distance, I could hear German voices. Indistinct, but loud enough to make out words. Next to me, Max was a warm, heavy weight. I shifted him as Lily shouldered her pack and then grabbed mine from where I’d used it as a brace for Max. Max started to groan, and I clapped a hand over his mouth as Lily had done for me.

A pause in the German voices, then they picked up again. Through the trees, flashlights bobbed. The sound of bayonets sliding onto the ends of rifles.

Silence. We just needed a few moments of silence.

My heart battered my ribs, and I had to concentrate on making my breathing slow and steady. Don’t panic. Focus. Max woke slowly, his motions fumbling and imprecise. His eyes didn’t seem to focus, but that might have been the lighting. That was what I told myself anyway. I grasped him beneath the elbows and lifted him to his feet. He slumped forward against me, shuffling his feet. Branches snapped.

A low whistle came from behind us, the Germans signaling to move in our directions.

Lily hissed, “Go!”

I hoisted Max’s arm around my shoulder. “Max. Pick up your feet.”

My voice was hoarse from dropping that low, but he seemed to hear me and try, even if he wasn’t very successful. We moved through the woods, ducking behind trees, following Lily as she moved swiftly, nimbly like a deer or a wood nymph. She acted like she’d been running in these woods her whole life—and carrying both our packs too. I couldn’t keep up with her, not while holding Max, but I tried.

She yanked me down onto a low slope beside some trees and rocks in the foothills. “Hide him.”

I lowered Max to the ground. He struggled, trying to get up, and I shoved him down by his shoulders. “Stop. Listen to me.”

He made an unintelligible growl that sounded like a curse. I tried not to smile. Nazis were pursuing us, we didn’t know where we are, and he could still make me smile. I pressed him back against the hill. “I’m going to put leaves and branches on you. Don’t move. Max, they’ll kill you. Don’t move.”

The voices picked up again. They were gaining on us. Lily lay on her stomach, gun in her hand, watching, waiting, while I quickly and quietly covered Max. He couldn’t walk, much less fire a gun. I took his from his jacket holster and crawled over to where Lily was lying. I pushed the second gun at her. She was the better shot.

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