War School by Julian Manieson

Author:Julian Manieson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: World War II thriller;Jewish hero and heroine;school for Nazi warriors;Nazis;love story
Publisher: The Conrad Press
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

16

Krutoye

Monday December 1, 1941

Oliver held the map and Andrea led them towards the town of Krutoye. Hugo thought she’d recovered well and was behaving as authoritatively as she could to make up for her inaction on the plane. Jens kept falling behind, and so Lottie had taken to walking behind him and encouraging him along. Hugo found himself in the middle of the line, listening to the arguments over directions between Andrea and Oliver in front, and trying to ignore what Jens and Lottie were saying behind him.

Almost two hours of hard walking in the bitter cold brought them to Krutoye, a distinctly quiet town that promised nothing at all in the dark of the Russian winter. They stopped in the deserted centre of the town and wondered what to do. Hugo glanced at his watch; it was almost a quarter past eight in the evening. Not surprisingly, there were no shops open. There was a café nearby but it was shut. Oliver suggested they try to find somewhere to stay. But a moment later Lottie clamped a hand over Oliver’s mouth and pointed down the street. A man was approaching them, and he was getting close to being within earshot.

‘Don’t speak any German from now on,’ Lottie said in a loud whisper, ‘let Hugo and me do the talking.’ Oliver, Andrea and Jens nodded.

The man took about half a minute to reach them.

‘What are you doing out here?’ he asked.

‘We’re hiking to Astapova,’ Hugo replied warily, ‘and we were hoping to buy...’ he’d forgotten the Russian word for provisions, but Lottie interjected before his silence went on too long.

‘Provisions and a couple of tents,’ she said smoothly. ‘It’s taken us longer to get here than we expected, and everything’s shut now.’

The man looked at each of them oddly.

‘Yes, well, everything is shut,’ the man said. ‘You look a little young to be making such a long journey by yourselves. Where are you from?’

Neither Hugo nor Lottie had an answer to that, as after all they’d arrived unexpectedly near Krutoye after the crash. Hugo tried not to show his relief when Oliver spoke.

‘We’re from Linvy,’ Oliver said. Hugo had no idea where that was, but he trusted Oliver to pick somewhere reasonable. Somewhere far enough that the man probably wouldn’t know many people from there, but not so far that making the journey to Krutoye in a day was unreasonable.

‘Our parents signed us up for a camp in Astapova, and they thought it would be good for us to come together,’ Lottie added. Realisation dawned on the man’s face.

‘Ah. YPSOU?’ he asked them. ‘I don’t look it, but I was a Young Pioneer once. That was ten long years ago though.’ Hugo realised the man couldn’t be older than thirty, but he looked like he was pushing fifty, with deep lines across his forehead and a hungry look about him. He seemed nice enough though, and they allowed him a moment of reflection before reminding him they were there.

‘Um, excuse me,’ Lottie said.

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