Wolf's Lair by Roger Elwood

Author:Roger Elwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2010-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

11

YOU THREE look like you’ve been traveling with the damned!” Katrina exclaimed as the bedraggled trio walked unsteadily to her front door.

“In some respects we have,” Gabcik remarked wearily.

“Jan!” she went on, settling her attention on Kubis, who had been blessed or cursed with a baby-faced look that made him seem then like a hapless child who had tangled with the worst town bully imaginable and sported the most awful cuts and bruises as a result. “What can I do to help? Please tell me!”

“A hot bath for each of us and a stiff shot of the strongest medicine you can find,” he told her, followed by a forced chuckle.

Later, after baths and a relaxing tea she had concocted herself, they sat on stiff oak chairs in Katrina Hrdlicka’s small dining room as she served them a full meal including steaming, butter-covered cornbread muffins and hot soup made from vegetables she herself had grown, along with ground-lamb patties that tasted like filet mignon to her hungry guests.

Gabcik told her what had happened.

“Mother of God!” she blurted, then blushed. “Sorry . . . You all are blessed. You’re here, alive, stomachs full. How wonderful our Lord is!”

“But I wonder how we will feel a week from now,” remarked Kubis.

“A week?” Katrina repeated, confused, with hands on her quite ample hips. “What is happening—?”

She saw the dour expression on their faces.

“Mother of—!” she started to say again but caught herself this time.

During the frantic ride back to Lidice, they decided they would have to strike at Reinhard Heydrich within the next week or risk another incident like the one they had just undergone.

“Every additional day brings with it the potential for unforeseen disaster,” Gabcik observed.

At first Kubis had been rather quiet, his small frame curled up almost in a fetal position in the backseat of the jeep. With that remark, he had become more alert, his eyes flashing with emotion.

“And another day of life for the people of Lidice,” he said. “But then that shouldn’t matter to the Allies, should it? This atrocity becomes part of a propaganda trap for the Nazis. Think of it! A few words for world opinion in exchange for hundreds of lives! What a deal that is, wouldn’t you say?”

Bartlett and Gabcik didn’t react against his bitterness, for they shared it themselves. But they also realized another truth.

“Martyrs,” Gabcik remarked. “Yes, I know, it is hellish when this happens. But in war—”

“Shove that rationalization crap,” Kubis interrupted. “Martyrs are people who choose to be martyrs. They willingly throw down their lives for a cause. But who’s giving the citizens of Lidice such a choice?

“I don’t think any of the victims know what is about to happen. They see a few more SS troopers arriving daily and they suspect something is in the air but they have no idea what it’s all about.”

Bartlett reached over the front seat and tried to lay his hand on Kubis’s shoulder, but Kubis brushed it aside.

“Nothing will help now!” he shouted. “I drank ale with men who will be six feet under after Heydrich has been killed by us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.