Partisan

by Christopher Nicole

  Bernhard looked at her. ‘I am going to make you scream,’ he said.

  ‘In hell,’ Sandrine told him, and brought up her tommy-gun, which he had not previously noticed in the gloom.

  Bernhard squeezed his trigger, but Elena threw herself forward in front of her friend, giving a gasp as the bullet struck her. Then Sandrine was firing past her and over her as she fell. Her bullets seared into Bernhard’s body, and then into the men behind him. Tony got his gun up and resumed firing, and now they were joined by Svetovar, who had returned to see what had happened to them.

  ‘The road is clear,’ Svetovar said.

  ‘Elena!’ Sandrine cried.

  They both knelt beside her.

  ‘Shit!’ Sandrine commented.

  Tony pushed himself up and crawled to where Elena lay. Her eyes were shut, but now they opened; even in the darkness he could make out the huge red stain on her chest.

  ‘Get out,’ she whispered. ‘Get out.’

  ‘We will take you with us,’ Sandrine said.

  ‘I’m dying,’ Elena said. ‘Get out.’

  ‘You saved my life,’ Sandrine told her.

  ‘So what’s new?’ Elena asked. ‘Listen, take care of Tony.’ Her eyes flopped shut again.

  Tears streamed down Sandrine’s face, and she lowered her head to kiss Elena on the forehead.

  Tony could do nothing but bite his lip against the pain in his leg.

  ‘She’s right,’ Svetovar said. ‘We should go while we can.’

  ‘You’d better leave me too,’ Tony said.

  ‘Leave you?’ Sandrine asked. ‘You are mine. We go together or we stay together.’ She put her arm round him to help him to his good leg.

  At that moment Bernhard tried to sit up. His tunic was a tattered, blood-stained mess, but he still held his pistol. ‘Whore!’ he muttered, and levelled the gun.

  ‘Bastard!’ Sandrine replied, and shot him in the groin. And again.

  *

  ‘I thought we had lost you,’ Tito said, sitting beside Tony, who lay in an improvised stretcher put together by his men.

  ‘We were delayed,’ Tony said. ‘But you . . . the assault?’ A large number of their men had made the assembly point, and were grouped around.

  ‘It was a triumph,’ Tito said. ‘Heavier than we expected, certainly, but the better for that. The railway line was destroyed, several engines wrecked, both the Gestapo and the Ustase headquarters burned, the army headquarters damaged, and at least a hundred of the enemy dead. We lost twenty men.’

  ‘And one woman,’ Sandrine said.

  Tito looked across the stretcher at her. ‘I am sorry about that. But she died well, I understand.’

  ‘She died saving my life.’

  He nodded. ‘She will be remembered. And she took part in a great and glorious operation, one which will resound our fame around the world.’ He grinned. ‘And it is one in the eye for Mihailovic, eh? Now, we must move out, into the mountains. The Germans are temporarily stunned, but they will recover quickly, and seek vengeance. I’m afraid we have an arduous time ahead of us, Captain Davis. But we will take you to safety.’

  ‘I will care for him,’ Sandrine said.

  Tito looked at her again. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I believe you will. And when we get to a safe position . . . Why, do you know, Captain, we have been in touch with Alexandria, and they are prepared to send a light aircraft to take you out.’

  Tony gazed at him for a moment, and then looked at Sandrine.

  Sandrine licked her lips.

  ‘Will you tell me something, Colonel?’ Tony asked.

  ‘If I can.’

  ‘Am I going to recover from this wound?’

  ‘Oh, yes. Now that our surgeon has got the bullet out, he says you will make a full recovery.’

  ‘Then, with your permission, sir, I would like to stay and fight with you. If you will have me. I can be your liaison officer with the British, as you wanted.’

  ‘If I will have you? There is no one I would rather have. But . . . this war is only just beginning. And we have had it relatively easy here. The time ahead is going to be very rough. You must be sure you wish to stay.’

  ‘I am sure, Colonel.’

  ‘Well . . .’ Tito looked at Sandrine.

  ‘I am to look after him,’ Sandrine said.

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