‘Ah! … ’ Audley managed something between a wave and a clenched fist gesture, which he rendered even more equivocal by ending up scratching the back of his neck ‘ … well, they’re not exactly … prisoners, Mr Levin. But never mind … ’ he trailed off humbly.
‘As you wish, Mr Audley—sar!’ The RSM pronounced the words like a formula dissolving all but the inescapable links between himself and the author of that parody-of-a-salute. ‘If-you-will-permit-me-to-return-to-my-duties-then—sar!’
‘Why … yes, of course, Mr Levin. Do carry on, please.’
‘Sar!’ The RSM swept past them down the track. And as sure as God made little apples he would see where the Mendip corporal had pissed on the rear wheel of that lorry, thought Fred. So there were two stripes gone for a Burton.
‘Well … that was Mr Levin!’ murmured Audley, to no one in particular. ‘We just don’t seem to hit it off … I had a much better relationship with my old troop sar-major in the Wesdragons. But, of course, Mr Levin was a peace-time soldier before the war … and my old sar-major ran our local garage at Steeple Horley.’ He shook his head sadly, as though in another world. ‘But he’s dead, of course … and now he’s really dead.’ He stared at Fred suddenly. ‘Funny to think of that—isn’t it? Becoming really dead?’
The question caught Fred by surprise. ‘What d’you mean?’
‘He means … now that your war is nearly finished, then the dead can become properly dead,’ snapped Kyriakos harshly. ‘And the survivors can become properly alive at last.’
Fred was shocked by the Greek’s intensity. ‘Our … war?’
Kyriakos nodded at Audley. ‘Your war is almost finished—no Germans here—not in Greece any more. And now, if the truce holds … if you are both lucky, then your war is finished. So you will go home—’ He switched to Fred ‘—to your merchant banking—’ Back to Audley again ‘—and you to … Cambridge, was it? Girls in punts, and the odd lecture?’ He showed his teeth in a wolfish grin. ‘I was up at Cambridge in ’39. My father called me home in October—we thought it was just your war.‘ The grin became unnaturally fixed. ’We thought the Balkan Mercantile Bank and the Aegean Mutual Trust stood to make a lot of money out of you British, one way or another. And now my father is dead, and my two brothers are dead … But my war is not finished—perhaps it is only just beginning. So that makes a difference—yes?‘
‘Yes.’ Audley nodded stupidly, like a ventriloquist’s dummy. ‘You’ve b-b-b … bloody got it: they’re not d-d-dead yet, quite? Because you can still join them—right?’ He stopped nodding. ‘You’re the first one I’ve met who knows what I’m talking about—would you believe that?’ Fred felt anger stir, beyond shock and unreality and incomprehension, as they both blocked him out with their private joke, which was no joke at all. But pride refused to let him show how he felt: they each understood too well what the other was saying for him to admit that he didn’t measure up to their insight, whatever it was they shared. So he couldn’t say anything.
The Balkan Mutual Trust?‘ Audley found another joke. ’I w-wouldn’t have thought that there was m-much m-mutual … trust … anywhere in the b-b-bloody Balkans?‘
Kyriakos raised his chin arrogantly. ‘Aegean Mutual Trust—Balkan Mercantile Bank, Mr Audley,—sar!’ He grinned at Audley, under the arrogance. ‘How about letting us both return-to-our-duties, eh? Like … you could talk a jeep out of your adjutant, to take us to Itea, maybe?’ He carefully didn’t look at Fred. ‘How about that, then?’
Audley looked at Fred, nevertheless. ‘You know each other because your families are both in merchant banking—? The Fattorini Brothers—the Mutually Trusting Balkans? But how did you both end up … back there, on the path—“lurking”, was it?’
Kyriakos tossed his head. ‘As you said—“Fattorini” isn’t a common name in the British Army.’ He gave Fred a quick glance. ‘I was with the Canadians last year, and we were stalled on this river, over which your engineers were throwing this Bailey bridge. And I heard someone shout for “Captain Fattorini” … and my family’s bank has acted for the Fattorini bank in Greece ever since the First World War.’
Fred nodded. ‘That’s right—ever since his father met my uncle—Uncle Luke—in Salonika, in the Military Hospital, in 1918. They were two young bankers in adjoining beds, each with Bulgarian bullets in them. So they exchanged addresses.’
‘And then they did business. Out of which came the first Aegean Mutual Trust.’ The Greek took his cue. ‘And last year I saw this appalling mud-covered apparition. But I thought … “Fattorini” isn’t a common name in the British Army. So I gave it an address in Athens, where I intended to be.’
‘Coincidence,’ agreed Fred. ‘Just like you swanning up in your jeep back there, Dave Audley—and thinking that “Fattorini” isn’t a common name in the British Army. So when I finally reached Athens—’
‘Okay! Okay!’ Audley surrendered. That’ll do fine. In fact, it couldn’t be better … And I’ll get you transport—Itea, was it?‘
The youth’s sudden confidence pricked Fred’s curiosity. ‘What’s so fine about it?’
‘Oh … it was fine all along, actually.’ Audley grinned disarmingly.
‘It was?’ Fred’s curiosity overweighed his irritation.
‘Why?’
The Brigadier will like you, even if my Colonel doesn’t.‘ The grin twisted. The Brigadier may not go much on coincidences, but he does love rich men. And bankers—merchant bankers … one merchant banker—good … two merchant bankers—you’ll brighten up a bad day for him, I shouldn’t wonder, by golly!’ He pointed through the trees. ‘Come on! You’re just what I need!’ He stepped out ahead of them. ‘Two bloody bankers—!’ Kyriakos raised his shoulders eloquently, and rolled his eyes at Fred. But then he moved quickly after Audley. ‘But why—why does he like rich men?’
Fred accelerated after them. Five wasted years—three of boredom, one-and-a-half of discomfort and terror, plus an aggregation of odd months of other experiences, including disillusion and, during the last hour, more terror—those years ought to have inured him to anything the army could imagine for his further education. But Lieutenant Audley and his Brigadier were something beyond the ordinary lunacies.
‘Rich—men.’ panted Kyriakos, in Audley’s wake. Through the last scatter of trees Fred saw the ruins more clearly, and remembered what Kyriakos had said a lifetime earlier: this was the little monastery the Turks had smashed up, presumably in revenge for Markos Botsaris’ escape up that cliff just behind it. ‘Bankers—?’ Kyriakos tried again, breathlessly. This was the sharp end of the operation, the sounds of which they had heard on the other side of that cliff, Fred saw at a glance. Not only were the soldiers here alert, and very different from the smokers and pissers down below, but there was a line of groundsheeted corpses, with their protruding feet indicating their origin: three good pairs of army-issue boots, and then a dozen anonymous pairs, scuffed and pathetic—no … there were two feet at the end, encased in jack-boots, or something like—
‘Bankers?’ Audley finally registered the question, but then dismissed it as a figure ducked out from a narrow monastic doorway. ‘Amos! Is the Brigadier in there?’
‘He is, dear boy.’ The figure straightened up, and became a captain in a Very Famous Regiment who gazed past Audley at Fred and Kyriakos with mild astonishment. ‘Are these your prisoners? But, dear boy, they can’t be—they positively can’t be!’ The gaze, with one eyebrow delicately raised, flicked from Fred to Kyriakos, finally coming back to Fred. ‘He’s expecting a couple of desperadoes … But you’ve got a Sapper there … and I know that Sappers are notoriously eccentric … But this is preposterous—quite preposterous!’ He returned to Audley, shaking his head. ‘He’s not at all pleased, I warn you, David, dear boy. I should run away if I were you—that’s what I’d do.’ His voice was quite conversational as he returned to Fred. ‘I admit that you look like one of ours … But are you?’
Before Fred could answe
r, or even open his mouth, Audley jumped in. ‘Of course he is! And you’re quite wrong, Amos: I’m just about to become quite p-p-p-pop-pop-pop —’
‘Pop-popular?’ The man’s eyes didn’t leave Fred. ‘I doubt it very much. But who am I to keep you from a posting to Burma?’ The eyes pinned Fred for another second, and then the languid captain smiled ruefully.
‘It is evident that Mr Audley is not going to introduce us, captain. So … I am Amos de Souza, formerly of the Guards but now fallen upon hard times. But nonetheless at your service, captain.’
The man’s smile was as infectious as his good manners were comforting after the horrors of the last hour. ‘Fattorini—Brigade RE, Captain de Souza. Also fallen on hard times, apparently.’ He grinned at de Souza. ‘I wish I knew what was going on. Perhaps you can enlighten me?’
‘My dear fellow—I wish I could!’ The rueful smile twisted. Then de Souza frowned slightly and cocked his head. ‘Fattorini … not the banking Fattorinis, by any chance?’
Fred felt that he ought to be able to place the Guards de Souza, who had plainly been as anglicized over so many generations as the banking Fattorinis, and with blood that was even more blue. But to his shame he couldn’t. ‘Yes, Captain de Souza.’
‘Ah!’ Captain de Souza didn’t bother to explain his own secret. Instead he switched to Kyriakos. ‘And this gentleman?’
‘Michaelides—Captain.’ Kyriakos stopped there.
‘Yes?’ De Souza waited until he was sure nothing more was coming. ‘Regular Greek Army? Or National Guard?’ Suddenly Fred was aware of the seconds ticking away, as the Greek failed to rise to what was clearly intended as a provocation. Somewhere nearby Lieutenant Audley’s Brigadier must be fuming. And down the rocky path the RSM would be approaching those lorries and the slovenly Mendips like the wrath of God. And, without looking up, he knew those bloody birds would still be circling, waiting in vain for the meal under those groundsheets which would now be denied them.
‘Neither, actually, old boy.’ Kyriakos drawled, packing all his years of British education into his accent. ‘Banking too, actually.’
‘Ah!’ Captain de Souza permitted himself a well-bred snigger. ‘Now I understand!’ He wagged a finger at Audley. ‘What a sly fellow you are—bagging a brace of bankers for the Brigadier! I really must stop underestimating you, David: you have the precious gift of luck which Napoloen Bonaparte admired so much, in preference to vulgar cleverness.’ He jerked his head towards the little arched doorway. ‘Go on, dear boy—go and take your gifts to him without delay. If you cheer him up we shall all be better off—go on!’ He turned from Audley, favouring Fred and Kyriakos with the slightest of bows as he began moving towards the bodies. ‘And leave me to my ghoulish tasks … gentlemen, I confide that we may meet again in happier circumstances … ’
Fred was torn between following de Souza and watching Audley bend almost double to enter the ruins. But then he remembered Kyriakos.
‘Are they all m—?’ He bit off the word as the Greek shook his head, and followed the direction of his friend’s gaze instead.
Captain de Souza had thrown back the groundsheet from the body with the jackboots and was stripping it methodically.
‘Mad?’ he whispered.
‘No!’ Kyriakos whispered back without looking at him. ‘Not mad.’
The languid captain from the Very Famous Regiment was examining the corpse’s jacket with all the distaste of a man who knew from bitter experience that all andartes were flee-ridden and lousy. But his examination was nonetheless careful, pocket by pocket, seam by seam.
‘Not mad?’ He watched de Souza cast the jacket aside, and apply himself to one of the boots.
‘No!’ Kyriakos repeated the word out of the side of his mouth as de Souza unwound a piece of rag and then let the foot fall back to earth while he felt inside the boot.
Yuk—urch! Fred imagined the sweaty-clamminess of the inside of that boot. ‘What’s he doing?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ murmured Kyriakos, almost contemptuously.
Captain de Souza added the boot to the jacket and pulled at the second boot, and went through the same process, letting the second dirty white foot fall back, jarring the corpse with a false shudder of life.
‘Good boots, those.’ The Greek turned to Fred suddenly. ‘Do you remember where we last saw boots like that? And a rag instead of socks?’
‘No.’ He watched the careful examination of the second boot before it joined its comrade. But as the slender, fastidious fingers began to unbutton the corpse’s fly-buttons he decided that he had had enough of de Souza’s duty, and could more usefully pick over the contents of Kyriakos’s brains. And that concentrated his memory. ‘Yes. That Russian officer—the liaison fellow we had to put to bed—?’
That’s right.‘ Kyriakos returned his attention to the corpse-stripping as he replied. ’So … now you know, eh?‘ Something almost approaching a smile, albeit a terrible one, lifted half the Greek’s mouth, under his moustache. ’It’s actually very comforting, old boy.‘
‘Comforting—?’ Against his will and better judgement, Fred’s attention was drawn back to de Souza’s duty. And, although he instantly regretted the impulse, he was hypnotically held by the image which comforted Kyriakos, of Captain de Souza emptying the trouser pockets first—scrutinizing their pathetic contents, and then throwing them on the already checked pile … clasp-knife, coins, filthy handkerchief—and then ripping at the lining savagely. That was a skill his Guards regiment had never taught him, and those hairy white legs, and the raised shirt above them exposing the dark bush of pubic hair and genitals, had never been included in his Army Training Instructions. ‘Comforting?’
‘Uh-huh.’ Kyriakos was hardly listening to him: his fascination was absolute as the trousers joined the pile. Instead he murmured something in Greek, which Fred wouldn’t have understood even if he heard it.
‘What’s that—?’ He couldn’t not look now, even if he hadn’t wanted to look, as de Souza straddled the body, and turned it over, face in the dirt, arms flopping obscenely as gravity shifted their dead weight. ‘What was that you said—?’
‘I said … “Go on—do it properly!”’ Kyriakos paused, as de Souza began to do something so revolting that Fred couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘Ah—that’s right!’
‘God Almighty!’ What was almost more revolting than what de Souza was doing was Kyriakos’s approbation of the unnatural act.
‘Nothing?’ Kyriakos exhaled slowly. ‘Bad luck! But … well done, de Souza!’ He came back to Fred at last. ‘You were saying—?’
‘I wasn’t saying anything. I was feeling sick, that’s all.’
Then … the more fool, you!‘ The Greek’s eyes were hard. That’s where they hide things, when they have to, old boy.’
For the next foul moment, Fred found himself looking at de Souza again: he was stripping off the corpse’s shirt now, leaving the whole naked body leprous white, except for its brown hands and arms and ruined, bloody face.
‘But … but why, Kyriakos?’ He abandoned the final tableau of Captain de Souza doing his duty. ‘For God’s sake!’
Kyriakos bit his lip, under his moustache. ‘My poor Fred!’ He let go his lip. ‘These are professionals—they know what they want … Which is not killing their enemies, any more. They have progressed beyond that—they are not mere soldiers … like you and me—do you understand?’ The lip drooped, one-sidedly. They are not crude—?‘
‘Crude!’ That was a joke he couldn’t laugh at.
‘Don’t be deceived by appearances.’
‘Appearances?’ The repeated word suddenly sounded foolish as he realized that he had been deceived: he had taken de Souza for a civilized man and the large young dragoon for a major, and then for a typical subaltern. But neither of them was what he had at first seemed.
‘Actually, I really feel quite comforted.’ Kyriakos stared at him. ‘I am comforted … comforted and surprised—or, comforted and much reassure
d, anyway.’
‘Reassured?’ After six weeks in Greece, never mind all those months in Italy, Fred regarded himself as a veteran, and an expert on war’s idiocies. It irritated him to be treated like an innocent. ‘This has reassured you, has it? About what?’
That you British are beginning to know your business.‘ Kyriakos gestured to stop him replying. ’Oh yes—I know you came to Greece—‘ he nodded ’—and that proves someone knew his business … which would be your Mr Churchill of course. But you did not really anticipate events, did you?‘
‘I didn’t?’ Whenever the Greek talked high politics he always addressed Fred as though he was personally responsible for War Cabinet decisions. But then, as he controlled the temptation to adapt his answer accordingly, he saw the truth of the question: in early December the brigade—indeed, the whole division—had been under orders for Palestine, and had actually had to re-possess all the equipment it had surrendered on the eve of embarkation. So Greece had plainly been an unforeseen emergency. ‘No, we didn’t. But—’ As he spoke, Kyriakos nodded past him, in de Souza’s direction again.
‘See there, old man.’
Much against his will, and fortified only by the thought that de Souza couldn’t be doing anything nastier than what he had already done, Fred obeyed the injunction—and instantly regretted his decision.
‘Ah … ’ The Greek caught his arm. ‘He has something—yes—he has something, indeed!’
Captain de Souza had been taking a dentist’s view of the shattered head, probing inside the gaping mouth with a sliver of bright metal. And, until the Greek spoke, all Fred had been thinking was … at least he’s not just using his finger now!
‘Yes!’ Kyri’s fingers tightened, then relaxed as de Souza examined what he had found. ‘So now we know!’
Fred swallowed. ‘What do we know, Kyri?’ But in that instant, as he asked his question, he realized that he did indeed know something now, even if it had nothing to do with the beastliness he had been witnessing. Or, not directly, anyway. ‘What do we know?’
A New Kind of War Page 5