by Ian Slater
“You knew no saboteurs? He was investigating—”
“None.”
“Your son, daughter-in-law. Were they saboteurs?”
She wanted to say no, but instead she said, “Perhaps. I don’t know. They went to work one morning and never came back. Shot along with all your other hostages, I expect.”
It was several seconds before the admiral spoke again. “You have a grandson?”
She said nothing — sensing danger.
“He was caught last night,” said the admiral. “Trying to storm the jail. It was very silly.”
She started forward in her seat. “What have you—”
“We have taken him to school, where he belongs.” He turned and glanced down at a file. “Mustamäe complex. Is this where you live?”
She nodded, afraid to say another word.
The admiral sat down, took out a pen, signed a paper, and tapped the small bell by the blotter. The admiral’s aide entered, the admiral handing him the file. “Return the prisoner’s personal effects.”
“Yes, Admiral.” The aide, a major, his features indistinct until he came closer, smiled down at Malle. “Follow me, please.”
As he led her down the curving stone stairwell, he glanced back at Malle. “You’re a lucky woman.”
She dared not think of it. She dared hardly breathe, but her heart was beating so hard at the prospect of freedom, she thought it would burst through her chest.
At the front desk, the major handed her a pen. “Go on,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. It’s a release form. Confirming that you have received all your personal effects.”
The clerk pushed a Hessian bag with a cardboard label, her name scribbled on it, across the counter. Inside were her “travel in Tallinn only” permit card, shoelaces, clothes, and glasses. She looked up at the aide, still not daring to hope.
“You’re free,” he said. “The admiral believed you. You may change in the washroom over there.”
When Malle came out, he escorted her to the door and called for a driver. “You are also to take this,” he said, handing her a square package the size of a small cake box. “These papers,” he added, giving her two buff-colored forms, “are your interim permits until new identity cards are issued. It is a new regulation.”
He opened the door to the car, wished her good day, then returned up the stone stairs.
In the back of the drab olive army sedan, as the driver waited to pull out into the traffic, she put the package by her side and carefully folded the papers the aide had given her. Suddenly she was staring down at the release order — signed by Admiral Brodsky of the Baltic Fleet. As the car pulled away, she looked up at the window, but the reflection of the sun was such that she could not see if he was there or not. The driver cursed, beeped his horn, and assumed, because a car had been ordered for her, that she must be some kind of VIP, though she certainly didn’t dress like it.
“Bad news, eh?” he said.
“What — pardon?” It was as if she were in a dream.
“They say the Americans are crossing the Weser.”
She didn’t know where the Weser was exactly, only that it was somewhere in Germany. Western Germany, she thought. “Yes,” she agreed. “Bad news.”
* * *
She had wanted to open the package immediately in the car but had restrained herself until she returned to the apartment. The can inside the cardboard box still had the blue and white duty stamp on it to show it hadn’t been opened. For several minutes she merely lingered over it, then very slowly opened it, inhaling the deep, rich smell of the finely ground chocolate-flavored coffee. Detaching the plastic lid from the bottom of the can, she placed it on the top tightly so that none would be spilled. Clutching it, she took it to her bedroom and, collapsing on the bed, held it to her breast, sobbing uncontrollably.
* * *
In San Diego, following the networks’ six-o’clock news, a story broke on San Diego affiliate KVTV that California congressman Hailey had been found dead in his La Jolla home. The TV story showed distraught staffers from the congressman’s San Diego office saying that the cause of death was not known “at this time.” Rumors that the congressman had taken his own life were vigorously denied pending an SDPD investigation.
The following morning, Mr. Jay La Roche of La Roche Pharmaceuticals, whom a reporter described as “a close friend and supporter of Congressman Hailey,” was “shocked and saddened” by the tragic news, commenting that “California has lost one of her most able and compassionate representatives.”
Within a few days La Roche Pharmaceuticals announced that two scholarship funds, in the name of Congressman Hailey, would be set up, one for a male student, one for a female, at the University of California — Stanford campus.
* * *
The army driver in Tallinn had been correct. The Americans had crossed the Weser east of Stadthagen as part of the general counterattack all along the NATO line. Whether NATO’s troops could sustain the advance was a matter of widely differing conjecture in the world capitals, but for now, Freeman, almost completely recovered from the painful paresis that had followed his back injury, undeniably had the bit in his mouth, and everywhere the Russians were in retreat.
At a crucial crossing over the Mittelell Canal at Peine, thirty miles east of Hannover, Major Norton of General Freeman’s G-2 was in one of the Bradley armored personnel carriers on the pontoon bridge when the latter came under heavy fire from an eight-gun battery of Soviet self-propelled 122-millimeter howitzers. The Russian gunners, unable to retreat because they were out of fuel, had the pontoon bridge bracketed and were bringing down a deadly rain of 21.7-kilogram HE shells, taking out three of the Bradleys, killing all thirty-six men aboard in the first two salvos. Just when Norton was convinced the APC in which he was riding was the next to be hit, the Russian fire became erratic and for the next three minutes stopped altogether, permitting Norton and the rest of the U.S. Second Armored column following to cross the canal in safety.
* * *
When the Americans overran the Russian battery site, fourteen miles farther on near Braunschweig, the Russians were gone, but the self-propelled guns and piles of discarded and unused ammunition remained. Major Norton’s bent for detail did not fail him, and he noted in his written report on the incident that the hitherto unexplained erratic fire of the 122-millimeters was due not to any fault with the lay of the chassis-mounted guns but appeared to be caused by deficiencies in the 122-millemeter HE rounds themselves, whose markings showed they had been manufactured somewhere in the Baltic republics. The letters “MJ” had been stamped on several of the duds’ cartridge seals, but as yet Norton could not explain the specific designation “MJ.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Richard Spence, resplendent in his tuxedo at the head table, moved his arm forward on the dazzling white linen so that his sleeve would allow him a glimpse of his watch without him seeming rude. The wedding had gone splendidly, the traditional Book of Common Prayer service quite moving, and which his new son-in-law had appeared to enjoy as much as Rosemary. She had been breathtakingly beautiful in her mother’s wedding gown, and he had never seen her so happy. Anne, to her credit, as Richard’s barrister Uncle Geoffrey noted, had shown no outward sign of the devastating loss of their youngest. And the reception was a veritable feast.
“Surely they must be ready by now,” Richard said to Geoffrey.
The longer Rosemary was taking to change into her going-away outfit, the more her sixth form class from St. Anselm’s was going to devour.
“Well, Richard old boy, I should think this lot’ll set you back a few pounds,” said Geoffrey, looking out on the swirl of the dancers and on what he called the “provisioning.”
“A few pounds?” responded Richard. “I should think it’ll wipe me out. I don’t know where on earth Anne got all this food and—” Richard waited till the skirl of the bagpipes died down, secretly wishing they’d die altogether.
“Hoarding!” Geoff
rey said, raising his voice. “They’re very good at it — women.”
“Even so, we’re feeding over two hundred people as well as — good Lord!” Richard sat forward, almost spilling his champagne. “Did you see that? That boy — one of Rosemary’s students, I think. He ate an entire cupcake at one gulp. Hate to think of what he’ll cost me alone.” With that, Richard sat back, sighing resignedly. “Shan’t have any money left for young Georgina.”
“Ah!” said Geoffrey, pausing over his sherry. “I didn’t know she was casting her net.”
“She isn’t,” replied Richard. “He is. The first officer-Zeldman.”
“Good grief — a bourgeois American? Don’t tell me Georgina’s giving up on Mel?”
Richard was completely taken by surprise. “I didn’t think she was going out with anyone called Mel.”
“No, no, Richard — Marx, Engels, and that awful Lenin.”
“Oh, that.” Richard smiled. “Well, she has an attack every now and then. Usually when she and Rosey get together. Cats and dogs. Quite nasty at times, though they seem to care when it counts. She gave Rosey and Robert a lovely wedding present.”
“Don’t tell me,” cut in Geoffrey. “Das Kapital. First edition?”
Richard raised his glass to a beefy, courtly man pushing his wife about the floor. “No,” he answered Geoffrey, “but you’re close. The first edition — Browning’s poems. The Portuguese.”
“Oh—” said Geoffrey. “Then, Richard, I’m afraid you’re right.”
“How d’you mean?”
“I mean, old boy, that once they start spouting that stuff— ‘Let me count the ways’—you’d better batten down the hatches to your bank account. It’ll be wedding bells and another great cake.” Geoffrey’s eyes looked over to admire the remains of the splendid three-tiered creation. “I must say, that was a magnificent icing job. A Rosemary Hallowes, I expect?”
“Yes, she’s very good. I believe they call it ‘frosting’ in America.”
“Really? They are peculiar, our cousins over the water.”
“Yes,” said Richard softly, and fell silent.
“Sorry, Richard, I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s quite all right, Geoffrey. It’s just that I’m still not over it. Time, they say—”
“Cures nothing,” said Geoffrey definitively. “Merely covers it over. It’ll never go away, Richard. Why should it? He was a fine boy. Too young and too good to die.” They both fell silent for a moment, Geoffrey sipping his sherry. “ ‘Twas ever thus, Richard.”
“Yes.”
“I know it’s no help, really, but—”
“Go on.”
“Well, Georgina was telling me earlier, before the service, that Commander Brentwood’s sister wrote to you about William. His nurse, apparently.”
“Yes, it was very kind of her. And very much appreciated. Meant the world to Anne.”
“There’s another brother isn’t there — I don’t mean our young hero of — what do they call it?”
“Stadthagen.”
“Can never remember those German names — always sound like catarrh.”
“Then how about Kyle of Lochalsh?”
“Sounds absolutely revolting. Is that where they’re going in Scotland?”
“It’s on Rosey’s list. Passing through, though, I expect. The honeymoon’s to be a bed-and-breakfast tour. Western Scotland for two weeks.”
“In this weather? They’ll freeze. Ah, then again, perhaps not, eh, Richard? B and B can be quite cozy, I’m told.”
“I hope so, Geoffrey. They deserve it.”
“Hear, hear. If they can grab a little happiness in this world gone mad, then the best of British—” he paused, raising his glass “—and Yankee luck to them! They’ll need it up there. He won’t understand a word of it, you know. The Scots are quite impenetrable.”
“Oh, I don’t know, Geoffrey. They managed to tow his ship back to Holy Loch.”
“He’ll be off again then, I expect. After the honeymoon?”
“Can’t say. Very hush-hush. He never talks about it. All I know is the ship was towed up from Falmouth.”
“Should you be saying that?”
“Oh, the base at Holy Loch — that’s common knowledge.”
“No, I mean ‘ship’. I understand submarines are called boats.”
“Not anymore. ‘Ships’ these days, and ‘sail’—no ‘conning tower’ anymore.”
“Ships and sail,” mused Geoffrey. “I like that. Possibly because it gives me the illusion, along with this rather bad sherry, that we’re not in this modern world with its pushbutton whatsits. Must say, I’m glad I’m not in it.”
“Not yet at least,” said Richard. “I’m sorry about the sherry.”
“It’s not yours, Richard. It’s mine. I gave it to Anne — far too sweet. And what on earth do you mean by ‘not yet’?”
“Well, apparently there’s this chap Marchenko. Quite ruthless, by all accounts. I’m sure he’s not finished with us. The Telegraph’s reporting that if the Russians get desperate enough, they could very well push the button. Then we’ll all be in it.”
“We’ll all be dead, you mean.”
“No — they’re talking about what you barristers, I think, would call a middle case.”
“What? Gas?”
“And biological warfare, yes.”
“By God, Richard, you’re a cheery soul.”
“Just facing facts, Geoffrey.”
“But this chap Freeman’s got ‘em on the run. Damned tough customer, by all accounts.”
“Yes, but he can’t do it alone. And now the Russians have got America on a two-front war. Then there’s still this Korean business. It’s not finished by any means. The Telegraph’s Tokyo correspondent reports that the Chinese are ready to move across the Yalu if the Americans don’t stop there.”
“They’re not going to stop, Richard. Why should they? They made MacArthur stop, and look what they got. They won’t make that mistake twice.”
“Then the Chinese will come in and the Telegraph—”
“The Telegraph!” said Geoffrey with a trace of irritability. “Fair enough, I suppose, but — good Lord, Richard, they’re not the only source. Don’t they publish those advertisements by that demented Knowlton chap? You know — the hair dryer maniac. Really. There’s more than one paper, old boy.”
“Of course, but The New York Times says much the same thing. That no way the Russians are going to call it quits. We’re not even at the Elbe.” He paused, alarmed at a group of Anne’s “Conservative Club” women purposefully approaching him and Geoffrey.
Richard smiled graciously, murmuring to Geoffrey, “It’s that dreadful Mrs. Lamptini again. They’re going to ask us to dance.”
“What? “ said Geoffrey. “I’m off!”
“Coward!” said Richard. Suddenly the music died, followed by cheers and scattered applause. Rosemary was at the top of the stairs, radiant in a jade-green coat, white imitation fur hat, and corsage, holding her bouquet. She did not try to tease with the bouquet but tossed it gently and straight to Georgina. The ladies were drawn, by ancient rite, toward the young couple, Peter Zeldman and Georgina.
“Ah, prophecy!” said Geoffrey. “Get your checkbook ready, Richard.”
Richard said nothing. Georgina had told him she didn’t like the “best man,” but with Georgina, he knew, you could never be sure. Only time would tell. Anne appeared, fussing about last-minute details as Robert and Rosemary headed out for the car.
“Doesn’t he look wonderful?” Richard heard Mrs. Lamptini say. “Those Americans—”
As most of the guests crowded about the door to wish the couple well, the St. Anselm’s boys, after having checked that their cans and various impedimenta had been firmly attached beneath the car, returned to the food, where an argument was developing about whether or not there were enemy spies in England.
“Of course there are, you twit,” said one of the taller boys — a p
refect. “How do you think they know where the convoys are?”
“Well, they haven’t caught any, have they?” said another boy defensively.
“Don’t be simple, Bingham. Those trials are held in camera so as not to upset the populace. My pater told me.” The boy took a toothpick from a silver cup and looked for a cocktail sausage to stab. “Quite frankly, if I were the Russians, I ‘d have spies go after the captains. Of the submarines. Submarine captains aren’t two a penny, you know. And if you get them, then you’ve effectively—”
“Oh, do put a sock in it,” said one of the others. “Come on, let’s see Miss Spence off.”
“Mrs. Brentwood, you nit.”
“All right, Mrs. Brentwood.”
Richard and Anne had gone outside by the car to say their good-byes. When it came time to shake hands with Robert Brentwood, Richard was quite unable to speak, but as the men looked at each other, there was ample understanding.
Richard knew that the war would go on and that men like Robert would be returning to it soon. And that the war of the submarines would almost certainly become increasingly dangerous as more and more countries sought to redress their setbacks on land by sending their secret boats into the seas that covered over two-thirds of the planet. He was sure also that with the Russians having attacked the Aleutians, the titanic struggle would move to America’s shore.
But now, for a moment, for two people very much in love, the world stood still.
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