'Lads, get ready,' he hissed.
A German soldier stepped forward, his tone aggressive, angry even. The moon now drifted clear of a cloud. It did not have much light to offer but it was enough for Tanner to see half a dozen men round the trucks. He glanced at his watch. 23.22. Eight minutes. Where the hell was the explosion? Had the fuse gone out? Had he miscounted? A bead of sweat ran down his back but he felt a chill at the nape of his neck. Come on, come on.
The German NCO pointed to the rest of them and walked towards Tanner. He was looking at Tanner's rifle and the Mauser slung on his other shoulder. Damn it, thought Tanner. Now just a few feet away, the German addressed him directly, ignoring Nielssen. Again he pointed angrily to the rifle Tanner held and the other on his shoulder. What was he saying? Why have you got two? Where did you get that Tommy rifle? Tanner had no idea.
Sod it, he thought. 'I'm sorry, mate, I don't understand a word you're saying,' he said, as he drew back the bolt on his rifle, pushed it forward, clicked it back into place, and squeezed the trigger. The report echoed round the church and surrounding buildings, the German crumpled to the ground, and at that moment, the bridge blew. Tanner started, but so did the enemy soldiers, who ducked involuntarily and looked south towards the bridge as an orange ball of flame mushroomed into the night sky. Seeing his chance, Tanner sprinted towards them. Pull the bolt back and forward, fire. Another man fell. A third fumbled at his rifle as Tanner swung the butt of his own into the man's head. The soldier cried out as Tanner kicked a fourth to the ground, all before one had fired a shot.
Shouts now from the surrounding houses. Tanner yelled, 'Into the trucks, quick!' Pistol shots - Nielssen and Chevannes. Screams from another man. Tanner grabbed Lance Corporal Erwood's shoulder. 'Get into the second truck and fire that bloody Spandau from the tailgate!' He searched frantically for Anna and the professor. 'Get in! Get in!' he yelled, when he saw them running, crouching, towards the first truck.
'Sir,' he shouted to Nielssen, 'drive the second truck!' Nielssen nodded, Tanner grabbed Anna's arm, shoved her towards the cab of the first and hastily jumped in beside her, shoving his two rifles between them. Of course, it was dark in the cab and the German Opel was unfamiliar. He hadn't thought of that. 'Jesus Christ!' he muttered. 'How do you start this bloody thing?' He fumbled around with his feet in the pitch-dark footwell, hitting pedals but there was no starter knob on the floor.
Frantically, he slapped his hand against the dashboard, finding what felt like a button, but although he pressed hard, nothing happened. Chevannes now clambered in next to Anna.
'Come on, Sergeant!' shouted Chevannes as Tanner inadvertently switched on the wipers. 'Merde! Get us out of here!'
Troops were now running out of the surrounding houses, shots cracking apart the night. Another button on the far right of the dashboard. What was it? The choke? From the back of the truck, their own men were firing and then, behind, an engine roared into life and the truck drew alongside.
'I can't get it started!' he yelled across to Nielssen.
'Isn't there a key?' Nielssen shouted back.
'No, nothing!'
'Use a piece of wire, or a screwdriver - it's above the ignition button.'
Tanner's mind raced as bullets smacked into the side of the truck, then feeling into his haversack he fumbled for his tool wallet and found what he was searching for - a set of five different-sized reamers. The first he tried was too large for the hole. 'Bloody hell,' he muttered, his heart hammering, then felt the second slide into the ignition. Immediately a small red light came on, revealing a sign that said 'ANLASSER' and what had to be the ignition button. Pulling what he hoped was the choke on the far side of the dashboard, he then pressed the button and the engine coughed into life. Yanking the reamer hard upwards to keep it in place, he shouted across to Nielssen, 'Tell Erwood to spray the other vehicles, sir!'
A bullet cracked through the windscreen. Anna screamed, and Tanner thrust the truck into gear, released the handbrake and the Opel lurched forward. 'Professor?' he shouted. 'Professor, are you there?'
'Yes! Just go!'
Chevannes fired his pistol through the window. More bullets rang out. Another thumped into the door and died. Tanner found the headlights, switched them on. Slits, just slivers of light, but enough. Out of the church square. Ahead, troops kneeling in the road. Tanner stamped on the throttle. Another bullet cracked through the top of the windscreen, and ripped through the metal roof, and Anna screamed again. Tanner charged at the men. Figures scattered but he felt a thump as he hit one, heard a scream. Feeling in his pocket he passed a grenade to Anna. 'Here!' he said. 'Pull the pin and throw it out the window. Can you do that?'
Anna nodded, pulled the pin and tossed it away. It hit the framework round the door and rebounded on to Tanner's lap. 'Jack, I'm so sorry!' she cried. Half looking ahead, half fumbling in his lap he found it and hurled it out as hard as he could.
Behind him the men were still firing. He was conscious of the Spandau's short, clattering bursts. Ahead the second bridge. No time to blow that. He dropped a gear, turned, rumbled across the short expanse, then drove left towards the valley road that led north. More shooting ahead, and Tanner ducked every time a bullet pinged nearby. From the back someone yelled. 'Keep going, Tanner, faster!' screamed Chevannes, then leant across Anna, grabbed
Tanner's Mauser and fired off five rounds in quick succession.
Changing up a gear, Tanner pushed down again on the accelerator as they reached the edge of town. He was vaguely aware of Chevannes reloading the Mauser and preparing to fire, then suddenly realized what the lieutenant had done. 'No, sir, don't fire!' he shouted.
With a loud crack, the rifle jerked upwards, Chevannes screamed and his head and shoulders were flung backwards. Anna cried out as Chevannes threw his hands to his face, howling wildly. Even in the faint moonlight, Tanner could see blood on the windscreen.
'Sir!' shouted Tanner. 'How bad is it? How bad is it, sir? Anna, try to calm him down. See if you can find out what he's done. I can't stop now.' He dropped down a gear once more, pressed hard on the throttle to bring up both revs and speed, then changed up. The town was now behind them, the shooting receding. From behind him he could hear desultory shots, and an occasional second-long burst from the Spandau.
Chevannes groaned.
'Keep still,' said Anna, her voice calm once more. 'Rest your head on my lap.' She took his shoulders and straightened him. 'Try to bring your legs up.' Slowly, he did so until he was lying across half the seat and her. 'There's a lot of blood,' she said. 'He needs dressings as soon as possible.'
Tanner hitched his pack and webbing from his back and waist as he drove, shoved them on to his lap, then began taking off his German tunic. 'Here,' he said, 'have
this. I'll stop as soon as I can.' Then he called, 'How are you in the back?'
'Tinker's hit, Sarge,' McAllister yelled, 'but I don't think it's serious.'
'Yes, it bloody is!' called Bell. 'My arm's agony!'
Almost too late, Tanner saw the road ahead fork. 'Which way?' he said, bringing the truck to a halt.
'I can't get to my map,' said Anna.
'Hold on,' said Tanner. With the engine still running, he jumped out of the cab and ran towards the other truck.
'What's happened?' asked Nielssen.
'We don't know which way - left or right? Do you have your map, sir?'
'A moment, Sergeant.'
'Any casualties?'
'I'm afraid so - one.'
'Who?'
'Your lance corporal. Erwood. Shot in the head.'
'Dead?'
Nielssen nodded.
'Damn,' said Tanner. 'He was a good man. Is he still in the back?'
'No, he was hit as he was trying to get in. Hepworth's been on the Spandau. What about you, Sergeant?'
'The lieutenant's hit in the face. He needs dressings and attention soon. And Bell - not serious.'
Nielssen looked at the map and passed it on. 'We nee
d to turn right. We've a bit of a climb, then in thirty kilometres we reach the main road to Andalsnes. How much fuel do you have?'
'About a quarter of a tank. Not enough.'
Nielssen grinned. 'We've some spare cans in the back and the gauge is reading over half a tank. And that is enough.'
'Let's keep going,' said Tanner. 'It would be good to be on the main road by first light.' He paused to get some field dressings, then hurried back to the cab. Passing the bandages to Anna, he pushed the stick into gear and rolled forward.
Hauptmann Wolf Zellner had seen the explosion before he heard it: a bright orange glow lighting the sky to the east. A moment later, the report. Then a sickening feeling swept over him. An almost speechless von Poncets had immediately sent a signal to Vinstra. A quarter of an hour later the truth was revealed: around fifteen men, dressed in German uniforms, had infiltrated the town and stolen two troop carriers. And the bridge had been blown to pieces.
On hearing this news rage gripped him, rage he feared he would not be able to control. Staggering outside, he walked to the water's edge, picked up a large rock and hurled it at one of the moored dinghies. The boat sank, until all that remained was a length of rope disappearing beneath the water.
Zellner watched it. His rage had abated slightly but he was now overcome by the oppressive weight of despair. Tanner, he thought, and hurled another rock into the lake. Somehow he would have his revenge. 'I swear it.'
Chapter 22
May Day, 1940 - Wednesday - and as the dawn rose to their right, the sun gleaming over the mountains amid a cloudless sky, the signs were that summer had indeed arrived.
'Damn it,' said Tanner. 'What we want is a bit of rain and low cloud.' The speed with which winter seemed to have passed had surprised him. 'What happened to spring?' he asked Anna.
She laughed. 'We don't have one. Winter then summer. Now it's summer.'
Tanner glanced down at Chevannes' bloodied head, wrapped in an assortment of stained bandages and torn strips of lining from a German tunic. 'Stupid bugger,' he said.
Chevannes moaned.
'What happened to him, Jack?' Anna asked him, the Frenchman's head still resting in her lap. 'Was there something wrong with the rifle?'
'He put a clip of French ammunition into a German breech. The French rifles use a fractionally smaller cartridge than the German ones - but it's enough to bugger up the firing mechanism. When he fired, the bolt sprang back and hit him in the face. He should have known, but in the heat of the moment - well, he'll have a whopping scar to remind him not to make that mistake again.'
They had emerged into a deep, narrow valley, with mountains towering steeply at either side. Tanner whistled as he craned his neck to admire one of the most breathtaking stretches of scenery he had ever seen. Then, glancing at his petrol gauge, he saw the tank was almost empty.
Chevannes moaned again, louder this time.
'Jack,' said Anna, 'we need to stop. He needs attention.'
'We'll pull in at a farm. Perhaps we can find out what's happening.'
They reached a settlement called Lia, another collection of farmsteads nestling beside the river. The grey, tired fields of a week earlier had already been replaced by lush green pasture. Approaching a brightly coloured red farmhouse with clean white wooden fencing, Tanner slowed. 'This looks smarter than most.'
'You think they will have a wireless?'
'That's what I’m hoping.'
The farmer and his family had been asleep but they seemed untroubled to be roused prematurely by two trucks of fugitive troops pulling into their yard. As the men soon gathered, they had not been the first to arrive there over the past couple of days: since the fighting at
Otta had ended, troops had been streaming past, most by train, but a fair number in trucks and even on foot. And while the farmer had a radio set, he made it clear that the news announced on the wireless had told him nothing he couldn't see with his own eyes; the British were evacuating. 'You're the last,' he told Nielssen. 'You'd better hurry.'
The farmer and his wife brewed coffee and gave them bread while Anna examined Bell and Chevannes. Bell's wound was clean enough - a bullet had gone through his upper arm, but no bones had been broken. Chevannes' head, however, was a mess. His right cheekbone had been smashed, and a large gash had been torn in the side of his face, leaving the eyeball to hang loose. As Anna removed the bandages he screamed again. 'He needs pain relief,' she said.
'I don't have any,' said Tanner.
Neither did the farmer - not morphine at any rate - but he did have whisky. 'Take it,' he told Anna. 'Get him drunk.'
They made a bed of sorts for the lieutenant and laid him in the back of the first truck, then poured one of the five-gallon fuel cans into the tank. 'Change back into your own uniforms,' Tanner told his men.
When they continued on their way north, Tanner and Anna were alone in the cab. She yawned and leant her head on his shoulder. He could feel the warmth of her body against his. If they managed to reach Andalsnes, he wondered whether she would come with them to Britain. He hoped so.
'How are you feeling?' he asked.
'I don't know. Tired. I can't stop thinking about last night - getting through the town. And about Larsen. It seems so incredible.'
'Yes ... yes, it does.'
'I thought he was going to shoot you.'
'No,' said Tanner. 'He didn't have it in him. He liked us too much. In any case, it's one thing shooting someone from a distance - they're not real people, just objects - but quite another killing someone when you're face to face. It's not impersonal then. I suppose it was a bit of a gamble, but I was pretty certain he wasn't going to fire.'
She smiled at this. 'Always so rational.'
'What was he saying to Nielssen at the end?'
'Larsen? He said he'd had to do it. That they had threatened his family. And then he kept saying, "I should have turned you in at Okset, but I was trying to protect Stig." Then Nielssen said, "Some protection that was." And that's when he killed him.'
'What did he mean by that?'
'I asked Nielssen a moment ago. Apparently they had been hiding at a farm in a village called Okset, north of Elverum. It had belonged to Larsen's cousin. The Germans had turned up and searched for them. They had even been led by the same officer - Zellner?'Zellner? Bloody hell.'
'Yes, him,' Anna continued. 'Nielssen hadn't seen him, but Larsen did and recognized him when you first captured him in the fight above our farm. Anyway, although Larsen had the perfect opportunity to betray them there and then, he hadn't wanted to get his cousin into trouble and kept quiet while Zellner and his men searched the place. After the Germans had gone, they took his cousin's truck, crossed the river and headed north. But at that point Larsen realized the Germans would have seen them from the other side of the river.'
'And put two and two together,' said Tanner.
'Exactly. And since then he worried not only about the fate of his wife and daughters but also his cousin and his cousin's family.'
'Christ,' said Tanner. 'What a bloody mess.'
'Enemy aircraft!' A shout from behind.
'Damn, damn, damn!' cursed Tanner. Pasture still stretched a hundred yards or more to their right, while on their left the ground sloped down towards the river. They were hopelessly exposed. He felt Anna's hand grip his arm. 'There's no cover,' he said, 'We've got to hope for the best.' He pressed his foot on the throttle. 'Can you see them, Mac?' he shouted.
'Yes, Sarge. Four of them coming up behind, straight down the valley!'
'Can you tell what they are?'
A pause, then Bell said, 'They're bloody Messerschmitts, Sarge, 110s.'
'Christ, this is bloody suicide,' he muttered. The four planes were upon them now. Tanner looked through the side of the cab to see two lines of bullets kicking up the ground to their left. The bullets of the second aircraft raked the ground in front of them, while those of the third were way too wide. But those of the fourth cut a swathe across the road
from right to left, clattering and pinging into the bonnet of the truck. Anna ducked, Tanner swerved, then righted the truck, but the
Opel was spluttering, steam hissing from the radiator.
Ahead, the four aircraft hurtled onwards down the valley until they became dots, then disappeared from view.
'Will they come back, Jack?' asked Anna.
Her hands were shaking, Tanner noticed, as she moved a strand of hair from her face. 'Doubt it,' he said. 'They would have started turning back towards us by now. They've probably gone on to attack Andalsnes.'
With the engine coughing, he rolled the truck off the road and brought it to a standstill. 'Bollocks!' he said, smacking the steering-wheel.
He jumped out of the cab and ran to the other.
'We are all right,' Nielssen called out. 'They missed us entirely.'
'That's something,' said Tanner. 'Our truck's had it.'
'Get into this one quickly,' said Nielssen.
Tanner ordered McAllister and Chambers to take the spare wheel from the ruined Opel, while he and Derigaux lifted out Chevannes.
Within ten minutes they were on their way again, Tanner and Anna now beside Nielssen in the cab. 'How much further is it?' Tanner asked Anna. To their left, the river had developed into a narrow lake.
'About sixty kilometres,' said Anna.
'We can't stop,' said Nielssen. 'We've got to risk it.'
'Those bastards'll be back, though.' Tanner sighed heavily, tapped his fingers on his knees, then sighed again, this time even louder. 'Jesus,' he said. 'This is going to be close. Damned close.' They passed a small column of shattered and burnt-out vehicles left beside the road. Several blackened corpses lay spreadeagled to either side.
'As if we needed reminding,' said Nielssen.
A few more miles slipped by, then a few more. Tanner struggled to sit still. He wished he was driving; at least it would have given him something to do. The valley no longer seemed beautiful; rather, Tanner saw it as little more than a death-trap - a single road and a railway line, with only intermittent cover. At any moment more enemy aircraft would be upon them. So long as they had the truck they could outrun any pursuit on the ground, but if they lost this vehicle as well. . . 'This is torture,' he said at last. 'Absolute bloody torture.'
The Odin Mission Page 32