Gunboat Number 14

by Jens Kuhn

  But he encountered no-one. Suddenly he reached the road. Looking carefully to either side, still seeing no enemies, he made his way east along the road. He knew from the map that this was where they were headed, towards Pargas, a mere village, but a good first spot to get some inquiries about what the Russians were doing. It had been three days ago he had escorted the Wetterstrands here, and two nights he had been waiting for them to return. Now it was the last night they would wait, and if nobody came, they would assume the Russians had discovered them.

  But af Klint could not just sit here and wait. Not this time. Instead he continued along the road, carefully watching for any movement. The road was not exactly straight, more like a drunken path through the forest, probably following some now dried out riverbed he could not see in the dark. When he saw the buildings, af Klint stopped and retreated into the forest. Fifty yards further to the east the forest had been cleared to make room for a farm. The fields were unplowed, overgrown and unused, probably because of the war. There was a medium sized farmhouse, in the classic Swedish style, just like the one on Sandö, where he had met the Wetterstrands for the first time. Where he had met Anna. There were some outhouses as well, a barn, something he guessed was a stable. Horses were tethered outside, he counted at least a dozen, maybe more. There was light behind some of the windows on the top floor of the farmhouse, candles burning probably.

  Eric af Klint waited. He did not really know what he should do. After all, he was not supposed to be the spy here. But the horses could only mean one thing: Russian officers. And where there were Russian officers there probably were Russian soldiers as well. Sentries. Guards. He could not see any, though. Maybe they were all asleep in the barn or something. He had seen the lack of discipline in the Russian lines before.

  Suddenly, there was something moving. Two people. They were coming down the road, straight at him. Eric af Klint moved further back into the woods. The ground was sloping here, probably the riverbed. A grassy slope. Bushes to hide behind. He tried to breath slowly, evenly, keep his pulse down. If they were coming down here they would not be able to see him, but his heart was pounding so hard he wondered if they might hear it.

  They were coming down, clearly. One of them was a young Russian officer, he still looked like a boy. Fancy uniform, some kind of aide to a staff officer perhaps? The other one was a woman, her arm on his, smiling at him. Anna. Eric af Klint almost forgot to breath.

  The young Russian said something to her, his mouth close to her ear, his arm now around her waist. They left the road and moved into the woods. The boy looked much smaller than her, he wasn’t even as tall. He had his arms around her now, reaching up to her neck. But she pushed him away, gently now, whispering something. The boy hesitated for a second, then started to undo his hanger, taking off his short sword. Anna smiled at him, admiring the weapon apparently, holding it in her hand now.

  Then everything happened very quickly. She hit him over the back of his head with the hanger, the boy staggering, knees weakening, surprise and disappointment in his face. But he did not go down directly. Still some strength in him, he gripped the sword and held on to it. Struggling now, his head clearer again for every second. He could not be allowed to win, af Klint thought. Because then he would kill her.

  Leaping forward, his own sword in his hand, af Klint tackled the Russian from behind. Then he hit him hard in the head with the hilt of his sword. The boy lay still now. Eric af Klint sat next to him on the ground, looking at the girl.

  “Oh,” Anna gasped.

  “He is just unconscious. I did not know if you did want him killed.” Adrenaline still flowing, af Klint breathed fast, his heart beating heavily.

  “Oh,” she said again. Then she smiled and moved towards him, came down to him, her dress rustling. Looking into his eyes, a serious expression on her face now, her face close to his. He almost forgot to breath again. Inhaling heavily. She smelled like a picnic in summer, he thought, of warmth, flowers and a faint scent of red wine. Then she kissed him, softly first, then more hungrily, moving on top of him at the same time. Her body was very warm, af Klint thought, while he was kissing her back eagerly, without even thinking about it. His hands explored the soft skin of her neck, traced downwards over her shoulders, down her arms, taking the rustling fabric of her dress down with them.

  She was still kissing him, her lips moving softly over his face. Her arms were out of her dress now, her hands moving over his shirt, unbuttoning it, while he caressed her breasts, pushing down the dress further, exploring more warm soft skin and the roundness of her body. Then her face was moving downwards, her lips on his throat, on his chest. One hand was further down, still unbuttoning, expertly, he had to admit. He felt her hand then, directing him, her face in front of his again, her eyes glowing, her lips parted. And then he was inside her, filling her, feeling the warmth. Anna was moaning now, moving slowly against him, deliberately, making him grow still, wanting him to fill her completely.

  “How do you do this?,” he asked afterwards. She was still on top of him, resting now, her face snuggled under his chin. He was stroking her back.

  “Do what?” she whispered.

  “I don’t really know how to explain. You are not like other women I met...”

  “I just do what feels best. Explore things.”

  He laughed. “You are amazing, Anna. And I didn’t even like you at first.”

  She sighed.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that men usually don’t like me. They just want me.”

  “Oh. I think I like you, though.”

  “I know. That’s why I wanted you.” She lifted her head and kissed him again, softly.

  “Also I think you saved my life just now.” She shuddered. “It was careless of me to think I could knock him out myself, just because he looked like a boy. He is quite strong actually.”

  “Why did you try to knock him out at all? I thought you’d seduce him in order to get some information out of him.”

  She frowned. “You think this is how I work?”

  “Eh, yes I thought so.”

  She stroked his cheek. “You may be right, perhaps.” Smiling mystically. “But I already know all I need to know. They just won’t let me go.”

  “Ah. I see. So what’s the news?”

  “Later,” she said softly, starting to kiss him again. And af Klint responded, suddenly realizing that he was still inside her as he stiffened again.

  Half an hour later they were on their way through the forest. It was lighter now, dawn approaching fast. Eric af Klint hoped there would still be time to do something at once. Of course this was Kuhlin’s decision. Suddenly, he remembered something.

  “Anna?”

  “Yes?”

  “What happened to your father?”

  “He’s not really my father, you know.”

  “Ah. Well. But anyway?”

  She hesitated. “I’m not sure.”

  “What do you mean? Weren’t you supposed to, eh, operate together?”

  Anna stopped walking and looked into his eyes.

  “I am not really sure of him.”

  He understood her then.

  “You mean he may be a traitor?”

  “If you want to call it that. There are quite some people in Finland who do not like the Swedish king much more than the Russian czar.”

  Eric af Klint considered that. “Well I suppose they even might have a point.”

  Anna giggled and pinched him in the back. “Let’s go to your boat.”

  They walked silently for a while. When the forest finally started to give way and they heard the sound of the water lapping at the beach she stopped again.

  “Eric?”

  He felt his face blush when he heard her say his name. Was she even supposed to address him like this? Still, after what had happened. And then again, she wasn’t even a priest’s daughter. In fact, he didn’t know a thing about her. There was so much he wanted to ask her. Instead he
turned to her, lifting his eyebrow in question? Her arms went around his neck, her body close to his. She kissed him deeply, but not hungrily this time. The feeling was something else entirely.

  “Thank you,” she breathed. Then she let go of him and stepped out on the beach, starting to walk towards the bows of the gunboat.

  Chapter 15 - Daring enterprise

  “I do not think we can manage it all by ourselves....” Lieutenant Kuhlin was sweating under his coat, despite the early morning sun having disappeared behind the clouds of yet another rain front passing from the Southwest. Anna looked at him, calmly.

  “Of course it’s your decision, lieutenant. It’s just that these opportunities are... well, very rare.”

  “I know that, Miss Anna.” And surely she would know everything about taking opportunities. He did not say that, however, feeling awkward in the presence of the female spy. He wondered what had happened to af Klint, he was different in some way. Maybe it was just the possibility of action that made him glow like this. He realized that they all were looking at him expectantly. Eric af Klint, Tapper, and Miss Anna, of course.

  “And you are really sure, it is him?” he asked her for the third time.

  “General Fredrik Vilhelm von Buxhoevden, the Russian high commander. His staff. And a guard of 30 men at most,” she nodded patiently.

  Kuhlin sighed. He did quite like the power of command, especially on independent missions like this. But this was just a little too heavy for him. If he at least had his other two boats. But Dahlberg was still at the base making repairs and Gran was patrolling some miles further to the southwest, keeping an eye on Kuhlin’s back.

  “If we could send for Gran somehow...,” he pondered. They would have almost a hundred men then. But with only one boat?

  “We can muster 45 men, if we leave a minimal guard at the boat,” Eric af Klint suggested. “That should be enough. With the element of surprise on our side?”

  Kuhlin wasn’t sure. “Will there be surprise? Would not the young gentleman you knocked out raise the alarm?”

  “Well...”

  Anna put her hand on af Klint’s arm. “I don’t think so, Captain. He never saw Eri...your officer. And surely he would never admit he’d been knocked unconscious by a woman.”

  Kuhlin considered that. It might just be true.

  “Thank you for the promotion, Miss,” he said to gain some time.

  She laughed. “You are not as easily affected as most.”

  Kuhlin couldn’t help laughing as well, despite the lump he felt in his throat. He swallowed.

  “Well, then. This is how we do it. We’ll take 35 men. You, af Klint and myself. Tapper, you will take fifteen men and the boat and go to find Gran. It will be a hard pull, being so few but it cannot be helped. I wish we had a jolly boat or something, but unfortunately we do not. Oh, and Miss Anna stays on the boat.”

  “No I won’t.” Her voice was very strong now.

  “Please, Miss. I won’t endanger you again.”

  “I want to find Wetterstrand,” she explained. “By the way I quite like to be endangered.”

  Kuhlin and af Klint sighed simultaneously.

  Half an hour later Gunboat Number 14 had disappeared round the headland to the South, looking for Sub-Lieutenant Gran’s gunboat. Kuhlin reckoned that they would have to pull hard into the wind for at least three hours. Maybe, if the wind shifted into the West they might raise some sail. If they found Gran at once, they then would need about two hours back, now with more men, being able to row faster. Five hours.

  Eric af Klint had taken a small detachment into the forest in order to keep an eye on the road. There were no movements at all. Of course, he couldn’t see the farm where the Russian high command had set up its temporary quarters. He heard something rustling behind him. Anna.

  “Eric?” she said in a low voice, aware that he might not want his men to hear her addressing him so intimately.

  “Hm?”

  He did not like her to be here. Well, he did, but he did not want her to be involved in this operation. He knew that she was supposed to be some sort of spy, used to these things. But she also was a woman, and she had become dear to him.

  “Eric?” she said again, almost whispering, her face close to him now. Looking into his eyes, sensing that he was uncomfortable. “I want to ask you for a favor.”

  He swallowed.

  “Could you get me a pistol?” She saw the shocked expression on his face.

  “Please?” Her lips almost touching. Eric sighed, pulling one of his pistols out of his belt, handing it to her.

  “I suppose you know how to use it.”

  Anna giggled. Then she placed the lightest of kisses on his lips. “Thank you. I’ll go now. Don’t worry.”

  “Anna...”

  But she was already out of the forest and on the road, walking towards the farm, clearly visible for everyone.

  Kuhlin had agreed to give her a two hours’ head start. In fact, he still wasn’t completely convinced that this endeavor was a good idea at all, but now things had gotten so far that he felt committed. Without the boat, it was far too late to pull back out anyway. They could just as well try to decide the outcome of this war.

  “Let’s go!”

  They moved out in two files, one under the command of Kuhlin himself, the other under af Klint. Moving along the road in a quick march, their plan was to get to the farm as fast as possible and take the Russians by surprise. Of course, a surprise attack in mid-daylight couldn’t directly be called a military textbook operation. Everybody knew that surprise attacks are to be conducted at first light, and rather from some less obvious direction than the coastal road.

  However, Kuhlin and af Klint had agreed that there really were no other options. They did not know how long the Russian high command was supposed to stay at the farm, nor if or when their guard would be reinforced. With the priest unaccounted for and Anna having gone missing from the Russians they could very well be at some state of alert, despite Anna’s confident assurance that the young Russian officer never would tell his superiors that he had lost her.

  Eric af Klint had his own thoughts. While still trying to get a grip on his newly developed feelings for the woman, he wasn’t really sure if he should trust her. He wanted to, of course, but her behavior did not make that very easy for him. At the end of the day, af Klint did not know a thing about her. And while he did understand that, as a spy, it was important for her to keep her secrets to herself, he did not like to rely on other people’s judgment. There was, after all, no proof for her suspicion that it was Wetterstrand who was on the Russian side. In fact, it could just as easily be the other way around.

  When they arrived at the last bend of the road before the farm, Kuhlin ordered his men to slow down. Muskets at the ready, they advanced. As soon as they had passed the barn, they split up, Kuhlin’s party continuing along the road towards the main building, while af Klint and his men turned right in order to move around the barn and towards the farmhouse from the other side.

  He saw no movement. The horses, af Klint had seen tethered in front of the stable during the night were gone. In fact, the place did look utterly deserted. Did the Russians leave already? He halted his men and looked towards the road to check on Kuhlin when the air suddenly erupted in gunfire.

  Lieutenant Kuhlin saw the windows on the upper floor of the house burst open, the muzzles of muskets appearing.

  “Get cover!” he shouted to his men, but there was really no time. The muzzles flashed orange, followed by the popping sound of the muskets being discharged. Somebody screamed.

  “To the door!” Eric af Klint ordered, taking his men forward, rather than trying to retreat over the open area between the buildings where they would be perfect targets. He hoped that there weren’t too many Russians in that house. But they did not even make it half way towards the door until it burst open, revealing more muskets.

  Eric knew that he only could do one thing and that was to conti
nue forward, hoping that his men would follow and that the momentum of the attack would carry them through this. If the men broke now and fled, he would not be able to organize them to make a stand again, soon. After all, they were not regular trained troops, but conscripted hybrids between sailors and soldiers. They did not even have proper uniforms, for Christ’s sake.

  “At them!” he screamed, running towards the door, discharging his pistol at the opening. Packed with bodies as it was, he was satisfied to be sure that the bullet would hit somebody at least. He heard his men screaming behind him, so apparently they were still following. And there was more gunfire now, Kuhlin was returning fire from the road. Maybe they still had a chance to pull this off.

  Chapter 16 - Disaster

  Lieutenant Johan Kuhlin cursed under his breath. He should have know this from the start. This so called opportunity just had been too perfect, and now it was starting to turn into a formidable disaster. He had ordered his party to take cover, as little cover as there was to be had, in a ditch on the other side of the road, from where they now were returning fire. Still, the Russians, shooting from the windows on the first floor of the farmhouse, had a far better angle of fire, and better protection yet.

  Fortunately they were bad shots, and his men were reasonably safe so far. Being even worse shots themselves, however, this exchange of fire seemed fairly pointless. It was also an utter waste of the precious little ammunition they carried.

  “Cease fire!” he ordered, risking to lift his head a little in order to get a better view of the house. He wondered what af Klint was doing. Last he had seen him he was taking his party in some kind of heroic dash towards the main entrance of the house, despite being under fire from the very door itself. Kuhlin wondered if this really had been a smart move at all. But af Klint was, after all, a land soldier to the core and not a sailor like himself, so he guessed the gunnery officer knew what he was doing.