Crossword

by Alan Bricklin

  Precisely at 7:00 AM there was a knock, and without asking who it was Eva threw open the door, saying as she turned the handle, "Right on time, sergeant."

  The same soldier who had helped her move in stood at attention and gave a short respectful bow of the head. "Good morning, Fraulein. Here are the necessary papers", handing her a small neat packet, tied with a simple piece of string, "and the car is outside as you requested. One of my men is waiting there with the keys. Shall I wait there for you?"

  "No, you can take my bag down. There's one duffel; it's in the bedroom."

  "Yes, Fraulein." He didn't look especially happy about carrying dunnage, but blamed himself for not bringing one of the young privates with him. However, a disciplined smile on his face, he retrieved the bag and headed towards the stairs.

  Eva turned back to Larry who answered her unasked question, "I'm ready."

  "Good. Let us go, then."

  He slung his pack over one shoulder, and without looking back he preceded Eva out the door while she locked the apartment behind her, stepped past Larry and began the descent to the street. Following on her heels, he exited the building into bright sunlight, the glare making him squint, but the fresh air and light after two days of being cooped up inside lifted his spirits. Eva took the keys from the soldier, who opened the door for her and then politely closed it as she slid behind the wheel and turned the ignition. "Lorenz, put your bag in the back and climb in. We must get started right away." The sergeant approached the driver's side and began speaking to Eva through the partly opened window, asking if there was anything more he could do, although he really didn't give two shits about this arrogant beauty; however, he was always concerned about maintaining the favor of his commander, General Waldman. Eva looked up at him, not really caring about what he was saying, and when she heard Larry slip in next to her and close the door, she put the car in gear and sped away, leaving the soldier in mid sentence, mouth open in silent anger.

  The city was already alive with people rushing to work or beginning the daily quest for sustenance and survival as social as well as government institutions continued their downward spiral. But in spite of the activity, the roads were clear, little gasoline being available for the general public, and even in those few sections of Munich where traffic clogged the streets, deference was given to the black Mercedes, for even though it bore no markings anyone who saw it knew it carried some high ranking member of the Nazi party or some very well connected citizen. Either was to be avoided.

  In relatively short order they crossed through the city and emerged on rural roads, not unlike those that had led Larry to Munich just two days ago. Five kilometers outside of the city, Eva slowed, looking around for something, a landmark, he supposed, and glanced sideways at her, trying not to show his concern. She sped up again and turned briefly to Larry, commenting, "Things have changed since I was last here."

  He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. Maybe I'm making too much of her not remembering where the entrance to the storage cellar is. People do forget things. And with a war going on all around you it's got to be stressful. Shit, you could forget your own name. Anyway, we're going to the barn now so she must know where that is.

  A right turn tilted his now relaxed body towards the driver's side, closer to Eva, and he could smell her perfume, the fragrance eliciting in his mind the picture of her standing naked in front of him, her taut, sculpted body like the siren call of some enchantress who lured to their death all who listened. He shook free from this image, forcing himself to think of her as an unfortunate young woman whose parents had been murdered and who was now the ward of a tired old soldier disillusioned with the nation that had birthed him, and those who had usurped the minds of its inhabitants. Larry forced himself to focus on the fast approaching critical point, a time and place when options would be very constricted. The plutonium was in only one place and he sensed that they were barely ahead of the inrushing tides of war that could soon engulf them, making the retrieval hopeless. They made another turn, this time to the left, and he opened his eyes as the car slowed and began bumping along a dirt road.

  "We are almost there. See, up ahead on the right, that old barn. That was the place." She proceeded cautiously along the rutted dirt road, the Mercedes rolling from side to side, and turned off on a short side spur that led right up to the barn entrance. Veering off onto a grassy area bordering the run down building, Eva cut the ignition, leaned back and took a deep breath. She looked slowly around, pretending to be lost in a reverie of earlier times, but actually looking to see if they had been observed. Larry had already done his own surveillance and was satisfied that they were alone. "Best for me not to spend time reminiscing. Let us get this package that is so important and be on our way." Without waiting for any reply or comment from Larry, she hopped out of the car and walked to the large doors, both of which seemed to be canted at an angle. When they stood in front of the barn doors it was apparent why they were askew. The wood that supported the massive hinges was splintered and out of line, and when Eva tugged on one of the doors it refused to budge, its bottom edge resting firmly on the ground. "Probably rotten."

  "Let's look for another entrance," Larry said and began walking around to the side, to skirt the perimeter. He heard her grunt as she tried one more time before catching up to him in his circumnavigation. Actually he hadn't gone very far and was standing just around the corner of the building looking at a debris field forming a circular berm in the meadow adjacent to the barn. "That's a bomb crater over there, probably a five hundred pounder by the size of the wall it kicked up. The concussion from that could easily have knocked those doors off their hinges." They quickly finished their inspection, and although they noticed a few areas where small areas of the roof and upper walls had collapsed, there was nothing that could serve as an alternate entrance. Back at the front again, Larry grabbed hold of the edge of one of the doors, asked Eva to use the ringed pull, and together they strained to wrest it free. It moved less than an inch, pushing a pile of dirt in front of it. "Shit! This is never going to work." He stepped back to take another look at the out-of-kilter doors, tapping his fist against his mouth as he contemplated the situation, then turned to Eva and said, "There ought to be a jack and some tools in the trunk of the car, especially if it's a military loaner. Let's take a look and see what we have.

  "Pay dirt!" Larry moved a few items around in the capacious trunk, nodding his head as he did so and commenting, "Yep, this should do it. Take the shovel, I'll grab the jack and the crowbar." They deposited their booty on the ground and Larry returned to the car where he unfastened the spare tire and rolled it over. "We ought to be able to jack up the door so it clears the ground and then move it open in stages until the passage way is big enough. The hardest part will be getting the jack under it in the first place. I'll have to dig out the ground about five feet back from the edge." He picked up the shovel and began digging. Fortunately the ground was not very hard and he soon had a hole that he thought was deep enough, but now he had to start tunneling under the door so he could slide the jack in place. Because of the angle involved this was more difficult and he was sweating heavily, pausing every once in a while to straighten and stretch his back. Finally he lay the shovel down and placed the jack in the excavation where it almost cleared the lower edge of the door. "Almost there; I just have to deepen it a little and level off the bottom." Eva had been pacing back and forth like a caged animal and she now paused, mumbled something, almost certainly an expletive, he thought, then took up a position next to Larry.

  With a device in place to provide lift, he laid the tire alongside the door and tossed the crowbar next to it. "Maria, I'm going to need your help. When the door is raised the tire has to be slid under to support it and it needs to be done quickly since this will not be the most stable contraption. The jack is levered and won't take all that much strength; you should be able to do it. I can get it started for you but then you'll have to take over so I can be ready to
get the tire under as soon as there's sufficient clearance. Can you handle that?"

  "I will do what has to be done."

  Larry inserted the handle in the jack and started pumping, the first few strokes easy as the lifting plate rose to make contact with the door. At this point there was an abrupt change and he had to exert significantly more effort. He used a smooth motion, and although the old structure registered its displeasure with assorted creaks and an occasional snapping sound that had him worried, the door nevertheless slowly inched upward. When the edge of the door was clear of the ground he stopped and hastily inspected the set up. He considered continually placing chock blocks under the door each step of the way as it was elevated but decided that would take too long and he was more worried about the whole mess buckling, not to mention the fact that there was nothing convenient to use as the supports. "Here, Maria, take over. Try not to jerk the handle. I'll do what I can to stabilize the door until it's high enough to get the tire under it."

  Eva stepped up to the jack, bent over, and using both hands began to work the pump with surprising strength. Larry placed the crowbar in the small space between the doors and kept his shoulder against the outside, ready to do what he could to keep the large portal from slipping off the jack. As soon as there was clearance he yelled to Eva to stop then dropped to his knees, inserted his hands under the tire and used his upper body to slide it under the door. He pushed it far enough so the weight of the door would rest on the metal core of the tire and not just on the rubber. Quickly standing he returned to the jack and slowly lowered it until the bottom of the door rested on the tire. When this was done he relaxed, letting some of the accumulated tension dissipate, and took the time to pay Eva a compliment. "You did great. You're a strong woman."

  Looking at the door perched on its support, and not hearing any splintering wood, he assumed it would hold, and a closer inspection of the lower hinges indicated that they looked fairly secure and should help stabilize the new position. "There's an awful lot of downward pressure on that tire, and I'm not sure we could slide it, but if we attach that tow chain in the trunk I'll bet we can pull the door open with the car."

  "Very good! That will save us time and effort. And if that doesn't work maybe we can just pull the whole damn door off."

  Larry was already walking to the car and let out a short laugh. "I like the way you think. Back the car up while I figure a way to hook up the chain." Since the wheel had stout open spokes this was a simple procedure involving looping the chain through the openings and fastening it to the tow ring protruding from the rear of the car frame. Larry made the assumption that if they slowly moved the tire, the door that rested on it would go along for the ride rather than the tire simply being pulled out from under it. He had Eva remain behind the wheel while he picked up the crowbar again and positioned himself so that he could try to lever the door back into place if it began to lose its purchase on the tire.

  "Let out the clutch very slowly and be ready to stop if I yell." Eva controlled the car with great competence and it inched forward, slowly taking up the slack in the chain until it was taught and met resistance, then fed it more gas, not fully engaging the clutch but letting the car creep along at a snail's pace. As soon as the door moved enough, Larry slipped in behind and leaned his weight against it, wedging the crowbar between the door and the tire under it for added control as it proceeded on its slow journey. Several times the tire started to get ahead of the door but he was able to maintain their relative positions during the brief, but seemingly agonizingly long, sled ride. Finally he shouted, "OK, that's far enough," and Eva took the car out of gear and killed the motor.

  Without any kind of congratulations, or even an acknowledgement of Larry's skill, she marched over to the opening and peered inside. Several shafts of light from the afternoon sun shone down through openings in the roof and walls, and while they illuminated discrete patches of the floor, the small circles of light did little to reduce the dusk-like atmosphere inside the cavernous barn. He came up alongside her and motioned her to follow him. "Let's get inside, our eyes will adjust in a minute, just don't look back out at the light." They stood there in silence and then Eva abruptly strode off to the far left corner of the barn where she kicked some dirt and trampled hay aside to reveal the trap door entrance to the underground storage cellar.

  "Here it is," she cried, turning to Larry, arms akimbo. She watched him intently and could see his initial surprise change to relief. After her interrogation of Maria, Eva had realized her faux pas when she had previously agreed to his statement as to the location of the entrance, but there was no way to remedy that until now. He might chalk up the episode to a variety of things, but the bottom line was that she had now demonstrated that she knew what she was supposed to as Maria. Larry, for his part, was unfortunately only too glad to ignore it and focus on retrieving the plutonium. He joined her and the two of them cleaned away the debris that covered the hatch, a heavy metal ring pull coming into view as the full expanse of the entrance was exposed.

  He bent down, took hold of the handle with both hands and lifted the top aside, easing it down until it rested on the ground. A wooden ladder led down into a darkness to which they would never become adapted. "We'll need a flashlight."

  "I brought one with. I knew we would need it. Be right back."

  While she returned to the car, Larry inspected the inside of the barn. There were a few bales of rotting hay, their binding coming lose and the straw spreading out along the floor, giving the impression that it was melting. A few cartons littered the floor, apparently empty, and several broken tools or implements lay scattered around. Overhead there was a pulley system, part of a block and tackle for lowering items from the storage loft that rose above the perimeter, extending outward from the walls and supported by sturdy uprights positioned around its edge forming a colonnade on the ground level of the barn. Large nails protruded from some of the supports, and a few held the remnants of what he thought were equestrian harnesses, the closest one looking like it was rotting, the leather dry and brittle. He stared down into the opening below, but although he could see several more rungs of the ladder now that his eyes were more adjusted to the dim light, the subterranean chamber itself remained a mystery. The sound of Eva returning caused him to look up, and he watched as her figure moved from the bright light at the door into the tenebrous interior, motes drifting aimlessly in the shafts of sunlight that shone down through the roof, illuminating ellipses of the floor much like spotlights waiting for some performer to step into their glare.

  "Here, let's take a look," she said, handing a large flashlight to Larry. He squatted on his haunches and aimed the beam first along the length of the ladder and then onto the floor below, angling the light in various directions to see as much as was possible from his current position.

  "The ladder looks intact, but I don't see very much of the chamber itself." She was knelt behind him, looking over his shoulders and silently nodded her assent.

  "I'll go down and look around. Hold the flashlight until I get onto the ladder and make sure it's not rotted out." Standing up, he relinquished the torch to her before sitting at the edge of the opening and placing his feet on one of the upper rungs, grabbing hold of the supports and swinging his weight onto the ladder. He placed each of his feet as close to the supports as possible, where it was apt to be the most secure if the wood had been weakened from rot, and held on tightly. The ladder held. He tested the two rungs above him by yanking on them with one of his hands, then checked the rung below with one foot before transferring all of his weight. "It seems to be intact; hand me the flashlight." Proceeding gingerly, his right arm hooked around the upright support on one side and the flashlight in his left hand, he eased himself down the ladder, each rung taking his weight without protest. He paused on the third step from the floor and swung the beam of light around the storage area, a space that was larger than he had thought, and numerous boxes, cartons, tools and supplies were scattered abou
t. As he placed his foot on the next rung, he forgot to position it at the edge, and when he shifted his weight onto it, there was a sudden snapping sound as the wood split in the center and dropped him down to the final step, which also buckled under the impact, his extended leg smashing into the hard packed earthen floor and his body thrown backward onto the dirt. Sharp pain shot through his knee even before he hit the floor, and he lay there, the wind knocked out of him, praying that no bones were broken, no ligaments snapped. The flashlight rolled on the floor, coming to rest several feet away pointing at his head, his grimaces of pain lit up for Eva to see from above.

  "Shit! Are you hurt, Lorenz?"

  "Don't know yet. Give me a minute." He lay there panting, then moved both his arms, rolled his shoulders, twisted his torso side to side and alternately flexed and extended his left leg. Finally he cautiously moved his right leg, gently bending it at the knee. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt that much, and he was optimistic that there was no serious injury. He pushed himself to a sitting position and called up, "I don't think anything's broken. Jammed my knee and got the wind knocked out of me. Hopefully that's all. I'm going to get up now." Larry rolled to his left into a squat and started to straighten up. Knife like pain exploded in his leg and the knee buckled, dropping him once again to the floor.

  "What happened?"

  "Let me try that again." He slid on his butt to the ladder where he could hold on for support, then attempted to stand, putting most of the burden on his left leg. This time it worked and he stood there holding on while he delicately shifted more weight to the injured leg, a move that elicited throbbing discomfort but not the paroxysm of agony he had felt before. Still holding on to the upright, his arm like a tether, he took several steps along the circumference of the path allowed him. Each step brought a yell of complaint from his knee, but as he walked back and forth a few times the cry subsided to mere grousing and after a few minutes he was able to walk unassisted although somewhat out of kilter due to a pronounced limp. "Alright, I'm going to take a look around."