Crack of Doom (27 page)

"No, take him into the kitchen. I'll go and attend to my father meanwhile."

As she entered the other room, the men at the window looked toward her. "How is he?" asked Karasek.

"He's all right," she answered. "He's dead."

She went past the dismayed men into the hall and up the dark stairs. Her plans were settled in her mind. Now that Andrej was dead, it was her task to save the house. She would tell the Germans she had nothing to do with the partisans, and if she gave them the secret of where the general was hidden she could be certain they wouldn't do anything to her. But she must get rid of the men first, or else the house would be blown to pieces. For the first time, she noticed it was growing dark.

"Everything's all right," she told her father. "Stay here in this room. When the Germans come, pretend you don't know anything."

"Where's Andrej?" asked Jozef Zamov.

Margita pressed her hands to her breast. "Downstairs. We'll come up to you later. Don't turn the light on."

Returning to the three men below, Margita first went to the table where she had left her sub-machine gun. She could feel them watching her.

Margita furtively wiped her eyes, and then picked up her gun. She looked at the men. "What are you going to do now?" her voice sounded calm.

"Nikolash thinks we should wait for Matuska," answered Karasek. "But suppose he doesn't come?"

"That's what I feel," Kubany whispered anxiously. "We don't want to leave you on your own," he said to Margita, "but anything might happen to us if we stay here, so I'm for clearing out as quickly as possible."

"They want to save their own skins," said Nikolash.

Karasek swung around angrily. He was a medium-sized man with broad shoulders and a commanding voice. "Margita knows very well that we've never yet left anyone in the lurch. If we go off we take Margita with us."

"No," objected Margita. "Ill just go over to Elizabeth's, then I'll only be a few yards away if I'm needed in the house."

"By the Germans?" Nikolash asked suspiciously.

Before she could answer, Sztraka burst into the room. "Three men," he cried.

Nikolash pounced on him. "Where?"

"Coming down the hill."

They ran into Margita's room and looked through the window. In spite of the dusk they saw the men at once, heading straight for the house. When Nikolash recognized the first man, his heart seemed to miss a beat. He leaned forward incredulously. Now he could see their faces distinctly, and there was no mistake. The one with the white winter uniform was Safarik, behind came Arbes and Novakova—the guards at the prisoner's cabin.

Nikolash stood as if turned to stone. A few seconds later the men were in the room, panting. Margita was the first to recover. She pushed through between Kubany and Sztraka, asking loudly: "What are you doing here?"

Arbes took off his cap and beat the snow off it, then put it back on his head. "We couldn't help it," he said.

"Couldn't help what?" asked Nikolash.

"The Germans came with a whole company. We resisted, Tyl was blown up by a hand grenade. . . ." Arbes was still struggling for breath.

Nikolash's voice shook as he asked: "Where are the prisoners?" When nobody answered, he caught hold of Arbes' coat and shouted: "You let them escape?"

"Keep calm," said Karasek. "They couldn't do anything against a whole company."

"We knocked off half of them," said Novakova.

Nikolash pounced on him. "Half of them?"

"How many?"

"I can't tell you exactly. We . . ."

"How many?" yelled Nikolash.

"At least five," stuttered Novakova.

Letting go of Arbes, Nikolash turned to Karasek, his face distorted with rage. "There's your whole company for you. I'll bet there were no more than a dozen."

"Is that right?" asked Karasek.

The three men looked at each other uncomfortably. Novakova, the oldest of them, a man strong as an ox, cleared his throat. "Even if it was only a dozen, there was nothing we could do against them. The moment they'd found the hut, we couldn't keep an eye on the prisoners any longer. In the hut it was. . . ."

"That doesn't interest us now," Karasek interrupted irritably. "You say you shot five?"

"It might have been four."

"Then there aren't more than maybe eight coming after you. How much start have you got?"

"Perhaps half an hour."

Karasek considered. "I don't think we ought
to wait
for them," he said to Nikolash. "They'll find the tracks even by night. What do you think?"

"We stay here," answered Nikolash savagely. He turned to Novakova. "Not enough to let the prisoners escape, is it, you have to draw the Germans down on top of us as well. Who told you to come to Oviz?"

Novakova had recovered by now. "Where else would we have gone?" he said rebelliously. "To Kosice? Let the bastards come. I'll shoot them down by myself if need be. Where's Andrej?"

"Andrej's dead," answered Margita. "We haven't only the eight chasing you—there are five others in the house over there. You couldn't have acted more stupidly." She took a step toward Nikolash. "You must accept the facts. More important now than the prisoners is. . . ."

"The devil is more important," Nikolash broke in. He felt completely put out by what had happened. This time the Germans had struck back at once which meant they were well informed. He could get over the ten officers but if the general was freed as well, he could never face Pushkin again. Nikolash assumed that the Germans who had run into Novakova and his men were part of a larger unit, as were the five in Sztraka's house. They had divided their men up into small sections to go snooping over the mountains and sooner or later they would come swarming along to Oviz . . . Oviz, well, Nikolash thought, why shouldn't they? As long as they were in Oviz they couldn't cause any trouble on the Golden Table. One must throw them some bait to distract them and meanwhile he could take the general elsewhere. The only problem was, he realized, how to persuade the men to stay in the house instead of clearing out. He looked at them and thought contemptuously: that oughtn't to be too difficult!

"The thing that makes me maddest," Karasek was saying, "is the general having escaped. You should at least have taken
him
along with you."

"General?" exclaimed Novakova in surprise. "But we had no general with us up there."

"The general is safe," Nikolash interjected hastily. He turned to the men and said: "We'll stay here and wait for the other eight Germans to come. Or are you scared of them?"

Karasek shook his head. "If it were only the eight, I'd be for staying here too. But with the five in our rear it's too risky."

Nikolash drew up a chair and threw himself on to it. "Assuming we clear out of here," he said quietly, "what do you imagine will happen?"

"What
can
happen?" said Margita.

"You ask that? If you were a man, I'd knock you down for being so stupid." He turned to the others. "Imagine if the Germans found nobody they could string up. We've shot four of their people, and you know what that means. They drive together all the men, women and children from Oviz they can lay their hands on, fetch the cattle from the stables, and finally set fire to the houses. The men are shot, the women and children are taken to a camp, to be buried there a few weeks later. What do you say to that?"

The men looked at him in dismay. Sensing their uncertainty, he went on in a casual voice: "It was like that in Muran, and also in Dobra. In Dobra our people had only shot one German. The next day there wasn't a stone left standing. In Oviz we've shot four; so if we clear off, it'll be even worse. The Germans know very well that the Red Army will get to Oviz tomorrow, so they don't have to consider the consequences. They'll vent their fury on everyone and everything they can find. In an hour the whole village will be in flames, as sure as my name's Nikolash." He rose slowly and concluded: "All right, it's not my village, and not my people. I don't have any relations here. As far as I'm concerned, we can clear out now. I'm going to get my things."

Without a glance at the silent men he went into the front room. In the darkness he took a large bag out of a chest and put on his best coat. When he returned the men were standing around uncertainly. Nikolash went to the window and dumped his bag outside. He slung his sub-machine gun over his shoulder in such a way that it wouldn't impede his walking. Then he looked at the men. "Well, what about it?" he asked.

Karasek cleared his throat "Supposing we do stay here, what then?"

"But you don't want to. . . ."

"Well, Kubany and Sztraka think it's best we do stay and I understand that. They both have a house and family in Oviz, and I wouldn't like to be blamed either if anything happens to those. The only question is, are we in a position to stop it happening with the few men we've got? Do you see any chance?" He had spoken quickly and quietly. Now the men turned their eyes to the dark massive figure of Nikolash standing at the window.

He folded his arms. "I've already told you," he answered in a bored voice. "Matuska and his men should be here any minute. Then there'll be forty-three of us. That means we can hold the house for the night, and tomorrow morning our divisions will be here."

"I keep hearing: we," said Margita. "But you're going to Dobsma tonight, aren't you?"

"If you'll stay here," Nikolash declared calmly, "so will I."

His words impressed the men. Karasek breathed a sigh of relief. "That changes matters," he said. "Then we've only got to consider what will happen if first, the Germans bring reinforcements, and second, the Russian divisions don't come tomorrow."

"I can straighten you out on that. For the moment, we've only got to worry about the eight Germans. If they wanted to bring reinforcements, they couldn't turn up before morning. And as for our divisions, they are on the way to Szomolnok right now. I wouldn't risk my own neck if I didn't know it was a certainty. Of course one could. . . ." He paused and looked pensive. "Ill make you another suggestion. If I went on to the road, I could meet Matuska. In case the Germans come first, you'll hear from me how many of them there are."

"That sounds a good idea," said Karasek; "what do you think, Novakova?"

Novakova nodded agreement. "If Nikolash is on the road, the eight men can't take us by surprise." He looked at Nikolash. "It'll be best if you go up there straight away. Meanwhile we can put on a little heat for the others. Are they still over there, by the way?"

"Let's see," said Nikolash. They all went into the front room, where Nikolash approached the window from the side. He took the gun off his shoulder, pushed the barrel through the broken panes, and fired a few shots across the street

The fire was returned at once. For a few seconds a furious rain of bullets rattled into the room, accompanied by a flare of pale lights: the Germans were using tracers. As Sztraka's house stood on lower ground, the shots entered at an angle, crashing into the back wall or through the open door into the ceiling of Margita's room.

The men pressed fearfully against the wall, waiting for the fire to stop. Nikolash slung the gun back over his shoulder, remarking: "Damn. They're still over there."

"So I noticed," said Novakova thickly. "Have you got tracer ammunition too?"

"A whole chest full," said Nikolash. "In Andrej's room. Margita can show you."

He looked around for Margita. "Novakova wants tracer ammunition," he told her. "Show him the chest"

"You must watch her," Nikolash said to the others. "Since Andrej died, she's thought of nothing but her own skin."

Nobody answered.

"We can shake them up with this all right," said Novakova, re-entering the room and putting a dozen magazines down on the table. He picked up bis submachine gun eagerly, and noticing Nikolash, asked in aggressive tones: "You're still here, are you?" Since he knew Nikolash was not staying in the house, he considered himself as the men's leader.

Karasek, who did not like to see Novakova assuming this role, said: "I'm against any superfluous firing."

"This is by no means superfluous," said Novakova loftily. "We won't have half the trouble with the boys over there if we soften them up a bit first."

"If they let you," growled Kubany.

"Oh, don't try to put him off," protested Sztraka, impressed by Novakova's self-confident bearing. He wanted to get back into his house as swiftly as possible, and Novakova seemed the right man to chase the Germans out of it. "We're having far too much talk," said Arbes. "Novakova knows the best way to deal with the Germans."

"Is that why he ran away from them?" jeered Karasek.

As they went on quarreling Nikolash quietly went into Margita's room, jumped out of the window, and picked up his bag. Then he started to climb the hill, choosing the nearest way to the wood, so that after a few yards he had already diverged from the tracks Novakova and his men had left behind. He was not worried about the Germans in Sztraka's house, it was too dark now for them to be able to see him. There wasn't a light in the whole village. The snow-covered houses hardly stood out from the white valley, and all that could be seen of the mountains on the other side were dim shapes.

He had reached the edge of the wood when he heard shots being fired in the valley. The snowfall had again abated a little. Below to the right, where the men were, he saw tracer ammunition hissing through the air in glowing arcs. The rattle of submachine guns came to him clear and sharp. Nikolash watched a moment and then turned and started climbing through the wood.

The sound of gunfire behind him grew gradually fainter till after half an hour he could no longer hear it. He walked on steadily until he had almost reached Svedler. There, where the road led steeply downhill, he could see lights glimmering between the trees further below.

He threw away his cigarette and went into the trees alongside the road. Now he could hear the motor of a truck. The road rose steeply here, and the truck was climbing it at a walking pace. A moment later he saw the headlight beams between the trees. Sticking out his head he peered toward the car and noticed the peculiar-shaped red bumper. Taking his bag, he came forward on to the road. Even before the truck stopped, Matuska had jumped out.