On the Edge of Darkness (Special Force Orca Book 1) (11 page)

“
Quite, Wilson…” hissed Hogg,” Her she comes.”

The grey nose of an E-boat emerged from the gloom, on her
fo’c’s’le a German seaman held a bow line curled in one hand.

“
They’re coming alongside alright… stand by to take their lines.”

The
English seamen shouldered their machine pistols and moved to their places by the barge’s mooring bollards.

The enemy bowman said something to Wilson as he threw the rope over the rail.

“You there!” shouted Hogg, “Keep silent! We have no time for idle chat. Get on with your work.”

Oberleutnant Kaleun, commanding the German boat, looked up from
the clipboard he was studying,” Thank you, Herr Stabsoberfeldwebel, but I am quite capable of giving my men any orders they may require”

Hogg managed to look shocked
at the reprimand and the hastily hidden grins from the German seamen. A long and awkward silence followed the telling off. Which suited Hogg to a tee it was exactly what he had hoped for; his quick thinking had stopped the Germans discovering his men couldn’t speak the language.

A
working party of four Germans jumped across onto the ammunition barge and began clearing away the lashings of on the tarpaulins covering the holds. The wordless assurance with which the Germans worked showed they had done it many times before. With the tarpaulins turned back they formed a chain and began to move ammunition.

On the bridge Kaleun
was writing on his clipboard. He looked up from the paperwork with some surprise at yet another outburst from the young second Lieutenant directed at his men.

This time the
irritable Stabsoberfeldwebel’s own captain laid into him, he couldn’t hear what was said, but it was clear from the expression on the youngsters face that his captain was not, to say the least, pleased with his subordinate’s conduct. Suddenly the captain grabbed the youngster by the elbow, and frog-marched him in Kaleun’s direction.

Kaleun
, standing with one gloved hand on his hip and a smirk on his face, enjoyed the spectacle. It must have been a common occurrence, for the crew on the other boat took it all in their stride, hardly looking up from their work.

Kaleun turned as Grant propelled a sheepish looking Hogg up the ladder to Kaleun
’s bridge. Grant smiled and shrugged apologetically and held out his hand. The German Captain took a pace forward and held out his. Suddenly, he found his arm twisted up his back and the barrel of a pistol thrust into his ear. The man holding the gun spoke in English, English which was immediately translated by the young Stabsoberfeldwebel.

“
Stay still, keep quiet…Tell your crew, all of them, to muster on the jetty… now!”

*     *     *

With the ammunitioning completed by the German seamen, two British seamen moved quickly along the line tying the hands of their prisoners. With the heavy machine guns from both vessels trained on them the Germans offered no resistance.

“
We’ve done it again, sir,” said Hogg awkwardly climbing the bridge ladder with a fat folder under one arm. He dropped his burden onto the chart table and opened it out.

Grant peered over his shoulder,
“Done what?”

“
A month’s worth of recognition signals and… look at this,” he drew out a buff envelope. “The skipper’s orders, signed by an Admiral, no less… can’t make out the signature; but they make interesting reading. Tonight, they were going to Trondheim to collect a group of Norwegian politicians and high-ranking officers, along with their Gestapo interrogators. They were meant to take them back to Germany. Looks as if we’ve spoilt a spot of home leave, for them; no wonder they look so glum.”

Grant crossed quickly to the port side and leant over the lowered windscreen.
“Petty Officer Stone, you’ve been promoted again, take charge of the ‘Eddy’, divide the prisoners in half and share them amongst the two boats lash ‘em down on the fo’c’s’le …it’s going to be a rough ride!”

“
Shall I reset the timer?” asked Stone.

Grant
hesitated; he had noticed something earlier, “No… Wait one… Have you noticed the tide and the wind are in the same direction?”

“
Westerly, yes sir, from us to the old harbour.”

“
And the big fat German merchantmen alongside,” added Grant. “How far away would you say they are?”

The big P.O. turned to face east,
“About a mile, sir, I would say, perhaps a little less.”

“
See what arrangements the Germans have on the trot’s anchors fore and aft… see if you’ll be able to split the cables.”

He turned back to Hogg
, “Sorry but I have to give command of the ‘Eddy’ to Stone instead of to you, but you can see my dilemma.”

Hogg held
palms out in front, “Erh…That’s perfectly alright, sir. It’s your decision… if I may say so; you do underestimate your own German. Why do you need me, I thought we were on our way back.”

“
Because we’re not, at least not straight away, I’m going to need that German of yours again.”

Hogg tapped
the folder with one knuckle, “Anything to do with this, sir?”

Petty Office Stone
appeared beside them, interrupting the conversation.

“
They use the same sort of gear as us on their anchors, sir, nothing we can’t handle. I can take the weight off the cable with their bottle screw and then take out a joining link and slip the lot, if that’s what you want.”

“
That’s exactly what I want, Petty Officer. You slip one anchor and get O’Neill to do the other. You can take half our men with you to crew the ‘Eddy’… I’ll set the timer, I don’t see why Jerry should be sleeping while we’re working, do you?”

“
You’re going to give them a rude awakening, sir.”

“
That’s the general idea.”

“
Do we wait for you to give us the all clear before we break the cable?”

“
Yes…they need to be slipped more or less together.”

“
Aye, Aye, sir.”

*     *     *

The two E-boats eased astern, backing away from the ammunition barges. The tide and wind caught the eight barges and, still tied together, they drifted rapidly away towards the dark shoreline.

Like well rehearsed dancers the
two boats turned smoothly together and, with Grant’s boat in the lead, Shot, at full speed, towards the fjord’s entrance.

The sentry at the old watchtower recognis
ed the snarl of the boat’s Daimler diesels, rather than the boats themselves and let them pass without bothering to switch on his searchlight.

*     *     *

Wilson swung the heavy machine gun round on its mounting to let Wyatt by.

“
Did you see the face on Bushel when the skipper told him he had to look after those prisoners until we got back.”

“
Royals! Never could understand ‘em, if that had been me, I’d be well chuffed to be left behind. The skipper’s going to need more flannel than a Pusser’s blanket to get away with this… Is that the town ahead?” he nodded towards the black outline of buildings silhouetted against snow.

“
That’s it,” Wyatt pointed, “and that, over there to the right, is the jetty where we are going to pick up the passengers.”

“
Ain’t worth you going below, we’ll be there in no time.”

As if on cue the engines died away and the boat
’s raked bow sank slowly down to reveal more of the coastline.

*     *     *

“I think that must be the building at this end of the jetty, I can see two guards,” Grant lowered his binoculars. “You’ll be on your own once you’re ashore Middy. If it seems matters aren’t going well, make some excuse to get outside, go for a pee, tell them you’ve forgotten some papers, anything. Then get back here, we’ll be ready to give you covering fire should you need it. If you pull it off and those guards come with you, use the same tactics you used on the ammunition barges to stop them talking to our men, inspirational stuff that, by the way.”

Hogg smiled as Grant continued,
“Try to make the guards see we have no need of them and that we’ll be responsible for the prisoners once they step foot onboard. Plead lack of space, that might work. Last thing we need is a bunch of Jerries swarming all over the bloody…”

S
uddenly, on the port beam, a blinding flash of orange light lit up the sky. Moments later, the thunder of a huge explosion reverberated around the fjord echoing back from the tree-covered mountains. Before the noise of the explosion had completely died away, a volley of smaller explosions sent rockets of light and flame soaring skyward. The whole northern sky lit up like day. The inferno grew in its intensity, from the midst of the blazing light a huge mushroom of smoke rose into the sky reflecting the flashes from the explosions beneath it.

On the jetty
, German soldiers were spilling from the huts to stand open mouthed staring at the huge firework display that was erupting just beyond the mountain’s black silhouette. Indeed the whole town had been awakened; people were running from their houses to line the shoreline.

Almost unnoticed, the E-boat bumped alongside,
before any lines could be passed, Hogg, clutching his wad of German papers had jumped the gap between the deck and the jetty. Not looking to right or left he marched swiftly towards the hut, stopped, showed his papers, spoke briefly to the guards and went inside. The door had hardly closed when it swung open again. Hogg emerged followed by two men in black leather jackets. He pointed towards the explosions and the three men stood watching for a few moments before, turning, they went back inside.

As Grant waited the explosions
slowly died away and the darkness returned. A welcome darkness that crept across the fjord until only the water on the far shore reflected the glow of the flames. Convoys of vehicles and escorting motor cycles began to leave the town, passing along the shore road in a seemingly endless stream. Grant began to worry that he had created too much of a diversion; he willed the door of the hut to open again.

It was a
long five minutes before it did; a helmeted guard was first out, followed by a file of six men chained together by their ankles. Even in the poor light Grant could see the caked blood on faces. The two men in the leather jackets and one other uniformed guard followed, close on their heels, to Grant’s intense relief, came Hogg.

The prisoners and
their escort had just reached the bottom of the gangway when, worryingly, Hogg and the two Gestapo men became embroiled in a heated discussion. Grant, although too far away to understand a word, could detect frustration and anger in their voices. Hogg seemed to be losing the argument; finally he shrugged dramatically and turned away as he did so he glanced up at the bridge, there was a worried expression on his face. A second later Grant realised why. The prisoners were pushed towards the gangway and the Gestapo men followed.

Grant walked casually across to the unmanned machine gun and flicked off the safety.

Below, Hogg motioned to Wilson and Wyatt and they began dragging the gangway inboard. It was then that Wyatt tripped on one of the ropes. He must have said something for suddenly the two Gestapo men swung round, shouted, reaching inside their jackets.

Then everything seemed to go into slow motion. The guards on the jetty hauled their machine pistols from their shoulde
rs, the Gestapo men pulled revolvers from their coats. Wyatt kicked out and one of the Germans dropped to the deck. Wilson delivered a blow to this head with the butt of his gun. Feet away Hogg wrestled with the other man.

On the bridge Grant swung the gun round and
, aiming at the guards still on the jetty, fired one long, sweeping burst. The men took the short-range fire full in the chest jerking rapidly backwards like discarded puppets. Immediately he hauled the heavy gun round to cover the jetty yelling for the ropes to be slipped. There was a long burst of fire from aft and Grant saw a leather-clad figure hit the port guard rails his body almost cut in half by Wilson’s Schmeisser.

Ashore the door to the interrogation hut slammed back against
its hinges, a group of men burst forth. Grant opened fire, lifting the men from their feet, twitching and jerking they were thrown back against the side of the hut.

“
Wheelhouse! Full astern starboard, full ahead port! Wheel hard a starboard.” With a roar the powerful engines screamed into life swinging the bow out from the jetty.

“
Stop starboard. All engines full ahead, steer west!” The length of the jetty had suddenly filled with the bobbing, weaving figures of more soldiers. Grant opened a withering fire. Flashes of tracer arced back and forth between the wooden structures like angry fireflies. The opposition took cover and returned the fire. Splinters and sparks flew from the stern rail.