The Rat Patrol 3 - The Trojan Tank Affair (18 page)

Olympe glanced at the overalls she was wearing and brushed them with the tips of her fingers.

"At least, let me be feminine," she said and laughed; nervously, Moffitt thought. "There." She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him to the divan. "Sit there and talk while I change. We can't waste a moment of this precious time."

She brushed through an opening draped with sheer silk that fluttered after her.

"Your father?" Moffitt began, lighting a cigarette. The tobacco was Turkish and heavy, not unpleasant to his taste.

"Father died four years ago," Olympe said softly. "He saw what was coming and feared it. It would have crushed him to see what has happened to France."

"And you, Olympe?" Moffitt asked uneasily. "You sympathize with the Free French and yet you live here unmolested in enemy territory."

"And you wonder to what degree I cooperate to stay in their favor," she said seriously. "I suppose that is natural enough. The Germans have not been here long, Jack, no more than two months. I have been reasonably friendly but only because it has served my purpose, which is to preserve my father's work. And only to a point, silly goose, if you are concerned enough about me to wonder whether I have taken a German lover."

"I'm happy, Olympe," Moffitt said simply. "I did wonder. There was a German here with you earlier tonight. We heard him from the kitchen."

"Yes," she said readily. "He is the commander of the armored unit they are assembling nearby. He has been kind to me and understanding, for a German. It was he who issued the safe conduct pass for my caravan. He is devoted to his family and it is lonely for him. He comes occasionally for supper or just to talk. He has never made an improper suggestion or advance and his friendship stands between me and other German officers, who might be demanding or even compelling. When the searching party came to my gate tonight, it was Captain Dietrich who sent them away."

"Captain Dietrich!" Moffitt exclaimed, standing excitedly and crushing his cigarette in the tray. "Captain Dietrich is in charge of this armored unit?"

"Yes, Jack. Are you acquainted with him?"

"Our favorite enemy," he said with a short laugh. The campaign in this sector would be something special with Dietrich running it. "We'd wondered what had happened to him. I don't suppose he discusses military affairs with you?"

"I don't think he has said anything that would be of value," she said slowly. "You may ask questions, Jack. I shall answer if I can."

''We're interested in his campaign. I doubt you'd know anything of that. His strength, what armor he is assembling, when and where he plans to strike."

"I can tell you only that you have little time," Olympe said and he heard her moving in the bedroom. "I asked him to come to supper tomorrow evening. He declined because tomorrow evening he is having a meeting with his staff officers to brief them on a new offensive. Now, if we are finished with disagreeable topics, I am coming out." She swept through the curtains and Moffitt drew his breath in quickly. She had brushed her hair in a ragged gamin bang across her forehead and her large brown eyes were faintly accented with shadow. He did not know whether her warm tan cheeks were flushed or rouged but she was wearing no lipstick and her darkly red lips were inviting. Beneath a diaphanous peignoir, her breasts were high and pointed and she lifted them as she took a breath and stood before him, waiting.

He pulled her to him and kissed her, gently and lingeringly. Then they moved to the divan and she laid her cheek to his.

"Olympe," he said chokingly and reached for a cigarette. "I must ask another question. Have you ever been to German headquarters? Do you know where Dietrich will bold his staff meeting?"

"I should be angry," she said, lighting his cigarette and me for herself. "All right, we shall talk for a few minutes only. Then no more. I have never been to the German camp. No one is permitted within the staging area. He has told me how he lives because he finds his quarters bare and uninviting. The Germans have erected a masonry building for headquarters. On one side at the front, there is a large general room for officers and that is where he holds his meetings. Behind it is his office and at the rear, his bedroom. I know this because he has complained that the only time he can get away from the military is when he comes here."

"Do you know if he came to Agarawa tonight with five other officers?"

"They generally come in a group," she said, snuggling against him "They do not like to travel alone in this country even though they occupy it. Now, no more questions about anything that is military. Why did you never write me, Jack?"

Moffitt slid his arm around her waist and drew her closer. "Children sometimes have notions that become convictions," he said. "I was certain you had forgotten me the moment we left Agarawa. I kept building the pedestal under you higher and higher until I could no longer reach you. Then there was the university. I was immersed. Now the war."

"No other girl?"

"No," he said honestly. "No, there is no other." He smiled reflectively. "I didn't write letters, but I did write passionate poetry to you."

"Do you remember the words?" she asked, smiling at him.

"Yes. All of them," Moffitt replied, holding her close to him. "But I can say all of them with a kiss."

It was oh-one-forty-five when Olympe, dressed again in the green, fatigue-like coveralls, led Moffitt through the passage beneath the kitchen. She flashed her light on the window in the masonry wall and he stepped into the building ahead of her. It had been only partially excavated and they walked across the room in a crouch. He could see the faint tracings of geometric decorations at the cornice of a plastered wall. They crawled through a ten-foot tunnel into the next structure which was large with fluted marble columns reaching from the dirt to support an ornate ceiling. Tunnels crossed several flat tiled roofs and then they stepped down into a room that had been excavated to a marble floor. Blankets were strewn on the door and there were utensils and the charred remains of a fire.

"Jacquot, Henri and Paolo lived here," Olympe said, lowering the flashlight to her feet. She whispered, "Hold me, Jack. Kiss me again."

His lips touched hers and he was filled with love.

"Come with us now," he urged. "We have a place where you can hide and wait. After we've been to the German camp, we'll come back for you and take you to Bir-el-Alam. From there you can go to Algiers and wait for me until the war is over."

"Jack, Jack, Jack," she said lightly, skipping ahead and out the building. "I have explained why I cannot leave Agarawa. I shall be here, if you still want me." She laughed. "Come back, at least to see this buried city, when you have more time."

They crawled through a long tunnel that was shored, and Olympe pushed aside a stone. They were in a rubble heap at the bottom of a cistern that had been covered. The stones had been arranged so they formed a crude stairway up to the star sprinkled sky that vaulted the dark desert.

Jacquot was waiting for them, muffled in tattered robes. Two dozen or more ungainly, long-legged, humped camels were strung in a train beyond the well. They smelled richly ripe and Moffitt shuddered at thought of the long, hot trip that lay before Cobble and Damon. He didn't see either of them, or Hitch. They must already be tucked away in the great lumpy bags that draped the beasts on either side.

"Everything is in readiness," Jacquot said softly. "The guard at the gate is enjoying his customary nap. I shall place
m'sieu
in a sack on one of the last camels, next to his companion. We shall not go through the town but around the walls. When we have traveled two miles on the trade route, we shall stop to make the train in two files. I shall help you from the sacks and you will drive your car between the camels until you reach your destination. I am told that we shall leave the trade route and travel north for some distance until we reach the area of the great black rock. We cannot take you directly past it because these stupid goats of natives fear its spell. Are we understood?" 

"We are understood," Moffitt said, remembering the goat and poison he'd meant to get. There'd be no need to bait the hyena away from the grotto now. The Rat Patrol had spent its last night in the rock. He turned quickly to hold Olympe and to kiss her once more.

She held him tightly for a moment and stepped away. "Be careful! Oh, please be careful," she said with a little catch in her voice.

She ran to the well and was gone.

13

The steel sheet that concealed the ramp to the cavern banged against the rock and daylight flooded the front of the grotto. Troy snatched his submachine gun and ran to the mouth of the cave. Tully started to turn off the lantern on the crate, grabbed his tommy-gun instead and darted to the opposite side of the entrance from Troy. A motor roared and a jeep shot down the steep incline. Troy jumped aside as Hitch braked, slewed past the other jeep and swung in beside it. Apparently he hadn't seen Troy and Tully.

"Hey, where is everybody? Asleep?" he called, looking from the big crate back toward the cots.

The sheet clattered into place and Moffitt piled headlong into the now dimly lighted chamber.

"Where you been?" Troy called in a great shout, catching Moffitt by the shoulder and throwing his arms around him. He stepped back and examined him. Moffitt's robe was awry and stuck with white tufts. "You been sacked out on a mattress with a ripped ticking? What you been up to? Where'd you come from? We'd given you up. Do you realize it's daylight? We were upstairs watching until a few minutes ago. There was nothing in sight except a caravan. How'd you get in without our seeing you?"

"Take it easy! One question at a time," Moffitt said, half smiling as if he were embarrassed.

"Yeah, treat him gentle, take it easy with lover-boy." 

"What!" Troy roared. "We've been up all night worrying, trying to figure out what to do—"

Moffitt flushed.

"Hey, Sarge," Hitch said, laughing. "You got it wrong. I didn't mean what it sounded like. We got back as quick as we could. Under the circumstances, we were lucky to get back at all."

"What do you mean?" Troy demanded, swinging to Hitch. "What happened? Where have you been? What have you found out? How did you get in without our seeing you?"

"Let's sit down and go over everything calmly, Sam," Moffitt suggested. "We've a lot to tell you and a lot to do." 

"I'll make some fresh coffee," Tully drawled, winking at Hitch.

"All right," Troy bawled. "Just explain first how you got here."

"Hey!" Tully objected. "You sound like a drill sergeant." 

Troy glared at him and then he burst out laughing. "You're right, Tully." He laid his arm across Moffitt's shoulder. "Fact is, I'm so damned relieved to see the two of you, I'm not acting normal."

"Yes you are, yes you are," Hitch chanted delightedly. "Always shooting off your mouth, yapping at us, telling us what to do. We have to put up with it all the time."

"Aw, knock it off, Hitch," Troy said gruffly.

"Yes, we'd best get down to cases," Moffitt said, smiling now, "But I will explain how we arrived without your detecting us. We came in with that camel train. We were driving the jeep in the middle of it, between the lines of camels. We dropped behind them just north from here so the rock would conceal us from them when we used the entrance."

"How did you get mixed up with a camel train?" Troy asked helplessly. He walked to the crate and dropped on a stool. "No, don't answer that one. Just give it to me once over lightly. Hit the high spots. What did you find out?" Moffitt sat at the other end of the crate and Hitch went to the stove with Tully.

"Fix the coffee and something to eat," Troy said over his shoulder to Tully. "But listen to us, both of us." 

"You might as well be lavish, Tully, if there's anything special in the rations," Moffitt said, glancing at Troy from the corners of his eyes. "This is probably the last meal we'll eat here."

"Spill it," Troy growled.

"Right-o," Moffitt said, leaning forward. "Jerry's camp is ten miles east from Agarawa on an old trade route and then fifteen miles south. We won't go in that way, of course, but it enables us to pretty much pinpoint the location. Second, I think you all will be pleased to learn that the commander of this armored unit is none other than Herr Hauptmann Dietrich."

"What!" Troy half stood, banging the crate with his fist. "We should have suspected it. This is going to be a pleasure."

Tully whistled and said, "Wonder what he's cooking up." 

"You didn't tell me that," Hitch complained. "When did you find that out?"

"Third," Moffitt said, eyes leaping to Hitch and back to Troy, "Dietrich is meeting with his staff tonight to brief them on the coming offensive. The meeting will take place at a room in front of his office at his HQ which is a masonry structure. I am sorry I cannot give you the precise time of the meeting."

"That's some load you've just dumped," Troy said. "Now we have everything we need except time. I suppose you're still thinking the way to get the plan is to bug their meeting room."

"Is there any other way?" Moffitt asked quietly.

"Not that I know," Troy admitted. "You make it about forty miles from here to the staging area. We'd never reach it by the jeeps in daylight. Tully and I managed to stir up a hornet's nest last night. The desert will be crawling with patrols today."

"We also contributed," Hitch observed. "It isn't going to be healthy around Agarawa."

"Then it looks as if there can be no argument about our procedure," Moffitt said cheerfully. "We shall have to commandeer a Jerry patrol car."

"That's what I was thinking," Troy said, a smile flashing. "Hitch, quit bothering Mother when she's cooking. Go look in that crate by the cots and see what rank they gave us with our Jerry uniforms. See if we've got a private or a corporal in the box."

"I'm with you, Sam," Moffitt said, laughing. "No one's going to pay too much attention to an enlisted man. Right?" 

"Right," Troy said, looking steadily at Moffitt. "And because you're unfortunate enough to know the language perfectly, I'm afraid that enlisted man will have to be you, Jack."