Crack of Doom Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyebrows. "You took it for granted; there was no suggestion of agreement We've never yet agreed about anything, not important questions anyhow."
    You swine, thought Giesinger. Suddenly he felt he was making an enormous mistake, and his determination to send off Schmitt and his battalion began to waver. The other officers stared past him with impassive faces, and even Meisel, who had been for the plan till then, now avoided his eyes. Giesinger struggled within himself. Don't do it, a voice warned him. All was quiet in the room, and he could hear his own breathing.
    The lieutenant returned to report: "There are two vehicles here, sir. But they're already loaded with building material."
    "Loaded?"
    "Pit-props and barbed wire."
    "The fates are against you," remarked Fuchs smoothly.
    Giesinger stared at him. In this second he made up his mind. His voice turned into steel: "Do you think so? Unload the trucks," he told the lieutenant. "There'll be more back by the time you've done that." He addressed Schmitt: "Load up in front of your quarters, and be ready to move. The radio logs," he said to the signals officer, and turning again to Schmitt: "Take mortars with you, enough ammunition and rations for two days. Don't explain to your men the purpose of the operation till you reach Szomolnok; and don't attract attention to yourselves." He paused and glanced over at Fuchs. Something in Fuchs' face seemed to warn him again; but he had already ventured too far, and said with a firmness he did not feel: "That's all, gentlemen."
    The officers rose, and Giesinger went over to Schmitt. "You know your mission."
    Schmitt exchanged a glance with Fuchs. "The mission is completely hopeless."
    "Well talk about that when you get back," said Giesinger. "In the presence of the general."
    "A spiritualist seance, eh?" mocked Fuchs.
    Giesinger picked his things up off the table. He would have liked to produce some crushing retort, but at the moment he could hardly speak for fury. When he saw that Schmitt was still there, he shouted at him: "Well, what are you waiting for?"
     
     
    The battalion was informed that it should be ready to move in half an hour, and Schmitt directed a man to the house where Kolodzi was staying, with orders "to run as fast as you can and bring the sergeant back at once."
    Schmitt went off to pack his own things. He was still at it when the man who had been to Kolodzi returned, reporting smartly: "Orders carried out, sir."
    Schmitt glanced over his shoulder. "Did you see his mother, too?"
    "His mother, sir?"
    Schmitt turned round impatiently: "Sergeant Kolodzi's mother."
    The man grinned. "I don't know if she... no, I don't think so."
    "What don't you think?"
    The man looked embarrassed. "There was a dress lying on the floor," he said hesitantly.
    "What's that?"
    "I only saw her legs behind the door," the man said hastily. "She hadn't anything on."
    "Who hadn't?"
    "The worn— I mean his mother."
    "She hadn't anything on?"
    "No, sir."
    Schmitt bit his lips and dismissed the man. A little later Menges appeared. "All in order," he said.
    Schmitt sat down at the table. "Log forms?"
    "On the way."
    "Ammunition?"
    "More than we need."
    "Let's hope so," said Schmitt. He pointed to a chair. "I wonder if I'll win my bet."
    "Your bet?"
    "A bet I took with myself. I laid odds on Kolodzi coming back. But now I'm not so sure."
    "Why not?"
    Schmitt lit a cigarette. 'Tut yourself in his place. Let's suppose you live here and have been given leave till tomorrow morning, you're in bed with a woman, and then someone rushes in and says: you're to come straight back to battalion. What would you do?"
    "Come straight back," said Menges.
    Schmitt nodded, as if he had expected this answer. "You're a good officer, Menges, but you haven't much imagination, have you! Know what I'd do?" He bent over the table. "I'd say, to hell with it—and so would you if you were only half a normal man. What do you bet he doesn't come?"
    Menges looked irritated and said