Young Lions Roar Read Online Free PDF Page A

holding in his hand. The towel instantly caught on fire and the man
threw the burning material into the middle of the petrol-soaked floor. The entire floor erupted in flames and the arsonists had barely descended to the second floor when the whole of the drug store
erupted with a massive explosion as the fire reached the ether and oxygen bottles stacked on the floor inside.
    “Put your hand on your heart and tell me that you had absolutely nothing to do with it!” Alice repeatedly stabbed her forefinger at her brother.
    Sam held up his hands in defence. “I tell you, sis, that I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I was a surprised as you were.” Sam looked out of their living room window at the
tall column of smoke that still came from the hospital.
    “I don’t believe you!” Alice shouted angrily. “You and Alan are in this up to your eyeballs!”
    “I swear to you, Alice, that it has absolutely nothing to do with us,” Alan insisted.
    Alice turned to her brother. “Swear on mother and father’s grave, Sam, that you had absolutely nothing to do with the fire at the hospital last night, and I’ll believe
you,” Alice demanded.
    “You’re not serious, Alice,” Sam shook his head with furrowed eyebrows.
    “I’m deadly serious, Sam,” Alice answered coldly. “Swear on Mother and Father’s grave.”
    “Sis, I…”
    “Swear it!”
    “All right, all right,” Sam surrendered. “I swear on Mother and Father’s grave that I had absolutely nothing to do with the fire at the hospital last night.”
    “Alan?”
    “I swear on the life of my father and mother that I had nothing to do with the fire at the hospital last night.”
    “Because if the Germans believe for one moment that the fire was anything other than an accident, if they even suspect that it was a partisan attack, then they will execute the hostages
that they captured the other night without hesitation and without mercy,” Alice explained with passion in her voice. She looked at both of the boys in turn to make sure that the weight of her
words sunk in. “They will kill our friends and our neighbours. People that we know and whom we grew up with…”
    “Okay, sis!” Sam lost his temper. “We get the point! The Huns will kill the hostages if they think that the fire was a Resistance attack.”
    “I sincerely hope that you do get the point, Sam, because you have displayed pyromaniac tendencies in the past, so forgive me if I find it hard to believe that you have not been playing
with fire again.”
    Sam said nothing. What could he say? Everything that his sister had said was true.
    Alice breathed out a huge sigh. “Okay. I believe you both. Although God knows why I should.” Alice shook her head. “You two are as trustworthy as a nest of vipers.”
    The two boys looked sheepish because they knew that Alice’s words were true.
    “So if it wasn’t you, who was it?” Alice asked.
    “Maybe it was an accident?” Alan said.
    “If it sounds too good to be true then it usually isn’t, Al,” Sam said.
    Alice nodded in agreement. “You know what this means, don’t you?” Alice asked rhetorically.
    “Yes,” Alan answered. “There’s another Stay Behind Unit operating in Hereward.”
    “Well, if they’re an SBU, why didn’t they help us with the assassination attack on Kaiser Eddie then?” Sam asked angrily. “God knows we could have done with their
help. Robinson and Napoleon’s commandos could still be alive.”
    Alan shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe they were ordered not to. Maybe they knew nothing about it. Who knows? Maybe they’re a sleeper cell and they’re being saved for something
else. Something bigger.”
    “‘Something bigger?’” Sam asked. “What could possibly be bigger than an assassination attempt against the Puppet King?”
    “I don’t know,” Alan answered. “But I guess that we’re going to find out…”
    “So let me get this straight,” General Major Christian von Schnakenberg said