coming in. When the place is secure, I'll call you back; and, Karin, come up to the top floor as fast as you can, but only when everything's under control! Not before! Understood?"
it?" , "Yes," replied the lieutenant.
"Then you guys made
"We made it, Gerry, but it's far from over. These people are Fascist maniacs; they'll hide in corners just to take one of us out.
Don't let Karin get ahead of you-"
"I'm quite capable of making those decisions-"
Chapter Forty-Senven
"Oh, shut up! Out!" Drew raced over to Monluc's bed as Etranger Two and Dietz prepared to fully sedate the withered old man.
"Now!" said the commando. E-Two gripped the thin left arm, pressing the flesh of the inside elbow.
"Where's the vein?" cried Dietz in French.
"He's old. The first blue you see, hit the center!"
"Mein Gott!" screamed the bedridden ancient, his eyes suddenly bulging, his mouth twisted, the twitch in his right eye going spastic.
What followed caused Witkowski to blanch, his whole body trembling. The diatribe in shrieking German was electrifying, the voice strident beyond any normal use of vocal cords.
"If they will bomb Berlin, we shall destroy London! They send a hundred planes, we will send thousands upon thousands until the city is no more than blood and rubble! We shall teach the English a lesson in death! We shall-" The old man collapsed back into the silk pillows.
"Check his' pulse!" said Latham.
"He's got to stay alive."
"It is rapid, but it is there, monsieur," said Etranger Two.
"Do you know what that son of a bitch just recited?" asked Stanley Witkowski, his face pale.
"He gave Hitler's response to the first bombing of Berlin. Word for word! .. . I can't believe this."
Below, outside on the road in front of the chiteau, armored trucks of the assault unit fired their rockets, blowing apart the gates. A voice from a loudspeaker filled the night, heard thousands of yards away.
"All inside throw down your arms or be killed! Come outside and show yourselves without your weapons! The government of France has so ordered and our men will sweep this chi- 9 teau, firing on any personnel who remain inside. You have two minutes to comply with our demands!"
Slowly, in fear, dozens of men and women walked out, their hands raised in surrender. They lined up in the circular drive, guards, cooks, waiters, and whores. The voice from the loudspeaker continued.
"If any are left inside, we tell you now-you are dead!"
Suddenly a blond man broke a window on the third floor and shouted.
"I will come down, sirs, but I must find someone. Shoot me if you will, but I must find her! You have my word, my weapons!"
A further crash of glass preceded the hurling out of a pistol and a semiautomatic; they crashed on the drive and the figure disappeared.
"Entrez!" cried the voice on the loudspeaker as eight men in combat gear raced into the various entrances like spiders crawling swiftly toward insects caught in their webs. There was sporadic gunfire, not a great deal, as a few fanatic diehards died in pursuit of the obscene. At the last, an Etranger officer emerged from the front doors, a drunken Jacques Bergeron stumbling before him.
"We have our traitor from the [email protected]!" he announced in French.
"And he is as drunk as a politician."
"Enough. Let the two others inside."
Karin and Lieutenant Anthony ran through the shattered dual gates heading for the central entrance.
"He said to go up the staircase!" yelled De Vries, in front of the lieutenant.
"For Christ's sake, will you please wait for me? I'm. supposed to protect you!"
"If you're slow, Gerry, that's not my fault."
"If you get shot, Cons-Op will blow my privates off!"
"I've got a gun, Lieutenant, don't you worry about a thing!"
"Thanks a bunch, amazon. My God, this arm hurts!" Suddenly they both stopped, arrested by what they saw on the third-floor landing. A blond-haired guard held a young woman in his' arms carrying her down the staircase, tears in his eyes.
"She's hurt quite badly," he said in German, "but she is alive."
"You were the man in the window, ja?" asked Anthony, also in German.
"Yes, sir. She and I were friends, and she should never have been in this terrible place."
"Take her downstairs and tell the others to get her to a doctor," said the lieutenant.
"Hurry up!"
"Danke. "
"Sure, but if you're a liar, I'll kill you myself"
"I am not a liar, sir. I have been many bad things, but I do not lie."
"I believe him," said Karin, "let him go." They reached the top floor,