Scorched Earth - Robert Muchamore Page 0,11

PT didn’t stop him.

‘I’m not giving in,’ Jean said resolutely. ‘But we can’t let them behave like this.’

‘He’s relying on your decency,’ PT said. ‘Don’t fall into their trap.’

Jean scowled back at PT as he started walking towards the orphanage. ‘It’s home to over a hundred children. Where will they go if it’s burned down?’

‘I doubt there’s more than six Milice left,’ Rosie said as she jogged to catch up with Jean.

‘You keep out of sight,’ PT told Franco. ‘We’ll come back for you.’

‘Twenty seconds,’ Commander Robert announced.

Jean kept low and used the thick smoke as cover.

‘You two go outside the wall by the road,’ Jean ordered. ‘I’ll surrender to buy time. Do your best to stop them taking me away. If it goes bad you’ve got to kill me rather than let them take me back to Beauvais for torture.’

The crumbling wall ran parallel with the road. The orphanage was slightly uphill, but it gave Rosie and PT decent cover and a clear view of what was happening out front.

‘Five seconds.’

‘Wait,’ Jean shouted, emerging through smoke, bare-chested and with his hands raised.

PT and Rosie made a crouching sprint along the wall with their heads down. The scene in front of the orphanage was horrific, with boys ranging from three to thirteen in hysterics while a nun bled out on the front steps. Another nun was on her knees, praying quietly with Commander Robert’s gun at her temple. As Jean got closer, the moustached Milice commander handed his megaphone to a colleague and broke into a smile.

‘Well, well, I have a prize,’ Robert said, cracking a self-satisfied smile as he took his gun away from the elderly nun’s head and sent her sprawling with a muddy boot in the back.

‘Where are the other two from the robbery?’ Robert asked, as Jean stepped to within a few metres.

‘I was injured,’ Jean said, turning to show his bloody shoulder. ‘They brought me to the cottage to get fixed up, but they didn’t stick around.’

A giant Milice officer ordered the balding ex-teacher to kneel, before unhooking a set of handcuffs from his belt. Down by the road, PT knifed the front tyres of the nearest Milice car, before joining Rosie by a crack in the wall.

‘You holding up OK?’ PT asked.

‘Not exactly the fresh air I was after,’ Rosie said, as a breeze blew smoke into her eyes. ‘I can only count four Milice, but there could be more inside the orphanage or in the woods.’

‘They’ve caught a big fish and Robert looks twitchy,’ PT said. ‘He’s four men down and this is Maquis turf. They’re not gonna want to stick around here a second longer than they have to.’

PT’s opinion got confirmed as the nuns were allowed to begin shepherding hysterical kids inside the orphanage. Commander Robert’s fear of a Maquis ambush was obvious as he began jogging downhill towards the open-topped Milice car parked across the orphanage gate.

PT would have liked to stab the tyres, but the gate was open so there was no way to approach without being seen and shooting would give their position away.

‘When the giant one gets close I’ll shoot him,’ PT whispered to Rosie. ‘Jean’s cuffed, but he can still make a run for it. You’ll have to be ready to take the others out with the machine gun.’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ Rosie said, as she double-checked that her unfamiliar German machine gun had the safety off and a full clip of ammo. Then she gave PT a quick peck on the cheek. ‘Be careful.’

Before PT could react, he noticed Jean’s giant guard losing his footing on the damp ground. It was too good a chance to miss and PT took aim as the Milice’s butt hit the soft turf. But another voice sounded behind before he could shoot.

‘Drop your weapons.’

When PT spun around he saw a tiny Milice officer standing behind the car with the slashed tyres. Rosie didn’t hesitate with the machine gun and ripped the man in half. The blast sent Jean’s guard diving for cover, while Jean himself began sprinting towards the wall.

PT leaned over the wall and took two shots, but he only hit the giant in the thigh. At the same moment Rosie opened up on Commander Robert and his two goons as they began a full-on sprint towards the car.

The giant got a couple of wild shots into the air with his rifle and forced PT to duck behind the wall, but Jean had doubled back. The balding ex-teacher