that. Go now; you haven’t much time to make it to the rendezvous.”
She reached out through the open bars, long enough to draw him into half an embrace, perched as she was above him on the wagon.
“Thank you, Major. I’ll never forget—Oh! Major! Look!”
Behind him, from the edge where von Eckhart’s motorcar had gone into the river, appeared none other than von Eckhart himself.
The Major turned to him. “Go now,” he said over his shoulder again as he walked at an uneven—but quickened—pace toward von Eckhart.
But Henri, from the seat, waited for Edward’s nod.
Without looking at Isa, Edward jumped from the back of the wagon. “Go now, Henri! Get her there.”
The wagon lurched and Edward had just enough time to close the cage door once again.
“Edward, no! We’ll all go together.” Isa pushed the cage door; it wasn’t locked, but the latch was stiff. “I want to stay with you!”
“We don’t have time to argue,” Edward called. “Keep going, Henri. Take her and don’t let anything stop you.”
Without waiting for a response, he ran toward the Major just as the wagon pitched forward.
His first glance at the Major spun Edward’s head. He lay on the ground, his foot at such an odd angle he knew no one could withstand such pain. Until he realized it was the artificial foot, loosened from its proper position. The Major might have struggled to regain footing with the help of his cane if von Eckhart weren’t hovering over him, shaking him by the lapels of his jacket.
Edward approached from behind.
“You shouldn’t have stopped me, Max,” the Hauptmann said. “I had to stop you, didn’t I? Didn’t I?”
“Now who’s the loyal type, von Eckhart? Not me, but you.”
“That’s right! My loyalty is where it belongs—not to a woman but to our country!”
“Yes, but it’s over now. You’ve done your duty, and I did what I needed to do. I’ll face a tribunal, and you can play the hero.”
“True enough!” Von Eckhart let Max go, stepping back and reaching for the gun holstered at his side. “You are under arrest.”
The Major laughed. “That thing is soaked. What makes you think it’ll work?”
“I think it will work, my friend. Not that I need it to overtake you.”
Edward pressed the nozzle of his own gun against one of von Eckhart’s ears. “Mine will surely work, Hauptmann,” he whispered. “So you may drop yours.”
The Hauptmann stiffened, then let his own gun fall, but before it reached the ground, he swung around. Edward took a blow to his jaw, aimed far more squarely and solidly than he would have thought possible from a man so deep in his cups. Perhaps the frigid water of the Senne had reinvigorated the man’s senses.
Von Eckhart grabbed for the gun and Edward pulled back, caught by the force of the Hauptmann’s lunge. His gun fell harmlessly to the ground.
Edward dodged a second punch and managed a single blow to the side of the man’s head—a reflex action from the pain he’d already suffered. It was clear already that Edward’s relatively sheltered upbringing by a pacifist father left him no match for von Eckhart’s training, even marred by whatever alcohol he’d consumed.
Edward blocked yet another strike but his return missed von Eckhart altogether. He took a second swing and that connected, but he didn’t move quickly enough to miss von Eckhart’s fist to the same jaw he’d already hit.
Another swing—another miss. And yet von Eckhart went down. His head hit the pavement behind them with a crack and he lay there, unmoving.
Edward looked behind him, where the Major, still on the ground, held up his cane. He’d landed it to the Hauptmann’s middle, who was just unstable enough to be knocked off-balance.
Edward stood over the fallen opponent, seeing he was unconscious.
He went to the Major, who was shifting his artificial foot back into position and tightening the straps. “You have no choice now, Max. Even drunk, he’ll identify you. If you go back now, you’ll lose everything.”
“I already have,” Max said.
“No. You haven’t.” Even as he spoke, he reached to help the Major up. “You’re coming with me.”
Edward shoved one arm under the Major’s weak side and pulled him along. It wouldn’t be long before guards from the prison found their trail or some street sentry caught up.
“Leave me, Edward,” the Major said. “You’ll never make it in time hobbled to me like this. Go.”
“Shut up and run like we’re in a three-legged race.”