them seeing us.” Heavy boots sounded on the stairs outside the office door. Corbin grabbed Barrett’s arm and yanked him into the secret passage, sealing the door behind them. “We tried. It’s too late, Patron.”
Barrett’s curse echoed in the darkness. Terrorized breaths pounded off the close walls around them. Fumbling for the lantern on the wall, he drew the lighter from his pocket and struck it. The orange light bounced around to the frightened faces.
Holding the lantern up high, he made a quick examination of each. “All right, lads? Keep quiet and follow me. Careful now.”
It seemed an age ago when he’d traversed this stair with Kat clinging to his hand. Thank God she wasn’t here now as the sound of breaking glass and tumbling tables bumped through the walls as they picked their way farther down. He tried to focus on the steep steps in front of him as his mind raced with what was happening to his men on the other side of the walls. Worrying did no good now, not when he needed to get the handful behind him to safety.
The door to the cellar loomed before him. Pressing his ear to the cold wood, he listened for movement. Corbin’s quick breaths shot across the back of his neck. Nothing on the outside, but that didn’t mean the Germans weren’t close by. The Resistance training room was the most fortified place in the area, but he couldn’t risk creeping out just as soldiers came down the stairs to catch them. That room stored too many lists of identities and he wasn’t about to put them at risk.
He turned to the men behind him. Boys, really. Though some of his trainees, this was their first real encounter with the enemy. “We have to leave by the sewer. There’s a grate in the corner to the right.” He moved the lantern to highlight Luc, his youngest but also the swiftest. “Move the grate as quietly as you can and slip down. The rest of you will follow on my signal. Be quick and watch your feet. They’ll be down here in a matter of minutes.”
Listening once more to ensure the cellar was empty, Barrett pushed open the secret door. Darkness. Motioning Luc behind him, they crept to the edge of the oversized wine barrel. Barrett pointed to the corner where the sewer grate was. Soundless as a rabbit, Luc slipped out and opened their escape route. One by one the boys disappeared down into the hole. As Corbin hurried across the stone floor, he slipped, thumping into the stack of barrels next to the grate.
Light flooded the stairwell to the upstairs. “Was wer das?”
Barrett motioned Corbin into the sewer. Extinguishing the lantern, he pulled the sgian dubh from his sock and crouched in the barrel. His heart hammered in his ears, drowning out all thought beyond survival.
Two pairs of feet moved slowly down the stairs as a flashlight bounced before them. The yellow beam skipped across the stone floor and swung over the tops of the barrels and bottles lining the walls. The two corporals, one heavyset and fair and the other tall and bony, moved along the rows to read the labels and peer between the cracks.
The fat one shrugged and pointed back up the stairs. “Es gibt nichts hier unten. Komm schon.”
His companion moved closer to the corner where the grate still gaped open. The small Scottish blade twitched in Barrett’s hand as the boy leaned down to examine the bottom row of red wines. Tapping the bottle’s neck in appreciation, he leaned farther over . . . until the edge of his flashlight beam danced off the edge of the grate. Straightening, he jerked the light to the gaping hole in the floor. From the short distance, Barrett saw the calculations of a soldier behind his dark eyes. Gripping his knife tight, he leaned forward to spring.
Slinging his rifle behind his shoulder, the soldier squatted down and peered into the hole. It proved to be a fatal mistake. A flash of metal surged out and sliced across his exposed neck. Luc’s blond head popped out as he stabbed the end of his blade into the soldier’s chest. The corporal fell back, clutching at the red spilling from his neck.
With a guttural cry, his companion raced across the cellar with his rifle aimed straight for Luc. Barrett sprang from his hiding place and rammed the boy into the floor. A bone crunched on the soldier’s shoulder as