Impasse (The Red Gambit Series) (55 page)

He shook hands and continued.

“Now, get your boys reformed, just in case. The 2nd Infantry boys should be here soon, and you’ll hand the position over to them... and then get yourself the hell outta Dodge. I want you and your boys in Phalsbourg and resting. Clear, Captain?”

“Yessir.”

“Leave the Legion bodies to the 2nd. They can do the deed.”

“Sir, no Sir. Me and my boys’ll do that. We owe it to them, Sir.”

Pierce understood well enough.

“Son, you don’t owe those poor boys anything... but I understand why you’d want to do it. Carry on and good luck, Captain. I’ll be seeing you soon.”

Pierce took one last look and moved to his jeep, on his way to report to General Lavalle, deciding that his speech for the Rangers was unnecessary.

They had gathered for an orders meeting, and now they sat in stunned silence.

Lavalle.

Bittrich.

Knocke.

De Walle.

De Valois.

St.Clair.

The fact that the Mountain Battalion had been overrun was not news.

That there were no survivors was a horror that they had not anticipated.

That the survivors had been killed in such a fashion went beyond every line of moral decency and honour that any of them had ever drawn.

More than one eye was moist in grief and anger.

“
Rettlinger?”

Strangely,
it was Anne-Marie de Valois that posed the question. She had always liked the roguish man, and recognised the hurt inside him.

“
Mademoiselle,” Pierce bought himself a moment to think, “He died in the defence.”

Anne- Marie knew a lie when she heard one and, in her own fashion, let Pierce kn
ow that he was transparent.

Lavalle joined in.

“Tell us please, John.”

Reluctantly, Pierce relayed the full information, seeing the pain in all their eyes as he described how Derbo had been singled out for special treatment.

St.Clair rose to his feet angrily.

“
And your man let these bastards live? Eh? EH? How could he do that, mon Général, eh?”

Knocke saved Pierce the struggle for words.

Knocke stood and, as was his habit, pulled his tunic down and into proper order.

“
The Ranger commander was quite right, Benoit.”

St.Clair looked at Knocke in astonishment as the German continued.

“Since Spectrum Black commenced, we have seen combat in its rawest and most vile state, all enhanced by atrocities,” he looked at the commanders around him, “For which none of us is innocent, no matter what the provocation.”

Nodding to Pierce, Knocke spoke in soft and reasonable tones.

“We should thank your man, General Pierce. He will have saved a great deal of suffering over the weeks and months ahead. He was quite right, although I doubt that I would have exercised the same judgement had I been there, although, for me it would have been more personal.”

“
Thank you, General Knocke.”

And that drew a line under the matter, for now.

The group then continued on to deal with the fact that the Legion was stalled and coming under increased pressure. Their eyes turned to the north... and to Patton.

In war, whilst
everything is simple, even the simplest thing is difficult. Difficulties accumulate and produce frictions that no one can comprehend who has not seen war.

Carl Philip Gottfried Von Clausewitz

As he had waited for his driver to return, Polish Army Major Kowalski had engaged the Legion officers in conversation, never turning away an opportunity to scrounge up information, even though he was now a double agent.

Two Majors started arguing over the map work, inviting another officer in to clarify matters.

Placing his own load of paper on the cabinet, the Capitaine attempted to lay out the aspects of the plan that were contested.

The top file caught Kowalski
’s attention and he acted on impulse, encouraged by the heavy marks of secrecy emblazoned on its cover.

He swept the file into his own handful of reports and newspapers.

Next, he smashed his shoulder into the cabinet, sending paper flying in all directions as he seemingly tried to control a coughing fit.

Excusing himself, he moved towards the stairs, only to walk into his driver, fresh from parking the jeep.

Side by side, the two mounted the stairs in silence, he for the second floor rooms that were used for officer’s quarters, she for the attic rooms where the female staff were domiciled.

He opened the door of his room and stepped back, permitting Gisela Jourdan to step smartly in before anyone had a chance to see her in the out of bounds area.

He closed the door and turned around.

Jourdan pushed him gently back against the door and knelt in front of him, liberating his manhood from his trousers in one easy and practised movement.

Her mouth closed around him and she commenced a brief but intense demonstration of her skills as a fellatrix.

His approaching orgasm overtook him and the contents of his hands fell to the floor, her head replacing them in his grasp as he worked her on him, gaining more impetus with each pull of her soft mouth onto him.

Jourdan kept her mouth around him as he moaned, shuddered and expended himself.

Even though she stayed firmly fixed to him as he came back down to earth, her eyes nearly burst open when she spotted the
‘Top Secret’ stamp on the file mixed with the Polish Liaison reports, the Polish-language newspaper, and the Stars and Stripes.

She
instantly memorised the few things she could see, even as her Polish lover expended the last drops of his lust inside her.

Gisela knew what she had to do.

Having left Kowalski snoring, victim of post-orgasmic torpor, Jourdan sorted out her uniform and stepped smartly out into the corridor, wishing to appear unconcerned should she be spotted.

She wasn
’t so much spotted as nearly knocked over, as a Legion Captain barrelled into her in his haste.

“
My apologies Fraulein...err... Sergent.”

She regained her composure.

“Accepted, Capitaine.”

The Legion officer did not ask her what she was doing
there; neither did he seem to want to prolong the contact, so Gisela quickly saluted, leaving both of them free to move on.

At the signals section, s
he begged a telephone so that she could call her lover.

“
Hello Max? So sorry to leave it so late, but can you tell Captain Logan that I won’t be able to honour our date tonight and ask him to ring me at my quarters as soon as possible?”

That told the OSS agent on the other end of the line that the call was extremely urgent.

“OK, will do Gisela. Two minutes.”

Smiling at the ex-SS NCO, she pointed at a small office presently unoccupied.

“I will get a call shortly. Can I take it in there, please?”

The Signals Sergent-Chef nodded and pointed her to the seat, taking in her fabulous legs all the way from his desk to the leather chair some yards away.

The phone rang and one of the staff answered. Under the direction of the ‘peeping tom’ NCO, the call was passed through to Gisela, who ensured that the German Legionnaire’s attention was fully on her legs and thighs, and not on whatever she was going to say.

The voice on the other end was all business.

“This better be good.”

“
My man is in possession of a folder marked top secret. Code-named Spectrum, sub-named as black, blue and possibly red. I couldn’t see any more. It had ‘Normandie’ and ‘Camerone’ clerking receipt marks. Instructions required.”

Colonel Sam Rossiter knew exactly what the folder contained
, and he also instantly knew that he could not risk the information in any way.

Gisela smiled at the leering NCO, almost popping his eyes out of his head as she ran a hand over the suspender that was now the focus of his attention.

“Keep him occupied. Do whatever you have to do, but don’t let him out of your sight. No way, no how. And that goddamn file is your priority. Nothing matters more. Nothing. Clear?”

“
Very clear, Captain Logan.”

“
I’ll have a team with you...within two hours. We will do this discreetly if we can, but that file is too valuable to risk.”

Jourdan giggled as if sharing a smutty joke with a familiar lover, further enticing the German signaller with the promise of more thigh and a wicked sexy smile.

“I understand my instructions.”

“
That file is your priority. Clear?”

For the benefit of the drooling watchers, Jourdan finished the conversation in a louder and more playful fashion.

“But of course, Darling. You may have whatever you want later. Au’voir Cherie.”

Straightening her skirt, Gisela strolled from the room.

“Thank you so very much, Sergent-Chef. I shall remember how kind you have been. Perhaps you are off-duty tomorrow evening.”

She actually knew that he wasn
’t.

“
Another time then. Thank you again.”

Three minutes later, she was back in Kowalski
’s room.

The file was nowhere to be seen.

The rules had been broken but, as ‘Amethyst’ finished deciphering the message, he understood why.

The old man who had bumped into him as he entered the billet spoke a keyword, as well as an apology, so that he would know that he had been passed something of importance.

‘Amethyst’ read the message again, drinking in every syllable, and confirming his interpretation.

‘
Tonight.’

It wasn
’t just a random thought based around the urgency stipulated in the three-sentence communication.

The man named was four rooms down the corridor from where the Soviet agent had his temporary sleeping quarters.

He rubbed his left arm, somehow bruised when he had bashed into that woman driver, the thought that she no longer occupied the ‘Polish’ bastard’s bed an advantage he knew he should take advantage of.

“
Tonight.”

‘
No! Now!’

‘Amethyst’ changed into an old uniform, one not out of place in the headquarters, but certainly one that could go missing without problems. He removed his Walther P38 and holster, both of which had been his companions in the field since he had first fought the Allies in Normandy.

Fishing about on top of the wardrobe, he grabbed the old nail and slid the bed to one side.

Inserting the nail in the gap between the boards, he turned it and pulled up, the bent end providing just enough purchase to bring the old board out of its place.

Inside, wrapped in an old piece of cloth, were a few pieces of important paper, all forgeries of course, and another cloth package.