Colonel Berry

Chapter Twenty-Six

At twenty past noon, David looked up from the map at the sound of a knock on the mess door. Manny opened it and invited Maria in with a flourish so sweeping it would make an emotive cinema actor appear immobile.

"Thank you, Manny." She laughed as she entered, then she smiled across the room at David. "Is your be back shortly over yet? I've come to tell you lunch will be ready in ten minutes. Or will you be eating here?" 

David glanced at his watch. "Appears time has again gotten away on me. I'm sorry, I should have sent someone up to tell you I would be longer than planned." He stood and turned to Georg. "I'm heading up. You take a minute or two to wrap this up for now, then we'll allow these ideas to stew a while. I'll see you up there." 

A minute later, as David and Maria walked up the gentle slope toward the courtyard, he apologised again. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting. I should have realised I'd be caught up in it and told you I would be." 

"What were you doing all that time? Listening to tales of their sexual adventures?"

"There was no mention of that. None at all. We were looking for the least conspicuous ways for them to destroy the plants and get away from the area without discovery." 

Maria nodded. "This has a higher risk than the other, doesn't it? Riskier than it was destroying the trains." 

"Those were in wilderness settings; these are in populated areas. The targets are all either in or close to villages or towns."

"So, they'll be seen?"

"They will be, and they need to make their activities appear normal."

"How will they do that?"

"That's what we've just spent nearly two hours discussing." He shrugged, then stopped and pulled her into a hug. "Their safety depends on very careful planning."

"And if they are caught?"

"They'll be tortured to try to make them talk."

"Like the French Major you met? Cut it off bit by bit?" 

David winced as he nodded. "It's their standard interrogation practice from what I've heard and read. There's a disturbing new report." 

Maria nodded. "So that's why you had mentioned barbaric procedures."

"Let's change the topic. What have you been doing?"

"Sitting around the kitchen table. Talking. Waiting for you." She rose to her toes and kissed his lips. "You've been doing something far more important, but I often forget how serious all this is because you do it with such calmness."

"Calm outside, maybe. But inside, anything but." He breathed a deep sigh. "Reminds me of my mother's comparison."

"What's that?"

"The image of a swan swiftly gliding across the water. Calm and placid above the surface, but paddling like hell beneath."

"I like that. That's you. Always calm."

"Outside. Above the surface."

She stroked his beard. "You're allowed to hide the paddling from others, David, but not from me. We're here to help each other, to support each other, and I won't know what you're going through, what you need, unless you tell me."

David nodded as he pulled the hug tighter. "The responsibility I've been given. I question whether I'm able to handle it. Whether I've allowed my optimism to mask my incapabilities."

"And what are your incapabilities?"

"I don't yet know. But I fear one emerging at a critical moment."

"You've discovered none to this point. Twenty-one and a half years with such a broad variety of experiences." She shook her head. "Many of them so extreme that most would think they are fantastical rather than real. Why ever would incapable enter your mind?"

"Thinking about the consequences of a bad decision. Many more are now affected."

"But if you continue seeking their input, using their knowledge, their experience, their skills, the decisions are not yours alone. They are the focused collective agreement."

"True, but —"

"You showed us this when we crossed the mountains. You didn't tell us what to do; you invited our ideas and observations, and together we determined the best way to proceed. I'm sure you are doing the same with the men."

"I am."

"Would Windbag do it this way?"

David laughed. "Absolutely not."

"He'd bluster his way through it, wouldn't he? Tell everyone what to do. Listen to nobody." She lifted her head from David's shoulder and gazed into his eyes. "Grandpa and I were talking about leadership the past while in the kitchen."

"And?" 

"He said your leadership is instinctive, innate, natural. During all his years in the Army, he cannot recall a finer example than you." 

"He was trying to calm you."

"That may be so, but he was being honest. He pointed out leadership traits that I've seen in you from the beginning. From our first time together."

"Our first? How then?"

"When I asked you to teach me how to have sex, you questioned me to make sure. You were gentle, caring and concerned about me, not about yourself and your own arousal, your own needs."

"That's when I realised you were a virgin, and I didn't want to hurt you." He chuckled. "I am rather large."

"But even if you were normal size, you would still have questioned to make sure it was what I wanted. Then you concentrated on my pleasure before taking yours."

"But that's normal behaviour.".

"Normal for you, maybe, but rather abnormal from what I've read."

David chuckled. "How have we gotten here from discussing self-doubt?" 

"My way of moving from negative thoughts to positive." She winked, then tilted her head toward the kitchen door as she took his hand. "Come, else we'll be late for lunch."

He followed her lead, asking, "What are we having?"

"Your favourite. Freshly-baked bread rolls and grilled cervelat. And Tante has prepared some new mustards for you to taste."