Colonel Berry

Chapter Thirty-Four

Sonnenhang, Switzerland — Thursday, 11 May 1916

After a lunch meeting with Hans in Bienne, David continued down the winding Aar Valley with the side windows open to allow the fresh warmth of mid-spring to blow through the car. He revelled in the fragrances of renewed vegetation and the colour dappling of wildflowers in the fields and on the slopes. Need to put this war behind us so we can spend more time enjoying...

He paused his rambling mind to think. Enjoying what? This. Simply this. Peace, beauty, nature. Harmony. Haven't had the time to do that for a long while, now. Getting on two years. He blew out a deep sigh.

After filling the gasoline tank in Schaffhausen, David arrived in the late afternoon in Sonnenhang. When he drove into the courtyard, Bethia was in the flowerbeds, and she looked up from their knees to greet him as he opened the car door. "We're still waiting for Greg to arrive."

David shook his head as he climbed out. "Not the news I had hoped for. Is all else fine?"

"It is." Bethia pointed a small trowel across the courtyard. "The men are down in the new vineyard."

"Thank you." He looked back and forth between Bethia's muddy hands and the vineyards, then he smiled and shrugged. "We'll hug later."

While he strode down the slope, he thought, Greg has a genuine Swiss birth certificate, not a forgery. And he's applied for a passport. And he's registered for Army indoctrination. The Swiss will offer him no trouble. He blew out a deep breath. The trouble is getting out of Germany. They'll have increased the security by now.

As David approached the work site, Georg walked up the slope to meet him. "Otto's back, and we're now waiting only for Greg."

"So Bethia said. When was he last seen? Where?"

"He was with Otto last evening in Offenburg."

"Great!" David felt his tension ease. "So you all managed to get away. How many did you blow?"

"There was a work crew at the one in Soudernheim, so Günter assisted Dolf on the one outside Leimersheim. We got only eight."

"Eight!" David grabbed Georg's hand an pumped it. "Eight! Far better than we had hoped. So far better. We must celebrate."

"We have a big one planned once Greg arrives."

"Yes, of course." David nodded down the slope toward the tool shed. "Tell me what's happening with the tunnel."

"They're still in chalk, and it's still dry." Georg pointed to the green sward at the foot of the slope. "Gerrard said with the meadow extending from the creek like that, it shows it's an old stream bed and it's likely saturated. We'd risk flooding by going under it. He's decided to do a dogleg to avoid it."

"A dog leg?"

"From the bend of a dog's hind leg." Georg raised a crooked arm. Then he pointed, moving his hand in an arc. "You see the gentle ridge leading toward the west side of town? They'll follow under that until past the meadow, then they'll aim toward Bethia's cellar."

David bobbed his head as he listened. "How far along are they?"

"At lunch, he said they had just passed ninety-five. Still aiming at ten feet per day."

"What's the length including the dog's hind leg?"

Georg chuckled. "Just over three hundred. Gerrard hopes it's chalk all the way so they'll need five or six weeks. Much more comfortable here than in the muck and turmoil of Belgium."

"Yeah." David grimaced. "What did Otto say about Greg's planned route?"

"You can get it straight from him." Georg shouted, "Hey, Otto!" Then he waved a come here.

As Otto neared, David extended his hand to shake. "Congratulations! Very well done."

"Thank you, Sir."

"When did you arrive? What were Greg's plans?"

He glanced at his watch. "I got here about three hours ago. Came through Konstanz. Greg and I had stopped yesterday afternoon in Offenburg, and took rooms in a gasthaus across from the station." Otto shrugged. "One last fling. I scored a dud, but he copped a winner."

"What were his plans?"

"From the look in her eyes and her body language, it was to spend a night of hot passion."

"And then?"

"He was going to take the morning train to Weil-am-Rhein, then walk across to Basel." He glanced at his watch again. "He probably lingered in bed this morning. She sure was hot."

David laughed, then he tilted his head. "Why were you so far behind the others in arriving?"

"Greg and I drew the longest straws."

"Straws?"

"Well, slips of paper. It was Georg's idea to set random times and locations for our border crossings."

Georg shrugged. "I had learnt in discussions with Horst and Karl that the Germans are now reporting by radio from border post to border post. Seems they're looking for patterns."

"We should monitor those and analyse."

"We are."

"I should have guessed." David smiled at Georg, then added, "So, you drew the earliest return."

"No, I didn't want to risk drawing. The earliest two slips were to drive back with me across the border." He chuckled and looked up the slope. "I know where to find a beautiful woman."

"Wise man."

The three continued to discuss the mission as they walked down the slope toward the tool shed, and as they neared, Georg pointed to the canvas bags of spoils. "But our mission now is to disguise the tunnelling. We take these and mix the chalk pieces into the soil as we turn it to plant the scions."

"How would you explain the supply of chalk if Schwarz were to come snooping?"

"Over there." Georg lifted his chin toward two white patches across the slope. "We're knocking the tops off those domes to give the roots a chance to establish." He chuckled. "But we'll finish them only as the tunnel nears completion."

"Has he been around?"

"Not since Bethia told him about her long-standing affection for Karl. She said he was too dumb to draw meaning from her continuing refusal, so she had to spell it out to him in simplistic terms." He laughed. "She said he left looking like a dog with its tail between its legs."

"Hopefully, too embarrassed to soon return." David glanced at his watch. "Twenty past five. Tell the team to knock off for the day and meet me in twenty minutes in the mess to debrief. I'm heading into Germany tomorrow, and I need to get a sense of the attitude there now."