Colonel Berry

Chapter Forty-Eight

Following breakfast on Friday morning, David sat with Michael in his office, organising the plans for the trip to Paris, then he left him there to telephone the hotels and reserve rooms. As David drove toward Zürich with Maria, she asked, "So, will the hotels have proper commodes?"

He chuckled. "Yes, Grandpa confirmed they will. He had a great laugh when I told him how you had discovered the French hole-in-the-floor plumbing style."

Maria smiled as she patted the small bulge of her belly. "I'm relieved. With the baby demanding more space in here, I need to pee more often."

"Grandpa assures me the hotels offer the finest comforts available. The one he's hoping to book in Paris was originally a grand palace dating back to 1705, but in the late 1890s, its interior was completely rebuilt to the highest and most modern standards by César Ritz."

"Ritz? Is that the one from the Carlton in London?"

"Yes, it is. And you remember how splendid that was."

"I do." She hummed a loud sigh. "Absolutely luxurious."

As they drove along the shore of Lake Zürich, they reminisced about the night they had spent in London. When she asked about the hotel in Paris, David replied, "I had also asked, but Grandpa said the descriptions and details will be more understandable and meaningful when we're there."

A quarter-hour later, they arrived at Photoglob and met with the sales manager. In short order, David negotiated a discount of sixty percent for a thousand cards. He and Maria selected the ten which they thought best represented the beauty and peacefulness of Switzerland, and after he had purchased a hundred of each, they headed north to Schaffhausen.

Sonnenhang, Switzerland — Friday, 19 May 1916

Shortly past noon, as David drove into the courtyard at Sonnenhang, he pointed through the windscreen at the men coming up the slope from the vineyards, and he said to Maria, "They're pausing for lunch."

"Can we eat with them?"

"We could if you wish. We can introduce them to their next role." He pulled the car beside the two vans, shut it down and set the brake. As he assisted Maria out of the car, Georg shouted, "Greg's back."

"Oh, thank the Lord." David hustled across the courtyard toward the group, extending his hand to shake Greg's. "You had us worried. When did you arrive?"

"This morning, Sir."

David nodded. "I'm sure you have an explanation for your delay."

"Oh, I do, Sir. I'm told you know about the woman in Offenburg and..."

He paused as Maria rushed up and hugged him. "Welcome back. You scared the bejabbers out of us."

"Bejabbers?"

"An expression David uses."

"From my father. It's Irish, and a polite way to say scared the fuck out of us." David shrugged. "So, what's your story?"

"I woke in the morning to find she had gone. And so had all else. My satchel, my money." Greg winced. "My pride."

"Your Swiss papers?"

"Everything. She even risked waking me by removing my watch from my wrist. Took my new jacket, too. Seems she had some decency, though; she left my trousers, shirt and shoes." He shook his head and laughed. "But she took my new wool socks."

David nodded. "Sounds as if it's a regular routine."

"Looking back, I see it was." Greg laughed again. "But it seems Dicky distorted my powers of observation. But, God, was she a great fuck." He glanced at Maria and blushed, then shrugged. "And again and again. Wore me into oblivious slumber."

Maria pursed her lips, nodding. "Satisfying two cravings at once. Her natural carnal desire and her need to find ways to survive."

"Yeah." Greg grimaced. "Didn't see it coming."

"So, how did you make it back?"

"Ingenuity, Sir. As you've taught us. I remembered the guise Franz and Hans had used when they fled the train explosions; gathering firewood and selling it. Took me most of the first day to earn enough to buy a blanket and a loaf of bread. Slept in a nook up the forested slope. Six more days of this before I was able to afford a ticket to Eggingen."

"The border without a passport? How did you make it across with all the guards along there now?"

"I hid in that copse to the west of Erzingen until after dark. No moon, and I could barely see my hand a few inches from my nose. I sensed my way to the tool hut, guided by my memory of its location from all our trips there."

"Excellent thinking."

"I bumbled around for a long time trying to locate it, but thanks to the occasional lighting of smokes by patrolling guards, and the glow from them as they puffed, I knew where the border was."

David shook his head. "They render themselves near useless by smoking. Not only by giving away their presence, but by damaging their lungs."

"For sure. When I finally found the hut, it took a lot of fumbling to locate the stone which hides the key." Greg laughed. "Then, after I felt my way through the tunnel, I realised the new tool shed has a padlock on the outside."

"We should change it to a keyhole accessible from both outside and in."

"I was going to recommend that, Sir. Particularly with the better access when the extension has been completed. It would have been an easier night on the forest floor. Far more comfortable than that one. I lay awake for hours, concocting ways to surprise the sappers when they opened the door."

David chuckled. "So, how did you surprise them?"

"I didn't have a chance. It's dark in there, and there's no sense of time. They woke me when they arrived."

David chuckled, then motioned toward the Mess. "We've some lessons here to examine and discuss. Invite us to lunch, and we can begin."

"You're always welcome, Sir. Especially if you bring Maria."

"We'll take our bags in and refresh, then see you in a quarter-hour." He turned with Maria toward the car, then paused and turned back. "One of you come with us. We've a box in the boot which needs to be carried down to your Mess. It's part of your next mission."

"I'll do it." Günter stepped forward and accompanied them across the courtyard. "Any clues to what it is?"

"You can snoop in the box and try to figure it out." David chuckled. "A ten Franc piece to the first one of you who solves it."