Read Assignment Gestapo for Free Online Page A

Vodka?’
    They stared at him, silent and unsmiling.
    ‘You search the whole place?’ asked the Lieutenant ‘O.K., let’s get going.’
    He went outside with the rest of the section, leaving us behind with the Russians. I noticed that Heide was staring at the two young men, the last to emerge from the cellar, with narrowed eyes. Barcelona and Porta, too, seemed to be fascinated by them.
    ‘What’s up?’I said.
    ‘That couple there . . .’ Barcelona looked at them and nodded. ‘They’re not babes in arms. They’re professionals, or I’ll eat my hat.’
    I looked at them in my turn.
    ‘Deserters?’ I queried.
    ‘Deserters, my arse!’ Barcelona spat contemptuously. ‘I know their type. I’ve seen too many of ’em before . . . Only two places you find rats like that: the NKVD or the SS. And people don’t desert from either of them.’
    ‘So what would they be doing here?’
    ‘That, of course, is the question . . .’
    Tiny bustled up with his steel wire.
    ‘Shall I finish ’em off?’ he asked, with all his usual eagerness.
    Lt. Ohlsen came back at this point. He eyed Tiny sourly.
    ‘What’s going on here?’
    Barcelona turned to Porta.
    ‘Try them in Russian,’ he suggested. ‘You speak the lingo better than I do.’
    ‘Feldwebel Blom!’ The Lieutenant strode over to us. ‘Who is in command here? You or I? If there’s any interrogating to be done, I shall give the orders for it. Until that time, perhaps you’ll be good enough to leave these men alone.’
    ‘Yes, sir,’ said Barcelona, between his teeth.
    Porta shrugged his shoulders in disgust, picked up his tommy gun and followed us from the room. At the door he turned to look threateningly at the two boys.
    ‘You’ve got away with it this time, mate, but don’t try chancing your arm again . . . at any rate, not when I’m around, see?’ They stared at him, unblinking. Porta suddenly laughed. ‘I’ll tell you what,’ he said. ‘You can thank your lucky stars we’d got an officer with us. I don’t reckon he understands too well what this here war’s all about . . . but we understand, you and me . . . Panjemajo, tovaritch?’
    Outside, we fell into line, single file, behind Lt. Ohlsen.
    ‘Where the devil’s Tiny got to?’ demanded the Old Man, as we moved off. ‘And the Legionnaire? Where the hell are they?’
    No one knew. The last time we had seen them, they had still been in the farmhouse. With foreboding, the Old Man made his report to Ohlsen, who swore long and loud in language totally unbecoming to an officer.
    ‘For Christ’s sake! Don’t you have any control at all over your section, Beier? Take some men and go back and find them. And don’t take all day about it, we’ve wasted quite enough time as it is. I don’t intend to wait for you, so you’ll just have to try and catch us up.’
    The Old Man led us back to the farmhouse.
    ‘They’ll be down in the cellar, pissed to the eyeballs,’ said Heide, bitterly.
    ‘If they’ve discovered a secret horde of schnaps and haven’t told me about it, they’ll get the rough edge of my tongue!’ declared Porta.
    Just before we reached the farmhouse, we were brought to a halt by a low, warning whistle. The Legionnaire rose out of the shadows before us.
    ‘Where the blazes have you been?’ snapped the Old Man. ‘Where’s the other stupid sod got to?’
    ‘Out hunting,’ said the Legionnaire, with a grin. ‘Our two comrades back there thought they’d play a few tricks on us. Only we had other ideas, and we’ve been keeping an eye on them.’
    ‘Out hunting?’ repeated the Old Man, testily. ‘Hunting what? And by God,’ he added, ‘if he lays a hand on any of those women he’ll be in hot water!’
    He pushed past the Legionnaire towards the farmhouse, but the Legionnaire hauled him back.
    ‘I shouldn’t, if I were you. It’s liable to get pretty hot round here in a minute.’
    The words were scarcely out of his mouth before an object came flying through