The Haigerloch Project

He did not breathe. He listened with every cell of his body. The guard was walking toward him. Closer. His hobnailed boots heavy on the rock floor of the corridor. Closer. Bending down to look…

Now!

Dirk exploded from his crouched position. His hunched shoulders slammed into the Schmeisser. It flew from the guard's hands to clatter along the rock. In the same motion he grabbed the man's uniform at the waist, threw himself backward to the floor and sent the guard flying over his head to crash against the rock wall of the tunnel.

Dirk was on his feet at once. In an instant he was at the side of the fallen guard lying crumpled at the wall.

He stopped. His breath came in agonized gulps. His hands fell to his side.

It was over.

The man's head lay at an odd angle to his body. The force of the crash had broken his neck.

Gisela stood in the door to the lab. White-faced, she stared at the dead SS guard.

It had taken less than twenty seconds. Twenty seconds between life and death….

* * *

The charges were all set. The two Panzerfaust warheads had been placed with the dynamite. One at the door. One in the lab. Ready to blow.

Dirk felt a sudden stab of pain in his arm and chest, a sudden chill numbing his mind. He had a flash vision of a rubble-strewn office in Holland — and Jan….

He shook himself mentally.

When this explosion went off, he'd be far away.

He glanced at his watch. Almost 1040 hours.

Sig and Oskar were running late….

Frowning, he turned to Gisela. “Get on the stretcher,” he said. “Pull the blanket over you.”

Anxiously he glanced toward the storage room. 1040 hours. They were on the ragged edge. He still had to light the fuses….

There! Sig and Oskar came running from the cave.

He did not wait for them. He dashed for the lab. He had it figured to the second. Charges one, two and three. With progressively shorter fuses. They should all go at once….

Finished. All three fuses were sputtering. He ran to the others. Sig was already at the stretcher. He was staring at the dead SS guard, eyes wide. He threw a quick glance at Dirk, but said nothing. Oskar was packing the tools around Gisela, spreading the extra blanket over her.

Dirk took hold of the stretcher.

They raced for the exit….

* * *

Only a few people, running around dazed and confused, remained outside the bunker.

They ran for the ambulance.

Any second now…

They shoved the stretcher with Gisela on it up into the open ambulance. Sig jumped in with her.

Dirk ran for the driver's seat.

Suddenly a hollow, booming explosion rent the air. The mountain shook. Almost at once the steel doors to the cave entrance flew open, spewing out a dense cloud of dust and smoke. One of them was wrenched from its hinges. Tumbling end over end, it slammed into the wooden shack nearby. The ventilation chimney on the bunker roof burst from its base and shot high up into the air. Rocks and boulders broke loose from the cliff wall and crashed to the ground below. Stones and gravel rattled down in a rain of rubble.

Clouds of black smoke billowed from the cave entrance as the workers outside, shouting with terror, ran from the bunker opening….

Dirk was in the ambulance cab. He had already started the engine. Oskar slammed the back doors shut and raced around the ambulance to enter the cab on the other side.

Suddenly he stopped dead.

From the direction of the communications-center building, two SS guards came running.

The guards from the railroad gate!

One of them pointed to Oskar.

“Da ist er!” he shouted. “There he is!”

They were only a few feet away.

Oskar gave a quick glance at the ambulance already slowly moving away. He clamped down on his teeth so hard that the muscles in his jaws corded. Then, with a quick wrench, he started to race away from the vehicle, closely pursued by the two SS men.

In the rearview mirror Dirk saw the brief chase.

“No!” he cried involuntarily. “No! No!” He pounded his fist on the steering wheel in impotent frustration. His eyes burned. His throat tightened. “No, dammit! No…”

Oskar was caught. Surrounded by jostling, screaming men, arms pinned by the SS guards. He did not glance in the direction of the moving ambulance.

And Dirk did not stop. There was nothing they could do. He knew with absolute certainty that Oskar was a dead man. Only — it would take a long time for him to die. An eternity of torture. Before the final heartbeat. A dreadful thought stabbed him. Would Oskar talk? Had their efforts been in vain after all? Angrily he pushed it from his mind. He speeded up, hit the Klaxon horn savagely. The milling crowd had almost disappeared.

He raced through the checkpoint gate and careened past a staff car, which narrowly gave way before it sped through the gate into the devastated Haigerloch Sperrzone….

In the back seat sat an SS officer. Ramrod straight…

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