The Honor of Spies

Stein's heart began thumping. The old Husares rolled onto their backs and trained their weapons at the head of the staircase. More accurately, where stairs had once led to the second floor. When Stein and the others had come to the building, they had found that the stairs were just about rotted away. They had climbed onto the second floor from the outside, using one another as human ladders.

Stein could hear movement on the lower floor, and watched the stairwell opening for a head to pop up. None came.

"Nobody's been in here in years," a voice said in German.

A moment later, Stein rolled back onto his stomach and saw that the soldiers were trotting back to the trucks and to the sergeant. He tried and finally got a shot of that.

And then he saw that something else was being off-loaded from the trucks.

I know what that is. That's a Maxim Maschinengewehr. Poppa showed me one in the Krieg museum in Kassel. He told me that he'd been an ammunition bearer for a Maxim in France.

My God, there's two of them! And there's the ammunition bearers!

Four soldiers trotted through the gate carrying a heavy water-cooled machine gun mounted on a sort of sled. The sled had handles like a stretcher. They were followed by two soldiers, each carrying two oblong olive-drab metal cans looking very much like those used by the U.S. Army.

There's probably two hundred rounds in each can.

But they're in a cloth belt, not metal-linked, like ours.

What the hell are they going to do with all that ammo?

And then another Maxim crew ran through the gate with another machine gun on its sled, followed by two more ammo bearers.

Who the hell do they think is in Casa Chica? The 40th Infantry Division?

No. If they knew where to look for us, then they'd know there's no more than a dozen men. What they are going to do with this show of force is make the point that they're irresistible, get us to surrender without a fight.

And aren't they going to be surprised when they go in the house and find there's nobody there at all.

Stein had trouble with the film-advance mechanism and looked at the Leica and saw why. He'd used all of the twenty-four frames in the film cartridge.

I will be damned! I was not paralyzed by fear!

When he had changed film--which required great care so that he did not get any dust-grease inside--and rolled back into place again, he saw something else had happened. The Maxims were set up and ready to fire, but they were now each manned by a two-man crew. The four men who had carried the weapons into place and the two ammo bearers for each were now trotting back to the trucks. As Stein watched--and took their picture--they took rifles from the trucks and formed loosely into ranks.

Ah-ha. The reserve. To be thrown into the breach when the 40th Infantry valiantly refuses to surrender.

Not to worry, guys. There's nobody in that house to surrender, much less shoot back at you.

The sergeant now trotted up to Colonel Peron and the two officers, came to attention, and saluted.

They had a brief conversation, duly recorded on film, and then saluted one another. One of them gave a crisp straight-armed Nazi salute.

Click.

Got you, you Nazi sonofabitch!

The Nazi sonofabitch now trotted through the gate, past the machine guns, and started up the hill.

Click.

Colonel Peron went to his staff car and leaned on the fender. The other officer and the sergeant went to the Chevrolet and leaned against its side.

Click.

The Nazi sonofabitch was no longer in sight as he made his way up the hill.

Shouldn't you be holding up a white flag of truce?

For three minutes, which seemed much longer, Stein tried in vain to see the man moving up the hill.

There came the sound of a shot.

Oh, shit! Rodriguez couldn't resist the temptation!