Heroes by David Hagberg (reading cloud ebooks TXT) 📗

listen to me, my darling. I am leaving now. I must go. But when it is over … the end of this year, or sometime next year, I will be back.” There, he had said it.

What’s more, he meant it.

She tried to push him away.

“No, Katrina, I never lied to you. I never used you. I told you the truth when I said I loved you. I still do. More than ever.”

She looked up finally, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You’re a spy.”

“I’m a soldier.”

.“Where’s your uniform? Where’s your gun?” she said. She pointed vaguely toward the southwest. “The soldiers are down there.”

“The fighting is everywhere. Hitler has to be stopped. Too many people have been killed.”

“I don’t care! I don’t care!”

“I care, Katrina. It’s why I’m here.”

“In my country. Killing my people.”

“They’re not your people …”

“They are! They’re Germans!”

“Listen to me, please,” Deland said, taking her hands. She was trying to pull away from him, a crazy, trapped look in her eyes. “The Nazis are not your people,” he said. He took a shot in the dark. “What does your father think about Hitler?”

She stopped dead. An expression of incredible grief came over her. Suddenly she had no more fight. Her shoulders sagged.

He took another guess, this one a little wider of the mark.

“You have a brother in the service?”

She shivered. “Helmut,” she said in a very tiny voice. “He was killed at Stalingrad. Just before Christmas, a year ago.”

“Did he write home while he was out there? Did he tell you about it?”

“He was proud …”

“Was your father proud?”

“What do you know?” she bridled, but there wasn’t much conviction in her voice.

“My father knows where I am. He’s proud of me.” It was a dreadful thing to say to her.

“Then go back to him and leave us alone,” she sobbed.

He drew her close. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. But that means when the Gestapo comes looking for Rudy and Maria, they’ll find you.” Only in the last few seconds had Deland realized what he was going to do. He would be taking a monumental chance. But there was simply no helping it.

“I’ll tell them anything they want to know,” she said, her voice muffled against his shoulder. “I’ll tell them I killed Maria.”

“No. I killed them, and I nearly’ killed you. But I didn’t because I loved you.”

She looked up.

“You can tell them that. Tell them you didn’t know.”

“Oh, Edmund, I do love you. God help me, I do.”

“Then you must stay here, Katy, and tell them the truth about everything except Maria and where I am going. Tell them everything else.”

She was shaking her head.

“Yes. They’ll want to know about how we made love, here on Maria’s bed. They’ll want to know all of the details. It’s the only way they’ll be satisfied.”

“I can’t. Not that,” she said.

“You’ll have to, or else they’ll know about this. And then they’ll stop at nothing to make you tell them everything.” He looked-into her eyes, steeling himself for what had to come next.

“Tell them everything, Katy. Every little detail, about how I kissed your breasts. How we kissed each other … there, below … All we did.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“That’s impossible.” He stepped just a little bit back from her. She tried to move closer, but he held her off. “I’m going to leave Germany. You won’t be able to come.”

“I can’t stay here,” she cried.

Deland’s heart was breaking. “You will have to stay with your mother and father. They are going to need you.”

“No, Edmund. I love you …”

Deland stepped back at that moment, shifting his weight to his left foot, and he clipped her neatly on the jaw with a right hook.

She said, “Oh …” as her head snapped back, but before she went down, he grabbed her in his arms.

He eased her down on the floor. His blow had knocked her unconscious. Her eyelids were fluttering, but she seemed to be breathing all right. His blow had loosened one of her teeth, and a small amount of blood trickled from her mouth as well as her right nostril.

Her chin was turning a bright red. He kissed it as he laid her head on the floor. “I’m sorry, Katrina,” he whispered, his throat constricted, his eyes stinging. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He sat back on his haunches and looked down at her. He didn’t think he had broken her jaw, but Christ, he could have killed her. She was so fragile by comparison to him.

He looked away. There was nothing but destruction here. Ever since he had come to Germany, he had participated in nothing noble, nothing of any worth, nothing constructive. He had worked for just the opposite. Now two people were dead, and the woman he loved lay unconscious and possibly faced arrest and even death at the hands of the Gestapo.

He wanted to strike out at them, hurt them for what his life had come to.

He stumbled back and got to his feet. He was frightened for Katrina, deeply fearful for her safety now.

Deland turned resolutely and left the apartment, making sure the door was locked behind him. At the foot of the stairs he retrieved his suitcase and his radio from the shadows in the corner, then stepped out across the street and headed back toward the square.

He looked back after he had gone half a block, but the blackout curtains in Maria’s apartment were tightly drawn, so he couldn’t see a thing except the blank windows.

After a bit, he turned and continued into town, around the still busy square, and then three blocks to the railroad depot.

Inside, he had to show his ticket to pass through the boarding gate, but his hat was low, the light not particularly good, and several last-minute passengers crowding behind him, so the guard didn’t get a good look at him.

His ticket was for ordinary third class. The car wasn’t too crowded with people, although there were a lot of crates and burlap sacks filled with