us to a lingering death and has decided to administer the coup de grace. Whether we give up the Daemon or refuse, the result will be the same.’
Olbracht ignored him. ‘This mess is your fault, Dabrowski: by associating with Daemons you have brought the Leader’s wrath down on Warsaw. You must give this creature up. We must show ourselves to be loyal and obedient members of the ForthRight. We must surrender the Daemon and apologise.’
He whirled around and addressed the officer who was commanding the company of soldiers that had accompanied the delegates. ‘Lieutenant Adamczyk, arrest Captain Dabrowski and all of his companions.’
The Lieutenant made a move towards Dabrowski then stopped in mid-stride as the sound of a rifle bolt being worked echoed through the room. All eyes turned towards Sergeant Wysochi, who was pointing his rifle rather casually towards Olbracht. ‘I don’t think the Captain has a mind to be arrested tonight, Chief Delegate,’ he growled.
‘Are you mad, Sergeant?’ Olbracht gasped. ‘I could have you shot for this. Don’t you know that I’m the leader of the Warsaw Administration, that I’m…’
‘You’re a dead man unless you and all your pals turn around and get going.’ There was something in Wysochi’s tone that indicated he was in deadly earnest; Olbracht turned pale.
‘Captain Dabrowski, order this lunatic of yours to put down his rifle. This is mutiny!’
Dabrowski stood speechless, unable to choose between his sergeant and the man who was, at the very least, his titular commander. Trixie had seen the phenomenon before in young men in the ForthRight: they had been conditioned from birth to obey orders and this made it difficult for them to know how to disobey them.
Sergeant Wysochi took the decision out of his hands. ‘Don’t matter what the Captain says, Chief Delegate, after what’s happened tonight I’m a dead man anyway, so whether the Checkya arrest me for one murder or two don’t make no difference.’ He raised the rifle to his shoulder and took careful aim at Olbracht’s forehead. ‘Now, Sir, are you going alive or are you staying dead?’ He clicked off the rifle’s safety, the sound ominous in the silence.
Olbracht and the rest of the Administration retreated out of the inn muttering threats about ‘mutiny’ and ‘court martials’.
When the last had gone, Wysochi lowered the rifle. ‘I think if we’re going after those barges, Major Dabrowski,’ said the Sergeant, pointedly using Dabrowski’s Warsaw Free Army rank, ‘we’d better get a move on. I’ve got a feeling that that prick Adamczyk will be back with more men and then he won’t be taking no for an answer. If we move on the barges tonight…’
‘Tonight?’ muttered Dabrowski. ‘But we’re not ready.’
‘We’ve got to take them tonight, Major. Strike while the iron is hot. We’ve got to present the delegates with a fait accompli.’
Fait accompli? wondered Trixie. Now that wasn’t a phrase you often heard coming from the lips of a Polak sergeant. There was more to this Wysochi than met the eye.
‘Taking those barges will be an act of war that even those cowards and renegades in the Administration won’t be able to apologise for. Anyway, if we wait Olbracht will alert his SS pals about what we’ve got planned: by tomorrow those barges will be so heavily guarded we’ll need an army to take them.’
Dabrowski shook his head. ‘We don’t have enough men.’
Wysochi looked over to the young second lieutenant who had been left at the inn when the delegates had scurried off. ‘You the officer here?’ he demanded.
The tall, thin boy stepped forward. ‘I am, Sir… er… Sergeant.’ He saluted. ‘I’m Second Lieutenant Gorski.’ The Lieutenant was utterly unprepossessing. He looked about fifteen years old and was wearing an army greatcoat at least two sizes too big for him. The soldiers in his command were equally ragtag: they did not inspire confidence.
‘How many men in your company, Gorski?’ asked Wysochi.
‘Twelve… no, fifteen.’
‘Are they armed and ready to fight?’
Gorski swallowed, his overlarge Adam’s apple bobbing nervously. ‘Fight who… er, whom?’
‘The ForthRight, of course! We are going to seize a pair of barges moored in the Berlin docks, and confiscate the rifles they’re carrying on behalf of the Warsaw Free Army.’
The boy’s eyes popped. ‘But my orders are…’
‘Do as you’re fucking well told!’ barked Wysochi. ‘Major Dabrowski is the ranking officer here.’
Dabrowski sighed. ‘It’s no good, Sergeant, even with Gorski’s men there are only seventeen of us and that isn’t enough to take the barges. And we need a man who can operate a steam-barge. My idea was to sail the barges up the Rhine and unload them at the Gdansk docks but without a barge captain we’re stymied. Operating a steam-barge is a tricky business; it’s not a job for amateurs.’
‘I can manage your steam-barge for you.’ The words were out of Trixie’s mouth before she had even realised she was going to say them. Everyone in the room turned to look at her in stunned disbelief. ‘I worked for two months on a barge with my father last Summer,’ she hurriedly explained. ‘That was when he was remodelling the traffic-flow system for the Rhine. I spent those months standing alongside the best bargemen in the ForthRight. I can work your steam-barge.’
She felt Dabrowski’s eyes boring into hers. ‘Are you certain, Miss Dashwood? Men’s lives will turn on your skill. This is no place for schoolgirl bravado.’
Trixie bristled. ‘Major Dabrowski, believe me, I hold my life precious. I would not say this if I had any doubts in my ability.’
‘It’s an ebb tide,’ observed Sergeant Wysochi. He clearly knew that the ebb tide was the fiercest and the fastest – the one that challenged bargemen’s skills to the utmost.
Trixie nodded. ‘It is also the tide which will get us to Gdansk docks quickest.’ She looked from Major Dabrowski to Sergeant Wysochi and back again. ‘So… are we going to take these barges or just stand here all night discussing it?’
26
The Demi-Monde: 56th Day of Winter, 1004
There are six rivers in the Demi-Monde®. The five Spoke Rivers which rise in the central Hub lake – Mare Incognitum – flow Boundarywise and define the borders of the Sectors. These Spoke Rivers – the Thames, the Rhine, the Volga, the Yangtze and the Nile – each have an average current speed of 1 mph, though in the rainy season this can increase substantially. An ebb tide runs for 4 hours each night, when river currents reach a speed of 10 mph. The sixth river (the Wheel) is a Hub river which connects all five of the Spoke Rivers and defines the boundary of Terror Incognita.
– The Demi-Monde® Product Description Manual: 14 June 2013
Fate – ABBA – had granted Comrade Commissar Dashwood a reprieve.
The confusion and panic that enveloped the Manor following the escape of the Daemon had been such that Beria seemed to have quite forgotten the order to arrest him. All the fat man had been intent on doing was bustling the Leader out of the house and moving him ‘somewhere safer’ and he had done it so quickly that the Baron hadn’t had an opportunity to get a decent shot at him. Within fifteen minutes of the explosions rocking the house none of the members of the PolitBuro remained. Dashwood – a little bewildered by the turn of events – had found himself alone in the Manor. No one was worried about the safety of a lowly Commissar of Transport.
But he knew his reprieve would be a temporary one, that once the furore had died down he would be purged. Sooner or later they would come for him. And by his estimation it would be sooner: Beria would probably arrest him at dawn tomorrow, which meant that he had only the rest of the night to prepare.
Yes… fate had given him a chance to fight Heydrich. For too long he had been docile. Now was the time to show that there were those in the ForthRight who were ready to fight the evil that was Heydrich’s Party. Now was the time to rally the Royalists who had gone underground and lead them in defence of freedom.
As the last SS steamer puffed its way through the Manor’s broken gates, Dashwood strode up the staircase to his room where he packed the field uniform he had worn as a colonel in the Royal Guards into a small knapsack. To this he added his Sam Browne belt and his Mauser revolver. He was ready.
