'I don't have any,' said Tanner.
Neither did the farmer - not morphine at any rate - but he did have whisky. 'Take it,' he told Anna. 'Get him drunk.'
They made a bed of sorts for the lieutenant and laid him in the back of the first truck, then poured one of the five-gallon fuel cans into the tank. 'Change back into your own uniforms,' Tanner told his men.
When they continued on their way north, Tanner and Anna were alone in the cab. She yawned and leant her head on his shoulder. He could feel the warmth of her body against his. If they managed to reach Andalsnes, he wondered whether she would come with them to Britain. He hoped so.
'How are you feeling?' he asked.
'I don't know. Tired. I can't stop thinking about last night - getting through the town. And about Larsen. It seems so incredible.'
'Yes ... yes, it does.'
'I thought he was going to shoot you.'
'No,' said Tanner. 'He didn't have it in him. He liked us too much. In any case, it's one thing shooting someone from a distance - they're not real people, just objects - but quite another killing someone when you're face to face. It's not impersonal then. I suppose it was a bit of a gamble, but I was pretty certain he wasn't going to fire.'
She smiled at this. 'Always so rational.'
'What was he saying to Nielssen at the end?'
'Larsen? He said he'd had to do it. That they had threatened his family. And then he kept saying, 'I should have turned you in at Okset, but I was trying to protect Stig.' Then Nielssen said, 'Some protection that was.' And that's when he killed him.'
'What did he mean by that?'
'I asked Nielssen a moment ago. Apparently they had been hiding at a farm in a village called Okset, north of Elverum. It had belonged to Larsen's cousin. The Germans had turned up and searched for them. They had even been led by the same officer - Zellner?'Zellner? Bloody hell.'
'Yes, him,' Anna continued. 'Nielssen hadn't seen him, but Larsen did and recognized him when you first captured him in the fight above our farm. Anyway, although Larsen had the perfect opportunity to betray them there and then, he hadn't wanted to get his cousin into trouble and kept quiet while Zellner and his men searched the place. After the Germans had gone, they took his cousin's truck, crossed the river and headed north. But at that point Larsen realized the Germans would have seen them from the other side of the river.'
'And put two and two together,' said Tanner.
'Exactly. And since then he worried not only about the fate of his wife and daughters but also his cousin and his cousin's family.'
'Christ,' said Tanner. 'What a bloody mess.'
'Enemy aircraft!' A shout from behind.
'Damn, damn, damn!' cursed Tanner. Pasture still stretched a hundred yards or more to their right, while on their left the ground sloped down towards the river. They were hopelessly exposed. He felt Anna's hand grip his arm. 'There's no cover,' he said, 'We've got to hope for the best.' He pressed his foot on the throttle. 'Can you see them, Mac?' he shouted.
'Yes, Sarge. Four of them coming up behind, straight down the valley!'
'Can you tell what they are?'
A pause, then Bell said, 'They're bloody Messerschmitts, Sarge, 110s.'
'Christ, this is bloody suicide,' he muttered. The four planes were upon them now. Tanner looked through the side of the cab to see two lines of bullets kicking up the ground to their left. The bullets of the second aircraft raked the ground in front of them, while those of the third were way too wide. But those of the fourth cut a swathe across the road from right to left, clattering and pinging into the bonnet of the truck. Anna ducked, Tanner swerved, then righted the truck, but the
Opel was spluttering, steam hissing from the radiator.
Ahead, the four aircraft hurtled onwards down the valley until they became dots, then disappeared from view.
'Will they come back, Jack?' asked Anna.
Her hands were shaking, Tanner noticed, as she moved a strand of hair from her face. 'Doubt it,' he said. 'They would have started turning back towards us by now. They've probably gone on to attack Andalsnes.'
With the engine coughing, he rolled the truck off the road and brought it to a standstill. 'Bollocks!' he said, smacking the steering-wheel.
He jumped out of the cab and ran to the other.
'We are all right,' Nielssen called out. 'They missed us entirely.'
'That's something,' said Tanner. 'Our truck's had it.'
'Get into this one quickly,' said Nielssen.
Tanner ordered McAllister and Chambers to take the spare wheel from the ruined Opel, while he and Derigaux lifted out Chevannes.
Within ten minutes they were on their way again, Tanner and Anna now beside Nielssen in the cab. 'How much further is it?' Tanner asked Anna. To their left, the river had developed into a narrow lake.
'About sixty kilometres,' said Anna.
'We can't stop,' said Nielssen. 'We've got to risk it.'
'Those bastards'll be back, though.' Tanner sighed heavily, tapped his fingers on his knees, then sighed again, this time even louder. 'Jesus,' he said. 'This is going to be close. Damned close.' They passed a small column of shattered and burnt-out vehicles left beside the road. Several blackened corpses lay spreadeagled to either side.
'As if we needed reminding,' said Nielssen.
A few more miles slipped by, then a few more. Tanner struggled to sit still. He wished he was driving; at least it would have given him something to do. The valley no longer seemed beautiful; rather, Tanner saw it as little more than a death-trap - a single road and a railway line, with only intermittent cover. At any moment more enemy aircraft would be upon them. So long as they had the truck they could outrun any pursuit on the ground, but if they lost this vehicle as well. . . 'This is torture,' he said at last. 'Absolute bloody torture.'
They passed a settlement called Brude. 'How far now?' he asked Anna.
'About forty kilometres, I think.'
'Aircraft!' yelled Sykes from the back. 'Bloody hell, and there're lots of them!'
Tanner groaned, and leant out of the window. They were only specks on the horizon, but he could see two distinct formations, one higher than the other. The valley had narrowed again, and with it the stretch of pasture off the road. A hundred yards ahead the road curved and beside it the forest reached the road's edge.
'Can we make the curve of the road?' A thought, but said aloud. Leaning out of the window, he saw the lower formation swooping downwards towards them.
'Now!' he said. They were close enough to the bend. 'Sir, get the truck to the side of the road, and let's get out! Out, everyone, quick, and into the trees!' He leapt from the cab, hurried round to the back and, with Sykes,
