and hit the explosive. A ball of flame erupted. He turned and ran, more bullets hissing and slicing around him.
A searing pain scorched his neck and he stumbled, crashing to the ground. Gasping he put up a hand. It came back red with blood. Someone grabbed his shoulders and yanked him to his feet. Sykes and Hepworth were beside him.
'Can you still run, Sarge?' yelled Sykes.
Tanner nodded.
'Then run!'
The three sprinted through the trees until at last the bullets were no longer following them. Ahead was a clearing and Tanner groggily saw trucks pulling out.
He stumbled again. A hand grabbed his collar and urged him forward. 'Come on, Sarge, nearly there!'Sykes. Tanner's neck stung like hell, his chest was so tight he thought it would burst, and his legs felt as though they had turned to jelly. A shell whistled over, and another landed a hundred yards to the right. The trucks were leaving. One left. Men leaning out, arms outstretched. Tanner cried out, then sped towards it. Suddenly his hand was clutching the wood of the tailgate and he was being pulled aboard.
He collapsed on to his back as the truck rattled away out of the clearing and sped on to the road, away from the carnage and turmoil of battle. Grimacing he clutched his neck. Sykes and Lieutenant Lindsay were staring down at him.
'The trains? Have they gone?' he asked.
The captain nodded. 'Yes, Sergeant. They have.'
Tanner closed his eyes briefly. 'Thank God for that.'
'Here, Sarge,' said Sykes, handing him a field dressing. Tanner sat up and, still short of breath, hoisted himself on to the wooden bench. As he pressed the bandage to his neck he saw that all six of his men were among the Marines. Thank Christ.
'Let's have a look at you, Sarge,' said Sykes. He pushed Tanner's head forward. 'It's just grazed you. You'll live. Here, let me wrap that bandage round it.'
As he began to breathe more easily, Tanner felt his composure return. His neck hurt, but his mind had cleared. His legs no longer felt weak. As Sykes bandaged him, Tanner gazed at his men: Hepworth and Kershaw, McAllister, Bell and Chambers. McAllister and Hepworth were by the tailgate, scanning the skies for aircraft; he'd not even asked them to do that. They were becoming soldiers, he thought. Not kids any more.
'You did damned well there,' said Lieutenant Lindsay, sitting opposite him, 'you and your men. If it hadn't been for your pyrotechnics, I'm not so sure we'd have held them off.'
'Thank you, sir.'
'And it was a pretty close-run thing.'
'But you know for certain that the trains went, sir?'
The Captain smiled. 'Yes, Sergeant. I had a clear line throughout. They left after the Stukas went. And we haven't had any more visits from the Luftwaffe, so they'll be there already.'
They fell into silence as the truck rumbled on. They had left the Germans and the enemy artillery behind, and were within touching distance of safety, yet just one enemy attack from the air could end their chances. Tanner smoked almost continuously, until his throat, already sore from the thick smoke of battle, was so dry he could barely speak. He tapped his feet and drummed his fingers, patted the wound on his neck and stowed his father's old scope in his haversack. But the truck would not go any faster, however much he might wish otherwise.
At last, after nearly an hour, they emerged from the valley, and there, nestling at the water's edge beneath a thick pall of smoke, stood the tiny port of Andalsnes.
The town was a wreck, hardly any houses standing; most had been reduced to little more than charred, blackened remains. Thick, cloying smoke hung heavy on the air. The harbour teemed with exhausted troops, but there was no sign of the ships. Tanner and his men jumped down from the truck.
'Thank you, sir,' he said, offering his hand to Lieutenant Lindsay, 'but we must leave you here. We need to find the Norwegians.'
Lieutenant Lindsay shook his hand. 'I hope our paths cross again, Sergeant. Good luck.'
They left the Marines and headed down a rubble- strewn road towards the quayside. 'Stick close to me, boys, and keep your eyes peeled. We've got to find them.'
'Why, Sarge?' said McAllister. 'They'll be here somewhere.'
Tanner turned on him. 'I'll tell you why, Mac. Because we've lost good men for that professor. We've hacked over mountains and across lakes, been strafed, bombed and shot at, and I'm damned if I'm going to leave this God- forsaken place without knowing that they're here and safely on a ship.'
His head throbbed and now that he was on his legs once more, the depth of his post-battle fatigue weighed down on him. Ahead, as they reached the quayside, all he could see was a sea of men. Jesus, he thought, how are we ever going to find them? They pushed their way through amid angry cries from equally exhausted and irritable men. 'We're looking for three Norwegians,' he said. 'Two men and a girl? Anyone seen them?' It was hopeless asking, he knew.
'There are lots,' said one wag. 'Have a look the other side of those mountains.'
They pushed on, but the light was fading, and then ahead, inching its way towards them, a ship - a destroyer. As it sounded its horn, the entire throng let out a massed cheer.
'Blimey, Sarge, it's like bloody Elland Road around here,' grinned Hepworth.
Tanner looked up at the skies. The light was fading.
'Another ten or fifteen minutes,' said Sykes, 'and then it'll be too dark.'
'I know, Stan,' said Tanner. 'That's what worries me.' He craned his neck. 'Come on, come on,' he muttered, 'where are you?'
'I didn't mean that, Sarge,' said Sykes. 'I meant it'll be too late for the Luftwaffe.'
They reached the end of the quay, but there was no sign of them. 'Where the bloody hell are they?' said Tanner. 'Come on, back we go. Let's have another look.' Doubts were creeping into his mind. What if they had never got aboard that train, after all? Perhaps they had been turned away. The destroyer was pulling into the quay. And it was getting darker by the minute.
They pushed their way through the mass of soldiers, but still nothing: no blue-grey greatcoat; no fair-haired girl in a long blue coat; no middle-aged professor. As the destroyer berthed and a gangway was pushed out on to the quay, Tanner lurched forward, forcing his way through the throng. 'I've got to get to the gangway!' he called out frantically. 'I've got to get to the gangway.'
The crowd of increasingly annoyed soldiers closed in on him.
'You don't understand,' pleaded Tanner, 'I've got to make sure someone gets on that ship.'
'Sarge! Sarge!' Tanner felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Sykes and the others behind him. Then Hepworth and McAllister parted and Tanner turned to see Professor Sandvold, Lieutenant Nielssen and Anna standing before him.
For a moment, he felt as though he had seen a ghost, and then he was laughing.
