Blood of Honour

commander once more, with the decisions of high command left to someone else. He hated leaving his men like this, cutting and running before so many others. To make matters worse, he had seen their faces in the evening dusk. Some had wished him well, but most had just stared at him, stony, silent expressions that had cut him more painfully than any sword or bullet.

Eventually they had reached the quayside, and soon after, a faint hum had been heard that had rapidly grown until, out of the sky, two Sunderland flying boats had appeared. Gracefully swooping down to the calm, gently lapping sea, they had landed a short way from the shore, waiting patiently while Freyberg and his staff clambered down into little wooden dinghies and were rowed towards them. Pulling alongside the giant grey beast, Freyberg could hear the four radial engines ticking and clicking as they cooled. There was a reassuring smell of fuel and oil, as a door opened beneath the high cockpit and he made the awkward step from the boat into the Sunderland.

And then, soon after, with the first Sunderland full of passengers, the engines began to turn and then roar, shaking the whole aircraft. Slowly at first, then gathering speed, the seaplane sped out across the water, buffeted as it skimmed over the surface, until suddenly the shaking lessened and it was climbing away. Freyberg looked out of his window and, in the last vestiges of light, saw Crete, a long, dark outline, like a sleeping giant, and a place of gentle, magnificent beauty rather than the scene of so much bitter and costly fighting.

Freyberg rubbed his eyes. He had been charged with defending Crete and yet he had failed, leading his island garrison to another bitter defeat. It was a burden he would have to live with.

As the hungry Rangers and Cretan andartes ate their meal of roast mutton and bread, they were unaware that the commander of Creforce was at that very moment flying out across the sea towards Alexandria, or that the remnants of Creforce were still evacuating from Sfakia.

As it was, the mood at the cave was sombre. Several of the guerrillas were from the same village as Alopex. As for the kapitan, he kept apart from his men. Alopex was a solitary figure that night, and both Satanas and his men let him be. Tanner, too, was not much in the mood for talking. The cuts to his face hurt, while his head throbbed painfully. He had said nothing to Peploe about his offer to Alopex – not yet. It could wait. He needed to think. Think and rest.

He settled down near the cave’s entrance. Up in the sky, stars twinkled benignly. The air was cool and still; there was no sound of cicadas in the mountains. Near the back of the cave, he heard Liddell calling out. The man had developed a fever. That worried Tanner too. He had not saved the stupid idiot just for him to go and die in some mountain cave. But Liddell was being tended by Woodman and Bonner. He’s not my concern now, Tanner told himself. Go to sleep.

The other Rangers had let Tanner be in the same way that the andartes had recognized Alopex needed to be alone. Sykes had ensured that no one bothered the CSM; he had known Tanner long enough now to understand when his friend was not feeling sociable. Nonetheless, he also saw that the others were desperate to know what had happened between their CSM and the Cretan kapitan.

‘So there he was,’ said Sykes, in a low voice, as a number of the Rangers sat around a softly burning fire, ‘with his bayonet in one hand and a sodding great rock in the other. And a few yards away there’s Alopex with this gleaming dagger. Both men had already knocked ten rounds out of each other. Alopex had got blood running down his face and so had the CSM. They were quite a sight, I can tell you.’

He paused to light a cigarette, which he cupped between his finger and thumb.

‘And then what?’ said Hepworth.

‘Well, then that nipper comes running up the track shouting about what’s happened down below.’

‘So they stop fighting?’ said Mercer.

‘Yes – that was it. But I reckon the CSM had the trump hand. He’d have flung that rock and had him. Could have been curtains for old Alopex.’

‘Tanner’s a hard bastard,’ grinned McAllister. ‘Won’t back down on anything.’

‘But ’e ’as, Mac. He made his peace with Alopex.’

‘So we’re all mates again, then, Sarge?’ said Hepworth.

‘For the moment. But you know what these Cretans are like. Sensitive buggers. Don’t take much to get them worked up about something or other.’

They were quiet for a moment. Then Mercer said, ‘D’you think we’ll ever get off this place, Sarge?’

‘Course we will,’ said Sykes, the tip of his cigarette glowing. ‘We might need a bit of help finding some kind of boat but we’ll be all right. You’ll see. At any rate, we’re safe enough for the moment.’

‘I wonder whether the others made it,’ said Hepworth.

‘I hope the Eyeties didn’t get them,’ said McAllister. ‘Bastard Eyeties. Always jumping on Jerry’s bandwagon. Typical of them to bloody well turn up once the island’s almost secure.’

‘Well, I think we made the right choice, boys,’ said Sykes. ‘I mean, I really hope they made it but, let’s face it, that old boat was knackered, wasn’t it, Eyeties or no Eyeties?’

‘But what now, Sarge?’ said Mercer. ‘Are we going to stay here or do we have to keep fighting Jerry?’

‘You know what, mate?’ said Sykes. ‘I don’t think you should worry your pretty little head about that tonight. Let’s get some kip and see what tomorrow brings, hey?’

Sykes opened his eyes and saw Tanner a short distance away from the mouth of the cave, gazing out over the mountains. The air was fresh and cool, a lingering smell of woodsmoke on his clothes mixing with the sharper scent of sage and brushwood. Most of the other men were still asleep, although a couple of andartes were keeping watch, sitting on rocks, leaning on their rifles. Of Alopex there was no sign.

Sykes yawned, then got up and quietly stepped over the rocky ground to join Tanner, who turned as he approached. He had washed the blood from his face, but there was bruising around his right eye and on his left cheek. The cut, however, looked as though it would heal well: already, a dark mass of blood had congealed into a thick scab.

‘All right, Stan?’ said Tanner.

‘Fine, ta. Better for a good kip, I can tell you. The old boat race don’t look too bad, all things considered, Jack.’

‘I’ve had worse.’ Tanner took a gulp of water from his bottle, then passed it to Sykes. ‘Could kill a mug of char, couldn’t you?’

‘I don’t even want to think about it.’ He drank. Then, passing back the water bottle, he said, ‘I wonder how Mr Liddell is this morning?’

‘He’s not feverish any more,’ said Tanner. ‘I checked.’

‘Then he’s through the worst.’

‘Should be.’

‘I hope he’s grateful,’ said Sykes. ‘You saved his life, Jack.’

‘I didn’t do it for him. I did it for his father. Something I owed him. In any case, I’m hardly going to sit back and let the poor bastard drown, am I?’

‘Well, you did the right thing.’ Sykes sniffed. ‘So what’s the plan?’

‘Eventually to get off the island and back to Alex.’

‘Eventually. But first?’

Tanner faced him. ‘You don’t need to come, Stan. None of you do, but we owe it to these men to help them get the women out of Heraklion. Damn it, we owe it to ourselves. Cutting and running like that – it was a disgrace, Stan, a bloody disgrace. I’ll go in on my own if I have to.’

Sykes took his comb from his battle-blouse pocket and ran it through his hair. ‘You’re not going anywhere without me. They’ve got a good number of explosives here.’

‘And I bet not one of them knows as much about ’em as you do. And don’t forget there’s still the rest of that cache of Captain Pendlebury’s. If they haven’t already blown themselves up on it, we could make good use of that.’

‘That’s true. It’s still going to be bleeding difficult, though.’

‘I thought that too. Last night I was thinking it was nigh on impossible, but now I’m not so sure.’

‘How come?’

‘Well, I wonder how many troops are in the town itself. They’ve got pretty much the whole island to garrison after all, plus three airfields. We’ll have surprise on our side and with the explosives we can create a few diversions.