‘We have cousins in Fourfouras,’ she said, ‘on the other side of these mountains. It’s in the Amari Valley. When you leave, we will come with you.’
‘Will you be any safer there than you were in Sarhos?’
She smiled. ‘Oh, yes. When you see the Amari Valley you will understand why. It is surrounded by mountains. The valley is not really a valley at all, but a bowl. A secret bowl.’
‘And what will you do?’
‘I want to help, Jack. I have told my brother I want to be a runner for him. I know these mountains as well as anyone.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘I think he will say yes.’ She raised her mouth to his.
‘And what will he say about this?’
‘Nothing. Now you two are friends. Anyway, I do not care what he says.’ She put her hand to his cheek. ‘When I was in that prison, I thought at first that they would shoot us all. Then they told us we would be sent away, taken from Crete to a prison camp in Germany. But I would not have let them. I would have killed myself before they took me away from here. I thought my life was over, but here I am. It made me think I must make the most of what life I am given. Soon you will be gone. I would rather have a few days with you, Jack, than none at all.’
‘I’m glad,’ he said. ‘And you’re right. We mustn’t die full of regrets.’
He held her face in his hands, then pushed his fingers through her hair. She looked so determined, but vulnerable, the bruising on her cheek still quite marked. He kissed her again.
‘We should go back to the cave,’ she said, and taking his hand, led him back down the stony track.
The sun was setting behind the mountains when Jack Hanford arrived at the cave, bringing with him confirmation that the British submarine, HMS
‘Father Agathangelos will agree to this,’ Satanas told him, as they once more sat around the fire at the mouth of the cave. This place, perched on a rocky lip to the side of a spur at the head of the ravine, had become the focus of the guerrillas’ command post. And as ever, a strict protocol was observed: guerrillas on one side, British on the other, officers and
‘I have known him a long time,’ Satanas continued. ‘He will do as Commander Pool asks.’
‘He’s already agreed to take these men in and any Australians who can reach Yerakari in time,’ said Hanford. ‘I saw him last week.’
Satanas stroked his white goatee beard. ‘You should move tomorrow. You will be safe to move by day up here. Alopex will accompany you with some of his
‘We will stay in Fourfouras tomorrow, then go on to Yerakari,’ said Hanford. ‘We’ll move out again on Saturday evening, cross the main road at night and reach Preveli early on Sunday morning. We’ll be safe to wait there until
‘And what about you, sir?’ Tanner asked Satanas. ‘Will you stay here?’
Satanas looked at him, his eyes bright. ‘You don’t think we should?’
‘No – no, I don’t, sir. Mandoukis will surely have told them about this place. Jerry may still not want to attempt any attack this far into the mountains, but I don’t think it’s worth taking a chance.’
‘I think you’re right,’ said Satanas. ‘We will be fighting the Germans for some time yet. We must learn to be patient.’
‘I agree,’ said Alopex. ‘God knows I want to kill those sons of whores and especially this Lieutenant Balthasar, but we need the Germans to dance to our tune, not the other way around. We should get the supplies here away to safety – to the Idean cave. No German will go there.’
‘Then we are agreed,’ said Satanas. ‘Tomorrow morning, we will all go.’
The mood among the men, both Cretan and British, seemed to improve with the announcement of these decisions. Wine and raki were produced and they remained sitting around the fire, drinking and talking, until long after dark. Yet despite the wine and raki, when Tanner returned to his small hollow in the rocks, he lay awake for a long time, unable to sleep, his mind a jumble of conflicting emotions. It pained him to think that all too soon he would be bidding farewell to Alexis, probably for ever. Something about her had got under his skin; his head had been quite turned. And yet he wanted to get back to Egypt too, to be part of a battalion and army once more. Damn it, he also wanted some leave: the thought of the bars and restaurants of Cairo made his stomach rumble with yearning. More than that, he knew he could not stay – Vaughan had been right. Yet to walk away from this place and the woman who had entranced him made his heart ache.
Eventually, he had fallen asleep. He must have done, because when he opened his eyes it was no longer dark and the mountains were emerging into the first light of early dawn. But what had woken him was not the sound of men stirring, but of rifle fire, which could mean only one thing.
The enemy had come up the mountain after all.
22
Only a few days earlier, Oberleutnant Balthasar had decided he would never venture into the mountains in an effort to track down the Cretan guerrillas. He had always believed it was important to play to one’s strengths, but more than that, he had counted on being able to draw the enemy down into the valleys. He had no doubt the ploy would have worked had those Tommies not infiltrated Heraklion and freed Alopex’s family from the fortress. He had been furious about that, especially since he had warned Brauer, but it had been a brilliantly carried-out raid. Only twentyeight men had been killed and half a dozen wounded – a small casualty bill, all things considered. Neither had there been that much damage. A company headquarters had been destroyed, but most of the charges had been laid against the walls; their immense thickness had absorbed most of the blasts. No, what those Tommies had done was to outwit them, through the use of surprise and clever diversions. In many ways, he had already believed himself to be part of a game of cat and mouse, but the escape of the prisoners – his bargaining chips – had only reinforced this opinion. Now he had to outfox them in turn.
The information from Mandoukis had been a stroke of luck. He had assumed he would not be seeing the Cretan again, but then he had turned up suddenly, out of the blue. Of course, he might have been lying, which was why he had taken him into Heraklion to the Sabbionera Bastion. There he had allowed the couple a brief reunion. It had been quite touching, really, but then he had pointed a pistol at the wife and threatened to kill her if one word of what Mandoukis had said proved to be untrue. The tears, the trembling, the imploring that had followed! Balthasar had been convinced by that, and for a brief moment he had thought of sparing both of them. That could not happen, however. It was likely they would have been murdered by their own kind – but it was a risk he could not take. In any case, Mandoukis had been involved in atrocities against his men and the punishment for that was death. So Mandoukis’s wife remained a prisoner awaiting passage to the Reich, and Mandoukis, his usefulness over, was taken into the courtyard and shot.
But it was not only the Cretan’s information that had persuaded him to try a dawn assault on the guerrillas’ mountain lair. The build-up of German forces on the island had been running smoothly since the British evacuation. Three airfields and three ports had been put to good use. More arms, guns, ammunition and motor transport had arrived over the past few days. There were more troops on the island now too, not only Fallschirmjager, but also a whole division of Gebirgsjager – mountain troops. Mountain troops for mountain operations.
Balthasar had gone straight from the Sabbionera Bastion to Major Schulz’s office in the Megaron, and outlined his plan. For the time being, he proposed, he would stop his own reprisal operations against the villages. Instead, he wanted to make a jointforce dawn assault on the mountain. With luck, he would be able to surprise the guerrillas and, at the very least, destroy their base. Then he proposed to lead his company to Spili, in the south, to lie in wait for the Tommies, prevent their evacuation attempt and put paid to any future escape line from that part of the south coast.
