rocks, and to remain there, watching.
He now split his force into two. One platoon would approach through the route that ran from the west of Spili, the other from the east. They would rendezvous at the bridge and proceed towards the monastery together.
Balthasar glanced at his watch. It was approaching nine o’clock. The divisional transport had returned to Heraklion, but even travelling by foot they would be at the coast by mid-afternoon. That would give them plenty of time in which to reach the monastery, round up the Tommies and wait for the British U-boat.
It was a shepherd who spotted the men up on the mountain. He had been checking his flock that morning and had heard them speaking in an unfamiliar language, and so had lain low, then crept forward until he could see them. They were in a little hollow beside a large rock and surrounded by vetch. They had guns, but also a box, he said, with a long thin bit of metal sticking up.
‘Did the Germans see him?’ Peploe asked Alopex. They were in a low, flat-roofed building on one of the terraces below the monks’ accommodation. It was where Father Langouvardos had taken them on their arrival, and where they had since been brought some food and coffee. And where, now, an hour later, this young shepherd had been brought to tell them his news.
‘No,’ said Alopex. ‘He is certain they did not see him. At least, they did not once look round and no one came after him.’
None of them needed any guesses as to what the boy had seen.
‘Damn Mandoukis!’ said Tanner, kicking angrily at the ground. ‘So now Jerry’s spotted us and soon loads more Jerries will descend on us.’
‘All right, Jack,’ said Peploe. ‘Let’s just try and think calmly here. I doubt they’ll send a whole battalion to deal with us.’
Tanner now turned to Alopex. ‘Ask this boy if he’ll take us back up there. You and I could go, Alopex. If the boy could get close to them without them noticing, there’s no reason why we can’t. If we can get one of the men alive, we can at least find out what we’re up against.’
Alopex nodded and relayed the message. ‘Yes, he says he can do that. It will only take a half-hour, maybe a little more.’
‘All right, Jack,’ said Peploe, ‘but let me come too. I can speak German, remember.’
They left immediately, following Father Langouvardos as he led them through the collection of buildings and courtyards so that they could not be observed from the hill behind. Beyond the western end of the monastery, the ridge of the hill ran down towards the sea and it was around this spur that the shepherd now led them. They followed him closely, climbing once more, but on the reverse slopes, walking along narrow sheep trails through the vetch until they were approaching the ridge of the hill above the monastery, but from the other side.
The shepherd boy crouched, turned to them and put a finger to his lips. Slowly, quietly, they crept forward. Tanner strained his ears – there was a breeze blowing in from the sea – and then, as the boy had said, they heard voices. They paused to listen.
‘Sir, you stay here with the boy,’ whispered Tanner. ‘Let me and Alopex deal with them.’
Peploe nodded.
‘We’ll keep the radio operator alive and shoot the other two,’ Tanner now whispered to Alopex. ‘But we should get as close as possible before we shoot – we need that radio man alive.’
‘The wind should help us.’
‘I agree – that’s in our favour, at least. Ready?’
Alopex nodded and they began to edge forward. As they crested the ridge they saw the three men not twenty yards ahead, their heads sticking up above the hollow. They were facing towards the sea, two with binoculars to their eyes. Tanner moved closer, one step at a time, until he was just fifteen yards away, and conscious of Alopex on his right. One of the Germans lowered his binoculars, turned and saw the two men. For a split second he looked at Tanner and Alopex with wide-eyed surprise and horror, but in that moment Tanner had raised his rifle tightly into his shoulder and shot the man clean through the forehead. At almost precisely the same moment, Alopex had hit the second through the back, so that he slumped silently forward. The third man, the radio operator, his headphones still around his head, had barely a chance to register what was happening before Tanner was charging down on him, leaping into the hollow and grabbing him. The German struggled at first, but Tanner brought one arm around his neck and yanked one of the man’s arms back with his other hand, then shoved him to the ground at the edge of the hollow. While Tanner held him down, Alopex tied the German’s hands behind his back with his scarf, then yanked him to his feet.
‘Sir,’ Tanner called, and a moment later Peploe and the shepherd appeared.
‘We can start walking straight back down,’ said Alopex.
Taking the radio set and the weapons, they pushed the German forward as Peploe questioned him.
‘He’s being stubborn,’ said Peploe. ‘Won’t say a word.’
Alopex now pulled out his knife, grabbed the prisoner and ran the tip of the blade across the German’s neck. ‘Tell him,’ he said, ‘that if he starts speaking now we will not harm him. Otherwise I will cut off first his ears and then his fingers, one by one, until he talks.’
‘That’s not how I prefer to do things,’ said Peploe, ‘but in the circumstances …’
Alopex continued to hold the man, his eyes boring into him, the tip of the knife just breaking the skin. Tanner watched as a large stain spread around the German’s crotch and down his trouser leg. ‘I think that’s done the trick.’ He grinned.
The German started to talk, his eyes darting from Peploe back to Alopex.
‘All right,’ said Peploe to Alopex, ‘you can let go of him now.’
The German continued to speak, eyeing Alopex with a look of fear.
‘It’s Balthasar,’ said Peploe, as they continued down the hill towards the monastery. ‘He’s got two platoons with him – around sixty men, this fellow reckons. They’ll have machine-guns and rifles but nothing heavier. And they’re coming on foot.’
‘When did he warn Balthasar of our arrival?’ Tanner asked.
‘He says at about half past eight.’
Tanner looked at his watch. It was now nearly eleven o’clock, the hot sun high in the sky above them. ‘We’ve not got long. A few hours, maybe.’
‘What do you think?’ Peploe asked.
‘Could be worse, sir. It could be a lot worse.’
‘But hardly ideal.’
‘No – it’s certainly not that.’
Peploe slapped at an insect. ‘Damn it, Jack, why do I have the feeling this is all rather personal with this bloody Balthasar fellow?’
‘Because, sir,’ said Tanner, ‘I think it probably is.’
Balthasar’s force was spotted a little after half past three that afternoon, emerging around the bend in the road above the mouth of the valley and heading along the track that led towards the monastery. Tanner could see them marching in two long columns, and through his binoculars spotted Balthasar near the front of the lead platoon. The temptation to raise his rifle now and shoot the man dead was considerable, but to do so would have been to ruin their chances of escape.
‘Here,’ he said to Alopex, passing him the binoculars. ‘You want to see what he looks like? That’s Balthasar, up at the front.’
Alopex took them. ‘So that’s the son of a whore. At least I now know who it is I am going to kill.’
With Vaughan and the other officers, Tanner and Peploe had worked out a plan of sorts. As Tanner had pointed out, they not only needed to kill as many Germans as possible, they also had to play for time. None of them was quite sure when the submarine might arrive. Hanford had said some time in the afternoon, which meant it might appear at any moment but, equally, it might be late. Clearly, however, it was best to have the men as close to the sea and ready to leave as possible.
Furthermore, the ground below the monastery favoured defence. It was a good five hundred yards to the sea, but the high point on which the monastery was perched fell away only gradually through rocky, broken, uneven ground. There were trees, too, cypresses as well as olives, and thick gorse bushes. Tanner was perched now on a jutting mound of rock. It gave him a clear view up to the track and monastery, but behind him he could also see
