“Our father is German, yes,” said Gus with a shaky voice. “But we are not spies.”
“How do you explain our friend Fritz, then?” said the colonel. He waved the gun towards the airman.
“His name isn’t Fritz,” said Greta innocently. “It’s Karl.”
Donny snorted.
“Keep her quiet, can’t you,” said the colonel, his eyes flashing.
“Shh!” whispered Edie. “Come here.” She grabbed Greta’s hand before the colonel could turn the gun towards them and pulled her into a hug. “I can explain everything,” she said, glancing between the Snigsons and the colonel. She needed everyone to stay calm. “It was my idea to hide Karl, not the others. It has nothing to do with their father being German.”
“So why’d you hide him, then?” sneered Len.
“We were scared of you,” said Edie, quietly. “We were afraid of what you would do to him before the colonel came back.”
“And rightly so,” said Len, twisting Karl’s arm as the airman sank to the floor in pain. “Jerry scum.”
“Don’t!” cried Edie. “He saved my life. He helped us save the train too.”
“A proper hero!” The colonel laughed.
“Yes!” said Edie, fury rising up inside her. “Karl is a hero. More than you. He stopped the train so no one would get hurt. He saved people’s lives.”
“English lives,” said Len slowly.
“Yes.” Edie nodded. “And Gus saved them too, even though his father is German. Think of how many people could have died if that train had crashed.” She could see Len mulling this over. Even Donny was chewing his lip and nodding. She knew she had to talk fast and make the brothers understand who was the real enemy here.
“We trusted the colonel and so did you,” she said. “He told you to collect all those maps and pictures of the railway. He made you act like spies.”
“Enough!” The colonel was pointing the pistol right at her now, his back still blocking the door. “There’d be nothing easier than for me to shoot you all. I’d just say Jerry here ran amok. I’d say he grabbed my gun… ”
“You tricked us,” roared Len, realization flooding his face. He clenched his fists, spluttering in disbelief. “You! The fancy colonel … ”
He let go of Karl and leapt forward with a bloodcurdling howl.
“Halt!” The colonel turned his gun on Len, stopping him in his tracks. “As you will know from your Home Guard training, this pistol is a Webley revolver, given to me in the last war. There are six bullets in it,” he said. “That’s one for each of you, I think you’ll find… Two for you and your halfwit brother, three for the children, and I’ll save the last one for Jerry. I’ll say I bravely wrestled the gun back from him at the very end.”
“I’ll kill you with my bare hands,” said Len. But he didn’t move. His eyes were fixed on the gun trained on his heart.
Edie’s own heart felt slow and heavy, not fluttering in her chest like when she had been frightened before. This was cold terror, not the heated panic of saving the train. Every second that ticked by seemed like an eternity as the six of them stood frozen, held prisoner by the colonel’s gun. Only Greta was jiggling slightly, still desperate for the loo.
Edie glanced towards the window looking for an escape route and nearly gasped out loud as she saw Perky coming down the railway siding towards them. He was swinging his arms and looked as if he might be whistling.
Edie forced herself to tear her eyes away from the window. She couldn’t let the colonel see Perky coming, but she knew she had to act fast. In less than a minute, he would open the door. That split second of surprise would be her only chance to set them all free.
She breathed deeply and made herself count slowly to ten. Then, at last, she heard the door handle rattle behind the colonel’s back.
“Ey up!” Perky’s cheerful voice rang out.
“Run!” hissed Edie, pushing Greta away towards the rear of the carriage. “Get under the bench and hide.” In the same instant, she leapt forward, almost colliding with Gus as they both sprang towards the colonel at the same time.
“He’s got a gun! Don’t trust him,” she shrieked, warning Perky who was still standing in the doorway, his mouth open wide with surprise.
“Freeze,” ordered the colonel. Edie glanced over her shoulder and saw Greta still scuttling across the carriage towards her hiding place.
The colonel swung his gun around. There was a flash of movement. Greta was still running as a shot rang out.
“No!” yelled Edie. But it wasn’t Greta who fell. Karl leapt forward at the last moment, throwing himself into the line of fire, shielding Greta’s body with his own.
Edie screamed as she saw him crumple to the ground.
Perky gasped.
The colonel raised his gun again.
“Coward,” gulped Len. “You tried to shoot a little girl.” Even he looked shocked as Greta crouched beside Karl’s body, shaking him as if she was trying to wake him up.
Gus roared like a wild animal, charging towards the colonel. He grabbed the long leather tube which had held the map and swung it at the gun. The pistol flew from the colonel’s fingers and spun across the floor.
“Get back!” yelled the colonel. He plunged his hand into his pocket. Perhaps he had another weapon hidden there, Edie thought wildly. She snatched the map from the table and threw it over his head like a sheet. It was only made of paper but it was enough to confuse him for a moment. He fought with flailing arms but she held tight around his middle. “Help me!” she screamed at Perky. “The colonel is a spy!”
In a second he was beside her. Without asking questions, he pulled a ball of thick brown parcel string from his pocket and began wrapping it round and round the map with the colonel trapped
