“You remember now?” He pointed at Magda, very excited. “Didn’t I tell you that was her?”
His companion blinked his eyes. In the dim light it looked as if he had no eyelashes, no eyebrows. “Yeah.” He tipped his head. “You were right. Why didn’t I see that before?”
Ula and Natalia shifted and positioned themselves slightly in front of Magda. Outside the window, Magda noted that the first convoy truck drove away, lights slicing through the dark. Next to her on the counter was a glass of water. She inched the glass off the edge and then scrambled to try and catch it. Glass shattered. Water spilled everywhere. Natalia and Ula moved slightly away.
Magda grabbed a rag and bent down to wipe the water, pretending to pick up the splinters near her right foot. Her hand brushed the top rim of her boot. The sound of the motorcycle disappeared into the night, followed by another vehicle. There were only eight of them left now.
Footsteps moved in her direction, and Magda looked up. It was the blond. He stood over her and cocked his head again, uninterested in the spilled water, or the broken glass, or the fact that she was squatting on the floor. Instead he reached down and shoved the scarf back off Magda’s face.
Magda froze, her glare meant to cut through him.
The soldier looked surprised. He looked at his companion. “No, she doesn’t. Bruno’s sister didn’t have this mark on her face.” He stepped back and returned to his companion, punching him in the shoulder as he pushed past him. “You lose. That’s a beer you owe me.”
Magda and the brown-eyed soldier stared at one another. She waited, her right hand still near her foot.
“Come on,” his companion called. “They’re waiting for us.”
The soldier remained staring at her. She would do this. She would do this if she had to. If for some reason he no longer thought of her as Bruno’s sister but recognized her as a wanted woman—Obersturmbannführer Richard Koenig’s housemaid—she would shoot him. There were only eight of them left. She had eight bullets, and she had important messages to return to the commanders of her division.
The soldier’s eyes skittered from Magda to Ula to Natalia.
Ula stepped before Magda again, crossed her arms over her chest, and cocked her head.
Magda watched him turn around and march out of the guesthouse, only then releasing her breath. Ula and Natalia reached down and helped her up.
The owner walked in from outdoors. He opened his arms, wholly unaware of the state they were in. “And? What did you find out?”
The women looked at one another, stepped around him, and went out into the yard. The taillights of the vehicles grew minute as they headed northwest. Magda turned around, cast one more look at the silhouette of the guesthouse owner in the doorway, the dining room lights still blazing, the glasses and dishes scattered on the tables outdoors and indoors.
“It’s curfew,” Magda called. “Better turn the lights out before the bombers set your guesthouse aflame.”
She turned southeast, Natalia and Ula behind her. They would spend the night in the empty barn they’d found on the way, wait until dawn, and skirt around the front to get back to their division.
Before they settled into sleep, they whispered the puzzle pieces together until they had the complete picture. Prisoners from the concentration camps in the east and west had been moved to Theresienstadt. Thanks to blown-up rail lines, many of the relocated inmates had died in death marches. Underground tunnels had been fortified in Poland, Germany, Bohemia, and Morovia to house manufactories, out of sight of the Allied planes. Magda told Natalia and Ula about the mining tunnels in Litoměřice. The Germans needed the Ukrainians, but Natalia had overheard two of them saying that as soon as they could, they would abandon the Nazis and try to find Tito and his men in Yugoslavia. The Ukrainians did not trust the Nazis. They knew the Axis powers were losing. Then this. Orders from Berlin were to hold Litoměřice at all costs. The bridge at Litoměřice was the last to the west. Officers and soldiers hoping to land in the American or British zones needed to get across the bridge and move west. Avoid the Soviets at all costs at the risk of being immediately executed. Execute prisoners if need be. Destroy all papers. Do what was necessary to cover everything up. This never happened.
That was the information they would debrief their commanders with the next day. Magda lay down in the hay, thoroughly exhausted. She would not get much sleep, however. She was too tense, too thrilled by the mission she and her friends had accomplished. She surprised herself when she realized the first person she wanted to share her experience with was Karol.
Magda hurried out of central command with Ula and Natalia after the debriefing. She returned her revolver from her boot to its holster. She was dressed in her breeches and army blouse again, and the women were heading to pack up the hospital as ordered. The division would be ready to move out as soon as their units broke through the lines. That would be easy now that the Germans were leading their units to make a run for it. The Soviets would soon be on their heels.
The officers were already heading to the commander’s for the debriefing. Magda spotted Taras heading her way with a few others, but no Karol. She told the girls she would catch up with them later and waited for Taras to reach her.
“Good morning, Lieutenant,” she called cheerfully. She was still thrilled with what she and the girls had accomplished.
He
