Shots

With most grateful assistance from Dale who helped me fill in some very big holes.

Part 1, Shot in the Heart

Chapter 1

The team was supposed to meet a sub at the coast but they had been delayed and did not arrive until fours hours later. There was nothing to do but wait for the next scheduled window. That was, until they heard the rockets being launched. Five men pictured the fear and death and destruction that was about to occurs. From there one mind turned to what he could do about it. It took less than five seconds for the second man to follow that train of thought. One look from the others and they knew, they would not be waiting idly.

They found the site and Garrison and Chief went to check it out. The Germans had selected a natural valley placing the launcher out of sight of all except aerial eyes, camouflage netting took care of that. The two men had crawled to the top of one of the rounded hills and were scanning the relatively inactive scene below.

"See that fence at the far end?" asked Garrison as he handed the glasses to Chief. "Unless they beef up the patrols at night, we should be able to approach that way. We cut through the fence, move up the far side behind those crates and we can get close enough to blow the launch pads."

"What about the house? It's occupied." Without moving his head he handed the glasses back to his leader. "Civilians."

Garrison did not waste words asking how he knew, he looked closer at the farmhouse. Of course he was right. To the side of the house was a clothes line well occupied with definitely non military issued clothes. Plans shifted taking into consideration the newest information. The blast would damage the building and any resulting fire could be fatal to the occupants. "All right. We can't wait for too long. We'll come back just after nightfall." The two men withdrew and returned to the rest of the team.

Lacking the proper explosives, timers, and fuses, they had had to improvise so their exit was going to have to be hasty. Actor and Goniff exited the way they had come in. The other three made their way up to the house. Garrison edged up to the door and knocked. Casino waited just out of sight in case help was needed. Chief, on look out, watched as the door opened, Garrison spoke to the woman then entered the house. She was in her thirties, slightly plump and wearing a floral dress with a dark kerchief around her head. Moments later Casino was beckoned and he entered. From the far side Chief had seen movement and watched helplessly as two soldiers approached the door. There was nothing he could do. The only spot to watch had been behind the chicken coop, too far to throw his blade, and he could not shoot, that would draw the German soldiers away from the blast centre and if they radioed for help, would alert neighbouring soldiers to be on the look out. They wanted to be miles away before the blast went off. The woman opened the door and the one soldier pushed his way in. The other stood guard outside the door. Something had gone wrong because a shot was fired from inside the house. The guard turned and pushed open the door and was about to enter. Chief did not even try to aim. He raised his gun and fired twice. The guard fell. Moments later Garrison run out the door and their lookout moved to intercept him. They met up with Casino and the woman who had come from around the back. The woman had looked stunned but there was no time. They ran. Once Garrison was sure they had eluded pursuit, they stopped in a barn to rest. After talking to her they escorted the woman to a nearby town where she had relatives. From there it was a dash to the pickup point and then home.

As was their habit, the men had gone to the Doves to celebrate their success and discuss what had happened. Sometimes there was bragging, others, commiseration. This time there was devastation when Casino dropped the bomb that blew a hole Chief's heart.

"Warden was telling her what was about to happen, when we heard the knock at the door." Casino was telling Actor and Goniff what had happened after they had split up. The other two had had an uneventful time and were now catching up on the rest of the story. "Garrison must a told her to get rid of who ever it was cause she opened the door. We hid in the back room. Bastard pushed his way in. He started movin' in on her, didn't take a genius to figure out what he wanted, slimy bastard. Anyway she fought him. Lady had guts that's for sure. Anyway she managed to grab his gun and it went off. Before we had a chance to do anything the front door comes crashing in. Warden went out to get her and she and I went out the window. You'd think she'd never done that before. Guess she never snuck out to meet her beau." The others had chuckled over that. He had continued on but Chief was only half listening, he had seen the rest. Besides the bartender had answered the phone and he was concerned that it might be Garrison. They were not supposed to be here. He caught the last bit of Casino's story and it lingered around the edges of his mind as he watched the bartender hang up the phone. He went back to polishing the glasses with out a glance in their direction. They were safe for now.

There was a lull in the conversation but each of the other men looked disturbed. What had he missed? He replayed the last of the conversation in his head and that was when it hit him. He couldn't breath. What had he done? Oh God, what had he done? He looked down fearing the others might see the look that he knew was on his face. He felt light headed as he tried to steady his breathing that was threatening to get out of control, his heart was pounding. He wanted to get up and run but he was rooted to the spot. He snuck a look at Actor's face and then the others. No one was looking at him. They didn't know. He took several deep breaths and forced his muscles to relax. They must never know. He had done a lot of really bad things in his life, things he was not proud of doing, but this … He had thought the worst thing was the time he had jumped a guy a girl had dumped him for. The guy never knew what hit him. He had died after hitting his head when he went down. Turned out he had hit the wrong guy. Other fights he had been in where others had been injured he had justified with the reasoning that they didn't have to fight him, they could have walked away. Even after he had flashed his blade they still wanted to fight. If they got hurt it was their own fault. But this…

He took another deep breath, swallowed hard and stood up. Somehow he made his way to the toilet and once inside he had retched until his stomach ached. Moving to the mirror he forced himself to look in it, to look at the face of such a despicable person. He could see it, what he had done written all over it. He was finished, they would kill him. And he deserved it. He turned on the tap, cupped water in his hands and sucked it into his mouth, rinsed and spit. The taste of vomit was gone from his mouth but the stain in his heart continued to corrode. That would not wash off, ever.

Before returning to his seat he picked up another drink which disappeared and was replaced by another. The more he drank the less he could see the scene Casino had described. He said nothing and made sure there was no eye contact. Best the others not know what he had done.