The bombardment continued through the gray dawn of early morning as wave after wave of planes rolled through. The plan had been to pulverize the area and they were doing a good job of it. There would be no reason to replace those guns, there'd be nothing left for them to protect. Goniff slept through it. Garrison heard it in his dreams, the pounding roar of it turning to boiling rapids that swirled in his mind, crashing over a dizzying waterfall, erupting as thunder before dying away and leaving him in silence that was broken by the careful opening of a door.

He raised his head and squinted towards the sound, wincing as the light clawed at his headache. Laying back he brought his left arm up across his face and gingerly laid it over his eyes, blocking the afternoon sun.

"How are you feeling?" Actor noted the high color and the glitter of his eye when he cracked it open and looked up at him.

"I'm fine."

"Are we back to that again?"

"Told you it wouldn't last."

"I realize you may feel you have an image to maintain, but obviously you are in some distress. It would be best if you would be honest with me. We may need to change our plans to accommodate you."

"Alright. My head feels like it's going to explode and my neck and back are killing me. The nausea's better though"

Actor had managed to lay his fingers on his forehead before the Warden brushed his hand away. "Your fever is getting worse. I don't think this is from the concussion. It's lasting too long."

Garrison took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, the nausea was better but not gone. "What's causing it then?"

"I don't know. We'd best take another look at you. I may have missed something." Turning the quilt back he watched as the hair stood on end on Garrison's arms and the slight tremor of a chill shook him. The fever was indeed on its way up. He lifted the loose dressing away from the laceration on the Wardens' forehead and carefully checked the deeply abraded skin of the side of his face and the back of his hand. The injuries appeared angry, but not infected, it must be something else. There were new bruises spotted across his chest and abdomen where he'd fallen but nothing seemed severe and gentle probing caused only the mild discomfort Actor expected. Some of the old scrapes had cracked and wept but they seemed to be drying now. He sat back and thought for a moment. "Is there anything,,, are you in any pain anywhere else?"

"Feels like I might have cracked a rib. It kind of throbs under my arm." Garrison pushed himself up, swung his feet to the floor and sat leaning back against the wall. "Just find me something for the headache and the damn nausea. I can handle the rest. We don't have any more time! We've got to get out of here. If we miss the pick up it may be another forty-eight hours before they can come for us again." They'd delayed their departure, he and Goniff had been in no shape to travel, and when the Armin had finally arrived with the truck he'd convinced them they would be at greater risk on the road than staying where they were. The Germans were everywhere, he told them, moving emergency equipment, men, shifting wounded and supplies. They'd listened to him. They'd waited. But now they to had to go.

The extra time of rest should have brought Garrison through this, Actor thought. A few hours of nausea and a slight fever was to be expected. They were nearly twelve hours past the injury now and instead of improving the Warden was getting worse. Another two days here might be disastrous. Garrison was right, they had to get out of here. They had to get back where he could get adequate medical care. He'd been through the house. They'd already exhausted the meager supplies that he had found.

Garrison sat propped against the wall rubbing at the back of his neck, "Did our contact…. Did Armin go over the next stage with you?"

"Yes," his voice was level, but Casino was leaning in the door way and the look he shot him telegraphed his concern. "When he brought the vehicle up and found out you had been injured he went over everything with us again."

The Lieutenant closed his eyes for a moment as if gathering his strength. "Good. Which way? Show me the route you worked out."

With a look and subtle shake of his head Actor silenced Casino. The safecracker knew as well as he did that Garrison had been the one to work out their escape plan with the underground leader, mapping out the route, even suggesting the use of the ambulance that now sat waiting for them hidden in the trees closer to the road. Slipping the map out of his jacket pocket he laid it open on the cot beside Garrison and traced his finger along the route. "We are to travel along this road until it ends, and then there is a dirt road that leads off to the right. When we reach the end of that track we will meet with our next contact."

"Garrison nodded and shoved the map aside. "Alright, let's go." He allowed Actor to help him stand but waved further support from the tall con man away as they made their way down the path towards the road. When they reached the ambulance he sat quietly while his hands and face were bandaged, then rolled onto the stretcher and watched as the finishing touches were applied to Goniff's dressings.

They had the papers Armin had provided. Actor was already dressed for the part of attending physician and they were to pose as victims of the bombing, burn patients being transported to another hospital further west. That had been Garrison's idea as well, but Actor doubted he had himself in mind as one of the patients when he came up with the plan two days ago.

Casino put the truck in gear and pulled onto the road. Actor was in the seat to his right, their papers and documents ready in case they were stopped. Chief was in the back, a tabard bearing the red cross thrown over his uniform marking him as a medic. Goniff lay on one of the stretchers ready to writhe and moan in pain if a check point guard felt the need to take a look in the back of the ambulance. Garrison had fallen asleep as soon as the vehicle started to move.

ggg

"Warden? Warden, come on, man, we're here." Chief shook Garrison by the shoulder and sat back and watched as he opened his eyes and looked around him. "Actor says it's another mile to where we meet up with the contact."

Garrison shoved himself up and sat on the side of the stretcher. "Where are we?"

Chief frowned at him, he didn't look good, and he'd felt the heat of his fever through the bandages Actor had wrapped him in last night. "End of the road, man. We gotta walk from here. You gonna make it?"

Taking a deep breath Garrison nodded, "Yeah. I'll make it." The doors of the ambulance were open and he could see the others waiting. Resting his hand on the young mans' shoulder he stood up and followed him to the door, accepting his steadying hand as he stepped down onto the ground. Casino was taking the bandage off Goniff's face and Garrison wondered if they'd gone through any check points on their way here. He didn't remember stopping, he didn't really remember getting in the ambulance. "Actor?" He found he had trouble focusing on the man when he came up beside him. "How far do we have to go?"

"The contact did not want to meet close to the roads. We have about a mile to go before we reach him."

"Alright." Garrison held his hands out towards Casino who still held the scissors in his hands. "Get these damn things off me so I can move and let's get out of here. Chief, check up ahead, make sure it's safe. And Actor, you'd better get anything we can use off that thing before we leave it." But there was nothing, the vehicle was empty.

Casino relaxed a little as he cut away the gauze that covered the Warden's hands and arms. The guy looked like shit but at least he was makin' some sense now. When he had the last of the dressing pulled away he gathered the stuff up and set it in the back of the ambulance, returning to hand Garrison the shirt Armin had left for him in the truck. He turned and climbed in behind the wheel, he was going to take the vehicle back up the road about mile and let it roll off into a ravine they'd past and then make his way back through the trees to the trail the others would be on.

It had taken them almost thirty minutes to travel the mile in to the meeting with their contact. The man had been nervously awaiting their arrival and was hurriedly explaining the next phase of the escape. He was telling him something. Garrison was watching his mouth move, and he was hearing the sounds he made, but he couldn't make any sense out of them... It was something about the route they had to take… It was no good, he couldn't get it. "Actor. Take over. I'm not thinking straight any more."

He was used to assuming control of the group when there was a problem, when Garrison was injured or missing. The sophisticated con artist had fallen naturally into the roll of second in command nearly from the beginning when he'd formulated a plan that got the Warden back when he'd been picked up in Norway. With his personal knowledge of the countries they moved in and his language skills he had the best chance of leading them if the Lieutenant was disabled, but he'd never been instructed to do so by the man himself. Actor moved to stand next to the Warden, facing the man Armin had sent them to meet.

"Find out what he wants. I can't figure out what he's trying to tell me." Garrison turned his back on the two as the man repeated himself to Actor in an urgent whisper, and walked over to the log Goniff was sitting on. Lowering himself carefully down onto the ground he leaned back, shifting his weight onto his left shoulder.

"You don't look so good Warden, you OK?" the cockney thief asked.

Garrison shook his head, "Huh, uh." then looked at the pick pocket. "You?"

Goniff looked down at his battered hands and felt his knee throbbing where the skin had been torn back from it. It was swollen and it hurt to walk on it now, even with Casino's help. The side of his face was discolored by bruises, the eye blackened and swollen shut from being dashed against the stones when the gun exploded, but he still managed a smile and quipped, " Right as rain, mate, compared to you. Uh, sorry about that." The little man indicated the Wardens' cheek with a lift of his chin. "I guess I rubbed that off when I drug you down that ramp."

Garrison smiled back at him, put his hand up and touched the scab that covered most of the side of his face. "This? This is nothing, compared to what could have happened." and then turned his attention to Actor who had just squatted down in front of them. He tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

"He says we can use the river,,,"

"No!" Garrison looked up and found that he was only half kidding. "I'm not getting in another damn raft."

Actor laughed, "Not that, we will use this trail along the river to get down to the shoreline. A boat will meet us there when the tide comes in. It's all arranged."

"How far? "

"About six miles."

Garrison tilted his head in the direction of the contact, "Is he coming with us?"

"No. But he's come up along the trail and he has not seen any patrol activity. He says there's a town about three miles from here that we must be careful of."

The hair stood up on the back of Garrison's neck. He couldn't tell if it was some kind of warning about possibly being sent into a trap or the fever. "Do you trust him?"

"Yes, I think we must."

"Alright, then," His head was pounding and his joints protested his every move. The light hurt his eyes and the sounds reached him in muffled waves. Garrison couldn't decide if he was hot or cold, he seemed to be both at the same time. All he wanted was a chance to lay down and go to sleep. He looked down the path. Six miles, it seemed like an awful long way. "Let's go."

ggg

"I can't make it any further." His legs felt like they were made of lead. They were half carrying him now and he knew he was slowing them down. "You have to go..."

Casino cut him off, watching as Actor and Chief helped the Warden stretch out on the ground again to rest. "Nobody gets left behind, remember Lieutenant?"

He had to make them listen, "…don't understand. They won't…" He was so tired, and it was too hard to push the air out to make the sounds. "Someone… get there… tell them to wait,,, to try again." The pain in his head was too intense, he wasn't certain he was even forming the words.

"Chief,,," before he could continue the young man was standing directly in front of him, frowning his refusal.

"No way, man! I'm not leavin' you guys."

Actor continued firmly "You have to, you can get there and back the fastest."

"But that'll leave you without any protection. You'r practically carryin' the Warden now, and Goniff can't manage on his own. Who's gonna watch you'r back?"

"Come on kid, you know you gotta do this. We'll take it real slow and careful and follow along behind." Casino assured the younger man.

"Yeah, I just need a little rest and I can handle me self.,, And you'll be back before we have a chance ta' miss ya." Goniff added.

He knew they were right, Actor could see it in the change in his face and the way his body tensed. "We'll rest here for a little while and give the Lieutenant a chance to regain some of his strength and then follow you. But if someone does not make that rendezvous they won't return for us for another two days... Chief, the Warden doesn't have that kind of time."

Chief looked around at the group, then took a deep breath and nodded. Turning he started away down the trail at a lope, an easy measured stride that ate up the ground. The others watched him go. He ran like that on the estate, the only one that could keep up with him was the Warden. He'd make it,,, unless it was a trap.

"How long d'you figure?"

Actor checked his watch. "He'll have to wait for them… Three hours. With the run back, I don't see how it can be any less than three hours." They watched as Garrison folded his arms across his chest and curled in on himself, shaking as another chill took him. "Then another twelve hours while we wait for the next tide."

ggg

By the time they reached the shack Garrisons' fever was out of control. He was delirious and fighting them. Actor put him to rest on a cot in the corner. He twisted and turned, mumbling in his delirium finally rolling onto his feet away from Chief's restraining hand. "Aufenthalt weg! Lassen Sie mich allein" he backed against the wall glaring around him. fixing a glassy stare on Chief who was moving towards him to help. "Nein! Ich totete Sie!"

"Chief!" Actor said quietly, the tone of his voice caused the young man to stop in his tracks and turn to look at him. "Don't go any closer." He moved slowly forward, drawing Garrison's attention. "Sie sind fein. Sie sind jetzi sicher. Sie taten ihn nicht. Er starb einen alten Mann, in seinem Bett." His soothing voice brought him within an arms reach and when he nodded Chief took a hesitant step forward.

Garrison shifted his gaze between the two, a look of alarm growing on his face. "Nein, weg gehen sie sind tot!"

But Actor's voice continued, quietly, calmly and he reached his hand out towards him, "Es ist gut. Es ist jetzi sicher. Es ist gut." The moment he laid his hand on his shoulder the Warden pitched forward into their waiting arms. Together they lifted him back onto the cot.

Chief shot a worried look at Actor, "What in the hell was all that?"

"He was hallucinating. I think he was seeing his grandfather alive again." Actor was already working the buttons down the front of the old shirt Armin had left in the ambulance for them to use.

Chief frowned, he'd a killed that bastard himself if he could, but he was glad the Warden had gotten it wrong. Actor had told them what he'd seen carved on the stone. "What 'r we gonna do with him?"

"We have to get his fever down. And we must try and find out what's causing this."

Chief found a dented metal pitcher in the corner of the shack and went down to the beach to get water, Casino headed out to keep watch and Actor and Goniff stayed inside worrying over Garrison. He tried to twist away from them as Actor checked his injuries again, looking for the source of the fever. As they rolled him onto his hip his right arm slipped forward, on his side, high up under his arm there was an angry red welt, crusted over with blood. The skin was tight, shining with the infection that lay just beneath the surface and red tendrils reached out, snaking onto his chest and back towards his spine.

Actor caught his breath and frowned, he hadn't seen this small wound. It would have been nothing to care for at first, but now… He reached out and carefully laid his fingers over it, gently pressing down. Garrison drew in a sharp breath and tried to pull away. The con man let his hand follow, staying over the injury. "There's something there. Possibly a piece of shrapnel from the gun exploding."

When Chief returned they stripped the Wardens' shirt from him, using it to sponge the cold water over his face, chest and arms. It seemed to calm him down, allowing him some rest, but if they stopped the fever started to rise again, and the delirium returned. Actor considered their options. It would be several hours yet before the boat returned for them. He'd thought it a blessing when they had been able to send word ahead, gaining the extra time to reach this place. Now time was a curse, it was their enemy. They couldn't wait any longer. Whatever was in that wound had to come out.

They didn't have anything to work with. Nothing but water to clean the wound. Nothing but the fire from their lighters to sterilize Chief's knife, and nothing to treat the wound after he finished. The ambulance they'd traveled in had been stolen from a repair yard and had been stripped of its supplies and equipment. The bandages they had used were provided as props by the underground, disguises to help them get away. Actor made his preparations.

"All right, try and hold him still." They had turned him onto his side, stretching him out as Casino held his legs and Chief leaned onto his arms to keep him from moving. Garrison had grown quiet, retreating from the threat of them pinning him down, his fevered mind unable to believe their murmured reassurances. Goniff sat by with water and the last of bandages from the truck and the strips they folded out of fabric they'd torn from their shirts. Actor felt the lump that lay under the skin again and fixed its position in his mind. He brought the blade over the wound and paused, closing his eyes. The others watched him.

"Can you do it?" Casino asked quietly.

He nodded his head took a deep breath and made a quick downward stroke with the knife and felt the blade grate against something solid. The Warden arched and cried out under their hands and then lay still. Goniff pressed a folded cloth over the gash and waited. Actor took a moment then glanced at Goniff and nodded. When the cloth was removed he laid the blade in the wound he'd just made, pulling it back, opening it with the fingers of his other hand as Goniff poured water over them. The blade dropped along something. He turned the knife, working the tip of it under the object, raising it up into his waiting fingers.

"What is that?"

Actor wiped it with an edge of cloth and held it up to the light and studied it for a moment, frowning. It wasn't what he'd expected. "It appears to be a shard of bone."

Chief took in a sharp breath and paled.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothin'" it took him several seconds to look up and meet their eyes. "Just some old legends," the others continued to stare at him, waiting for him to continue. "The old people tell stories." He tipped his head towards the object in Actor's hand. "That's what witches do. They blow the bone into you,,, makes you sick."

"You don't believe in that, do you? In witches?" Actor wasn't sure what the young man believed, he'd never spoken of that part of his past before, only telling them the barest details of his life. He didn't know what he put his faith in, but it was obvious the sight had shaken him.

They weren't lookin' at him like he was crazy. They were lookin' at him like they were worried too. Garrison shifted and groaned as Actor and Goniff used their hands to press down around the incision, helping it drain. Chief looked down at the Warden and tried to hold him still so Actor could get a bandage over the wound, "Kinda hard not to sometimes, stuff we been seein'."

ggg

Chief found the thing on the floor where Actor had tossed it. He'd rubbed it clean and dry with the sand that had gathered in the corners on the floor. He turned it in his fingers thinking. Nachi bee iinziinii! He didn't know what to do. He'd been too young, he just couldn't remember. He thought you had to give the bone back but it wasn't something the old people explained to young ones, just stories they told. He thought one of the uncles said that you had to do it, to turn it around and get the person well again. There were songs that had to be sung too, blessing songs, but he didn't know those either, he hadn't been there long enough to learn. Even if he knew them he didn't know if it would work over here. Adilgashii! Maybe none of it was true, he thought, but he'd do it. He moved outside where Goniff, who had insisted taking his share of the duty, was keeping watch.

"Blimey don't sneak up on a bloke like that!" Goniff turned to stare at Chief. "You'r up at it too early, mate. S'not you'r turn yet. Casino comes next."

"I got somethin' I gotta do. Will you cover for me 'til I get back?"

Chief had that look on his face, the one that told him he didn't want no questions. Goniff narrowed his eyes and considered his friend before he spoke. "Sure. Like I said, you'r too early anyway. I still got almost an hour to go yet and then it's Casino's turn. You got some time." and he watched as the young man moved off into the trees heading back towards the town.

ggg

"You don't think it's, you know, like Chiefy said?"

"No, Goniff. The Warden was wounded when the gun exploded. The men that were around the gun,,, You saw what happened to them. The wound was contaminated. That is what's making him sick."

"Why doesn't he get better then? You took the thing out and we cleaned him up?"

"It will just take more time." They were working together using cool water to try and control Garrison's fever. Actor was sure the explanation for Chiefs' absence Goniff had given him had been a lie. Even if the young man had been unable to sleep, and the object he had removed from the Warden's wound had certainly upset him enough for that, he would never go far from the group, especially when they had wounded to protect. He was up to something. Actor prayed he would return safely, and soon, the rendezvous was just two hours away.

"Hey! Look!" Goniff drew his attention back to Garrison.

ggg

When Chief returned the Warden was quietly asleep. His fever broken back from the dangerous heights that made him see visions. The other men accepted his absence and his return in silence, he knew Garrison would never hear about it.

"He broke out in a sweat and started gettin' a bit better about half hour ago." Goniff told him quietly, and wondered when Chief checked his watch and merely nodded his head.

When the boat arrived for them they'd been able to rouse Garrison out of his sleep. He managed the walk across the beach, supported by Actor and Casino. Loaded in the bow of the boat, wrapped in a blanket and leaning against Goniff's shoulder he'd peered at them, finally nodding as a look of recognition crept across his face. Goniff had enticed him to take a mouthful or two of water before he fell asleep, but when the soup had come up from the tiny galley they'd been unable to wake him again. It had taken time, but the small craft finally pulled into the harbor, flanked by patrol boats. There was a truck waiting and a medic took Garrison and Goniff from them into a waiting ambulance.

As they'd been checked and released by the doctor they'd been directed to the small conference room where Reynolds had been waiting for them. Actor, Chief and Casino were assembled there now and were quietly starting the debriefing that was the final stage of every one of their missions. They were answering his questions about what they'd done and what they'd found. He'd be asking Goniff to go over the same ground tomorrow after he'd rested. The doctors had already cautioned him that Lieutenant Garrison's head injury and high fevers might make his recollections unreliable, if he retained memory of the last half of the mission at all, but he'd go over it with him all the same, when the doctors said he was ready. Reynolds had been told that might not be for several days.

gggggggggg

They'd all been astonished when the order for the repair of the roof over the broad front entrance had come through. With the shortage of men and material caused by the war, problems like broken tiles and rotten roofing generally dropped way to the bottom of the priority list. Actor reasoned that as the condition of the roof had caused three men to become injured the Army had little choice but to make the needed repairs.

The day the work crew arrived from the town was clear, sunny and warm. Garrison had been called in to meet with Reynolds and the men figured they'd be heading back across the channel soon and were determined to enjoy themselves. Actor and Chief were lounging in the shade out on the lawn, watching the work progress on the roof. Casino spent some time on the phone, by the way he acted probably talking to the girl he'd found down in the village, before joining them under the trees. Goniff, the stiffness and swelling gone from his knee, was happily scrambling over the roof, helping the workers by running supplies up and down the ladder, even taking a turn nailing the new boards in place out along the very edge earning cat calls from Casino, who was afraid of heights, but admiration and praise from the man in charge of the workers.

The work had gone smoothly. They were relaxed and smiling, just finishing up as Garrisons' jeep pulled in. Even the sight of the briefcase handcuffed to the Wardens' wrist didn't dampen their spirits.

"Lad, yer as agile as a cat up on this roof. If ye want fer work after the Yanks 'er done wi' ye, I'll take ye on."

"Hey, Lieutenant! These guys are tryin' to hire the Limey out from under ya. Better get over here and protect our interests."

Goniff grinned and stepped over to help take down the largest ladder as Garrison walked up the steps towards the door. He'd just hoisted the end of it, backing it away from the from the building, holding it by the lowest rung and letting the legs extend out behind him like the handles of a cart. The man up top was using an old strap, lowering it down into the waiting hands of his crewmate on the stones below. There was an ominous tearing sound as the fibers of the ancient strap parted. Goniff was shoved back along the step as the top of the ladder fell along the front of the building, breaking one of the library windows as it dropped. He managed to keep his feet as he stumbled backwards, the end of the ladder lifting behind him. He felt the shaft on the right catch, connecting with something soft before the top dropped on the stone with a clatter sending a sharp jolt through the wood that finally caused him to lose his grip.

"Jeeze! Goniff watch what you'r doin'!"

He cringed. He couldn't believe it! It was starting all over again. He stood where he was, closed his eyes and raised his face to the heavens before he turned to see what damaged he'd caused this time.

Garrison was on his knees on the stone, his cap had been knocked from his head and his shirttail hung down over his belt, buttons had been torn off the shirt and there was a streak of dirt across it, just below the pockets. He was leaning forward slightly, his right hand clutched at his mid-section, his left, held down by the weight of the briefcase, resting against his leg. His face was red and he appeared to be struggling for air.

"Blimey! Aw Warden! I'm sorry, mate. Are you alright?" Goniff moved quickly across to crouch next to him as Casino moved up on the other side, releasing the cuff from around his wrist. Garrison, still unable to breathe, nodded, made a fist with his left hand and jerked the thumb up. "Oh, hey! That's great! See, fellas, thumbs up, he's OK!"

Garrison repeated the gesture in frustration

"I think he wants help up, you idiot." Casino growled as he leaned forward and hooked the Warden under the arm. Goniff scrambled up and hauled on him from the other side and he soon stood swaying before them, still slightly bent over, rubbing gingerly at his middle.

Actor stood looking at the torn trousers and scraped knees and shook his head, "I'll go get Corporal Riley. Bring him into the library. If you are careful of the broken glass you can just go through there." He indicated the large broken window with a nonchalant wave of his hand.

Goniff pulled the Warden's arm across his shoulder and looked at him a moment before they started forward towards the entrance. "You know, Warden," he said seriously "Maybe we oughta just go find that toad after all, just t'be on the safe side."

Chief, gathering up cap, briefcase and keys, laughed as he followed them inside. "Well Goniff, it'll be a good night for it…. There's a full moon."