Chapter 3 – The Raid
The team ate cold rations for breakfast and settled in to pass the time until Garrison went to make his planned rendezvous with an allied agent. Casino and Goniff went back to their endless card game, Actor lit his pipe and took out the book he'd brought with him, Chief took his usual position, looking out the window. Garrison pored over a map of the city, trying to remember landmarks, he glanced up at the silent figure at the window and wondered how Chief could commit a map to memory after only a few minutes. He'd already gone over it with him and he knew the layout of the city was indelibly etched in his scout's mind, an ability that had proven invaluable on previous missions. His expression hardened as he lit a cigarette, looked back down at the map and tried to shake the niggling suspicions that beset him about what was going on with Chief.
Chief stirred and looked at his watch. "Time to meet up with that agent, you sure you don't want me comin' with you?"
Garrison looked up from the map and folded it away into his mission bag. "No, it's too risky Chief, Actor and I can get away with speaking German if we're stopped." He saw the downcast look on his scout's face. "Anywhere else I'd say yes, but we're in the middle of Germany, I can't let you take the risk." He tilted his head towards Casino and Goniff. "Keep an eye on those two over there, don't let them get into any mischief."
Chief nodded and watched as Garrison and Actor walked out towards the city centre and their rendezvous, he looked at his two remaining team mates. Casino glanced up from his cards and shook his head. "You heard what he said Geronimo, don't even think about disobeyin' the Warden, you ain't leavin', even if I gotta tie you down."
"You'll try Pappy." Chief sighed. "Looks like I'm stayin' with you."
Goniff looked up and smiled. "Pleased to hear it mate."
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The lunchtime crowd was bustling around the square as Garrison and Actor sat down at a table outside a busy bar. A harassed waiter hurried up and took their order of coffee and bratwurst, Actor raised a finger, smiled at Garrison and added two glasses of schnapps to the order. "When in Rome."
Garrison shook his head. "We're in Hamburg."
Actor shrugged. "When in Hamburg."
Garrison rolled his eyes and set down his copy of the 'Hamburger Tageblatt' on the table, they waited for their food and sat watching the crowd as they went about their business. The waiter arrived with their lunch, set it down and busied himself with some new customers. The two men leisurely ate their food and waited for their contact to show up, they had just finished their schnapps when a thin, middle-aged man with a large moustache walked slowly over. "Is this seat taken?"
Garrison looked up. "Only if you can help me with the crossword."
The man smiled sat down and gestured to the newspaper. "My name is Josef, may I?" Garrison nodded and pushed over the newspaper, Josef picked it up, opened it and pretended to look at the crossword. "Seven across is 'Caution'." He carefully took a document out of his jacket and laid it between the pages before closing the paper, folding it up and handing it back. "The address of the safe house is in there along with the plans for the building. We will meet you after you have completed your mission. We have a fishing boat on the Elbe and will take you and your team out to the sub. Good luck."
Garrison watched Josef walk away, he picked up the newspaper, tucked it under his arm and got up to pay the waiter. The two men walked slowly back to join the team, Garrison looked round every few minutes looking for signs of anyone following them, Actor smiled. "Missing Chief Warden?"
Garrison gave the conman a doleful smile. "Is it that obvious? I've gotten used to him being around, I feel safer when I know he's watching my back."
Actor nodded. "We all do. What's going on? Is someone trying to take Chief away?"
Garrison stopped to look in a shop window and checked the street in the reflection. "Chief says no, I believe him. Something hinky's going on though and I mean to get to the bottom of it."
Actor gazed at the display in the window. "Good luck with that Warden." The two men continued their walk down the street, feeling as if they had targets painted on their backs.
GG-GG-GG
Goniff looked up and sighed as he watched Chief pace up and down the room before returning to his vantage point at the window. "Knock it off mate, you're wearin' a hole in the carpet."
Chief looked at his watch. "It's been nearly three hours, I don't like it, knew I should've gone with 'em."
Casino sat back in his chair, passed Goniff a cigarette, took one for himself and lit them. "Take it easy Geronimo. The Warden and Actor will be back soon."
Chief looked out the window, he desperately needed to do something but knew all he could do was wait, just as Casino and Goniff said. Ten minutes later Garrison and Actor appeared in the distance, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief and looked over at his team mates. "I see 'em."
Casino snorted. "What did I tell ya? You worry too much, the Warden can take care of himself, he did before we came along."
"I know." Chief turned back to watch the two men as they approached, he scanned the derelict buildings behind them and tensed as a flicker of movement caught his eye.
Goniff and Casino looked up in alarm as Chief turned and pointed down the road. "Someone's followin', get over here 'n cover 'em." They exchanged glances, grabbed their guns and took position by the door and window.
Chief raced towards the back of the house, slipped out through a window and darted over to a street that ran parallel to the one Garrison and Actor were walking along. The road was covered in rubble from the collapsed, bombed-out buildings on either side, some of it was heaped up in large mounds that nearly stretched across the street. Chief negotiated the obstacles as fast as he could and then quickened the pace as he reached a clear stretch. He sought out the area where he'd seen movement, slowed down and crept forward on silent feet.
Three men crouched quietly behind a low wall and watched Garrison and Actor as they walked along the street. They weren't in uniform but wore identical long, dark coats, two of them looked at the third, he motioned for them to move forward along the street. "Can you still see them?"
One of the men looked back. "Yes Herr Kommissar, they are about one hundred metres ahead of us."
The Kommissar smiled grimly as he saw his plan coming together. "It was a good idea to impersonate that agent, we will soon have those two spies and anyone with them. A good day's work."
"Yes Herr Kommissar." The two men drew their guns and crept forward, the Kommissar followed behind at a reasonable distance, not wanting to be caught up in any violence. He swore quietly as he felt his coat snag on something, probably a nail, he turned to free himself and found a quiet, dark figure standing behind him holding on to the back of his coat.
"No Herr Kommissar," said Chief as he pushed his blade up and under the Kommisar's ribcage, he twisted the knife as it pierced his heart and watched as he slowly collapsed, gasping for breath and grabbing at his arm. One of the men heard a noise, turned round and saw what was happening, he shouted to his companion and they both ran back, taking aim at the Kommissar's attacker. Chief pulled his blade out and threw it at one of the men, he stumbled over clutching at his throat, blood pouring out of his mouth. The second man stopped, glanced quickly at his fallen comrade, raised his gun and fired.
Garrison and Actor walked into the house and paused as they saw Goniff and Casino standing at the door and window, covering them. Garrison looked round. "What's happening? Where's Chief?"
Goniff looked down the street. "He saw somethin' 'n was outta here like a shot."
Casino nodded. "He said someone was on your tail and just disappeared, you know what Geronimo's like."
Garrison looked puzzled. "There was no-one following us, I'm sure of it."
Actor nodded. "We checked, we didn't see anyone."
Everyone whirled round to look down the street as the sound of gunfire reached them. Garrison looked at Goniff. "Did Chief take a gun with him?"
Goniff shook his head. "No, just that knife o' his."
"Shit!" Garrison snatched Goniff's gun out of his hand and ran full pelt down the street towards the sound of fighting. The three cons looked at each other, Actor and Goniff grabbed more weapons and joined Casino as they ran after the Warden.
Garrison raced as fast as he could down the road, he hadn't heard any more firing and that meant one of two things, Chief had killed the shooter or he'd been killed, he prayed desperately that it was the first. He sped round the corner and leaped wildly over a body lying in his path, he stopped and saw it had a knife in its throat, he looked around and saw another two bodies, none of them Chief's. Actor, Goniff and Casino skidded to a halt next to him and desperately surveyed the scene. Goniff pointed at the furthest body, it seemed to be twitching, they watched as an arm unwrapped itself from around the dead man's neck, a muffled voice drifted over. "Anyone wanna help get him off o' me?"
The team ran forward, Actor and Casino dragged the body away to reveal a bruised and battered Chief, Garrison reached down and thankfully hauled his scout to his feet. "You alright?"
"Uh huh, better 'n these guys." Chief brushed himself down.
Garrison shook his head. "We didn't notice anyone following us."
"Can see that." Chief walked over and retrieved his blade. "Gonna have to give you lessons in spottin' a tail Warden. These couldn't have been more obvious if they had a marchin' band."
Garrison nodded and smiled at his friend. "How about I take you with me in future?"
Chief gave the Warden an exasperated look. "You said that before, back in France, remember?"
Garrison recalled the time his scout had saved him and Actor from being killed in an ambush they hadn't seen coming. "Yes I do, you said I'd live longer if I took you along with me. You're right Chief, don't let me forget that next time." He looked at the bodies, observing how they were dressed, he knelt down by the Kommisar, reached inside his coat, took out a wallet and examined the documents. "Kriminalkommissar Dieter Schmidt, Geheime Staatspolize, they're Gestapo."
Actor checked the other two. "So are these." He looked up in alarm. "Do you think this was a set up? Was Josef a double-agent or an imposter?"
Garrison stood quiet for a moment considering their situation. "Either way we can't trust the intel he gave us. We can't use the safe house or the escape plans it could all be a trap."
Casino huffed. "Wonderful, what we gonna do now?"
Garrison reached for his cigarettes. "Out think them, the plan was for us to go in late tonight, I bet they're still expecting us to do that."
Casino took a cigarette and gave Garrison a suspicious look. "Don't tell me, we're goin' in now ain't we?"
The Warden smiled and slapped the safe-cracker on the arm. "You got it Casino!"
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It was early evening, five men stood in a quiet, dark alley and looked up at the imposing facade of the five-story building that housed Gestapo Headquarters, Goniff hefted a rope ladder on his shoulder and patted the wall. "Could climb this blindfolded, easy as pie Warden."
Casino snorted. "You should know you ate most of 'em Limey."
Goniff looked at the team. "See you up there in five." The agile thief scaled the wall effortlessly and swung a leg over the parapet, thirty seconds later the rope ladder came tumbling down, Goniff looked over. "All secure up here, who's first?" he called softly.
Casino raised an eyebrow. "Guess that'll be me. I'll open the roof door while you come up." Actor held the ladder steady as the safe-cracker clambered up and then followed him.
Chief took hold of the ladder. "You go next Warden, I'll keep watch and then follow you up." He watched the alley until a soft whistle gave him the all clear, he quickly climbed up, pulled the ladder up after him, walked over and joined everyone watching Casino as he worked on the locked door with his length of spring steel. The safe-cracker smiled as the door swung open and invited his team mates in with an expansive wave of his hand.
Garrison lead the way as they quietly crept down the stairs, they stopped on the top floor and looked around. Garrison took out the building plan 'Josef' had given him. "Let's see, they might have given us the real plans. If this is right the office we want should be over there."
Chief clicked his fingers and held up a single digit, Garrison nodded and watched his scout ghost along the corridor. There a was soft gasp, a thump followed by the sound of a body being dragged, a door closed softly and Chief walked back wiping his blade on a piece of grey cloth that looked as if it had been taken from a uniform. "All clear."
Garrison's mouth curled up into his small, crooked smile as he watched Chief take position and watch for any more guards. There was no way he was going to lose his scout to another team, he knew he had Chief's assurance that nothing was happening but he knew how the army worked and promised himself he'd stay alert to the possibility.
Goniff picked the lock on the door indicated by Garrison and Casino walked into the office, he looked round and smiled as he saw the safe. "Oh yeah." He rubbed his fingers together in anticipation, stepped forward and winced as all hell broke loose, sirens wailed and there was the distant crump of explosions that gradually got closer. The safe-cracker looked up at the ceiling and shook his head. "No way baby, an air raid, now?"
Garrison motioned for his men to leave. "Get out before this place gets hit."
Casino waved a hand at the safe. "But Warden!"
Garrison shook his head as he heard the drone of the B-17s get louder overhead. "Get out now Casino, that's an order," he shouted. The safe-cracker and the thief lead the charge back up the stairs to the roof followed by Actor, Garrison and Chief.
