99. A Fox in the Hen House

Chapter 3

Sleep was a luxury that was not afforded them for more than a couple hours. Garrison and Actor were the first to be awakened by Giorgio. The resistance leader entered their room after tapping lightly on the door. He held a scrap of paper in his hand.

Garrison sat up on the edge of his bed, fully aware his second-in-command had merely rolled onto his back in the next bed and was taking no further action than that. Giorgio walked up to the Lieutenant and held the paper out.

"We just received a communique that the Germans are on their way with a truck full of paintings. They are attempting to reach the pass without the partisans knowing it." He gave a wicked smile. "There is a bit of road, not more than a track, paralleling the main road which they will be using. They will be arriving by one o'clock. We will take you by truck to another group's camp. They will get you to the road. They will also take you to another safe house with the art work after you empty the German's truck."

Garrison asked, "How soon are we leaving?"

"An hour," replied Giorgio.

"And we are going by truck? How do you explain us?" asked Actor before Garrison could.

Giorgio grinned. "We have our own hidden roads," he said.

"Okay," said the Lieutenant, "We'll be ready."

The resistance leader closed the door quietly behind him.

"Did we not just close our eyes?" asked the Italian in disgust.

"Feel's that way." Craig grabbed his pants from the end of the bed and pulled them on, slipping his feet into the high-topped shoes and lacing them up. "I'll go get the others up."

Actor threw the covers back and sat up. "Stay out of knife and gun range," he warned with a semblance of humor.

The only reply to that was a 'humph.'

Garrison walked down the hall to the farthest bedroom, tapped on the door before pushing it open. An arm reached up from one of the beds and turned the lamp on. Casino glared at him.

"Come on, get up and get your things together. We're moving out," said the officer.

"Aw, come on, Warden," groaned the safecracker. "Where we going?"

"Back to Old Blighty, I hope," piped up Goniff, blond hair even more tousled than usual.

"I'm afraid not," said Garrison. "There's a truck coming through with more museum pieces, only it's not coming through here."

"Great," Casino threw the covers back and sat up. "How far are we walkin' this time?"

"We're riding but it is not a fast or easy trip."

Casino shook his head. "I hope what we're riding has tires and not hooves, or Sister'll be bringing another horse home."

"I didn't see no horses this trip," said Goniff. "I'm not ridin' no mule," he said adamantly.

Garrison shook his head at the two. "It has tires."

Not waiting for any more complaints, he left the room and shut the door. Moving down to the next room, he rapped on that door and opened it.

"I heard," said a disgusted female voice from under the covers of the bed.

An hour and a half later found them, except Garrison, in the back of a truck that, even moving slowly, was bouncing roughly down a dirt track and through tree branches that scraped the canvas sides. Garrison, in only marginal comfort in the cab, could imagine the growls and complaints from all five in the back.

The scenery would have been beautiful, if they could have seen more of it. The air cooled the farther they crawled into the mountains. At least Garrison was fairly warm in the passenger seat. He assumed from past experience in the back of trucks, the others were not quite so comfortable.

Another hour passed and Casino began checking his watch frequently. "Man, if we don't get there soon, it's gonna be tight getting set up. No way do I have time to teach anybody."

Terry turned her head to look at him. "I'm here with you. If we have time, talk me through it. If not, just let me watch you."

Casino shook his head in disgust. "Yeah, I might as well teach somebody."

Terry went back to her own thoughts and shifted on the floor, as did the others, when they hit a particularly hard bump. Casino's head turned toward her and studied her contemplatively.

She noticed. "What?"

"You know how to make timers?" he asked.

"Kind of," she replied cautiously. "I was taught in Scotland. "I passed 'timer', but I don't have access to the parts. I have to take what's sent in with me, or what the partisans have. They're ready made." All four men stared at her. Her first finger pointed sharply at the safecracker. "And don't you dare tell Craig that. He'd have me hogtied and on a plane out of here in a heartbeat."

"What makes you think I won't put you on a plane outta here?" asked Casino belligerently.

"You don't have clearance to requisition a plane," replied the girl smugly.

This brought laughs from all of the other men.

"Hardy har har," shot back the safecracker. "It's easy. We dress Actor up like Eisenhower and let him requisition a plane."

"Hardly," snorted the Italian. "I do not look or sound like the General."

"So change your voice a little and drop the accent," Casino tossed back. "You can make yourself look like just about anybody."

Actor's head shook side to side. "I am not shaving my head just to get rid of Teresa. Besides, we need her to cook, unless you want to keep eating Spam three times a day."

"Oh, that's all I'm good for? So you don't have to eat Spam?" she retorted.

"No," said the con man in a haughty voice. "You are 'good' for many other things. I was merely using the Spam as an example."

Terry curled her lip at him.

"You better give it up, Love," said Goniff. "You're outnumbered."

"Thanks, Limey," said Terry with a tone that didn't match the words.

Casino gave her a contemplating look. "How's this, Babe? When we get back to the Mansion, I'll teach you how to make your own timers. I bet the Warden can come up with a way to get the Army to give you the parts."

Terry gave a little cock of her head. "Maybe." She looked directly at the safecracker. "I'd like to learn anyway."

"You know, Love," grinned Goniff, "by the time we're done wit you, your Mum is going to 'ate us."

Terry smiled, seriously doubting that would be the case.

"I don't think so," said Actor smugly. "Josie is a very nice woman. And she likes me."

Terry turned widened eyes to the con man. "You call my mother 'Josie'?"

"It was her idea," replied Actor, even more smugly.

"And what does she call you?" drawled Chief .

"Actor."

Terry shook her head.

A half hour later, they arrived at their new safe house. Chief looked out the back of the truck before jumping over the tailgate and unhooking it. Before more than Terry and Casino could get out, Garrison came around the side of the truck.

"Take your kits inside and come right back," he ordered. "Casino, you can leave the explosives here. We're going right back out to the road the Germans are supposed to be on."

Casino looked at Terry. "Why don't you give me your kit and stay here?" he suggested.

"I have her kit," said Actor matter-of-factly.

Knowing the Warden was watching, Casino just shrugged and walked away with his kit. Actor followed and the other two men kept a bit of distance between them and the two Italians. Terry stepped up beside her brother and looked at the house, not exactly a villa.

"Cozy," she remarked.

"Too cozy," said Garrison. "Tell your boyfriend to quit egging Casino on."

Terry turned her head to look drolly at her brother. "Actor is not my boyfriend."

"Sure about that?" asked Craig, teasingly.

"Positive," replied Terry. "You're the one who nicknamed him my 'blood brother.' If he was my boyfriend that would be incest."

Craig chuckled. "You have been hanging around them too long, haven't you?"

"Less than you, Brother," she shot back with a grin.

They took a long look at the rather rustic house. It was going to be tight quarters for the resistance and Garrison's group. The building was half the size of the one they had just left.

"Is this working the same way as the train did?" asked Terry, turning serious.

"Basically," Garrison replied, leaning against the corner of the truck. "We are transported there in this truck and another one will meet us there for the art work. We come back here. You and Actor do what you did with the train shipment and it goes to another cave the same way the first one did."

"What about guards?" asked Terry. "I assume there will be at least motorcycles front and back."

Garrison nodded. "I'll put Chief on the lead cycles and I'll take the ones behind."

Terry nodded. "You know Casino is going to let me watch how he set the charges and blows up the truck without flipping it."

Craig looked seriously at his middle sister. "You've really gotten into this, haven't you?"

"Yeah," she agreed. "It wasn't exactly what I planned on when I came here. I figured I'd talk to SOE and OSS to find out where Chris and Kelly were. Then, I'd probably be the domestic help to you and the guys. Not my favorite thing to do, but better than going back to Dad."

"Well, just don't get yourself killed," said Garrison. "You've come close too many times already."

"I could say the same thing to you, Craig."

The door of the house opened and the men emerged. Garrison straightened and Terry climbed up into the back of the truck. The men joined Terry in the back and were barely seated on the floor again when the truck started off. Chief stationed himself by the tailgate and kept watch around the curtain. Just because they had come this far without trouble did not mean it wasn't waiting for them. This drive lasted about a half hour and the track they were on was even narrower than the one bringing them to the safe house.

When they came to a stop, Chief looked around from his position, and jumped out, letting the tailgate down again. The others piled out and looked around. Casino glanced at his watch as Garrison joined them.

"Man, this is cuttin' it tight," the safecracker groused. "Where's this road?"

"About a hundred yards in that direction," the Lieutenant pointed to their right.

Casino grabbed his bag of explosives and the detonator box by the plunger in his left hand, and snatched up Terry's wrist with his right hand. "Come on, Babe," he said. "We hafta get moving."

Gabrielle, the resistance leader for this cell, motioned them to follow him. Garrison trotted after his sister and explosives expert with Actor and Goniff behind him and Chief hanging back to watch for trouble. They followed what looked like an animal trail through brush and a dense forest.

"Give me the detonator box," hissed Garrison quietly, seeing Casino was having trouble holding on to that and the bag.

The safecracker let go of Terry's wrist and transferred the box to Garrison's hands. The woman hung back a couple steps as they continued on. That did not go unnoticed by the tall Italian, but nothing was said.

Finally they reached an open area with the rough dirt road the German truck would be on. Casino looked around and moved to his left. Terry followed him.

"Yuh want to be close to your escape route, but not right on top of it," Casino said in a low voice.

He squatted down beside the road and opened his bag. Unseen by the others before, he pulled out a towel wrapped object and uncovered a gardening hand trowel. He used this to dig a little trench near the side of the road, and a line off the road into the grass. Casino hooked the detonator fuse to the bundle of dynamite and laid it in the trench. The fuse line was laid in the smaller track, then he covered everything up, patting the dirt gently down and sprinkling some of the dirt over it to hide the road had been disturbed. He glanced at Terry, silently watching what he was doing.

"Yuh don't want it to look different from the rest of the road, they can't see it when they drive over it," Casino instructed.

"I know this part," said Terry quietly. "It's the timing I think I have a problem with."

"Watch and learn, Sister," he said.

He picked up the reel of line and backed up slowly, laying it on the ground as he went. Casino glanced at the girl coming along kicking leaves over the line to hide it from view of the truck. Yeah, she had done this before. They reached the bushes they were going to hide behind. There Casino cut the line and attached it to the plunger. Glancing around, he couldn't see where any of the others were hiding. Terry sat on her heels where she could see where the dynamite was and also glance at what the safecracker was going to do.

"Truck, maybe four 'cycles comin'," whispered a voice behind them.

Casino wished the Indian would make some kind of small noise instead of scaring the daylights out of them. He was glad he hadn't jumped and the girl beside him hadn't either. Chief had disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. A few seconds later, the first pair of bikes passed. The truck rumbled along two seconds later. Casino shoved hard on the plunger and the dynamite exploded. The cab jolted up on the driver's side and slammed back down hard on the road, engine steaming, and not able to go forward.

Shooting began immediately. Goniff and Gabrielle jumped up on either side of the truck cab and killed the two in the front. A spate of shooting from behind the truck said Garrison had taken care of those two motorcycles. The forward motorcycles began turning around but never made it any farther. Chief was deadly with a machine gun, not just his blades. A couple minutes later, the other truck belonging to the resistance pulled up. Actor in the meantime, yanked the curtain in the art truck aside and fired point blank into the guard who was in the back.

Casino unhooked the fuse line from the detonator box. "You see what I did?" he asked Terry.

The girl nodded. "Dynamite isn't under the engine, it's to the side of the truck and you hit the plunger just before the wheel got to it."

"Right, Babe," he said quickly gathering his bag and the box. "It shakes things up, but doesn't tip the truck all the way over."

Terry headed for the back of the truck to help unload. By the time she got there, the tailgate was down, and the two partisans from the second truck were inside lifting the boxes down to Actor and Goniff. Terry stepped around the body that had been tossed out of the truck, silently cursing Hitler for using children as armed guards. Chief was watching for trouble in front of the truck and Garrison was behind the resistance's truck doing the same.

At least this load was all picture boxes and no statues. It did not take them long to load up the resistance truck. As that truck was backing down the road to the side track they had come off of, the others hurried back through the woods to their truck. Garrison and Gabrielle climbed into the cab and the other five jumped into the back. They went on the way they were aimed to another track which was a little farther away before turning.

7