99. A Fox in the Hen House
Chapter 6
Gunfire began as the cattle car paused briefly in its fall to one side and came back down hard with its wheels on the rails. Terry was up and running, leaving Casino behind to get the remaining fuse line and detonator caps bagged up. He stood up, grabbed the bag and the plunger detonator box, and began to run toward the train. A couple single shots were fired by partisans to unlock the train car doors. Casino looked around and spotted Matteo. He trotted up to the resistance leader and held out the bag and box.
"Here. Take it," said Casino. "I'm outta explosives. You might be able to use what's left in here. I'm not hauling it back."
Matteo accepted the blasting materials with a nod. "Thank you, my friend," he said in heavily accented English.
The two men looked down the line of train cars. Stunned people were trying to get out. Terry and some of the partisans were helping them. The prisoners stood around, clearly not understanding what was going on. Most of them were filthy and wore torn clothing. Some of the older people were injured, but still upright with help of their family or friends.
Now that the resistance leader and the safecracker were close to the cattle cars, the pungent smell of urine, vomit and excrement reaching them was strong. Garrison ran up and joined Matteo and Casino. He shook his head in disbelief. It was the first time he had seen the cattle trains jammed with people before. He had just heard and read about it. His other three men were helping people down.
"Run!' screamed Terry making a shooing motion with her hands toward the woods. "Go! Run!"
They just stood there like lost sheep.
"Fuggire!" yelled Actor and the partisans in Italian. "Andare!"
Garrison stepped forward. "Laufen . . . schnell!" he yelled, trying German.
Terry was beside herself. These people needed to get out of here before they were recaptured when the Germans arrived. She kept yelling and gesturing in English, German, Italian and even French. She looked at her brother as he approached her.
"Why don't they go? Why don't they run?" she demanded in frustration.
Goniff came up and looked at the masses of people. "Loyfn!" he yelled as loud as he could. "Gey!"
Some of the people looked at him, understanding what he said. Goniff made the same shooing motions with his hands. He kept yelling the two words as he moved down the line of train cars.
Now some of the people got the idea and began herding the others into the woods, the younger ones helping the elderly and injured.
"Actor! Goniff!" yelled Garrison. "Come on!"
The two men trotted up to the Lieutenant. He motioned them back to Casino and Matteo. The resistance leader reached out and squeezed Garrison's upper arm.
"The German uniforms are in the back of the truck. You need to hurry," Matteo said.
"Thank you," said Garrison. He began to move with his men toward where the truck was parked. Terry remained behind.
"I'll be in touch," she told Matteo in Italian. "Grazie mille, mio ragazzo."
"E Lei," he replied.
The girl turned and trotted to catch up with the others. One of Matteo's men tossed a schmeisser to her. She caught it and held it across her. In a minute, her brother came around the side of the truck to join her. The man had disappeared into the woods.
Craig was straightening his German uniform. "Get in the back," he said to his sister. "They're dressed."
Terry turned and almost bumped into an approaching Actor, who was sporting a German uniform of a lower rank than he usually wore. The woman handed the schmeisser to him and patted his arm as she trotted to the back of the truck.
"I'll drive," said Garrison.
Actor shook his head. "We don't have high enough rank between us to pull rank on anyone if we are stopped."
Garrison grinned and went to the driver's door. "You'll come up with something."
The route firmly lodged in his head, Craig started the truck and pulled out. The light was fading. It would have to be a quick trip to get to the partisan camp outside Bolzano. He hoped they would not be stopped on the way.
As usual, Chief took watch at the tailgate of the truck. Terry sat down on the floor between Casino and Goniff. They bumped along at a faster rate than they had coming in. Finally Terry turned to the pickpocket next to her.
"What the heck was that you were yelling?" she asked. "They seemed to understand it."
"O' course they would," replied Goniff. "It was Yiddish."
The three gave him surprised looks.
"You speak Jewish?" asked Casino in disbelief.
"Yiddish . . . Hebrew," said Goniff. "I remember enough to say what you was sayin' in English and Italian."
"How?" asked Chief, turning back to glance out from behind the flap.
"Me uncle in Eire were Jewish, now weren't he?" said Goniff with a grin.
"You really are Jewish?" asked Terry, in surprise.
"Not really. Me uncle were. How do you think I got me name 'Goniff'? It's Yiddish for 'thief."
In the cab of the truck, Garrison reached a paved two lane road and turned south. The going was immensely smoother than the track they had been on. Still, there seemed to be no traffic going south, but increasing numbers of military vehicles were going north.
"I hope you know where you're going," said Actor drolly.
"Down to Vipiteno – Sterzing, then a smaller road down toward Bolzano. There's a dirt side road off that to get to where we meet Frazini," replied Garrison. "I wonder why all the military trucks going north? They can't have heard about the train in this short period of time."
It made the two men wary, but not overly concerned. They were just outside of the two attached towns, when they met a road block. Craig slowed down and stopped at a wooden barrier. Actor, having only a slightly higher rank than Garrison rolled down his window. A soldier approached and looked up at him.
"What is your business?" asked the soldier in German.
"With everything else going on, the partisans blew up a train of Jews," replied Actor in the same language. "We were sent to get more supplies and men. It's a mess. Bodies strewn everywhere."
"Papiere, bitte," requested the soldier.
"We were not given any. We were just told to get people and equipment to repair the rails," said Actor in the frustration of an underling.
The soldier shook his head. "I can't allow you through without papers."
Actor gave a snort. "Would you like to explain that to the Oberst?"
The soldier just shook his head. He gestured for the man on the barrier to raise it so the truck could pass.
"Veilen Dank," said Actor.
Garrison put the truck in gear and moved forward.
Those in the back waited a few minutes to be sure they were away from the road block.
"What was that all about?" asked Casino.
Terry straightened up from laying on the floor behind the men. "The guard or whoever he was wanted papers. They don't have papers." She gave a short chuckle. "It's amazing how Actor can persuade somebody to do something they aren't supposed to."
Chief moved back to the curtained tailgate. "At least they didn't ask to look in the back."
"You know where we are?" asked Casino.
"No clue," said Terry truthfully.
Though paved, the road they were on went down a steep grade with a couple of switch backs. When they reached the bottom of that, Garrison told Actor to look for a dirt road to the right. The lieutenant was watching the odometer. It was about the right number of miles when Actor spotted a side road. With nothing to lose, Craig turned the truck down it.
It did not look very promising. It was all woods. There was no place to land a plane. At least they were going lower in elevation. It was dark under the trees to begin with and the sun was gone now. Garrison put the headlights on, praying the slit headlights would not show to planes or enemy vehicles that might be following them. They drove for a couple more miles, then Garrison had to brake hard as armed rough civilian-clothed men stepped out onto the track in front of them.
"Don't shoot," called out Garrison just loud enough to the men to hear. "We're Americans."
In the back, they heard a heavily accented voice ask for their password. There was no password, but Terry recognized the voice and practically went over the top of Chief to lean out the back and round the side.
"Eh, Gino, basta!" she called out. "Will I do as a password," she asked in Italian, with a grin.
Gino looked at her and shook his head. "It figures," he answered in his native tongue, not at all angry.
Garrison watched as the man called Gino climbed up to stand on the running board at his open window. The other man did the same on Actor's side. They drove maybe a quarter mile farther before coming to the partisan camp.
The Lieutenant killed the engine and the two Italian men jumped down. Terry did not wait for Chief to lower the tailgate, just swinging over the top and striding up to her brother as he got out of the cab. The other men came around the side of the truck.
"Pazza ragazza," said Gino with a grin to Terry as he passed her.
Emilio Frazini ran up. He gestured in frustration at Garrison.
"We did not know if you made it out of there," he said in accented English.
"Why?" asked Craig.
Frazini shook his head in disbelief. "You were not caught in it? You didn't see it? You didn't hear it?"
"Di cosa stai parlando?" Actor slipped back into Italian.
"The Allies sent many planes. They bombed the entire pass. You did not know?"
"No," replied the Lieutenant.
"Blimey," breathed Goniff.
Casino was silent for once, trying to absorb what it was they had missed.
Terry was shaking her head. "I hope at least some of those poor people got away, and Matteo's group."
"I don't know," said Emilio. "Get back in the truck. We must hurry to get to the pick-up point."
The ones who had been in the back climbed into the truck. Emilio gestured for Garrison to move to the middle of the front seat, next to Actor, and he got behind the wheel.
The Italian resistance leader started the truck and went out of the encampment by another track. As he drove, he updated Garrison and Actor.
"You will not be going out through France," he said. "Too many planes, Allied and Germans. The plane will take you to Cairo. You will change planes and go up the coast to England."
"Will we be staying over in Cairo?" asked Actor.
Emilio shook his head. "No. They have a plane waiting."
"Good. No camels," said Actor.
Craig gave his second-in-command a look of amusement. "I think you cured her of camels," he remarked.
"American cigarettes?" asked Frazini.
"No, hump-backed animals," chuckled Garrison.
"Non capisco," said Emilio.
"You would have had to have been there," said Craig without further explanation.
"I sometimes wish I hadn't," added Actor.
The rest of the drive was in silence. Eventually, they arrived at a small valley with just enough room for a plane to land. Everyone got out in time to hear a plane approaching. Signal fires were lit.
Terry walked up to the partisan leader. "Emilio," she whispered into his ear. "When you have a window, can you contact 'my' headquarters and ask them to find out if Matteo and his men made it out safely?"
"Sì, sì," he said.
"Grazie," said Terry
She gave him a quick hug before running to catch up with her brother. The plane was landing and it would be a quick exit.
Once settled in rather cramped fashion in the small plane. Chief was the one to notice first.
"Uh, Warden, aren't we goin' in the wrong direction?" he drawled.
"No," replied Garrison. "We're going out a different route."
"Where to?" asked Terry.
"Cairo."
Actor spoke up quickly. "We do not have time and I would not take you anyway."
"That's all right, caro," the girl grinned. "I'd just as soon see one in a zoo."
"You still hung up on camels," teased Casino.
"Not anymore," the girl replied.
They zig-zagged over the Adriatic Sea until they reached an Army Air Force base west of Cairo and landed. Two jeeps were waiting for them and ferried them to a larger plane waiting to take off.
Garrison and Actor sat in the seats closest to the cockpit. Casino grabbed Terry's arm and almost shoved her into the window seat behind them. Chief and Goniff were left in the third row of seats nearest the tail. The plane took off after they were all seated.
Casino tried to pull Terry over to lean on him. She jerked her arm away and scooted as close to the window as she could.
"Don't wake me up until we get to England or somebody starts shooting at us," she said firmly.
To Casino's chagrin, the woman went immediately to sleep. She was merely pretending to sleep, to keep him from bothering her. Now she tried to listen to the conversation in front of her.
In the seats ahead of them, Actor and Garrison talked in low voices so as not to be overheard clearly. It was going to be a long flight and they both intended to stay awake. At some point, they would change out of the German uniforms before reaching England. Not that they hadn't arrived in England before wearing enemy officers' uniforms.
"You must have a photographic memory," said Garrison quietly.
"Why?" asked Actor curiously. "I do have an excellent memory."
Craig shook his head. "Was there any of that artwork you didn't know the name, who made it, and where it was from?"
The Italian shook his head. "When I was growing up, my mother took us to visit the museums and learn culture at least once a year. And then, of course, as I developed my 'trade', it was important I learn as much as I could. Besides, I like museums."
"You know," said Garrison leadingly, "you would make a great curator, if you wanted to go straight after the war."
Actor gave a crooked grin. "I know, the 'fox in the henhouse' syndrome. Do you and your sister compare notes on me or something."
Terry could not stifle a grin of her own. She straightened up. "Maybe we should change your name from Actor to Fox."
"Oh no you don't," shot back the con man loudly and adamantly. "May I remind you, you worked with The Fox. You know what he was like and how bad he was at the con game. I will not be associated with that name."
The two Garrisons burst out laughing. Actor ignored them both indignantly.
Now, Terry returned to her position against the wall and window, going to sleep. Casino figured it was a lost cause and closed his eyes. One by one, they fell asleep, even Chief.
Garrison picked up the conversation again with Actor, both men speaking barely above a whisper.
"I still think the idea has merit," the officer said.
The con man did not want to admit the thought of going straight and running a museum had a sort of appeal. "Perhaps," he said, "However, I seriously doubt anyone would overlook my past and imprisonment to hire me."
"Wouldn't hurt to try," persisted Garrison. "All they can say is no. And that's still providing we make it past the end of this war."
"And six months."
"And six months," agreed Craig.
Actor put on his wicked, crooked grin. "And when you become tired of the military, you can always look me up and I will teach you the error of your ways with my profession. You, I would partner with."
"What about Terry?" her brother asked.
Actor shook his head. "She is not going to change her mind, and I really don't want to ruin her. And setting her up for prison would ruin her."
Craig had to agree with that, but strangely enough he wasn't sure if it made him happy or not. He wasn't as confident as he pretended to be that the ranch was where Terry belonged. But there was still the war to get through.
It would be well past dawn when the plane landed in London. It was another two hours' drive to the Mansion, and Garrison's turn to sleep. Well, Chief was rested and he could drive. Or someone from the base could drive them back. Of course that meant Terry and the men would be in the back of yet another truck. Which was exactly what happened.
Forgetting food, the men were ready for a long sleep, on soft mattresses, in their rooms. Garrison had taken one step up the stairs when he noticed his sister going into his office. He came back down and went to lean against the door jam, watching her sit on his desk chair and pick up the phone. She dialed and waited. Not being asked to leave, her brother remained where he was.
"Madge?" she started talking. "Any word on Matteo and his people?" There was a pause. "Thank goodness. I don't know how long after we left the bombing started." She listened again. "Great. He wants home cooking. Tell Kit to bring out some defrosted meat and put it in the refrigerator." She shook her head. "I don't care what kind as long as it's thawed." She smiled. "Yeah, thanks."
Garrison watched her hang up and look at him. "Why do I have the feeling you're talking about Major Richards?" he asked her. "Is he coming all the way out here to debrief?"
"Um hmm," the girl replied.
"I wondered why we didn't have to stop at Allied Command," remarked Garrison. "Well, let's go get a few hours of sleep anyway."
Terry looked at his desk clock. "I'll set my alarm so I'm up at three and can start cooking," she said wearily.
Craig straightened as she left his desk. "Hey, no Spam, please?"
She walked up to him and shoved her hip against his in passing. "I'll make some just for you."
9