ggg

He didn't want to leave. At the same time he wanted to get just as far away from there as humanly possible. He remembered the look on Goniff's face and knew that the pick pocket was thinking the same thing. The little Limey didn't want to stay, but it would take wild horses to drag him away. That, or Garrison being dead…. He shoved that thought away for now and wondered how the Warden would be feeling if he was the one walkin' out that door. He'd look at all the options, Casino decided, and figure out the best way to accomplish his damn mission. Then he'd take off and do just that, without a second thought. That's what he'd do! And as soon as the thought entered his head he knew it wasn't true. It was just easier for him to believe that right now than it was to admit to himself that the Warden agonized over his decisions, just like anyone else did.

g

There was a rustle in the trees ahead and then the call of a night bird. Instead of giving the counter sign Casino called out in a hoarse, angry, whisper that ended in a cough. "Where 'n the Hell have you been?"

"Lookin' for you." Chief answered back in a quiet voice as he stepped out of the trees just in front of the group's safecracker.

Actor ignored the exchange between the two men when he materialized out of the darkness, reaching a hand out to Casino's blood soaked tunic instead. "You've been injured!"

Casino glanced down, "Ain't mine…"

"Whose?" Chief asked, but the fact that this part of the team had gotten themselves lost had already given him his answer.

"Warden's."

"What happened?" the scout asked.

"Jeeze! You know the Warden! The Krauts started shootin' and he got in the way like he always does." Casino turned on his heel. "C'mon. They're back this way."

g

Casino had been dragging his feet on the way out, even though he'd never admit it, and had only gotten himself about two hundred yards down the road from the shack. They made their way back at a run. He didn't bother with the whistled signal when they hit the small clearing, just called out to Goniff as they made their way across to the front of the building. By the time they reached the door it was already open.

Goniff stood there, relieved, thankful they were all together again, but wide-eyed and frightened. "He's chokin'! Casino, I think he's chokin' on somethin'!"

Actor shouldered his way into the small room and headed straight for the cot in front of the fireplace. Garrison lay almost face down on the narrow bed, a German tunic rolled into a ball jammed under his shoulder, another one draped over his back to supplement the thin blanket. His breathing was short, shallow and labored as he struggled for air. Even in the warm light thrown off by the fire on the hearth and the lamp that burned on the table behind him his skin had a bluish cast.

Actor folded the coverings out of the way and made a quick assessment of the bloodied captain's tunic. He pulled the wadded jacket out, quickly turned the Warden's head and soon had him rolled onto his uninjured side. The Lieutenant's color changed from slightly blue to grey, his breathing gradually eased and slowed a bit. The Italian con man used the two jackets for support under their injured leader's hip and shoulder. Dropping into a crouch at Garrison's back he wordlessly held out his hand, curling his fingers around the butt of Chief's knife as it was slapped into his palm.

The group's medic used the razor sharp blade to cut the fabric of the Warden's tunic and shirt and peeled it away to reveal the hastily applied bandages now soaked through with blood.

"Where did this happen?" Actor asked quietly.

"In the forest right outside a that Bloody factory." Goniff answered in the same low voice.

Actor laid his fingers along Garrison's throat at the angle of his jaw. The pulse was there. Rapid and weak, and slightly irregular, but the pulse was still there. "How did you ever manage to get him this far?" The con man asked, but to himself he was thinking 'How did he manage to survive this long?'

"Me an' Casino carried him, mostly," Goniff answered. "And when we got to the road we pinched a car."

"A car? Actor, can we take him back in that?" Chief asked.

Actor shook his head and started patting down his pockets. "I don't believe we should risk moving him until the doctor's seen him."

"Doctor?" Casino and Goniff said in unison.

"Do you have something to write on?" Their second in command demanded.

"'ere use this." Goniff pulled up the tail of his shirt up and removed all the blueprints and documents the Warden had given him and shoved them into Actor's hands.

Actor quickly sorted through the documents and found a page that seemed to have only a signature and date. He used the back of it to write out a hasty note and handed it off to Chief along with the young man's switch blade. Chief left without comment.

Casino coughed and turned from staring at the empty door to staring at the Italian con man. "Where's he goin?"

"It should be obvious, even to you, Casino, that you have arrived at the wrong location! He's going back to let the others know we've found you." Actor regretted his harsh comment almost immediately. The look on his quarrelsome teammates face told him that he knew full well what his error might cost. "Casino…" he started, but anything else he might have come up with was lost in the slamming of the door as the east coast con went out to guard their sanctuary.

"Doctor?" The pick pocket's voice held a note of hope. "You said them bloke's got a doctor?"

"Yes, there is one among the group of men who met us." Actor answered as he slipped out of his jacket and arranged it over Garrison's legs.

"D' you think…..?" Goniff let the question hang in the air between them.

"I don't know, Goniff."

Actor turned his attention back to the Warden. From the placement of the bandages the wounds were serious. The one in his side had gone all the way through and the dressings were bloody on both sides. From the way Garrison was breathing the lung was at least partially collapsed. The bulk of the dressing on his back lay just to the side of his spine. "Goniff," he asked quietly, "his legs? Has he moved his legs?"

Goniff dropped into a crouch next to their second in command. "A little. At first… Maybe."

ggg

Since he'd covered the ground twice already Chief knew there was very little danger of being discovered by the Germans so he chose speed over silence. He didn't bother with the roads either. Depending on his sense of direction he headed straight through the forest and made his way unerringly to the safe house. He gave the whistled signal as he approached but didn't wait for a response. Opening the door he ignored the weapons leveled at him and walked confidently up to the man Actor had talked to before and handed him the note from the con man. He didn't understand enough of the language to know what was going on, all he could do was wait impatiently as the four men discussed the note and hammered out how they were going to respond to it. The few seconds that took seemed like an hour and as soon as he got the signal from the group's leader he turned on his heel and led them away from the safe house at a run. They were back at the shack where the others waited in less than thirty minutes.

The underground team straggled in after him, the last to arrive was the doctor. Chief and Goniff watched as Actor rose to meet him and report in rapid French what he'd learned from Goniff. Working together the two men stripped the Warden out of the remains of his shirt and carefully removed most of the bandages. After cleaning and probing the injury in Garrison's side and flooding it with iodine the doctor pulled a small box out of his bag and started stitching the wounds closed. When he was satisfied with the job he swabbed another patch of skin a little higher up with the iodine. He pulled out another box and attached a long heavy needle to a glass syringe that rested inside. In a swift, smooth motion, he jabbed the needle into the Warden's back. The only thing that saved him from Chief's knife was Actor's upraised hand.

Goniff took a hasty step back as bloody fluid filled the syringe. He bumped into Chief and leaned into him for a moment for support. When the pick pocket turned on him he was glassy eyed and almost as pale as the Warden. Chief grabbed him by the elbow and turned him towards the door. "Come on, Goniff. Let's me and you go find Casino."

g

They found the group's demolitions man in the trees on the other side of the small clearing in a spot where he had a good view of the narrow road and the shack. Goniff was still leaning on the Indian. Casino moved forward and grabbed the second story man's other arm and hustled him over to a fallen log. Once they had the English thief settled on the log with his head between his knees Casino turned on the scout.

"Well?" And he started to ask the question, all the while dreading the answer. "The Warden… Is he… He's not…?" All he got for an answer was Chief silently shaking his head.

They settled down on the log together to wait it out. Goniff raised his head after a few moments and picked at the bandage on Chief's left hand. "What happened t' you, mate?"

"Nuthin'." And the youngest member of the group cut off further questions by turning his back and leveling a steady gaze at the little shack where Actor and that doctor were working on the Warden. They sat in silence for a long time before Chief spoke again. "Me and Actor went back there… What happened?"

Casino cleared his throat before he started, his voice was rough, his throat felt like he'd swallowed a handful of razorblades. "The Krauts came nosin' around. Ten, maybe fifteen minutes after you guys left. I hid in the back but they come in and it looked like they weren't gonna leave…. They had me cut off." He shrugged his shoulders. "So I blew the joint and took off."

The scout nodded in the darkness. "How'd you hook up with the Warden?"

"Saw 'em head out when they left that plant back there." It took a moment for Casino to continue. "I,… I followed, but I couldn't… I wasn't close enough to…."

"Casino,..." But whatever words of comfort or condemnation Chief would have offered were cut off when the door to the shack open and they saw Actor step out.

g

Almost half an hour had crawled by before the con man showed up and joined them outside. They waited for him to complete the ritual of lighting his damned pipe after he strolled over to the log.

"You gonna tell us what's goin' on in there?" Casino demanded.

"The doctor has decided that it would be too dangerous to move the Lieutenant tonight. He said if the Warden survives until morning it will be because God wills it, not because of any skill of his."

They sat together for several minutes before Casino broke the silence. "He'll make it." There was a grim determined edge to his voice.

"Sure he will." Goniff tried to sound confident too. Another couple of minutes ticked by before he ventured, "His legs? What'd that bloke say 'bout his legs?"

Actor ran a weary hand over his eyes. "He told me that wasn't his area of expertise, Goniff. The wound wasn't bleeding so we didn't disturb the bandages you two managed to put on. He applied a clean dressing and said that if we could get the Warden back there, we would have to wait for the physicians in England to evaluate any damage that might have been done to his spine."

Chief watched as Casino stared off towards the shack. "Casino, you didn't…"

"I know I didn't!" The shout caused a deep rumbling cough but he shrugged off Goniff's effort to help, shouldered the rifle and stalked off into the trees.

g

I didn't get there in time. Casino ignored the burning sensation in his chest as he made his way around the shack. I didn't get there in time. The thought was the only thing that kept him company. I made it all worse by movin' him, added itself when he finished the first lap. Halfway through the second round of the building I let 'em get shot had joined the crowd of thoughts that now played over and over in Casino's head. He avoided the other men as he made his way around the building. After a few attempts they gave up on him and went back inside.

I didn't get there in time. I made it all worse by movin' him. I let him get himself shot. I didn't grab the guy in time. I shouldn't a moved him. He's gonna be a cripple because of me. I didn't get there. He's gonna die because I blew it. The words played over and over in his head as he made his way endlessly around and around the small building through the night. When the sun started to lighten the sky in the East he didn't see it. When the birds started to sing in response to the oncoming morning he couldn't hear them. I didn't get there in time was the only thing he could hear and the blood on the back of the Warden's jacket was the only thing he could see.

g

Chief watched Casino as he moved past him. He called out to him but the safe cracker ignored him and continued on. He paced him for a while then moved ahead and stood in his path. Casino continued to march woodenly towards him and was only stopped when Chief put out his hand and it connected with the older man's shoulder. The group's demolitions expert jerked back and stood staring at him.

"C'mon, man. They got the Warden loaded." Chief said quietly. "We're ready to leave."

"You find the car?" Once they'd gotten Garrison settled he'd hidden the vehicle by driving it off and burying it under a layer of branches he'd torn off the trees. It probably hadn't been all that hard for the scout to find.

Chief nodded. "Guys we met up with have a truck. Doc 'n Actor say it'll be easier on him."

Casino's eyes left his younger teammate's face and he scanned the small clearing that fronted the shack. He noticed the truck for the first time and snorted in disgust. "Great," he said. "Missed that too didn't I? Some sentry."

"Pappy, you…"

"Don't start!" Casino cut him off. He stood looking at the shack, absently rubbing at his chest. When the door opened and Goniff stepped out he turned on his heel and started away into the brush. "I'll follow you guys and find someplace to dump the car," was all he said as he walked away.

Goniff jogged up and joined the group's point man. "Hey, I thought we was ready to leave. Where's he off to?"

"Said he's gonna dump the car."

The little pick pocket scratched at the back of his head a moment then shoved his hands deep in his pockets. "Guess I better go along. The mood 'ee's in he's just as like to dump 'imself along with it."

"Think you can convince him?"

Goniff shook his head. "You know 'im, mate. He'll have t' convince hisself."

Chief's response was just a silent arching of his left brow before he turned to join Actor on the truck.

g

The truck rocked gently as Chief climbed aboard. He moved up to the front where Actor was hovering over the Warden.

"How is he?" they said in unison. Actor waited, allowing the young man to go first.

"Sick. Tired. Feelin' guilty." Chief reported on Casino.

"Did you talk to him?"

One shoulder raised a fraction of an inch, then dropped. "Tried." Chief waited a moment then lifted his chin towards Garrison. "What about him?"

Before Actor could answer the Lieutenant jerked awake and was trying, vainly, to raise himself from his pallet.

"Try not to move."

"I can't!"

Neither of them had ever heard fear or panic in the Warden's voice before. They both heard it there now, but only for an instant. Garrison gave up on his struggle and let his head rest back against the blanket they'd rolled and placed under his right shoulder to keep him propped up on his side. He focused on them for a moment before closing his eyes again and speaking, his voice a quiet monotone.

"Goniff and Casino… I got them killed, didn't I?"

"No!" The response, again, came in unison from the two crouched in front of him but the Warden was already unconsciousness.

g

The truck rocked from side to side as the men from the resistance loaded in front and back. The engine coughed and the gears groaned as the driver pulled out. Through the flap at the back they could see Casino and Goniff trailing them in the car the two men had hijacked.

Chief touched Actor lightly on the arm to get his attention. "You'r beat, man. Get some rest. I'll keep an eye on him for a while."

The conman didn't argue, he just leaned back against one of the struts that made up the truck's canopy and closed his eyes.

Actor slept for almost the whole trip out. Chief kept watch but the Warden never moved.