‘He can create a diversion and draw the dead away, allowing you good folks to leave in the opposite direction.’
‘What makes you think he’ll play ball?’ Escobedo asked.
‘I was about to ask the same question,’ von Boeselager said.
‘Because I’ll go with him.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me. Von Boeselager and I will leave here and make enough noise to distract the dead. It makes sense if you think about it… he’s certainly helped you Lieutenant Coley, and both Mr Escobedo and I were very grateful for his interjection just now. Surely he deserves better than to be frog-marched off to a POW camp?’
‘You want to let a kraut walk free?’ Gunderson said, not quite able to believe what he was hearing.
‘No, I want to use him to let you gents walk free. How does that sound?’
‘Sounds like a dumbass plan to me, sir.’
‘Gotta admit, it doesn’t sound like the best of deals,’ Coley agreed.
‘What’s happened here has changed everything,’ Wilkins said. ‘The battle lines have been re-drawn. Our priorities have changed, both as soldiers and as men. As husbands, fathers, brothers…’
Von Boeselager took them all by surprise. ‘I will do it,’ he announced suddenly. ‘My commanding officers, they do not understand what they have done. The Fuhrer regards what is happening here as another step towards victory. He cannot see what he has unleashed.’
‘You can’t make deals with a kraut,’ Parker warned. ‘He’ll double-cross us.’
‘Not us,’ Wilkins corrected him. ‘Me. I’m not asking you to take any chances.’
‘Why would I double-cross anyone?’ von Boeselager asked. ‘You men are from the United States, thousands of miles from here. Lieutenant Wilkins, your home is safe from this disease for the moment. My family, however, is close. My wife and daughter are in Mannheim. If, as Lieutenant Wilkins and I both believe, the power and reach of the undead will continue to increase, then my family will inevitably soon pay the ultimate price. We are trained soldiers, they are not. Gertrud is barely four years old. If men like us cannot beat these creatures, what hope is there for my little girl?’
He stopped talking momentarily, his eyes damp with tears, and looked around at the faces which watched him intently.
‘Yeah, I got a kid too,’ Escobedo said. ‘Name’s Joey. About the same age as your kid by the sounds of things. Cuts me up not knowing where he is or even if he’s safe.’
Lieutenant Coley moved closer to the German and put his hand on his shoulder. ‘I trust this guy,’ he announced. He looked straight at him. ‘Talk, Erwin. If you know anything you haven’t told us yet, talk.’
Von Boeselager took a deep breath. ‘The serum was created by scientists at the Polonezköy camp in Poland. Their brief was to create an unstoppable super-soldier, but they were only partially successful. There were two strands to their research, as I understand: prolonging life and increasing strength and ferocity. As you can see from the crowd outside this building, they succeeded to an extent, but at the expense of control.’
‘You’re not telling us nothing we don’t already know,’ Lieutenant Parker said.
Von Boeselager ignored him. ‘With the surprise attack in this region already being planned, our leaders ignored the scientists’ concerns and deployed the serum in its current unstable form while their research continued. In fact, I understand that one of the scientist’s reservations resulted in him being removed from the project altogether. He is being held at the concentration camp.’
‘What reservations did he express?’ Wilkins asked.
‘The contagious aspect of the condition. He warned that it would inevitably get out of control if the infection was released into the wild.’
‘And it has.’
‘That has certainly proved to be the case.’
‘Wait, wait, wait…’ Gunderson interrupted. ‘Let’s slow down a second here. This guy’s doing a heck of a lot of talking, but he ain’t saying much. You’re making it sound like there’s nothing can be done about this whole damn mess you’ve made, Fritz.’
‘I didn’t say that. There is…’
Von Boeselager stopped himself.
‘What?’ Parker said, aiming a pistol directly into the German’s face.
‘I’ve said enough.’
Parker was ready to fire. Wilkins positioned himself between the two of them. ‘Wait.’
‘He’s stringing us along…’
‘I don’t believe so. Herr von Boeselager is a clever man.’
‘We should feed him to the dead,’ Gunderson suggested.
‘And what would that achieve exactly? No, gentlemen, our German friend is giving us a master-class in negotiation. His knowledge is his bargaining chip.’
‘If he even has any knowledge. Who says he ain’t just stringing us along?’
‘That’s a chance I have to take.’
‘Lieutenant Wilkins is right. If I told you everything I know now, there would be no reason for you to keep me alive.’
‘I can’t see there’s much reason to do that anyway,’ Gunderson said.
‘I just want to get out of here and go home,’ von Boeselager said. ‘I want to get back to my family and see them before it is too late.’
‘And if we agree and you and I leave here today?’ Wilkins asked.
‘Then I’ll tell you everything I know. I swear.’
10
In a small walled courtyard behind the building in which they’d spent much of the last twenty-four hours, Wilkins, Parker and Gunderson had managed to find a safe pocket of space to explore, protected from the hordes of the dead by rubble and ruin. Wilkins uncovered a BBA035 motorcycle. It looked to have sustained only superficial damage. ‘Start it up, give it a blast,’ Parker suggested, but Wilkins declined. They spoke in hushed whispers.
‘What, and ruin the surprise? No, thank you. I’ll wait until we’re ready to leave.’
‘And if it doesn’t start?’
‘Then von Boeselager and I will be running.’
‘Quite a chance you’re taking.’
‘Less of a chance than if I was to start the engine here and now. I’ll wager the dead would find a way to pour through every available crack and crevice to get to us. Remember, wiping us out and adding to their ranks is all they’re interested in. It’s their very reason for existing. We’d all do well not to forget that.’
‘Don’t think I could forget it. I think about it every time I look at one of the damn things.’
A few minutes more work and Wilkins was ready. Gunderson – something of a grease-monkey – had checked the bike over as best he could and given it as clean a bill of health as possible given the circumstances. While he’d worked, Parker and Wilkins had cleared enough debris from an area of ground to enable the bike to be ridden out of this safe space. They’d placed a number of timber joists next to each other and rested them against the top of what had originally been a five foot brick wall, creating a makeshift exit ramp.
Done.
Time to move.
Wilkins leant back into the building and gave a thumbs-up to Coley who was watching from the top of the stairs. He, in turn, gave Escobedo the word, then escorted von Boeselager down to ground level. Wilkins gestured for the German to take the controls of the bike. ‘The hell are you doing, soldier?’ Parker asked. ‘You’re letting the kraut drive? You must be as stupid as Gunderson here looks.’
Gunderson grunted in disgust.
‘We’re both about to risk our lives out there, Lieutenant. I have to trust him, and he has to trust me. Otherwise neither of us are going to last long, are we?’
‘Don’t reckon you’re going to last long anyway, in all honesty.’