"Yes, Billy, it is Baron Kazimierz to the rescue!" he said, as he tried to find the key for our cell among the dozens dangling from the chain. He winced as he struggled with the heavy ring of keys. I saw blood dripping from his sleeve. More boots thundered down the stairs as a team of Royal Commandos came into view.
"Baron, you promised to stay behind us!" shouted a very exasperated Commando officer as he signaled his men to check the other cells.
"Aha!" shouted Kaz as he found the right key and unlocked the door. "Yes, well, I saw that guard heading down here and thought he might be thinking of harming Billy and Major Harding."
"You mean that big fellow at the bottom of the stairs with a bullet in his chest?" asked Harding as he stepped out of the cell.
"The one and the same, late but not lamented, Vichy jailer. He smelled quite bad. I trust you were not mistreated, Major?" Kaz asked.
"No, we're fine. Are you hit?"
"Yes, I think I have been shot. In the arm. Quite amazing, it does not hurt at all," Kaz said, and smiled weakly.
"It will, Baron," said a Royal Commando medic who began to strip off Kaz's sleeve, applying sulfa and a bandage. "The bullet went clean through. Nothing to worry about."
"What about the other prisoners?" Harding looked to the Commando officer.
"Place is cleared out, sir. You're the only guests. We got word that a couple of American officers were being held here, and figured it must be you, since you didn't contact headquarters this morning."
"All right. What's the situation?" Harding asked Kaz as he led us out of the basement, stepping over the body of the guard lying in a darkening pool of his own blood.
"Wait a minute," I said. "What do you mean cleared out? They were holding dozens of civilian prisoners yesterday. Aren't any of them still here?"
"No, and no one seems to know where they were taken," Kaz answered. "Perhaps they were transferred to another prison, since their jailers knew Algiers would soon be entered by the Allies."
"Kaz," I said through gritted teeth, "They've got Diana. I saw her yesterday."
Kaz looked stunned. His eyes opened wide and his mouth sort of hung open. He turned to Harding.
"Is this true, Major?"
"Yes, we both saw her in the courtyard with a group of rebels the Gardes Mobiles had rounded up."
Kaz's face went dark. I knew this wasn't easy for him. Diana made him think about Daphne, and Diana in danger would only make him think about Daphne, dead in a rigged car explosion. I still thought about Daphne all the time. She had been my first real friend in England, even though at first she'd thought I was kind of a jerk. I'd had a crush on her, but that was just loneliness. When I met her sister Diana it was like a thunderbolt. There actually had been lightning and thunder, which seemed only normal. Daphne was the older sister, dark haired, beautiful, very sophisticated and elegant whether she was in her blue uniform or in an evening gown. Diana was different. Tall, with long blonde hair, she was more at home on a horse than dressed for a night on the town. She was really good-looking, although not movie- star beautiful, like Daphne had been. She had a strength in her, something steely in her eyes, a hardness in her grip, that dared the world to deny her anything. Daphne had been at peace with her place in the world. Diana wasn't, but at least she was alive. I hoped.
"We have some of the Gardes Mobiles in custody," Kaz said as we left the cell. "We can question them." He reloaded his revolver as he talked. I thought about the French jailer tumbling down the stairs. I thought about the cold look in Kaz's eyes, which he kept focused on his pistol.
"Kaz, had you killed anyone before?"
"Yes, Billy. Two of them, outside," he answered, knowing I had meant before today.
When I first met Kaz, he seemed like the sort of fellow who would've collected butterflies except that he couldn't stand to hurt them. A nice guy, but a bookworm. Now he had three notches on his gun-that I knew about-and was ready for more. I kind of liked the old Kaz, and was beginning to worry about the new one.
"Tell me what's going on, Lieutenant," Harding said. Kaz looked at him blankly, still trying to take in what had happened to Diana.
"With the invasion," Harding said sarcastically. "You remember, all those ships and men with rifles?"
"Yes sir," Kaz said, pulling himself together. "All the landings went well. General Giraud has arrived, but very few Vichy officers regard him as having any authority. Admiral Darlan was here when he landed-"
"We know," snapped Harding.
"General Juin has declared an armistice in and around the city of Algiers, at the orders of Admiral Darlan," Kaz said. "It covers only this immediate area, and talks are now underway between General Mark Clark and Darlan. General Eisenhower is expected as soon as the area is secure."
"All right, let's find out what we can here and then get to headquarters," Harding said.
"Captain," Kaz called out to the Commando officer, "are your men searching the premises?"
"Standard procedure, Baron. What are you looking for?"
"Prisoner lists. Show us to the administrative section."
We trotted up the stairs to the third floor, where the main offices were located. A cooling breeze came through the open windows along the hallway, above the dusty courtyard. I searched for the spot where I had seen Diana just a day ago. Worry made my gut ache. I turned away und followed Kaz into what looked like the main office. He was already lit work, going through file folders. Except for being in French, it looked pretty much like any police paperwork. Lots of forms and carbon paper. Typewriters on four desks pushed together, file cabinets around the room, a row of tall windows, and a big desk for the guy in charge at the other end of the room. A ceiling fan moved lazily above it all. The smell of sweat and stale cigarette butts was pushed around with the heat but never made it out the windows.
"Kaz," I said as I looked through piles of paperwork on the desk, "why all this 'Baron' stuff anyway? I never heard you use your tide except to get reservations back in London."
"That Commando captain is actually Lord Waverly. He didn't care to have me along, so I played the fellow aristocrat. It turns out we had several friends in common at Oxford, and this warmed him up to me. A Polish baron is a rarity, and he may think of me as a mascot."
"Pretty deadly bite for a mascot," I said. Kaz ignored me and went on hunting through the files. His family was descended from one of the ancient clans in Poland, and now this Baron Kazimierz was at the end of his line. Very far from home and alone in the world.
An hour later there was a mound of paper on the floor and three sheets on a desk. Harding and Kaz leaned over them. I leaned against the wall.
"This is all we can find, Major," Kaz reported.
"My French isn't as good as yours, Lieutenant," Harding said, "but I can tell these are travel orders of some sort."
"Yes, and requisitions for food, quarters, and most importantly, petrol. For twenty-five prisoners and ten guards, no names listed." Kaz stabbed his finger at one of the sheets. "At the French Army fuel depot at Bone."
"That's not much to go on," said Harding. He turned to a map on the wall. "Bone is here, on the coast about 125 miles due east. Way beyond our advance units. If they're refueling there, it stands to reason they're headed even further out."
"Here, Major," Kaz said, favoring his bad arm as he read through one of the sheets. "This says the final destination will be confirmed when the convoy arrives in Bone."
"Confirmed by whom?" Harding asked.
"By the deputy administrative officer of XIX Corps, a Captain Henri Bessette, according to this. It says final instructions will be radioed to the commander of the supply depot, who is to turn them over when he is given the authorized password."
"What's the password?" I asked.