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.He knew Sergeant Zimmerman.He couldn't find him in the milling crowd.Odd, the SS troops seemed to be taking up a loose defensive position.Paranoid bunch of bastards.Carlos turned around and walked to his desk, automatically straightening his uniform.Like most regular troops, he was slightly afraid of the SS.They just were not normal people."Good afternoon, Colonel," Major Schlosser said."Please come in.You must be tired.After you've freshened up, we have coffee and cake.""Danke, Colonel," Lenz said with a smile.Schlosser stepped to one side.The man behind the colonel seemed somehow familiar to him.Tall, with a lot of gray in his hair.Hard mean eyes, too.Old for a major.Probably fifty.The man stared directly at him and Schlosser was suddenly very uncomfortable under the hard gaze.He was only seconds away from becoming a whole lot more uncomfortable.For a very brief period of time.Colonel Lenz and Ben Raines stepped past Schlosser and entered the command post.General von Hanstein looked up from his desk, stared at the tall major, and felt the blood drain from his face."That's Ben Raines!" he screamed.Jersey gave Major Schlosser a burst in the belly from her H&K and the slugs knocked the major backward.Sergeant Carlos Rogillo grabbed for his pistol and Major Dietl shot him through the heart.Carlos fell across156the pastry table and died with his face on a cookie platter.General von Hanstein felt the muzzle of a.45 not too gently touch the side of his face.He cut his eyes and stared into the face of Ben Raines."Welcome to Texas," Ben said."You asshole!"157Chapter FourteenThe battle for the headquarters of General von Hanstein was very short and very brutal.The Rebels and the GSG 9 men took only a few prisoners, General von Hanstein among them.The (Rebels and the GSG 9 personnel gathered up all the weapons, ammo, and food, loaded up the beds of trucks, and took off, heading south.The radio operator had been killed in the first burst of gunfire, so it was doubtful he managed to get off any messages.but Ben wasn't going to take any chances."We'd never make it by heading north," he told Colonel Lenz."So we head south and cut east once past Austin, then cut north once we're clear of Schleyer's Eighth Division lines.I've marked maps in case we get separated.""And if we meet enemy long the way?" Colonel Lenz inquired, a hard glint in his eyes.The commander of the German troops liked the way Ben Raines fought a war.Ben smiled."Why.I guess we'll just have to engage them, won't we?"158The two men laughed, shook hands, and ran to their vehicles.General von Hanstein, trussed up like a pig, lay in the bed of a deuce and a half.He glowered at everyone who came near him, and refused to speak a word."They've discovered the camp," Corrie told Ben, monitoring on a Blackshirt radio."Hoffman's ordered a full-scale search underway immediately.He's ordered planes up.""Head straight for the ruins of San Antonio," Ben said."They'll never expect us to do that.We can't make it tonight, but we can make this state park a few miles down the road and camouflage the vehicles.The roads are in too bad a shape to try running at night without lights.Step on it, Coop."The convoy made the old overgrown state park, hurriedly camouflaged their trucks and armored cars, and settled in for a very tense night."Do we bump Therm and tell him where we are?" Corrie asked."Negative.No transmissions of any kind.No fires, no smoking.Cold camp.We just sit tight and silent.""Ike is going to be screaming and climbing the walls," Corrie reminded Ben."Good," Ben said, opening a field ration packet and smelling it before tasting it."Maybe he'll lose some weight." 'Ike McGowan wasn't the only one screaming and climbing the walls.Field Marshal Hoffman was having a temper tantrum.Hitler would have been proud.Between violent fits of temper, which included breaking159glasses, cups, and one very old bottle of brandy, Hoffman ordered a replacement commanding general in to take over von Hanstein's division, a massive air and land search underway, the sentry who let the Rebels and the GSG 9 men through put up against a wall and shot, and then a bottle of aspirin and two tranquilizers.When he finally managed to calm down, he called a meeting of his staff officers.None of whom were looking forward to the meeting."The few wounded the Rebels missed during their coup de grace said many of the attackers spoke German," Hoffman told his people in a surprisingly calm voice."That means the GSG 9 people have linked up with Raines.The goddamn filthy traitors.The wounded also heard General von Hanstein scream out Ben Raines's name from his office.They also confirm that General von Hanstein was taken prisoner.Thrown into the back of a truck.The nerve of that bastard Raines.Taking a small force deep into our territory and carrying out a successful raid [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]