The Young Lions (71 page)

"Germany is finished," Brandt was saying, his voice thin and weary, but loud, so as to be heard against the rush of night wind that piled across the open car. "Only a lunatic wouldn't know it. Look at what's happening. Collapse. Nobody cares. A million men left to shift for themselves. A million men, practically without officers, without food, plans, ammunition, left to be picked up by the enemy when they have time. Or massacred, if they're foolish enough to make a stand. Germany can't support an army any longer. Perhaps, somewhere, they'll collect some troops and draw a line, but it will only be a gesture. A temporary, bloodthirsty gesture. A sick, romantic Viking funeral. Clausewitz and Wagner, the General Staff and Siegfried, combined for a graveyard theatrical effect. I'm as much of a patriot as the next man, and God knows, I've served Germany in the best way I knew, in Italy, in Russia, here in France… But I'm too civilized for what they're doing to us now. I don't believe in the Vikings. I'm not interested in burning on Goebbels's pyre. The difference between a civilized human being and a wild beast is that a human being knows when he is lost, and takes steps to save himself… Listen, when it looked as though the war was about to start, I had my application in to become a citizen of the French Republic, but I gave it up. Germany needed me," Brandt went on, earnestly, convincing himself as much as the man in the seat beside him of his honesty, his rectitude, his good sense, "and I offered myself. I did what I could. God, the pictures I've taken. And what I've gone through to get them! But there are no more pictures to be taken. Nobody to print them, nobody to believe them, or be touched by them if they are printed. I exchanged my camera with that farmer back there for ten litres of petrol. The war is no longer a subject for photographers because there is no war left to photograph. Only the mopping-up process. Leave that to the enemy photographers. It is ridiculous for the people who are being mopped up to record the process on film. Nobody can expect it of them. When a soldier joins an army, any army, there is a kind of basic contract the army makes with him. The contract is that while the army may ask him to die, it will not knowingly ask him to throw his life away. Unless the government is asking for peace this minute, and there are no signs that that is happening, they are violating that contract with me, and with every other soldier in France. We don't owe them anything. Not a thing."

"What are you telling me all this for?" Christian asked, keeping his eyes on the pale road ahead of him, thinking warily: He has a plan, but I will not commit myself to him yet.

"Because when I get to Paris," Brandt said slowly, "I am going to desert."

They drove in silence for a full minute.

"It is not the correct way to put it," said Brandt. "It is not I who am deserting. It is the Army which has deserted me. I intend to make it official."

Desert. The word trembled in Christian's ear. The enemy had dropped leaflets and safe-conducts on him, urging him to desert, telling him, long before this, that the war was lost, that he would be treated well… There were stories of men who had been caught by the Army in the attempt, hung to trees in batches of six, whose families in Germany had been shot… Brandt had no family, and was a freer agent than most. Of course, in confusion like this, who would know who had deserted, who had died, who had been captured while fighting heroically? A long time later, perhaps in 1960, perhaps never, some rumour might come out, but it was impossible to worry about that now.

"Why do you have to go to Paris to desert?" Christian asked, remembering the leaflets. "Why don't you go the other way and find the first American unit and give yourself up?"

"I thought of that," Brandt said. "Don't think I didn't. But it's too dangerous. Troops in the field aren't dependable. They may be hot-headed, perhaps one of their comrades was killed twenty minutes before by a sniper, perhaps they're in a hurry, perhaps they are Jews with relatives in Buchenwald, how can you tell? And then, in the country like this, there'd be a good chance you'd never reach the Americans or the English. Every damned Frenchman between here and Cherbourg has a gun by now, and is out to kill a German before it's too late. Oh, no. I want to desert, not die, my friend."

A thoughtful man, Christian thought admiringly, a man who has thought things out reasonably in advance. It was no wonder Brandt had done well in the Army, had taken just the kind of pictures he knew would be liked by the Propaganda Ministry, had got the fat job in Paris on the magazine, had been billeted for so long in an apartment in Paris and had done himself well.

"You remember my friend, Simone?" Brandt said.

"Are you still connected with her?" Christian asked, surprised. Brandt had been living with Simone as far back as 1940. Christian had met her with Brandt on his first leave in Paris. They had gone out together and Simone had even brought along a friend – what was her name? – Francoise, but Francoise had been as cold as ice, and had made no bones about the fact that she was not fond of Germans. Brandt had been lucky in this war. Dressed in the uniform of the conquering army, but almost a citizen of France, speaking French so well, he had made the best of the two possible worlds.

"Of course I'm still connected with Simone," Brandt said.

"Why not?"

"I don't know," Christian smiled. "Don't get angry. It's just that it's been so long… four years… in a war…" Somehow, although Simone had been very pretty, Christian had always imagined Brandt, with all his opportunities, as moving on from one dazzling woman to another through the years.

"We intend to marry," Brandt said firmly, "as soon as this damned thing is over."

"Of course," said Christian, slowing down as they passed a column of men, in single file, trudging silently along the road's edge, the moonlight glinting on the metal of their weapons. "Of course. Why not?" Brandt, he thought, enviously, lucky, sensible Brandt, unwounded, with a nice war behind him, and a comfortable future ahead of him, all planned out.

"I'm going straight to her house," Brandt said, "and take off this uniform and put on civilian clothes. And I'm going to stay there until the Americans arrive. Then, after the first excitement, Simone will go to the American Military Police and tell them about me, that I am a German officer who is anxious to give himself up. The Americans are most correct. They treat prisoners like gentlemen, and the war will be over soon, and they will free me, and I will marry Simone and go back to my painting…"

Lucky Brandt, Christian thought, everything cleverly arranged, wife, career, everything…

"Listen, Christian," Brandt said earnestly, "this will work for you, too."

"What?" Christian asked, grinning. "Does Simone want to marry me, too?"

"Don't joke," Brandt said. "She's got a big apartment, two bedrooms. You can stay there, too. You're too good to sink in this swamp of a war…" Brandt waved his hand stiffly to take in the reeling men on the road, the death in the sky, the downfall of states. "You've done enough. You've done your share. More than your share. This is the time when every man who is not a fool must take care of himself." Brandt put his hand on Christian's arm softly, imploringly. "I'll tell you something, Christian," he said. "Ever since that first day, on the road to Paris, I've looked up to you, I've worried about you, I've felt that if there was one man I could pick to come out of this alive and well, you would be that man. We're going to need men like you when this is over. You owe it to your country, even if you don't feel you owe it to yourself. Christian… Will you stay with me?"

"Perhaps," said Christian slowly. "Perhaps I will." He shook his head to throw off the weariness and sleep from his eyes and manoeuvred around a stalled armoured car that lay across the road, with three men working feverishly at it in the frail light of shaded flashlights. "Perhaps I will. But we have first to try to get through to Paris. Then we can begin thinking about what we'll do after that…"

"We'll get through," Brandt said calmly. "I am sure of it. Now I am absolutely sure of it."

They arrived in Paris the next night. There was very little traffic in the streets. It was as dark as ever, but it didn't look any different from the other times that Christian had come back to it, in the days before the invasion. German staff cars still whipped about the streets; there were fitful gleams of light as cafe doors swung open, and bursts of laughter from strolling soldiers. And the girls, Christian noticed, as they swung across the Place de l'Opera, were still there, calling out to the shadowy, passing uniforms. The world of commerce, Christian thought grimly, continuing whether the enemy was a thousand kilometres away or just outside town, whether the enemy were in Algiers or Alencon…

Brandt was very tense now. He sat on the edge of the seat, breathing sharply, directing Christian through the jumbled maze of blacked-out streets. Christian remembered the other time he and Brandt had rolled down these boulevards, with Sergeant Himmler pointing out places of interest like a professional guide, and Hardenburg in the front seat. Himmler, full of jokes, and now a collection of bones on the sandy hill in the desert; Hardenburg, a suicide in Italy… But Brandt and he still alive, driving over the same streets, smelling the same ancient aroma of the old city, passing the same monuments along the everlasting river…

"Here," Brandt whispered. "Stop here."

Christian put on the brakes and turned off the motor. He felt very tired. They were in front of a garage, a garage with a big blank door, and a steep incline of cement. "Wait for me," Brandt said, climbing hurriedly out of the car. Brandt knocked on a door to one side of the incline. In a moment the door opened, and Brandt disappeared inside.

There was a grinding noise and the blank door of the garage swung open. A light shone dimly at the top of the incline, a gloomy yellow dab in the depths of the building. Brandt came out hurriedly. He looked up and down the empty street.

"Drive in," he whispered to Christian. "Fast."

Christian started the motor and swung the little car up the incline towards the light. Behind him he heard the garage door closing. He drove carefully up the narrow passage-way and stopped at the top. He looked about him. in the dim light he saw the shapes of three or four other cars, covered with tarpaulins.

"All right." It was Brandt's voice behind him. "This is where we stop."

Christian shut off the motor and got out. Brandt and another man were coming towards him. The other man was small and fat and was wearing a homburg hat, half-comic, half-sinister at this moment in this shaded place.

The man in the homburg hat walked slowly around the car, touching it tentatively from time to time. "Good enough," he said in French. He turned and disappeared into a small office to one side, from which came the meagre glow of light from a hidden lamp.

"Listen," Brandt said. "I've sold them the car. Seventy-five thousand francs." He waved the notes in front of Christian. Christian couldn't see them very well, but he heard the dry rustle of the paper. "The money will be very useful in the next few weeks. Let's get our things out. We'll walk from here."

Seventy-five thousand francs, Christian thought admiringly, as he helped Brandt unload the bread, the hams, the cheese, the Calvados. This man cannot be defeated by anything! He has friends and commercial acquaintances all over the world, ready to spring to his assistance at any moment.

The man in the hat came back with two canvas sacks. Christian and Brandt stowed their belongings into them. The Frenchman did not offer to help, but stood outside the shine of the one small light, obscure, watching, expressionless. When the packing was finished, the Frenchman led the way down a half-flight of steps and unlocked a door. "Au revoir, Monsieur Brandt," he said, his voice flat. "Enjoy yourself in Paris." There was a subtle overtone of warning and mockery in the Frenchman's voice. Christian would have liked to seize him and drag him under a light to get a good look at him. But as he hesitated, Brandt pulled nervously at his arm. He allowed himself to be guided into the street. The door closed behind them, and he heard the quiet clicking of the lock.

"This way," Brandt said, and started off, the sack of loot over his shoulder. "We haven't far to go." Christian followed him down the dark street. Later on, he decided, he would question Brandt about the Frenchman and what he would be likely to do with the little car. But he was too tired now, and Brandt was hurrying ahead of him, walking swiftly and silently towards his girl's house.

Two minutes later Brandt stopped at the doorway of a three-storey house. Brandt rang the bell. They had not passed anyone.

It was a long time before the door opened, and then only a crack. Brandt whispered into the crack and Christian heard an old woman's voice, at first querulous, then warm and welcoming as Brandt established his identity. There was the small rattling of a chain and the door opened wide. Christian followed Brandt up the steps, past the muffled figure of the concierge. Brandt, Christian thought, the man who knows precisely on which doors to knock, and what to say to get them open. Someone pushed a button and the lights on the stairway went up. Christian saw that it was quite a respectable building, with marble steps, clean, bourgeois.

The lights went out after twenty seconds. They climbed in darkness. Christian's Schmeisser, slung on his shoulder, banged against the wall with an iron sound. "Quiet!" Brandt whispered harshly. "Be careful." He pushed the button on the next landing and the lights went on for another twenty seconds, in the thrifty French style.

They climbed to the top floor and Brandt knocked gently on a door. This door opened quickly, almost as though whoever lived in the apartment had been waiting eagerly for the signal. A beam of light flooded into the hallway, and Christian saw the figure of a woman in a long robe. Then the woman threw herself into Brandt's arms. She began to sob, brokenly, saying, "You're here, oh, cheri, you're here… you're here."