Peter Pišťanek - The End of Freddy

“And how will you anchor the wires?” asks one of the rescuers.

“Well, that is a problem,” Freddy looks round.

“The sledges are light, they couldn’t take your weight,” says Geľo. And you can’t drive a peg into this ground; it’s solid rock under the snow. So let’s jump, men, let’s get it over with!”

He throws his fur coat off and hurls himself into the abyss-like depth. Freddy’s eyes follow his fall of several seconds and the impact on the surface. Soon his head emerges from the water. Two frogmen are beside him, helping him into the dinghy.

“Who’s next?” asks Freddy.

“I don’t mind,” says one rescuer and jumps off the cliff.

Others follow. Finally, only Freddy and one of the rescuers, evidently the leader of the rescue mission, are left.

“So let’s go, Telgarth,” says the leader. “That’s all we can do. Our persecutors are also down there, with the devil’s mother.”

Freddy takes a few deep breaths. He realises that the guerrilla’s watchful eye is on him. He tries to look casual as he stares into the depths. He’d rather stay here a while and pull himself together properly. Behind him is the camp with its everyday torment and hard work. Here, in front of him, is a freezing sea, but also the comfort of a heated submarine, the certainty of warm soup and, above all, freedom.

Freddy begins to run and takes a leap. He is surprised how brief the fall is. The water is so cold that it hurts his groin. But two frogmen fish him out before he fully realizes how cold it is.

Then he sits wrapped in an electric blanket with the others, and the dinghy rushes to the submarine’s lengthening shadow. When Freddy’s feet touch the deck of the vessel, they hear the Czech captain’s voice:

“Welcome to the submarine Kamýk . Come down quickly, so that you can warm up and change into dry clothes. What was the explosion on the surface? Did you throw something down?”

“It was the explosion of the aerosledge with guards from the camp chasing after us.” Freddy answers. “They didn’t make the turn.”

“Hey,” the captain shouts. “I can hear that you aren’t a local man. Where are you from?”

“From Bratislava,” Freddy says. “I’m a war correspondent.”

“Well, come down quickly, so we can lock up and sail off,” says the captain.

They all enter the submarine, the hatches are closed, the vessel submerges to periscope depth and sets off for the open sea. The submarine has delivered its cargo, so it has a lot of vacant space. The guerrillas have the front hold to sleep in. Here they also get their supper after a badly needed hot shower and a change into dry clothing.

Geľo, his deputy Sirovec-Molnár, the rescue mission leader and Freddy are invited by the skipper, Lieutenant Commander Kubeš, to dine in the officers’ mess. There they all get to know each other. Freddy uses his new name. Captain Kubeš orders a bottle of champagne to celebrate a successful mission. He raises the glass to Geľo Todor-Lačný-Dolniak.

“We’ve saved the most important man of the Slovak uprising,” says Kubeš. “It’s a great honour that I and my crew could help.”

“Without you we really couldn’t have done it,” says Frolo Sirovec-Molnár.

“We’re happy to have been just in the area,” says third warrant officer Kulan, “so that we could take part in this spectacular mission.”

“And what about you, Mr Telgarth?” Kubeš asks Freddy. “How did you get into Kandźágtt concentration camp?”

Freddy briefly tells his story. He doesn’t feel like saying much, for fear that the captain might accidentally find out his real identity. After all, in Slovakia and Bohemia, too, he was quite a well-publicised person, if for no other reason than being Central Europe’s richest porn producer.

“Well, interesting,” says Lieutenant Commander Kubeš.

“I assume,” says first warrant officer Lieutenant Skopšík, “that after we reach Öggdbardd, you’ll part from your new friends and be our guest on the journey to Europe.”

“It will be our pleasure to take you back to your homeland,” confirms Lieutenant Commander Kubeš. “After this mission, we’re going home on holiday. And since we’ve left two men in Junja, we have two airline tickets from Riga to Prague.”

“Thanks for the kind offer,” says Freddy.

“I assume that after the suffering of prison you’d probably want to recuperate at home,” says Kubeš.

“If you’ll allow me, I’ll have to think about it,” says Freddy. “I have to think about work duties. I assume that we’re docking at Ćmirçăpoļ.”

“Not quite,” says Kubeš. “Ćmirçăpoļ has now fallen again to the Junjans. Or rather to Tökörnn Mäodna. But we’ll land you anywhere on the coast, as you wish.”

After a sumptuous dinner, strong aromatic coffee is served. But even this doesn’t stop Freddy, Geľo, and Sirovec-Molnár, after struggling with fatigue, from making their excuses and going to bed in comfortable bunks near the bow.

* * *

“Don’t think,” says Freddy to the guerrillas lounging on their bunks, “that I’ve never come across anything like the aerosledge. I have, and it was even more terrible.”

The submarine is now sailing for a second day. Freddy feels as if he’s in hospital; he can sleep whenever he wants, mostly all the time, and the only thing to make him aware of time dividing the day in three parts are breakfast, lunch and supper. The Slovak guerrillas have never seen a hospital before, but they behave likewise. The submarine crew tries to disturb them as little as possible.

“Well, this is how it was,” says Freddy. “One day they sent me to a distant island, where I had to investigate the activity of a very evil man.”

“What’s ‘activity’?” asks Krčmárik-Kološta-Spodný.

“Bad things,” Geľo explains. “Injustices.”

“I had a helper,” says Freddy. “His name was… Quarell. He was at home there. He came from a neighbouring island. On that island we met a girl who collected shells. She was a beauty. Her name was Zlatka Ryderová. She told us a story about a dragon who came out at night and then went around the island with fire coming out of its mouth.”

“What’s a dragon?” asks Krčmárik-Kološta-Spodný.

“Something like Ökötöm-kökötom snow monster,” says Geľo.

“And sure enough, this vehicle like the aerosledge showed up at night,” said Freddy, “except it had wheels. They shouted at us to surrender and come out of the bushes. When we declined, they burned Quarell with a flamethrower. So Zlatka and I surrendered. We turned out to be prisoners of a Chinaman, a doctor. He intended to destroy the whole world. I escaped from him and stopped him doing what he wanted. Then I saved Zlatka, too, when she was tied down on the shore so that the crabs could eat her alive.”

“Wow! Wow!” The men were amazed.

Freddy spoke quietly, so that none of the crew could hear him, even if they were listening right behind the massive door.

“I knew right away that you were the right kind of man,” says Geľo. “The very first time I saw you. When you saved my life. And the day before yesterday, with the wolf, too. That was something else!”

Geľo runs his hand through his hair that has started to grow during his stay in the camp.

“You know,” Geľo says, “everyone advises me to follow my reason. But I’d rather follow my heart. The heart can see even what reason can’t.”

“Hey, Telgarth, tell us another of your experiences,” asks Sirovec-Molnár from his bunk.

“All right, then,” says Freddy. “One day I and another man were trying to collect money that was stolen from us. There were only two of us and there were more of them.”