Mark Mills - The Information Officer

Lilian was visibly upset now, doing her best to hide it.

“Maybe with time he would have told you about her. Between you and me, I think he would have. Sadly, we’ll never know.”

DAY NINE

THERE WAS NO SUDDEN AWAKENING. HE CAME BACK TO consciousness slowly, on a building wave of pain. It carried him inexorably toward the shore and dumped him in a heap onto the beach. Only it wasn’t a beach, because there was a wall and something lying on top of him, pressing down on his leg.

He remembered now: the stick of bombs converging on him, the motorcycle sliding away, then flying, weightless, airborne …

As his eyes adjusted to the pale wash of moonlight, he saw that he was lying at the bottom of a steep bank, jammed up against a stone wall, his left leg caught beneath the motorcycle. How long he’d been there, he didn’t know. There was a smell of gasoline, and the thought of the precious liquid leaking away stirred him into action.

Once he’d freed his leg, he was surprised to find he was able to stand. He checked himself over with his hands, his palms raw and throbbing. The bleeding seemed superficial—lots of grazes and some deeper cuts on his legs. There was also a large bump on the back of his head, congealed with blood. He couldn’t place too much weight on his left ankle. It didn’t feel broken, though, just badly sprained.

He was more worried about the motorcycle, but she also seemed to have survived. There was still air in both tires, and although the handlebars were slightly out of alignment, the steering felt fine. From the sound of it, there was also enough gas in the tank to see him to Valetta.

He made his way up the bank, trying to piece together what had happened. He had come off the road at a bend. He hadn’t seen it at the time, and it wasn’t the reason he’d hit the back brake so hard. He had braked because some survival instinct had told him it was better to be close to the ground when a bomb went off. He could make out the large crater the bomb had torn in the shoulder of the road. He’d been lucky. The bend had probably saved him, the steep bank shielding him from the blast as he’d left the road.

The airfield at Luqa was recovering from the onslaught. He could see a few fires still burning, and every so often a delayed-action bomb would go off.

He turned at the sound of an approaching vehicle, traveling fast. He guessed what it was before he saw it—an ambulance racing to the scene. They were about the only things left on the roads since gas rationing had been tightened, and he often joked with Freddie that he and his kind were a bloody menace to other drivers.

He was right. It was an ambulance going hell-for-leather. He was about to flag it down when something stayed his hand—something Elliott had said to him, something he hadn’t thought about since.

The question isn’t where he took Carmela Cassar, but how he took her there.

He tried to reject the idea taking shape in his head, but it refused to be budged. The thought ripped through his brain, touching and changing everything in its path. The world as he’d been looking at it blurred into nothingness, and when it fell back into focus, he was no longer on the outside looking in. He was right at the heart of it, able to see things from all angles with a crisp and terrifying clarity.

“Oh my God,” he said quietly.

He knew there were seventy-two steps because he’d counted them before. He counted them now, not for old times’ sake but because each one sent a sharp pain shooting up his left leg. Maybe the ankle was broken after all.

He knew there was a good chance Lionel would be there—his last night on the island—but Max didn’t care. He didn’t even pause on the landing before knocking.

Mitzi eventually answered the door looking like something out of Dickens, with a dressing gown tightly tied at her waist, and carrying a chamber candlestick.

He was leaning against the doorjamb for support.

Her face fell. “My God, Max, what happened to you?”

“Who did you tell about us?”

“He’s here,” she said tightly.

“Who did you tell about us?”

“Max …,” she pleaded.

It was too late. Lionel materialized from the gloom behind her.

“I say, old man, are you all right?”

Max ignored him. “Who did you tell?”

Mitzi turned to Lionel. “He’s obviously not himself.”

“I’ll say. What’s going on? What do you mean?”

Max stared at them both. He saw the silent pact that had brought them together and the emptiness hanging between them, the lies. He could change it all in a moment. He could take it from them. He could hand the hurt straight back to Mitzi. It was so easy. Too easy.

“I’ve been seeing a girl in the office,” he said finally. “She’s Maltese. She’s also married. I made the mistake of telling your wife here. It now seems that half the bloody garrison knows.”

“Are you drunk?”

“A little. Enough to crash my motorcycle.”

Lionel edged past Mitzi protectively. “I think you should leave.”

Mitzi placed a restraining hand on Lionel’s arm.

“Freddie,” she said. “I told Freddie.”

There was gratitude in her eyes for the lie he’d concocted.

“When?”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake—”

“Shut up, Lionel.” Mitzi looked back at Max. “A few months ago, maybe more. January, I think.”

Max nodded his thanks, and she turned and wandered back to the bedroom. Lionel wasn’t done with him yet, though.

“You’re a bloody disgrace to your service!”

“Am I, Ken?”

He saw a satisfying flicker of alarm in Lionel’s eyes. “I know about you and Mary Farrugia, and I’m guessing you also brushed with Loreta Saliba and Carmela Cassar.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. They’re all dead. Murdered.”

“Murdered?”

“Don’t worry. I know it wasn’t you.”

He turned and hobbled off down the stairs.

He had never given his service revolver much thought—he strapped it on each morning, removed it before bed—but now he felt naked without it. Finding a replacement wasn’t going to be easy at five o’clock in the morning. There was an obvious place to start, though. It was also on his route.

He was surprised to find the boys at the Bofors gun site near his flat already up and about. They were peering down over the bastion wall into the dark abyss of Grand Harbour. It was another half hour till sunrise, but way to the east, beyond the harbor mouth, the sky was already brightening.

“There!” said one of them, pointing.

It was just possible to make out the dark form of a ship sliding through the gloom toward them.

“It’s the Welshman . She made it!”

There were cheers and slaps on the back, and that’s when they noticed they had company.

“It’s only me,” said Max.

“You see that, sir, the Welshman got through!”

“Cigarette, sir?”

“Cup of tea, sir?”

“Foot rub, sir?”

The joker got his laugh. Max was in favor with the Manchester men since their heroics had been reported in the Weekly Bulletin , as he’d promised they would be.

“Just a quick word in private with Sergeant Deakin, if he’s around.”

“Right here, sir,” came a voice from the darkness.

Max led Deakin a little way off. “I don’t have time to explain. I need to borrow your gun.”

“My gun?”

“Your service revolver. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

“You know I can’t, sir. It’s against regulations.”

“It’s a matter of life or death.”