Page 315 of Winter of the World (The Century 2)

Dr. Ernst said: "Try not to tense your muscles. It makes it worse."

Carla thought that was a stupid thing to say. No one could relax their muscles while a wound was being probed.

The patient roared: "Ah, shit!"

"I've got it," Dr. Ernst said. "Try to keep still!"

The patient lay still, and Ernst drew the slug out and dropped it into a tray.

Carla wiped the blood from the hole and slapped a dressing on the wound.

The patient rolled over.

"No," Carla said. "You must lie on your--"

She stopped. The patient was Werner.

"Carla?" he said.

"It's me," she said happily. "Putting a bandage on your bum."

"I love you," he said.

She threw her arms around him in the most unprofessional way possible and said: "Oh, my dearest, I love you, too."

vi

Thomas Macke came around slowly. At first he was in a dreamlike state. Then he became more aware, and realized he was in a hospital and drugged. He knew why, too: his skin hurt intensely, especially down his left side. He was able to figure out that the drugs must be reducing the pain but not completely eliminating it.

Slowly he remembered how he had come here. He had been bombed. He would be dead if he had not been running away from the blast, chasing a fugitive. Those behind him were certainly dead: Mann, Schneider, Richter, and young Wagner. His whole team.

But he had caught Werner.

Or had he? He had shot Werner, and Werner had fallen; then the bomb had dropped. Macke had survived, so Werner might have too.

Macke was now the only man living who knew that Werner was a spy. He had to speak to his boss, Superintendent Kringelein. He tried to sit upright, but found he did not have the strength to move. He decided to call a nurse, but when he opened his mouth no sound came out. The effort exhausted him and he went back to sleep.

The next time he awoke, he sensed it was night. The place was quiet, no one moving. He opened his eyes to see a face hovering over him.

It was Werner.

"You're leaving here now," Werner said.

Macke tried to call for help, but found he could not speak.

"You're going to a new place," Werner said. "You won't be a torturer anymore--in fact you'll be the one who gets tortured there."

Macke opened his mouth to scream.

A pillow descended on his face. It was pressed firmly over his mouth and nose. He found he could not breathe. He tried to struggle, but there was no strength in his limbs. He tried to gasp for air, but there was no air. He started to panic. He managed to move his head from side to side, but the pillow was pressed down more firmly. At last he made a noise, but it was only a whimper in his throat.

The universe became a disc of light that shrank slowly until it was a pinpoint.

Then it went out.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

1943 ( III )

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